A clydesdale no more!

Absolutely brutal run on the LPT.  Pace was brutally slow and it was brutally hot.  I kept the pace slow intentionally at the beginning and it was unintentionally slow at the end.  I probably did not take enough fluid with me which did not help.  Found a park with a drinking fountain at the 11 mile mark on the LPT which helped alot.  Saw a water bottle on the side of the trail and I was very tempted to drink from it but new that somebody had probably ditched it for themselves during the run.

Achilles were very sore for the first 3 miles.  Felt better once they loosened up but still bothered me throughout the run.  After the first few miles I started to get in a decent groove.  First time in a long time that running actually felt good. 

Started with 2 easy miles to the LPT then ran 4 X 1 mile at half marathon pace with 1/2 mile jog in between.  Not really a tough work out but it has been such a long time since I have done any form of speed work that I wanted to ease into it.  First one was slow because I had a really hard time shaking off the rust and the pace did not feel natural.  The others felt a lot better and were much more consistent (6:35, 6:22, 6:24, 6:27).  Breathing was a little heavy and this was probably faster than my 1/2 marathon pace but it is at least a start.

Nice and easy recovery run. My legs were very tired.

Early morning softball games and too much work to get done before I go meant a very short run.  Debated whether or not I should even run but I decided that half of a run is better than no run.

I decided to cut back on the long run today and give my body a chance to start feeling better again.  Ran out to the LPT.  First half of the run felt really good.  A little soreness in both achilles tendons but nothing major.  At the turnaround, I started to feel awful.  It was a struggle to finish the run.  This is really frustrating.  The pace wasn't horrible for a long run (7:50/mile) but it felt like I was crawling.