It's over, man. Let her go.

Goals this week:  5+ days running, 25+ miles with the long run 7+

Today is my son's 11th birthday!  To celebrate this monumental event, I went for a run after the BBQ, cake, and presents.  Ran at Riverview Park, which was either downhill or uphill.  Nothing flat.  It was a good workout and the last mile, which was all uphill, I'd run at a "slow sprint".  It wasn't all out, but was pretty close, for one or two light posts then I'd walk for a bit and then go again.  HR would get up there fairly high and I'd let it drop 5-7 BPM before starting again.  I hope I got some strength out of that workout!  AP was 8:55.

Wimped out a little today.  I had mapped out a 5+ mile route to run during lunch today but it was so hot and muggy it wasn't any fun.  Plus, after running over the Clemente bridge to PNC Park, and going down the steps to the river trail, I encountered a couple of people who told me I would need to go back up and around PNC Park since they were filming a commercial.  I said no problem and turned around.  I started back up the stairs and felt slighted.  I wanted to turn back around and ask them if a balding, sweaty runner in a mismatched outfit, complete with doorag (non-matching of course) isn't what they're looking for in their commercial.  Heck, I'd even take my shirt off and flex.  I'm guessing they don't want any "real" people and prefer the rail thin models, or maybe the truly fit, muscle bound, tanned dudes, since it was probably a Pirates commercial.

Speaking of the Pirates, did you see they won?  I was cleaning out the van and happened to turn on the radio and the game was on.  I listened for just the 2nd and 3rd innings, but the 2nd inning was exciting!!  We went up 6-0!  I was surprised as heck that they actually hung on to win 7-6.  Normally, they'd blow a lead like that.  That would have been a game to go to!

Rode the bike in to work today.  There's a running class every Wednesday until the end of the year, so I went to that.  We did a 20 min run after filling out a questionnaire about what we're looking to get out of the class.  It should be a good class.  There were only 5 "students" but that may grow as the weeks go on.  We did about 2.4mi in that 20 min, so that was a pretty good, fast pace for me right now.  I met a couple of other runners that I didn't know, which is always fun.  We came back, stretched for a few minutes and I went and ran another mile or so on the treadmill before heading back to work.  This should be a good class with very knowledgeable and experienced runners leading it.

Ran on the treadmill today during work.  The idea was to run with the Garmin and HR monitor on, running 5 or so miles.  Each .75 mi, increase from 9:00 then finish at 8:00 pace with a mile cool down.  I had hoped to track my HR for each mile and see what it was at each pace.  After about 1.25 mi, I realized the HR was showing 165 and there was no way my HR was that high.  Dang.  The treadmill is interfering with the monitor.

Instead, I shut down and restarted doing intervals for 25 mins.  Rest was 9:15 or so, speed was 8:00.  I walked a couple of times for 20-30 sec.  A little disappointing, but still a good workout.

Went for a night run.  Not sure why I love running at night so much more than mornings and even mid-day, but I do.  I didn't really want to go, but I also didn't want to have to do a 11 mile run tomorrow to get my 25mi in this week.  So I headed out and in the first mile I decided that I wasn't feeling it and was just going to run about 2mi and turn around.  By the time I got to 2mi I was feeling really good and decided to get in my 7+ long run tonight instead of trying to get up in the morning to do it with the full day I have tomorrow.  I got in the 7 and the plus.  :-)

I'll post splits later, but AP for the run was 9:03.

I had put in all this cool stuff about today and before I published it, my computer crashed for some odd reason.  So I'll put it in again since I want to remember it.

"The Great Race" is a 5/10k that my company is a major sponsor for.  We get free registration and up until last year, a cool tech tee to wear.  I haven't run it since it's on a Sunday, but I'm told it's a good course.  Anyways, another of the sponsors is one of the big hospitals here and their sports medicine area does a running clinic that's free.  So I signed up for it (open to anyone) and it was really good.  I got some really good validation on my form, strength, etc.  I don't know if they were just overly positive, but it felt good to hear positive things since I've been wondering about my leg strength, flexibility, form, etc.

Here's what they measured and what they said:

1)  Laid on back, brought leg straight up as high as possible, hold, then lower.  I was a little tight in the hamstrings, but looked good, so they just suggested a few extra stretches for me.

