I hit the road last night and got 4 miles in. Not the fastest time, but still under a 10 minute per mile pace.

I REALLY need to start interval training. I’m starting to get really bored of the long runs and I think overall health wise, interval training is better for a lot of reasons. Plus it seems like the 3 mile mark is the limit to the very comfortable run. All and all my cardio is fine, but it seems every time shortly after the 3 mile mark, my feet start hurting (not bad by any means). If I can get myself into a good consistent 2x a week interval program, I’m going to then limit my “distance” runs to just 3 miles.

Funny thing happened. I had set my music player to repeat one song for my son earlier in the day. I guess you have to undo that setting, because when my playlist came on, it repeated one song throughout my entire 40 minute run. I must have listened to LL Cool J’s Mamma Say Knock You Out over 10 times.

Yikes. It’s been a full week since my last run. This is my longest layoff since starting back up in June. This time a minor cold set me back. Weird thing with this cold is that it’s not severe at all, just long lasting. Also we took a trip to Philadelphia last week for a much needed mini-vacation. I can’t wait to get back on track tonight.

I ran a very sluggish 4 miles last night. I don’t know what the problem was, but everything just felt wrong. My shins and ankles were bothering me (which hasn’t happened since I started up again in June). My feet were uncomfortable too. It might have been “one of those days.” It wasn’t a horrible pace overall. I finished a little over 4 miles in 40 minutes. But it was slower than previous runs. And much less enjoyable.

I also bailed on running in the morning. I just couldn’t get up. I ran at night instead–which could have contributed to the lackluster run.

Of all the things I put on my Health Living Checklist, I’ve only slipped with sleep. Earlier on I got a full 8 hours in. That’s since dwindled back down to 6. I have to focus on getting to bed earlier–meaning be disciplined to start to wind down and start getting ready for bed earlier.

With three 4 mile runs under my belt, I’m going to start doing interval training. I purchased the “Pro” upgrade for CardioTrainer and will put this feature to the test. The straight runs have become a bore, and I want to mix things up a little. I’m going to start this either tomorrow or Friday depending how I feel.

I ran another 4 miles last night. The CardioTrainer was surprisingly accurate. I ran 4.06 miles in 39:20 (9:40 pace). 1st mile: 8:44, 2nd mile: 9:31, 3rd mile: 9:55 and 4th mile: 10:20. I think I started off too fast and paid for it in the end. All and all it was an effortless jog though.

So this morning I decided to abandon the plan of adding 2 minutes a week on to my runs until I reached 4o minutes (or 4 miles). I kind of had in the back of my head that if I felt good while closing in on the planned 36 minutes, I would just push on until 4 miles. I did just that this morning, going 4 miles in 39:18. The whole run was was pretty much effortless. Nice and smooth. Mission accomplished.

Now I’m going to run 40 minutes a few more times, then I’m going to mix in interval training a few days a week.

The CardioTrainer app went haywire again this morning. At one point it recorded that I was running a 4 minute per mile pace, and it finished up by over reporting my distance by more than 1/3 of a mile. I’m done with it. I’m going out and buying a simple stopwatch. Since I know my route well, I can gauge my pace with a simple timer.

I’m kind of bummed because the app has a premium upgrade with an interval training feature that notifies you when to speed up and slow down your pace based on your current pace. If the app was reliable, I would definitely splurge as it would be a big help. It won’t really work if it thinks I’m running 4 minutes per mile when I’m really running 9+.

I took an extra day off. Yesterday was rainy, so I decided to skip it. I didn’t mind the extra rest, especially on a Monday.

I got back out there today and ran a nice 36 minute run. Thankfully the CardioTrainer app was nice and accurate today. I ran 3.78 miles (9:34 pace). 1st mile: 8:56, 2nd mile: 9:30, 3rd mile: 9:43. I definitely could have gone another 4 minutes to reach my goal of 40 minutes (and 4 miles+). But I decided to stick with the program.

It was slower than I expected, but that wasn’t too much of a surprise as I really didn’t push the pace at all.

I finished 3.5 miles in exactly 35 minutes. Eerily exactly on the nose. Yes, one minute over my prescribed 34. I ran the track and kept careful track of the laps and where I started. When 34 minutes passed and I wasn’t yet at the 3.5 mile mark, I decided to finish out the distance. So my pace was exactly 10 minutes per mile.

Again the CardioTrainer app tracked .25 miles more than I actually ran. I think I found the culprit. Perhaps it’s more accurate when running a straight line. Taking a look at the map overlay, you can see my route running off the track. I ran around the inner lane, not along the outer lane or even in the grass (which the overlay shows). The lane can make a pretty big difference, as you can see on ERaceWalk.

Here is the evidence:

It feels good to be back on track. I gave myself an extra day off and hit the road again this morning. It was finally nice and cool out. I felt real good the entire way. The run was about as effortless as they come.

The CardioTrainer app was really off this time. The first few minutes were completely wrong. It sorted itself out afterwards, but the damage was already done. It’s starting to get real annoying. I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve e-mailed the developers and they kind of dismissed it (telling me to reboot my phone, shut other running processes, etc). I’ve done what they suggested and it’s still very unreliable.

Luckily I know my route pretty well. So I can judge the distance without the app, and I knew it was way off the entire time. The app reported I ran 3.8 miles, but according to mapmyrun, I ran just 3.46. I thought the app was about a quarter mile off… I guess it was even more than that.

I suspected my last run was off too (I mentioned I lost track of laps at the track). I don’t think I lost track, rather the app over-reported by .25 miles.

So, I ran the 3.46 miles in 34 minutes (9:50 pace). Given the distance I’m not unhappy with that pace.

I felt I could have pushed the pace more today, but I simply enjoyed the leisurely jog.

I might go low-tech for a few runs. Just simply bring a timer. Not only am I tired of the app being unreliable, but I’m getting sick of the music I have too (and I don’t want to buy any more).