dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

So, I have had a "smart" alarm clock for years now, which automatically sets itself whenever it gets plugged into the wall.  In the spring and the fall it sets itself for the beginning and end of daylight savings time.  However, a couple of years ago congress decided to change when daylight savings time started and ended, and now my clock changes the time a week early sometimes and a week late at others.  Anyhow, I did not know it, but my clock did that to us last night, and this morning I got up and got ready for church thinking it was an hour earlier than it really was.  I headed to church at 8:45 thinking that I was getting there 15 minutes early, when in reality it was 9:45 and I was showing up 45 minutes late.  Anyhow, I was rather surprised to see the church full when I arrived.  Since we missed the sacrament, Kimia and I decided to go to my sisters ward instead so that we could renew our covenants and not feel guilty about missing sacrament meeting.

I took the pace on today's run a little faster than normal.  I went up hobble creek canyon at just over 7:00 pace for 4.5 miles, and then came back faster.  On the way back I started chasing a lady on a bike for a little while, until she turned on a side street.  I finished up running 9 miles in 1:00:49.  I also rode the bike to school and home again.  This gave me a 6 mile biking equivalent (18 miles total).

I took it pretty easy today since I went a little quicker than planned yesterday and I rode the bike quite a bit.  I finished somewhere in the 1:17:00 range for 10 miles.  I am unsure about the total time because I accidentally cleared my watch before I finished.

I only rode the bike home today, so that gave me a 3 mile running equivalent.  After getting home, I ran 10 miles.  I only timed the first 9 miles, and I finished in 1:06:07 finishing at home.  I then ran another mile after I got home.

I ran 8 miles this morning with Sasha, finishing in 1:01:19. My leg, which has been bothering me off and on since May, is feeling better. I am hoping that I can stop worrying about it soon. I will run more this afternoon, and I will ride the bike home after that.

I ran about 3.5 miles with the Cross Country team this afternoon.  I was going to ride the bike home, but Kimia offered to pick me up, so I get a break today. 

I was really tired last night, and I went to bed at 9:00.  I didn't get up until 7:00 this morning.  If I had gotten up any later I probably would have been late for school.  Anyhow, I ran 5.5 miles this afternoon with the Cross Country team.  They are still working out together because they are running at Foot Locker in December.  After we finished I went out for another 5 miles, after which I rode the bike home for a 3 mile running equivalent (10 miles total).

I ran with Sasha this afternoon.  We did a warm-up followed by a 10 mile tempo at just under 6:00 pace, running the 5 mile tempo twice.  We started off a little fast, hitting the first mile in 5:44.  We then slowed it down, and ran 5:55, 5:55, 5:51 over the next three miles.  Sasha then asked if we could slow down just a little bit, and I slowed it down too much, going through the next mile in 6:05 (29:30 through 5 miles).  I then picked it back up a bit to make up the lost time, and we ran the next 4 miles in 5:53, 5:53, 5:56, 5:52.  Sasha was hurting, probably due to running quarters yesterday, so I was trying to motivate him to keep up pace so that we could at least hit the second half in the same time as the first.  We only needed a 5:56 over the last mile in order to make that goal, and we were slightly faster than that pace with 400 left.  I then picked it up to try and pull Sasha a bit faster, and we finished the last mile in 4:48 to finish the last 5 miles in 29:22 (58:52 total for 10 miles).  We then did a cool down to finish.  My cool down was a little longer because we met a guy named Scott on the trail and I ran with him for a little ways before running home.  I finished my run with a total time of 1:47:36 for 15.85 miles.