2)  Two-legged squat.  Heels up on a 2x8 board, bar behind head in a squat position, then lowered as far as possible and back up.  I was able to go all the way down and back up, which the lady was impressed with.  She asked if I did a lot of strength workouts and I said no, I just run hills and bike.  lol

3)  Range of motion, or something like that.  They place a string between two little posts that's lined up at your knee height.  You have to lift your leg up and over it, touch your heel then back.  They're looking for how straight you keep your leg (not bending it out to the side to get over it), and she said I looked perfect, leg was straight the whole time, etc.  This was the first exercise that I didn't know what they were looking for or evaluating since I it was in a different room.

Since I had told the lady that I called to schedule with that I was an "intermediate" runner, they had me come in with the beginners group instead of the first appointments which were for runners doing 30+ mpw which I'm not up to yet.  This was fine, but it also meant that I didn't get to visit with the sports med doctor, which was OK since I really didn't have any pains or major issues to discuss.  I still have pain under my big toes (right is much worse) because my "fat pads" are too thin and so the nerve gets irritated.  Neuromas are pretty much gone, but I still feel the left foot at times.  Nothing I can't deal with, and I just take some meds after running if they're bothering me too much.  Anyways, back to the eval.

4)  I was waiting in line to run on the treadmill and have my form/shoes evaluated, but it was going to take over an hour based on the number of people ahead of me.  It was put on by Elite Runners & Walkers, a store here in Pittsburgh.  They're about 20 mins away from me, so I figured that even though I could have just bailed and went out there to be evaluated that it would take me just as long.  A nice guy let me go do the % body fat, BP and hold my place.  I have a 18.1% body fat which is within the "normal" range of 18-24 or so for men.  I still feel like it's higher than it should be based on the belly fat and fat on the legs, etc.  Not a whole lot of definition.  My BP was higher (129/82) but she said her meter has been registering high all day.  Normally, I'm about 115/70.

5)  Elite Runners was happy to stay so everyone could be evaluated.  So I finally got to the front of the line and hopped on the TM.  He asked me what my pace was and I said 8:15-8:30 for a flat course.  He put it at 9:10.  He said that much below 9:00, the pace is too fast to evaluate well.  Nice boost to the ego.  Everything looked pretty good.  My cadence was about 160 and he said I should be up towards the 180, which I knew.  I've been trying to stride-out a little more since I felt like that was holding me back some.  I also needed a little more lean from the ankles, which I kinda suspected based on what I've read.  He said overall, I looked really good, good arm motion, good posture, etc.  So I was pretty happy about that!

After I was done with the clinic, I was really happy based on the eval results.  So I decided to go for my run then instead of waiting until a little later.  I had to finish up my 25 miles this week!  I did my long run last night and so I just had to finish out a few miles.

I ran from the car, down around the square (almost exactly a mile) a couple of times and back to the car.  I still have my Garmin set on 0.5mi splits and I kinda like it, so I haven't changed it back to mile splits.  It gives me something to mentally workout when the split says 4:43, I have to figure out what mile pace that is.

About the first .2mi, it was downhill, then just pretty flat with a little roll here and there.  Here are my 0.5mi splits:

0.5 - 3:47 (7:36 pace)
1.0 - 3:48 (7:37)
1.5 - 4:01 (8:03)
2.0 - 3:56 (7:52)
2.5 - 4:55 (9:51)
3.0 - 3:53 (7:47)
3.5 - 4:25 (8:50)

I think that my positive eval gave me some extra juice today.  Those first couple miles were FAST for me!  I didn't feel like I was really pushing it until after that second mile when I could feel the speed catching up to me.  I walked for a few seconds to catch my breath and started up again.  That 3.0 split was a lot faster than I had thought too.  I felt more confident that I was running like I should, that I had good form, etc.  So that helped me to just be able to run and not be quite as concerned about whether I had good form, etc. since I have concentrated on that for a while, I knew it was working.  I ran shirtless, which was good.  Got some sun.  I didn't see anyone get grossed out, so that was good too.

Oh, and I met my goal for this week.  6 days running and the 25 miles!  Woo hoo!

Goal is 5+ days running, 27.5 miles with an 8+ mile long run.

