Trying to improve my running

3.13 miles, 28:07, 8:57/mile 2nd half of first mile was slow. I was post call this week so I think that has affected me. I ust don't feel I am going as fast as last week.

6.14 miles, 1 hour, 9:46/mile. the whole run was pretty fast except for the middle 0.5 miles when i decided to go over the top of the hill and had to go slow because of the cactus overgrowing the "trail".

didn't run. Too tired worked until 2230 last night.

3.47 miles, 32:56, 9:29/mile average pace. Hard run this AM. The first mile I was really sucking wind. pushed through and felt better towards the end.

Here are the mile splits.

 had 2 stretches of 150 ft elevation gain.

I fell down running on Thursdays run.  Didn't think much of it just scuffed my knees and my hands. My knee has been popping since around that time maybe a day earlier. After today's run though I developed a large knee effusion. I had no pain or problems during the run. I started to have some pain after the run witht he effusion and the knee felt pretty unstable. I am not sure what is causing this. I hope only patellofemoral problems. I am worried about a meniscus. I guess I will take it easy next week. maybe try biking or swimming. if anyone has advice I would love to hear it.

Average 8:21/mile  the middle mile was 7:45/mile. I developed a knee effusion saturday after the 10K. It was better today and didn't hurt but I thought I should take it easy. I hope this goes away.

I am slacking off about entering stuff in here. Average time 8:04/mile. I would be really happy if this was my marathon time. I think more realistically it might be my 5k time. I don't get on the computer that often and it won't le tme type entries from my phone. I did 2.78 miles this day. I was going to do a long bike ride, to give my knee a rest. So I decided to go for a fast short run. Then i started running and didn't want to stop. So I turned out doing almost 3 miles. It felt pretty good. My knee hurt at the start, but after it loosened up felt fine. It did swell up after not as much as before, no pain after.

average time was 9:36/mile. This was my second run in the barefoot shoes. It felt so good. I didn't want to stop. I read the previous night about the 100 up exercise and did the minor exercise. I felt like it helped to focus me on proper technique. I think that my technique got a little sloppy towards the end, d/t fatigue.

So I tried to go biking this morning. I rode my bike 1.5 miles hoping to go for 9-10 miles, but my tire blew out after only 1.5 miles. I then had to walk back home with my bike. I then went and ran 1.5 miles in the barefoot shoes. It was a pretty frustrating day. average time was 9:51/mile.

Average pace 9:13/mile. It felt really good today. I ran in the barefoot shoes and did the minor workout for 100 up first. I felt like my form was really good throughout. It was hard to maintain at the end but I was able to focus and finish. the knee felt great no swelling or pain.

Felt really sore running today. The Barefoot shoes take some getting used to. Consequently my time was 9:36/mile

Took a day off to recover from the workout for these muscles I didn't know that I have. I felt better today. I really focused on my form. I found that if I got distracted it deteriorated. Toward the end of the run it was harder to maintain the form as well d/t tiredness.

Pretty good run I tried to go faster today. I did pretty well for the most part but I took a shortcut just after the 1 mile point and got stuck in the cactus, so I had to walk for a minute. Average pace was still 9:16/mile.

Not as sore today and was able to average 9:04/mile. Best pace yet w/ good form.

Pretty flat run. Felt really pretty good. 8:49/mile. I started to tire out and form was getting worse at the end.

It was hard to get going today. I didn't feel really good until about 1 mile in. Unfortunately was late for work so had to head back. 9:02/mile.

Today I drove to the biggest hill close by my house and ran up it a couple of times. It is only 100 feet of elevation gain over 0.2 miles but I guess it is a start. I ran up and down that 2x plus up several other smaller hills. average pace was 9:10/mile

Slow I was sore from playing football on Thanksgiving.

Average was 9 min miles. I didn't want to hurt my knee, which was still a little sore from football on Thanksgiving.

Tried to speed things up a bit today. Two of the miles were faster than 9 min/mile. The middle mile was at 9:09.

Not much time today. I decided to do hill work. I ran the hill by my house that is a bout a 9% grade again. It is the hill on twin peaks road going into aura valley if anyone reads this that knows about Tucson. The hill is about 0.2 miles and I did it in 50 seconds, I think. Figuring it out that gives me just shy of a 5 min mile and that doesn't seem right. I need better GPS. Oh well I tryed to sprint the hills.