M'kay

LM warmup (10 reps), 6.15 miles in 52:15, 8:29/mi, HR 135, & stretching.

Overcast & cool (58F).  Worn out.  Decent mileage week + yesterday's long hilly run == slow and easy today.  The good news was that the HR corresponded well to the slow pace finally. 

LM warmup (10 reps), 9.07 miles in 1:10:35, 7:47/mi, HR 157, w/ 2 mile warmup, 2 x Drills, 8 x Strides (2 during cooldown), Ladder of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, & 1 minute on, 1 minute off, 3.5 mile cooldown & stretching.

Partly cloudy & pleasant (67F).  Tired this morning despite the 9 hours sleep....a sign the body is settling into training again.  The warmup was okay, drills the same, strides progressively better.  Goal was to start with the 6 min on around 10K pace and run each progressively harder.  Problem is, I haven't run a 10K since 2008 and have no clue what a 10K pace feels like anymore.  Plus, ran them all generally uphill but with varying degrees of uphill-ed-ness.  Nonetheless, I think I did fairly well, only falling off pace/effort perhaps in the middle where I fought against zoning out.  The difference between the 1 min on pace and the rest was pretty stark, reinforcing....something?  Not sure what.  Did 2 strides on flat sections of the return, just to see how they'd compare to the pre-workout strides.  Wow.  Fast, smooth, did I mention fast?  Much better than the pre-workout strides, which were decent.  The rest of the cooldown was a bit of a slog, but glad to have this one in the books.

LM warmup (10 reps), 12 miles in 1:32:11, 7:37/mi, HR 164, w/ 2 mile warmup, 2 x Drills, 6 x Strides, 8 miles (un-)Steady State (7:18, 7:46, 7:57, 8:02, 8:03 uphill, 7:11, 6:33, 6:37 downhill), 2 mile cooldown & stretching.

Partly cloudy & wet (60s).  Yesterday was a wash....fence guys showed up again to sink the gate posts in concrete.  Plus, it rained all day yesterday so my enthusiasm for running was.....low.  Figured I'd count yesterday as a rest day and move up my next hard workout from Thursday to today, which meant 12 miles with the middle 8 at ~ marathon effort.  Warmup was okay, but I felt a bit discombobulated.  Felt like my leg muscles were firing at the wrong times, tensing when they should've been relaxing, tightening up, etc.  Made it through the drills after a quick potty break but I noticed the strides weren't all that quick and took more effort than monday.  A quarter mile into the Steady State and I knew it was an off day, but I pushed ahead.  An ugly 8 miles later after a couple of short "regain composure" pauses, one semi-brief chat with a neighbor about some strange hunters parked along the road, and one additional potty break, I started the 2-mile cooldown-and-limp-back-home portion of the run.  Completely unspectacular.  Just not there today and not sure why.  I felt dehydrated quickly during the run, but have been hydrating well the past few days.  I was a bit hungry before I took off, but didn't want to eat for fear of the GI monster, so perhaps that was a contributing factor.  In any event, I'll book this workout again for next week and hope it goes smoother next time.

LM warmup (10 reps), 6.09 miles in 49:07, 8:03/mi, HR 156.  

Sunny & warm (73F).  Legs tired today.  Okay through a couple of miles but then all the energy ran out of them.  Managed 6 but that was it.