My son wanted to ride his bike so we went to the track so I could run and he could ride around the outside.  We had a good time.  I warmed up just jogging next to him for 0.5mi then I went on my run.  He rides at about a 9:15-9:30 pace, so it was an easy warm up.  I started out on my running portion and tried to keep a pretty decently fast pace.  Here's my paces:

0.5 - 8:22
1.0 - 7:59
1.5 - 7:54
2.0 - 7:40
2.5 - 10:06 (forgot to stop my watch when my son bit it and I had to run back to the car for a bandaid.  There were both the JV and Varsity cheerleading squads practicing on the inside of the track.  I think he got distracted.  He had 3 of them come over and help him up though and brush him off until I made it down the stretch to him.  lol)
3.0 - 9:37

Cooled down with a 0.5mi jog with my son.  He's recovering just fine.

Slowly on my way to my goal for the week.

Rode the bike to/from work.  I did my 4 mile standard run right before riding home.  I was focusing on a fast cadence, trying to follow my running clinic suggestions (see Saturday's post).  I wasn't trying to go too fast, but I was hitting a slightly sub-8:00 pace on the way out.  When I reached the 2mi mark, I was pretty tired.  I tried to focus on a 9:00 pace on the way back, but when I thought I was close to that, I was actually at about an 8:30-8:40.  I was fading fast, so I did walk some (hence the 3.75 mile log).  When I got back to the gym, I cooled down with some slow jogging but then decided I needed 4mi for today, and I also wanted to see what a sub-7:00 pace was like on the TM since I have my 12:00 all-out test tomorrow and I wanted to hit close to a 7:00 pace for much of it so I could get a Vo2 Max of 44-51 since it's the "general population, male, aged 20-29".  No, I'm not in that age bracket, but the websites I found didn't tell me what a fat, bald, almost 40 year old should be able to do.  The last time I did it was just over a year ago.  I ran 1.59mi which is a 39.33 Vo2 Max.  I need to beat that, but I'm not sure I'm up to it since that's a 7:32 pace.  We'll see tomorrow, I guess.  I had thought of riding in, but I'll skip it since the bike needs some attention and I need to save my legs.  :-)

Commentary:  So, I get a text from my daughter today at work asking if we could go to the drive-in tonight.  I gave in and the fam went and saw The Other Guys and Salt.  The Other Guys was funny because Will Ferrell is in it.  A little crude with the humor, but a funny and enjoyable movie.  I knew nothing about Salt, and I'm not a fan of Angelina Jolie (sp?), but that movie was AWESOME!  There was a ton of shooting and explosions, which was cool, but the psychological part of it is what made the movie.  I'm not a big fan of violence, but it didn't bother me as much in this movie as it normally does.  Both are a big thumbs up from BNS, but especially Salt.

Oh, and I ate a ton of crap and a huge soda, so I'm definitely preparing myself well for tomorrow.  :-(

Wow, killer day.  I did the 12:00 TM test.  Last July '09 I did 1.56mi (7:41 AP).  Today I did 1.71mi (7:01 AP)!  I missed a sub 7:00 by so little!  I was almost FAST!  They calculated my VO2 Max to be 50.1 I think.  I knew I wanted to do a sub 7:15 for the whole time if I could.  I started out at 7:30 (8.0mph) and in about 2 min had increased it to 6:59 (8.6mph).  I held that until the last couple of minutes and started to creep up to my finishing pace at 6:31 (9.2mph).  Holy crap that was fast!  I was in an all-out sprint!  I could see sparks starting to come off the TM.  It's a good thing the test stopped at 12:00 or they would have lost a very expensive machine! (NOT!)

There were 3 other dudes doing the test.  One younger than me (33), one my same age (39) and one slightly older.  The 33 yo did 1.75, the 39yo did 2.03, and the older dude did 1.97.  The older dude had done 1.77 about 4 months ago.  So, I'm the "slowest" of the group, but the older dude had a 10k PR of 48:30 or so and mine is 50:00, so we're not that far off.  The other 39yo just set it at 10mph and then kicked it some at the end.  Show off.  lol

After the test, we stretched, did some core work and talked about our pacings they worked up based on our VO2 Max, age, etc.  So, I'm pretty happy with the test.  Their paces have got to be off, though.  They're saying long/recovery runs (60-70% of VO2) should be 8:30-8:20.  I usually run them about 8:40-9:00.  70-80% was 7:15-7:20, and the 80-90% was like 6:20 I think.  100% would be 400s at 90 sec or below.  I can add some race results into the equation to get more accurate numbers.  It's something to shoot for.

