It's over, man. Let her go.

Goal is to run 5+ days this week, and 20+ miles.  Gotta get back into this running thing.

Well, I'm on my way towards my weekly goal.  I drove in to work today since I was running late after not sleeping well.  I ran my 4.15mi route after work.  It was about 82F and 45% humidity.  Not too bad, but I was struggling.  Course was flat and my goal was just to run a comfortable pace (shooting for about 9:00-9:15) and just wanted to run without walking if I could.  I ended up walking about 4-5 times for about 0.05mi each time.  I averaged about a 9:50 which was disappointing.  Most of the running time was about a 8:30, so the walking killed my time.  I only logged 3.8mi of actual miles since I'm not counting my walking.  Considering the weight gain (it's coming off, thank goodness) and the lack of miles the last several weeks, I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but I was going to register for the Half in Sept and now I'm reconsidering.  I'll likely do it, but I need to get a couple of good weeks in or it's not worth spending the $.

On my way back, about 3.0mi into my run, I saw a stellar runner from work with another guy on their run coming towards me.  They were cruising along quite fast, both smiling and laughing, looking like the killer runners they are.  They looked so fluid, long, beautiful strides.  They said Hi to me, of course (I can't be missed with my doorag), they're nice guys.  I wasn't feeling that great at that moment and I know I didn't look like much of a runner either.  I was probably jogging at a turtle's pace.  I'd love to run with my friend from work, but until I get my times down and my endurance up, I'm too embarrassed to ask him to run with me.

I seriously need to run in the AM before work.  Trying to fit it in during the day or after work is just too hard.  Maybe after I get caught up again with work it won't be as bad, but with changes at work, there's just too much work to be done to justify taking off in the middle of the day and I could stay until 9pm and not get everything done I need to do every day.  Sigh... 

Ran the same course as yesterday but did it early in the AM.  Better splits, only walked twice and felt better despite the little sleep.

Went to the track and did some 800m intervals.  Tried to keep the rest pace at 9:00, the speed pace at 8:00, no rest between.  Walked once for 100m.

Splits:  4:29, 3:59, 4:30, 4:00, 4:27, 3:59

Thanks to the Garmin, I kept it almost right on target.  Walked 600m & then stretched.

Today was a good day.  I ran the same route I ran M-W.  I get to count the full 4.19mi for the first time this week since I didn't walk!  In addition, I rode the bike in this morning then did my run immediately before leaving tonight.  This is also the first time I've ridden my bike and run in the same day, so I was surprised I wasn't more exhausted when I got home.  Felt good, but that could be from my rest day yesterday.

I was a little tired after the run, but I focused only on running a pace that would allow me to run the whole route without walking.  Didn't watch the Garmin except for the .5mi splits (forgot to change it from the 800m intervals from Wed) and my HR.  I decided to track the HR to see how it compared to the pace and effort and see if I could keep it consistent.

Here are my .5mi splits with avg HR:  4:24 (141), 4:20 (155), 4:30 (156), 4:30 (156), 4:34 (156), 4:31 (158), 4:30 (159), 4:33 (161), 1:51 (162)

Looking forward to my "long" run tomorrow.  I'm shooting for 6-7mi.

I got up a little late today, but got out while it was still cool.  I ran one of my standard routes and although I walked a couple of times, I felt pretty good about it.  I haven't pulled up the Garmin yet, but the splits should all be in the 8:40-9:10 range, I think.  I don't think any were too much slower than that...except for the walking.

I met my goal for the week without being too sore.  I saw this and thought maybe someone was looking to move to Pittsburgh and didn't know who to call.  I thought of calling her up and just saying hey.

The rest of the day was spent helping my BFF install blinds for his clients since he decided to have an appendectomy a couple of days ago and is still recovering.  Service...but I get paid for it.  Not a bad combo.

Edit:  Oh, and thanks, Burt for your two players in exchange for our 3.  My kids and wife are so angry they could spit that they got some hot shot catcher.  Their fav player left after all the other trades (Sanchez, Bay, etc), was Doumit...the catcher!