Liftoff

AM: 27 miles. After a short warmup, ran 26.2 steady-state in 2:54:31.

I was looking for at least 85% of MP (sub-6:45), ended up averaging 6:39. Really nice weather again this morning. It took about 8 miles to settle in, but after that I felt pretty comfortable the rest of the way.

AM: 6 slow miles.

PM: 8 sun blasted miles with Quint at lunch.

AM: 7 miles.

PM: 10 miles at track. 3 x 1 mile repeats with Quint (5:58, 5:57, 5:51) with 1/4 mile rest. Then we hit the trail and ran 10 "hill repeats" on an overpass. The length was about 1/10 of a mile, grade was a bit more than 2%. Wimpy, I know, but that's what we have to work with. Effort was pretty much full-out. Mike and his friend joined in midway and blew my doors off.

AM: 8 miles.

PM: 8 miles.

AM: 0.

PM: 4 miles.

Sunday's long run and Tuesday's bridge sprints left me pretty worked over. I have plans for a hard tempo tomorrow and a tough long run on Sunday, so I decided to take it very easy today to catch up.

Kind of regret losing momentum with the mileage this week, but I have to focus on the quality right now, when there's a choice.

AM: 10 miles, with 6 miles in 32:57 (5:29.5 avg). This workout was set as my hardest sub-MP run of this cycle. My target was 5:30.

As usual, I warmed up down to Northshore Pool. I have a new pre-tempo routine that has worked so far - I catch my breath, and let the fear and doubt kicking around my psyche work its way through. When I finally achieve some version of calm, I kick it in. I think this has helped me. A lot of junk gets stuck in my head before hard workouts.

After about a quarter mile I check my pace. This is a tense moment, because I need to see a pace that makes sense in relation to the effort, and this morning the effort was high very quickly. Thankfully, I was in the low 5:20s, so I settled in and focused. I was a bit under target for miles 1 & 2.

I struggled on miles 3 & 4, running both a couple seconds above 5:30. The cowardly and weak side of my brain fed me a steady supply of excuses: "You're missing your targets, may as well pull the plug and save your energy for Sunday. It's too humid. You are low on sleep. You probably can't do this. This is way below marathon pace, no need to bother with this. Feel that twinge? Could be something..." I entertained these thoughts for awhile, but the time for excuses is over. I told myself I'd run 6 miles as fast as I could, even if it was over target pace, and the fear and doubt eased off.

The pace was hard, but it was just as much a struggle in the conditions. I have never run sub 5:30 pace on a 6 mile tempo run, and I have never exceeded a tempo workout PR during the summer, so this was a stretch in multiple directions. I managed to get my pace back under 5:30 for the last two miles, with my last mile being the best one in 5:26.

I don't want to put any more positive weight on this workout than I would a failed tempo. However, I do want to use it to harden my resolve for the final month of training before TCM. Nothing is guaranteed, but I have arrived at where I wanted to be three months ago, and I have the potential now to bring things together. Sunday I have 10 miles MP+1:00 / 10 miles MP on tap.

PM: 7.5 with Quint at lunch.

AM: 6.5 miles.

PM: 3 miles.

Crazy day with my younger daughter's 4th birthday party, 20 of her closest friends and the inlaws in town. She had a good time, and everyone should on their birthday.