THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

10:31 AP with my sister in the morning through Santa Maria.  I coerced her into a long run and we actually had a good time.

Watch was dead, measured later.  Took about 64 minutes using the hotel room clock so about 7:42 pace. 

GOT INTO HOUSTON!

8:18 AP.  Back home and exhausted.  Ran 4.75 pushing Vanessa in the stroller, then ran the last 1.25 at what felt like it might be marathon pace--6:52 pace for this part.  Slow for the rest of my run.  I am thinking Saturday I will do a 20 miler with 10 easy and 10 marathon pace tempo--no peaking at the watch, to see what pace I end up running when it is all said and done.  This will help me decide on a time goal for the Wichita marathon in October, which I intend to run as well as Houston in January.

Ouch.  I will line up my excuses now: tired, emotionally exhausted, hot(90+ degrees), headwind on the homestretch.  I knew right from the start it was going to be a crappy speedwork session but decided to see it through to at least knock the cobwebs off and get my legs going again.

1.37 mile warm up

13x400 with 400 recovery  1:26, 1:29, 1:30, 1:30, 1:29, 1:31, 1:34, 1:34(stop for water here and to pull myself together before this downward spiral continues), 1:27, 1:29, 1:30, 1:30, 1:26

1 mile cool down.  At least it wasn't just me, Eddy said his splits were pretty far off today too.  Just glad to get it done.

8:34 AP on the treadmill, nice and easy, since I am less than 12 hours away from my 20 mile marathon predictor run and am hoping to have semi-fresh legs.  I don't want them to feel what they felt like during speedwork yesterday.

7:42 overall AP.  Started at 6am after coffee, a banana, and a nutri-grain bar.  Gued at miles 7.5, 14, and 17.5.  Ran the first 10 easy with Eddy, had to really restrain ourselves.  We averaged 8:14 pace for the first 10 miles.  Then we hit the turnaround and it was hammer time.  I died pretty bad the last 3 miles of the tempo but the way I have been feeling this week I am still pretty happy about the pace.   I averaged 7:14 pace for the second 10 miles, which predicts me for a 3:09:38 marathon.  So, my marathon goal for October is 3:09!  I would like to repeat this workout in 2 or 3 weeks.  I am thinking if I slow down my recovery runs and save some gas for the workouts, plus get back to my routine and with better eating and less emotional stress I can stick the last 3 miles a little better next time.

Splits 8:47, 8:21, 8:02, 7:54, 8:14, 8:07, 8:06, 8:00, 8:10, 7:50, start tempo 7:08, 6:58, 7:02, 7:11, 7:24, 7:09, 7:16, 7:20, 7:34(dying), 7:24, .21 at 7:02 pace.  Course was flat with some gentle rolling but nothing major, typical Kansas and what the course will be like in October.