AM: (10 miles, 1:24:29). 23:32wu +strides/24:07cd. 5 mile Steady State run (target pace: 7:16-7:29). 7:18, 7:23, 7:23, 7:24, 7:18. I was surprised on a couple of counts. First of all, I did not feel good this morning, I am pretty depressed about my leg hurting so much and not being able to stop it ... and during my warm-up I just did not feel "smooth". And, it is still warm, not as hot as a couple weeks ago but still 88F at the end of my run. Anyway, I negotiated with myself - the schedule said 4-6 mile steady state -- and I told myself I would feel that I had a successful workout with 4 and a great workout with 5. I know how these are supposed to feel, not really hard, Greg says, "you should get tired from the duration of the workout, not the speed" and he always wants us to start at the slower end of the range and work down ... it is better to do more and slower than less faster. My first 800 was at 10K pace! The problem with this is that slowing down to pace is tricky, you can't just slow way down (otherwise you get out of rhythm and can end up going too slow which makes the other miles slow), I just slowed down slowly over the next 800 and hit my comfort pace. I was telling Dean that I kept remembering that I was doing 8 miles at this pace before my 1/2 last year, and today I was mentally having trouble getting my head around running 20 laps!! But by the last mile I knew I was done and the last one was pretty fun ... mentally getting stamina going again after a break is hard ... but it comes back pretty easy (Dean said I am less than a month away from doing 8 again) which is good, because it will be cooler soon and it bodes well for decent 10 mile and 1/2 marathon tune-up races this fall before the marathon this winter (if I can ever get rid of this pain in my calf).
PM: easy 4 in Sugarhouse park (on the grass outside of the park -- I have missed this run!).
Got to rush, get packed and get to airport, happy cooler Utah temps here I come!!! Have a wonderful day bloggers!
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