I got home and had to take my daughter to her activities at the church tonight, so I took that opportunity to get a few more miles in since I knew I couldn't end the day with just 1.71 miles or I'd never meet my goal.  I noticed on the way to the church that there's the Tree of Life Memorial Park that I've never noticed before.  Figuring it would have parking off the busy street, not to mention running amongst the dead, I set my heart on running there.  I was slightly disappointed as there weren't as many graves as I had expected and there wasn't any parking. 

There was one big freakin' tree in the middle, though.  It was only about .30mi around the whole park "street", so I parked at the new development right next to it.  Then I ran through the park, down through the development (rolling hills) and back to the car. It was just over a mile.  I sprinted the hills.  I walked for a couple of minutes after the first two "laps."  The first was really fast at a 7:30 AP, then the next at about a 7:55 AP.  I really wanted to do a final lap, but I was draggin' hard.  So, I took that as a sign that I needed to run two laps just around the park and call it a night.  I think the dead were bored and needed company.

I'm beat tonight. It was a serious "quality workout" today!  I took a picture of the actual tree, but I don't think it wanted to be photographed since it kept moving when I tried to take a picture.  ;-)  I was too tired to look for the secret stream flowing from the tree.  :-(

Semi-planned, semi-"forced" rest day.  :-)

Just walked to/from work.

Went to the track at 9:30pm tonight to work out some stress from the day.  Seemed to work!  I got in some fast quarters, which was good, and met my goals for those.

I warmed up with a 800m jog, then went right into a run at 8:00 goal pace.  I wanted to see how long I could hold the 8:00 pace for.  At 3mi, I had a 7:51 AP.  Stopped for a drink, then ran another mile about the same pace.  I was focusing on fast turn over since I think mine is too slow currently.

After those 4 miles, I wanted to see what my max 400 speed would be like when I was feeling a bit drained.  My goal 400 time is 87-90 sec.  I ran the first at 94, walked for 300m or so, then did another at 93, walked and told myself that if I could do the next one under 90 that I could skip the 4th I was planning to do and jog 800m to finish up.  I was surprised I was able to pull it off, but I did an 89, which is super fast for me.  I was very pleased with the workout!  Next time I'll try for a few more sub-90 sec 400s.

No run today.  I had to help my buddy out with his business and it wasn't supposed to take all day, but it did.

Didn't meet my goal last week, but I did get in two very good, quality runs.

This week, I'm shooting for 5 days and 27 miles.

Rode the bike in to work today.  I was feeling pretty good, but didn't have time to run until tonight.  The legs were tired, but I had to get some miles in.  The run was pretty uneventful, finishing in 36:00 (8:40 avg pace).  Slight negative split on the way back.  I've "got a long way to go and a short time to get there."  Movie anyone?

Rode to work.  Running class at work.  Today's torture was warming up at easy pace (prob 9:00) for 7 min, then we run our tempo pace for 3min, easy pace for 2, tempo 3, easy 2, tempo 3, then easy back to the gym.  I should have worn my Garmin, but Leah (one of the instructors) estimated about a 7:30 tempo pace.  That was probably about right.  It was definitely hard.  I walked for a min or so on the way back.  My legs were pretty darn tired.

Next week is a similar workout, only with the tempos for 5 min.  I need to bring my Garmin so I can properly pace myself, and more importantly, remember not to ride that day.  :-)

I'm debating whether to do the Steeler 5k the week before the half in Sept.  It's a totally flat & fast course, so a PR is basically a given, but I'd be really disappointed if I hurt myself and couldn't do my best at the half.  At this point, I think I'm going to skip it and just get a long run in that day.  But if I'm feeling really good, I may just sign up the day of.  At this point I'm a little more concerned about being able to go the distance at the half than I am getting a 5k PR.  I don't want to go into the fall/winter with a over-2:00 half PR since this will likely be my last half before Jan.

