Go slow to go fast.

Slow and easy this morning.  11 miles in about 1:50.  ~1200' vertical.  Skunk/Koehler/mesa/bear canyons.  Then a few miles around campus and running 8 hill sprints up the stairs at the stadium.

I picked a random workout from Brad Hudson's marathon training program this morning.

I'm not interested in starting at the beginning of a marathon program right now...because the workouts look boring and way too easy.

So I landed on a progression run in week 11 of one of his marathon example training programs.

3 miles easy, 3 miles progression with 1 mile at marathon, 1 at half marathon, 1 at 5K pace.

I did a 6:10, 5:45, 5:40 for the progression miles, with a U-turn between each that slowed me down way more than I thought it would.  Miles 1 and 3 were uphill on marshall road from stop sign to stop sign.  Mile two was down hill on the same stretch.

My goal marathon pace right now is about 6:00-6:05.  My half goal pace is about 5:45, and my 5K goal is about 5:25.  Miles 1 and 2 were straightforward and not too difficult at all.  But it was a definite challenge holding 5:40 on that last mile uphill.  I've got my work cut out for me to hit those goals. 

9 miles - 1:07 - ~200' vert.  

PS - My buddy hooked me up with a compex a few months ago...and I don't know what I would do without that thing now.  I haven't had an ART appointment ever since I got it, because I just do tons of active recovery with the electrodes any time I start to feel tightness anywhere.  And the tightness is gone within a day, or 2 max.  I'm a huge fan now.  Glad I didn't have to fork out the $850 for the thing though.  Although over a year it would pay for itself for sure with all the money I'm saving on ART appointments. 

PM: 4 barefoot around fairview track infield with the kids biking and running along and around. 

easy 54 min. out marshall, bluestem, lehigh, home.  400' vert. 7 ish miles w/Eric 

Easy barefoot jog w/todd on bike paths.

Easy Long run, sobo creek to mesa to dowdy draw, flatirons vista loop, marshall mesa, cherryvale, table mesa, home. Miles 13 & 14 moderate in 6:20, 6:18 down cherryvale - 1100' vert - 2:22:35 - 8:23 avg total.

After about an hour of 9-10/min miles I started feeling noticeably more warmed up and ready to run.  Most of the 1100' vert was in that first hour though.

This was my longest mileage week ever so far - 68 miles, close to 10 hours running.  Looking forward to bumping it up into the 70's consistently over the next weeks, and probably topping out in the 80s.  We'll see.