Go slow to go fast.

Easy and slow 12 (1:48) to start the week off right. Legs felt great.

On the schedule for today was a Progression run , 2 miles easy, 6 miles accelerating from mar. to half mar. pace, 2 miles easy.

paces for the 6 miles: 6:46, 6:50, 6:31, 6:21, 6:29, 6:29.

I didn't start at marathon pace, nor ever get to half marathon pace...oh well. It felt fine, the speed in the legs was just not really there today and I didn't really feel like forcing it.

Slow and easy recovery run. 3.5 miles of it were with Nan while pushing Ali in the jogger. Its so nice to see her back out running.

Easy running -  3.5 with Nan.  Then 7 more at a slightly faster pace, probably about 7-7:15 that was just easy and smooth.  Mentally I was not feeling it today and I bailed on doing the 4x10 min half marathon pace stuff I had on the written plan.  I'm over it.  I don't like forcing workouts when I'm not feeling it mentally or physically.  Today I was just not mentally into it.

Slow and easy and enjoyable miles.  The last couple I pushed Ali in the jogger because I needed to get back and run the kids to school while Nan got to her workout.

Hard long run today, that I was pretty psyched about.  I really enjoy the long fast runs, something motivating about getting out and getting after it.  Today called for 1 mile easy, 18 miles @marathon pace + 20 sec/mile, 1 mile easy.  

I felt great going in, I started out a bit conservative, and just progressively felt stronger and faster throughout the run.  Did the 18 miles in 1:58:30 - 6:35/mile pace and only had 2 or 3 brief moments where it even felt very challenging.  My new marathon goal pace is about 6:15-6:20 so I hit the goal for the workout right on.  It was a great feeling run.  And I'm really loving how well my body is responding and recovering from long harder runs these days.  I am noticing a difference in general strength and resilience.

Funny to think back to Bolder Boulder 1.5 years ago when I was happy to break 40 min and run 39:5x.  Today I ran that pace for three 10K's in a row and could have kept going.  Its cool to see what consistent mileage will do over time.