overtaking haynes

ran with my brother. i wanted to go up this mountain about a 5 min drive to my house. There is a bench at the top which is pretty cool. It took us 1.8 miles from the car and 26:30 to reach the bench. Will be a good route for time trialing to gauge fitness. The only real mountain climb around. Although the 450ft net elevation gain isn't very impressive. It does gain about 650ft total though. Unfortunately the two of us couldn't stay on the lofty 850ft summit because it has been raining for several days and the mosquitos were out in full force. I was happy my foot didn't act up at all and my legs felt pretty good. Total running time 56 min for 4 miles! Would be such a sick and technical trail race back there. It's kind of creepy how well maintained all the trails are but i never see anyone around. As i pulled in to the turnaround and the half abandoned business park there was a cop parked there i was worried that maybe we're not supposed to park there...it was odd that he drove away immediately as we were getting out of the car as if i was the cop and he was the one up to no good. 

easy run with my brother...towards the end there was a long downhill and my brother was pushing it so i picked up the pace. 

did a workout from pfitzinger....was supposed to be done on a thursday but my schedule is a little bit off. during the warmup 9 min miles didn't feel so great and i wondered if i should take another day off before doing 3x1 mile at 5k race pace. but i hate not finishing what i planned for the day and i decided to go for it and just take the times i got. i glommed on a ton of vaseline and body glide on my feet to try and prevent the 2 week blister again and it worked. Did 6 striders before i started and felt miserable. Mile 1 (really only 1600)...first lap i went out in an 80 and was already winded...i apparently had a fear of being weak and slow...the 80 did not feel easy. settled down and ran a 90sec 2nd lap and finished the first mile in 5:42. 5k race pace back in may would be 5:43 so surprisingly good. 2 min recovery and then i ran a 5:45....2 min recovery, 5:47. Started to slow each lap slightly but know i could have held if i had someone there with me. Wasn't terribly hard. Probably the last vo2 before the marathon. will do lots of striders and a couple marathon pace miles. 

58 min trail run...the trails were hard to see properly with lots of leaves on the ground. i have missed the feeling i get trail running compared to the road...there are different thoughts and it's easier to lose yourself. i'm glad my foot doesn't hurt anymore, but i feel it can come back if i run on too many trails. i'm thinking another 3x1 mile tomorrow. i want to get on pfitzinger schedule. i really don't see how an extra vo2 max workout can hurt over a week out. 

Was going to do a threshold workout but thought better of it after realizing that i was in no mood and probably condition to crank out low 6's today. First mile was 6:42 downhill, 6:46 downhill, 7:03 horrible uphill, 6:51 horrible uphill ran 3:40 for the first .5. finished off with a good stretch but sadly have seen no improvements in flexibility.

now just going to exactly follow the last 1+ weeks of advanced marathoning.
 

beautiful day today, the weather was crisp and cold and i had a runny nose which i actually liked while i was running today, who knows why...i'm really into this new place only 4 miles from my house. there was a go cart thing that i had to drive through though which was annoying. i was so surprised that i saw no one today. I averaged around 12 min/mile but the terrain is great. i feel like i'm far away from where i live in a more rugged and empty place. i explored more of the trails today and actually am pretty sure i found out how to connect to the next park so i can lengthen my runs. i also ran by an old dammed up pond. who knows who dammed is and why it is in the middle of nowhere. also saw a HUGE deer with very large antlers which is something i haven't seen before. i was really hungry by the end of the run and did not enjoy doing 10x100 striders on the pavement next to the go carts.