Rest day

Went to a Pirates game tonight since my son had won a contest for the summer reading program at the library.  Free tickets, early entry to the park, balloon artists, games, prizes (we won 16 free tickets between all of us), t-shirts, Pirates backpacks filled with books, note pads, etc.  The Pittsburgh Parrot came and hung out with us, one of the pitchers, Ross Ohlendorf came and spoke to the kids.  We got pictures with him and had him sign the kids jerseys.  It was a very fun pre-game activity.  They must have had several kids not show up.  There was maybe 50 people there max, which was nice.

I ate a ton of wings and an ice cream cone.

Zayne getting his jersey signed  (That's Spongebob on his head)

Zayne with Ross

Annalee with Ross (That's "Tina the llama on her head")

Annalee with the Parrot

Oh, and yes, we lost.

Rode in to work today. Ran right before riding home.

Splits:  8:54, 9:35, 10:20, 12:54 (ouch!!), 10:19, 10:39, 3:33 (.21) walking.

I ran out to the turn around point on the island at about 2.75mi without walking but I was seriously dragging and I wasn't able to do much under an 8:30 pace.  Most of it was closer to 9:00.  Then on the way back and to the 31st St. bridge, I did some walking.  I was drained and wondering how I'll ever make it through the half next month.  When I reached the bridge and headed back, I decided I needed to do something different.  I decided I'd walk for a short period of time, getting shorter each time, at the start of each .5mi increment, then jog the rest of it.  I walked the first 1:30, 1:20, 1:15, 1:10 of each half mi.  The jogging paces were about 9:00.  I walked the last .21mi back to the gym.  I was done.  The Pirates game was about to start, and I felt like getting a cheap bleacher ticket and grabbing a bucket of wings to drown my sorrows in.  I would have had to wash it down with a huge Coke and that would have put me over my caloric intake limit for the day, so I decided to pass.  Plus, it's not looking promising for meeting my goals for the week, which means I've got some nasty fat-free ice cream I'll have to eat come Sunday.

On a side note - probably unrelated:  I don't know what it is, but I can't get out of bed in the morning.  I've even been going to bed earlier and getting like 7-8 hours of sleep instead of the usual 5.5-6.  I seem to sweat a lot more than usual.  I helped my buddy with the couch Wed night and he hardly sweat at all, but I'm completely drenched in sweat.  It's embarrassing!  Is there a doctor in the house?  lol

Walked probably .5mi of this today.  AP was 9:59 even with the walking.  Legs were like lead, but the cardio was OK.  I'm trying to figure out if this is a leg strength deficiency, endurance, or ??  Next week has got to be better.

Didn't hit my goal (again) but I'm feeling confident about this week!

5 days running, 25+ miles

Didn't bike in to work today.  Hit the gym about Noon and decided to hop on the TM.  I started the 10k program but after about 4k a buddy hopped on the TM next to me and I had to slow down so I could carry on a convo with him.  After about 5.3k I stopped it and just restarted it doing some intervals for 20 mins.  Did another 2.83mi.  Guessing at the exact mileage, but 5.75mi ought to be close.

Feeling better about the running after a restful weekend.  I'll run something a little easier tomorrow so I can do well on Wednesday. It's gonna be a toughie!

I think I'll start splitting up my entries with the stats at the top and the commentary below.  That will make my life a little easier when I go back to review my stats.

Ran a fast-ish 5k on the track in 22:58 (7:24 AP) - splits:  7:44, 7:19, 7:12, 6:57 (last .1mi pace)

Then ran an easy 2mi (8:41 AP) on the track to cool off.

Commentary:

What a difference a few days makes.  I don't get it.

Had to get up early today to take a friend to the hospital for a procedure.  My wife volunteered to do it but based on how early it was, I knew she was volunteering ME.  No biggie, dropped them off and came back to work from home since my son had his tour of his newly renovated school today.  I should have gone for my run after dropping them off since I knew I had my podiatrist appointment today and the likelihood of running before the 4pm appointment was slim and after never feels good.

