A clydesdale no more!

Supposed to be a recovery run but since I am suffering from a major case of Boston envy I decided to run a mile at the pace of some of the people I know running today. So, here is what I did:

1	Kathie	8:44	Enjoying the reward of her first Boston.
2	Smooth	8:43	Had amazing dedication to her training plan.  Will be a great race.
3	Canyon	8:27	Just another marathon.
4	Teena	7:44	Hoping the leg cooperates.  She deserves a great experience.
5	Marc	7:29	Constantly improving.
6	Rhett	6:40	Will have a great run to make up for last year's experience.
7	Walter	5:59	How can you maintain this pace for 26.2?

Finished with an easy mile.  Shouldn't have run the 6:00 mile since I have a VO2 workout tomorrow.  The other miles were easy enough that I should be alright.

Total Time: 1:01:51 (7:44/mile)

I have not been looking forward to this workout and really had a hard time talking myself into it this morning.  The plan called for 6X1,200 m @ 5K pace with 400 m jog in between each.  Started with a 3 mile warm up.  Here is how it went:

Interval	Split	Pace	Comment
1	4:29	5:59	Felt like I was holding back
2	4:27	5:56	Still comfortable
3	4:28	5:57	Legs started to burn towards the end.
4	4:29	5:59	Feeling the effects of the shorter recovery.
5	4:30	6:00	This one was HARD.  Really had to work to keep the pace down.
6	4:22	5:49	Felt good and legs felt surprisingly strong. Slight gravitational assistance.

Finished with 2 cool down miles.  Since I have been running more VO2 max runs, 5k pace is starting to feel more natural.  This workout was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. 

Total Time: 1:23:39 (7:36/mile)

The run started with very tired and heavy legs.  Pace was pretty slow for the first few miles until my legs woke up.  Kept it at a comfortable pace until mile 10 when a came up on a guy doing sub 7 miles.  Stayed ahead of him for a couple of miles running 6:45/mile.  Backed off the pace after he started in another direction.  The quicker miles seemed to shake off the rust and the remaining miles felt good.  I just beat the storm as it started to rain as I was coming down my street.

Total Time: 1:50:13 (7:52/mile)

Today was one of those days where running felt like a chore.  It was cold, windy, rainy and I was incredibly tired.  Not exactly the recipe for a great run.  Other than a few strides I through in at the end of the run the pace was slow.

Total Time: 1:04:44 (8:05/mile)

Another cold and rainy day.  At .least there was no wind.  The gloomy atmosphere matched my emotions.  Just a nice and easy recovery run.  I needed the exercise to flush out some negative thoughts. 

Super busy day today.  Out the door at 5:30 for my last long run of this training cycle.  Kept the pace easy for a true LSD.  Ran on the LPT then extended it to Eagle Bay elementary to get the full distance.  Felt very good throughout the run.  Ran the last mile in 6:30 to get the feel for a quicker pace on tired legs.  Cannot believe how good it felt.

Total Time: 2:34:20 (7:43/mile)