Liftoff

AM: 22 miles with the group. I parked at my old house, ran downtown & did the usual route, then met the family to clean the place as much as possible. After 10 years in that house, with 2 daughters added into the mix over the years, and myself- not your model homeowner...only so much could be done.

In college I used to get pretty nostalgic moving out of a dorm or appartment I lived in for a year. I'm way too tired for that this time, and when I do think about it, the first image that pops into my mind is heavy machinery and a wrecking ball knocking the walls off that place.

AM: 10 miles. I think I was really able to appreciate my new surroundings for the first time at 5AM this morning.

PM: 10 miles at lunch with Quint.

PM: 10 miles at track.

A few factors came together this morning which pointed toward skipping the AM run. I had tons of work, however I made unusually good progress. I'll ponder the connection.

It was cloudy and rained most of the day, so I also figured this would be a good chance to run hard at track. The humidity was still pretty unpleasant, but heavy clouds and light drizzle were way better than we'll get most of the summer.

Workout:

1 X 800 WITH 200 REST, 1 X 1 MILE WITH 200 REST, 1 X 800, FIVE MINUTE REST, REPEAT ENTIRE FIRST SET

Splits:

1. 2:31, 5:04, 2:32
2. 2:27, 5:06, 2:32

I have to consider this a good workout. I was pretty well-rested, and was running hard with no physical impediments.

The effort was high, though - and 4 months ago I did this workout in 1-2 seconds per 400 faster. I could not run sub-5 minute miles today though.

Rationally, I know you have to accept the slower summer times. This is about as fast as I've ever run in June. It is just something to get your head around though - almost like running with a weighted vest on.

Intervals are such an honest assessment of fitness. Running a bunch of miles is great and all, but it would have been nice to see slightly faster splits.

Just recently struck again by how specific training is. Sometimes I get myself through unpleasant slogs by saying- hey, you are probably ready to race faster, or soon will be... after about 5 weeks of base training, I have seen one noticeable adaption show up - simply that I feel less tired at the end of a 20+ mile run at easy/moderate pace.

Which is pretty much exactly what most of my training is like now. I think it's a necessary start, but I have plenty of hard running ahead of me this summer.

AM: 10 miles. Beautiful weather, calm mind, no rushing. I need to do more runs like this. Having the kids out of school definitely helped.

PM: 0. Busy at work.

AM: 12 miles on the bridge, medium pace.

PM: 0, another work through lunch day. Nearly done with the project though. I'm moving a client's health care claims format from old to current version. It is almost as exciting as it sounds.

AM: 10 miles. Was aiming for a 4 mile tempo @ 5:30 pace. Got through 2 miles (5:26, 5:32) when I abruptly stopped, without really thinking about it. At first, I was thinking "Wow, I just chickened out!" But pretty quickly I realized my body knew what it was doing. I was heading fast into the red zone.

There's no reason at the beginning of June to do that. I could handle 5 miles ~5:30 in the winter, but it took several workouts to sharpen into that. The humidity hasn't been bad yet, mostly with dew points around 70 degrees. Every tick after that is significant, and today was up to 74. By July it will settle in around 76 and 77, so I really need to be patient and incremental right now.

On the positive side, after I cooled down I didn't feel beat up. The last two weeks have messed with my rhythm a little. I just need to keep going.

PM: 10 miles at lunch with Quint, and lunch run guest Mike M. Mike, being a lunch run n00b, ran shirtless. It was funny though - within literally a minute of leaving the parking lot, a young lady screamed out her window THANK YOU!!

Quint and I have been running through there for a couple years, and that has never happened.

AM: 5 miles with the girls to a new park, then 6.5 solo.

PM: 3.5 miles with Elise riding her bike.