Work was good, tour was nice (aka let us show you what all your taxes go to), and as predicted, no run before the appt.  Got two cortizone shots in each foot and they hurt like a motha!  I think she was in a hurry because she didn't freeze the injection spot as much as she should have.  She also adjusted my orthotics since they were allowing me to put more pressure on my big toes than I should be, hence the wear right under the big toe joint.  Plus, the extra padding should help that nerve pain.  I wanted to get my orthotics checked out before now, but I'm too cheap to pay the $30 copay to go in and get checked out.  If I get injected I don't have to pay it and I knew I'd have to go back in anyways.  My wife doesn't get it, but in my mind, $30 is my entrance fee to the IKEA half.  I'd rather pay for a half marathon than a visit to the podiatrist if I can get that office visit free.

So, as I was leaving, the doc reminded me not to run until Friday or Saturday.  I asked why that was and she said that the cortizone needs to work, but mainly to keep the bruising down.  I decided to give it 3 hours.  I don't care much about some bruising.  That will go away.  I had to get my 5 runs in this week and after tomorrow's run, I don't know that I'll want to run on Thursday.  But then again, maybe I will.

So, in order to try and minimize any pain associated with the shots and to try out the orthotic mods, I decided to head to the track.  I was thinking about just jogging a couple miles and if I was feeling good, I'd do maybe 3-4.  No need to over do it before tomorrow, right?  Well, I began my warm up jog and was keeping it below 8:00 pace and feeling really good.  Feet felt great, weather was nice and cool (73F), and I was in the zone.  So after about 3/4mi of running 7:45-7:50 I decided I should try and see if I can come in under 24:00 in prep for the Steeler 5k, if I decide to do it.  The Steeler is basically flat as a track, so I knew if I could do it on the track I could do it in a race with 2,500 people and high adrenaline.  Even with the slower 3/4 mi start, I finished under 23:00!  I was pretty stoked!  I was negative splitting the entire 5k except for a 1/2 mi at about the 2mi mark where I went from a 7:12 to a 7:17 pace.

I was chatting with my buddy at work and I think I'll use the Steeler 5k as a quality workout before the half.  I'll add in a couple of miles that day to keep the mileage, but that will be my speed workout for the week.  So, I'm pretty sure I'll do it.  I just don't want to hurt myself trying to get a huge PR and then not be able to PR at the half.  I gotta say, it's nice to be slow because the PRs come a lot faster and easier.  :-)

Family convinced me to pick up pizza on the way home from the track.  It was going to be a 25-30 min wait and I seriously considered putting in some more slow miles while waiting for the pizza.  I was feeling good, but I knew I had already done 5+ and another 3 would have been awesome, but I want to do well in tomorrow's hard workout.  So, I read the news instead.

It's been a few hours now and my feet (mostly the injection sites) are a little sore.  The orthotic adjustments seem to work well, so that's good.  I'll know for sure over the next week or so.  Yesterday was OK, but today was very good.  I'll be on track for a great couple of races if I can keep this up.  :-D

PS:  If you've made it this far, you get a special bonus.  I was browsing through the Rite-Aid ad and they had their supplements buy one get one free and I saw one that caught my eye.  I don't know if it would do anything for running, but I'll pass it along anyways:  Horny Goat Weed.  Check it out.

I'm going to go in there and ask if they have it tomorrow.  Do I ask if they have Horny Goat.  No, Goat Weed?  No, I guess there's no easy way to ask for it except by it's full name.  I just hope they don't have to ask over the intercom.  lol

One day like this makes up for the crappy week I had last week.

At noon, went to the running class. The plan was a 5min warm up, then 3 x 4min tempo with a 2 min rest.  Warmup and rest was about 8:50 pace, tempo was 7:30.

This evening I had to take Annalee to the church for mutual and since this was the last week before scouts starts, I figured I'd go for a run.  What else was I gonna do?  Went farther than I had thought I would, but here's the paces:  8:06, 8:47, 9:09, 11.26, 9:07 (.73mi)

Commentary:

Last week, I just followed Leah on the tempo pace and I'm pretty sure we were faster than we should have been.  I'm guessing closer to 7:15.  It was hotter last week too, which I think definitely made it harder.  Today, we had all 4 runners and so the two faster ones went off with Greg and Jake and I stayed a little back with Leah.  Jake and I are about the same level.  I made sure to bring the Garmin because I wanted to be closer to my target paces.  We were shooting for a 7:20-7:30 tempo pace.  We did pretty well, with a 8:50 rest period.  I would have liked to have gone a little faster than the 7:30 tempo, but it worked well for both of Jake and I.  Jake and I will be running again on Friday.  Tomorrow, I'll take it easier.

