THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

8:05 average pace.  mile 11 was 7:03 and felt comfortable.  A little extra for redemption today.  A weekend out of town eating out of stress and boredom was probably not the best for my waistline.

8:15 average pace.  Enjoyed it.  Husband took me out to breakfast and then we had to bring Vanessa to the doctor because she had the same rash she had when she had strep, and, as I suspected, she has strep again. I am worried because it recurred so soon.  Immunosuppression from the steroids she had with her breathing issues maybe?  I dunno--nobody else in the family is sick and she doesn't go to daycare so I don't know where she could've got it.

8:17 average pace.  warmed up 2.7, 2 mile tempo in a dirt route with lots of uphill in 13:56, then long cooldown.  Felt good.  

8:55 average pace.  My right knee has started to hurt the last few days on the outside, probably and IT band issue.  I made a conscious effort to keep it slow today and the knee felt much better. Stretched things out and will keep myself around 9ish miles for the rest of the week--should take care of the problem.  On the upside, my left hip is about cured and the PF in my right food is just a wisp.  It's still there but is so faint I don't think about it.  One more day of work and off for the weekend!  Can't wait.  

8:59 average pace.  Was actually mostly slower, in the 9+  miles.  Don't like running that slow, it makes the run really long but I am trying to take care of my knee.  Couldn't stand it anymore at the end and did 1/2 mile at 6:47 pace.  My knee actually felt better at the faster pace.  huh?  Off to run errands and catch up on housework and pay bills....I am not loving the bills. 

7:52 average pace.  My knee has felt perfect ever since running fast on it yesterday,so I scrapped the slow running plans and went for it.  I haven't run fast in a long time.  I need to get comfortable with sub-7 pace, know what it feels like, not be afraid of it, learn to sustain it.  Ran into the Paul's Valley edition to the north which has a nice loop which is one mile and some change.  After two miles including one loop, I started my tempo.  The goal was to run a pace which makes my breathing energetic and makes me work and gets me outside the comfort zone, but is not aerobic distress leg-burning uncomfortable like a 5k.  The loop is fairly flat with a hill on the backstretch.  Did a 180 after the first loop at tempo and ran the other two loops in the other direction.  Splits were 7:06, 6:52, 6:52, .51 in 3:24(6:40 pace), so a grand total of 3.51 in 24:16, 6:54 pace.  Good enough.  Felt pretty good, don't know why my first mile was lacking--It just take me a bit to get into a groove. Jogged back down to my dirt roads for a cooldown, but toward the end felt the itch again so picked it up to 6:25 pace for .41, then jogged to the neighbor's mailbox and back to make it an even 10.  Knee feels fine.  Happy with the workout today.