THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

8:15 average pace.  Wind, rain, very cold, and mud.  Loved it!!!  Off to another clinical.  Blah.  December 4th is my last clinical and it is just cannot come soon enough.

8:06 average pace.  Felt really easy today although I am tired.  Ran mile 7 in 6:43 as a practice race-pace mile for Saturday.  I felt tired but strong.  My goal Saturday is to run 10 consecutive sub-7 minute miles.  I really hope I can do it because I would like tangible proof that all this mileage really is doing something with my fitness.  I seem to quickly run out of stamina over distances longer than 10k so a fast 10 miles would be a good progression.

8:29 average pace.  Legs tired and achy today. Will probably run not quite so much the next few days to rest them a bit.

8:43 pace.  nice and easy.  It felt very good.  One more day of work and then off for the weekend.  Ahhh.

9:04 average pace.  Super slow except for 6 burst of race pace--the same workout I have done the day before breakthrough PR races in the past.  My left ankle is doing some weird snapping sensation--doesn't hurt but feels weird.  I hope it is just pre-race twinges.

Disappointed.  A little.  Not what I wanted, but close.  I am making progress, it is just agonizingly slow progress, but progress nonetheless.  Fitness check reveals that aerobically I am doing pretty good but leg strength/leg fatigue is an issue.  I think as my body gets more used to 60+ weeks and I get regular sub-7 paced tempos in this will improve.  Although I am not going to do formal speedwork, I think occasional 1/2 mile bursts of sub-6 pace each week along with a once-weekly sub-7 tempo or short race will also help drive my "cruising" speed from 7:00 to somewhere sub-7.

Ate a banana for breakfast, warmed up 1 mile slow and lined up.  It was cold but not to0 cold so I ditched my sweatshirt, hat, and gloves 2 minutes before the race started and ran in shorts and a singlet.

Splits are per garmin, I really need to learn to hit my lap button and go by mile markers but I am paranoid this will break my concentration.  Per garmin I ran 10.08 and I believe this since the course was out and back on a bike path so you couldn't properly run tangents without plowing into someone for miles 3-7.  The course is mostly flat with a handful of steep but very short rollers.  I ran the first 5 miles more or less with two other gals, Tara and Margie.  We talked a bit and they were super nice.  I have met Margie before.  At the turn around Tara took off and I tried to go with her but she dropped me.  I dropped Margie in here too, but she finished only a minute behind me, and I finished a minute behind Tara.  I did beat Lacy today by about a minute and I have never beat Lacy.  She finished her 1/2 marathon 3 minutes faster than me and the marathon 14 minutes faster.  I am officially a chase-pack runner locally.  Maybe by next year I can work my way into the lead pack. :)

Splits 6:50, 6:57, 6:58, 6:56, 6:59, 7:04(I could just kick myself),7:05(grrrrr), 7:06(noooo), 7:08(hang my head), 6:56(finish decent please) , .08 in 22 seconds if the garmin is to be believed.  Take it or leave it I did kick pretty hard in the end and get a little puke-zoney so that is the only reason I am including this last little snippet in my report. 

Cooled down 1/2 mile, took my mom out to lunch for her birthday, went home, and then ran a 6.85 mile recovery run at 9:01 pace to break in my new Nikes and get 60 for the week.  I got the shoes on sale and they actually feel really good on my feet.