This evening's run was pretty fun.  I couldn't find another cemetery, so I mapped out a route on mapmyrun.com and it looked virtually flat.  It wasn't.  It was a lot of rolling pavement.  I missed a turn and went down the 1/4 mi hill I didn't want to go down.  I walked a little on the way back up.  Otherwise, ran the whole thing.  I was shooting for a 9:00 or so pace since I was really just trying to get some time in.  Went faster on the way out than I should have, but I brought it back before I was done.  A bit tired tonight, but with the exception of the sore injection sites, I'm doing well.  I've got to keep the mileage a little lower tomorrow.  I don't need to be injuring myself. 

Plan for the rest of the week will be to do about 3-4 tomorrow and Friday then get in some good mileage on Saturday if I'm still feeling good.  Great quality miles so far this week.  :-)

Just put in a couple easy miles today at about 9:20 pace and a little upper body strength.  Still feeling good.  :-)

Ran downtown about lunch time with Jake.  We both were looking to just keep it easy, very conversational, and get a few easy miles in since we were both planning a longer run this weekend.  Kept about a 9:50 pace or so.

Beautiful weather this last week.  Low 80s with nights in the 60s.  Fantastic running weather.  Maybe that's been my secret this week.

Looking back at my goal for the week, I feel like going out and running another 0.09 miles so I can make my goal today.  I guess it will give me a reason to get up and go for a run tomorrow.  lol

Signed up for the half today, so I'm committed!

Stats:
9am, 75F

7.09 mi at 8:02 avg pace (154 avg HR)
Walked a lap
3 x 400s with short recovery (1:47, 1:41, 1:34)
0.75 mi cool-down at 8:10 pace

Commentary:

Ran at the track since I had almost put in my goal miles for the week and I wanted a softer surface to minimize stress.  I wanted to get some more miles at a consistent 8:00 pace and see how I did.  I figured 10mi would be a bit too long even though I really had wanted to get in a 10mi long run before my half and it would have been cool to see if I could do it at an 8:00 pace.  I settled on 7.09 mi at 8:00 pace or slightly below (had to get that 0.09 that I didn't get in yesterday  haha).  Pace was consistent between 7:50-8:00 for the first 5 miles then I started dropping off just slightly.  Partly due to some leg fatigue, but mostly the boredom of the track and letting my mind wander a little more.  I think the slowest split was about 8:10.  HR was consistent at about 154-155 which is good for me.  With some rest before the race, I should do OK.  I think the 1:45 goal may be a little fast but I'm going to leave it there because hitting 1:45 would be AWESOME!

I need to do some thinking about next week's plan.  I haven't signed up for the Steeler 5k on Saturday, but I'm pretty sure I'll do it.  We're supposed to have the ward picnic that day but the family isn't overly excited to go so maybe that isn't a factor.  It's a "large" 5k (2,500 runners or so) which would be the biggest race I've run and you finish in the stadium which would be very cool.  Assuming I do it and that I'm going to take the Thursday and Friday off prior to the half, which is the next weekend, I'm not sure what my quality runs will be next week.  Wednesday will definitely be a quality run since we're doing fartleks for class.  Maybe a long-ish run during the week?  I need to put some thought into this, but I'll probably plan on a easy Friday run with Jake again since that seemed to work well and was fun for both of us.

The week of the half, I'll probably just do some easy miles Mon & Tues, class on Wed, then maybe just a couple of slow miles each day on Thurs & Fri.  I want to be fresh for the half, so I need to take it easy.

No real pains or concerns.  I just need to keep stretching out the front of my right hip and my calves/achilles.  I was getting a little pain under my right arch, but with some care it seems to have gone away.  Basically, I'm feeling good mentally and physically going into the next week which feels great.  Confidence is high and even if I don't meet my goals, I'm quite certain PRs are going to be broken.

Goals for this week:

4+ days and 25+ miles sounds OK with a 5k race on Saturday

Pretty slow pace (9:40 or so).  It was hot and kind of humid. Mondays are always the worst running day of the week.

Easy with some walking and some strides.