Chasing my Dreams

Ran on the small road. It was pretty windy, but I wasn't really ever running completely into the wind. My first mile was a 6:25 and it felt good, so I figured I'd just keep things rolling and see how it felt. I ended up averaging 6:01s for the next 7 miles, making the overall average 6:04s. Aerobically it was a little harder than I would have expected given the pace, but I think the fact that it was a Monday and the wind probably had something to do with that.

I went out with the intention to just run a good but comfortable effort based on by breathing. It was beautiful running weather and I just enjoyed my tour through West Point and Syracuse. The last mile is where I started to feel a little tired, but I ended up averaging 6:06s. Effort wise it felt a lot easier than yesterday.

Went out to Antelope Island to do some hill repeats, because there aren't any hills in the West Point/Syracuse area. I did a half mile ish to warmup, then did 3x3min, 3x2:15, 3x1:30, 3x45seconds, to basically be equal to 3x800, 3x600, 3x400, 3x200. My recoveries were active recoveries joggin back down the hill. The 800s and 600s were the hardest part, even though they were at the beginning, just because of how long they were. I felt good about my efforts, and I was able to keep the pace for the entire workout. I did about a mile of running on a dirt road to cooldown. 

Being on the island with the bison and running a little on the dirt road helped satisfy my itch for trail running as well.

I worked out with the high school kids today. Rob wanted me to really push his top guys at the end of the run. We went out 22.5 minutes at 6:20 pace, and then were supposed to come back slightly negative. Josh Mecham set the pace going back and everyone else in the group fell off pretty quickly. We averaged 6:02s going back until the last mile, which we split in 5:38. I still had a couple more gears, but he was just holding on. Overall the average for the run was 6:08s. 

My legs felt pretty tired, especially going out, but it was an easy enough pace that it felt good to just work the legs. 

Ended up having to do my long run today, and I did it in the afternoon. My lunch wasn't quite settled, so the first miles I didn't feel very good at all, after about six miles, I was able to settle in really well and feel relaxed. My guess is that I was averaging between 6:10s and 6:15s for the first 13.3 miles or so. I ended up running the last 1.7 miles with Tracy, and it was significantly slower than what I had been running. I did the full 15 miles in 95 minutes, which worked out to 6:20 pace.

I did about half of this run with Jeff. I was reminded why I hate running in Provo, there are way too many stop lights. I took things pretty easy today, and spent the second half of my run trying to find a porta potty so that I could pee. I ended up going a little farther than I had planned because I didn't really know where I was going. IT was a nice little shakeout kind of run that will help me feel a lot better come Monday. My guess is that the average pace was probably around 6:40s somewhere.