I only run on days that end in a "y."

70 degrees and high humidity.  Fun stuff.

Got to the annex early and did a warm up on the trail and then met Russ and Mike at the annex.  Sticking to the trail all this week.  The main Boston group was doing the 10 mile fartlek with MGP, HMGP, 10k pace, etc.

Mike didn't want to do that - he thinks it is too strenuous at this point.  So we did 8 miles on the trail and with 4 miles to do started a 12 x 1 fartlek with 1 minute easy in between.  Our easy bits were low 7:00's which may not seem hard except that our fast minutes were 5:45-6:05 paces.  Let's just say I was glad we were done when we hit number 12.  I finished the last 3/4 @ slightly faster than MGP (6:30 pace) to get a feel for running tired.  The heat is definitely taking some getting used to.

Lunchtime - 45 minute spinning - good solid effort.  Get the blood flowing and loosen up the hips a bit.  Felt pretty good afterward.

Had a deep tissue massage from Kip - the Kenyan marathoner.  He gave me some crazy advice.  My favorite was this:  Wake up at 4:00 am on Saturday - don't eat anything - go for a 12 mile run.  Come home, shower, eat, go back to sleep.  Wake up in a couple hours, go for another 12 mile run.  Come home, take it easy all day.  Go out at 5 pm for another 12 mile run.  Maybe if I was single I might try this one time.  He did finally say one could start doing this with going for time and not mileage, and don't wear a Garmin, and go out on a route you have never been on before.  So go out for an hour, repeat 2 more times.  No wonder the Kenyan's dominate the sport.

5 easy on the trail at lunchtime.  Warm and sunny - no watch.  Legs are feeling a bit better.

Warm and muggy.  It felt a bit cooler than it actually was.  1.5 miles easy and then met Russ and Mike.  The rest of the group was running Yasso 800's.  It's a good track workout, but I don't really get anything else from it.  I know I can go run 2:50's and I also know I can't run a 2:50 marathon, so in that regard it really doesn't tell me much.  

We decided to continue with the taper and healing and instead run the 7 mile trail loop with 3 miles progressive and one mile cool down with 10 second strides on and off on the last half mile. 

I don't have my Garmin in front of me but we ran low 7:00's for the warm-up and then 6:50, 6:40, 6:30 ish on the trail.  The effort was there even if the pace doesn't reflect it.

Looks like I will put in a whopping 38 miles this week.  

45 minutes spinning at lunchtime, solid effort.

Met Kevin for an easy run.  I haven't seen him in ages so it was good to catch up.  I didn't have my Garmin but he said we had run 44 minutes when we parted ways.  This was his neighborhood and he gave me a couple directions, but of course I took a wrong turn and ended running up Talleyran, a rather long and steep hill.  55 minutes total running.  I'll put down 6.5, could have been closer 7.

68 degrees and humid.  We decided to start late today, 6:30, which was a nice change.  Unfortunately, there was some dog walk that they shut down the streets for.  So I had to park about 1/2 a mile way and then run to the annex.  I saw the main group leave and Russ and Mike were no where to be found.  Finally Russ showed up and Gilbert, our coach, told us to run with him.  Mike was nowhere to be found so we went.  We ended up running the entire run with Gilbert which was awesome.  He told us some great running stories along the way - it made time fly.  4 MGP miles at the end - my legs felt the best they have in a while.   

MGP miles on the trail:  6:50, 6:43, 6:36, 6:43.

sunny, 80, 4.1 miles around the trail at lunchtime.  7:35 AP.

60 degrees and a bit on the humid side.  Really a wonderful morning for a run.

Somehow I let myself get talked into this, but I knew it would be good for me mentally and to keep the legs from getting stale.  So I got my last sports massage on Sunday and Kip said I should do this workout.  He has won the Cowtown marathon so who was I to argue.  I was already planning on 400's but not 10 of them.  But the gist of the workout was this.  10 x 400 with 10 push-ups after every 400 with a 100 m walking recovery, then 100 sit ups and 5 x 200m with same recovery.

I met Kip at the track at 6am after warming up from RunTex, Kip had run 5 miles from his house.

We ran the 400s with each of us alternating the lead. We kept the pace sane and didn't push too much, no need at this point with only 6 days until the marathon. 

10 x 400 1:23 to 1:20's with 1:17 last one with 10 push-ups after each repeat.

100 sit-ups

5 x 200m :39 down to :34 for the last one.

Cool down back to RunTex.

Looks like it will be on the warm side at Boston.

Nice morning, 2 easy out and 2 back.  I pretty much have everything ready for the trip.  I haven't had much time to think about it since work has been quite busy.  I am sure it will start to sink in on the plane ride up.

To run tomorrow or not?  I will probably skip and run easy on Friday and that will be it.

Was at the Serengeti resort with the family.  Went for a quick 4 mile run - 80 degrees, high humidity - 7:30's .  Up at 5:50 am for 1:40 hour drive to the Austin airport to catch the flight to Boston. 

Aussie carb load run.  1 mile warm-up and then 1000m in 3:35 followed by lots of carbs. :-)

Hit a new trail today.  It is down by Bull Creek where we have been taking the kids during the evenings.  I had to turn around at dead ends a couple times and complete a couple stream crossings, but it was a solid 5 miles on a great crisp morning.  After coming out of the trail head I ran a quarter mile down the road to another small trail loop and added a mile and then back to the car.  Low 6's on the last mile.  Legs feel pretty good - a bit of tingling later when I got home.  

Back to the basics for this chap.  Nice cool morning, slept in until 7:00 then 2 miles easy followed by 10 x 400 @ the local middle school track.  1 minute rest in between.

10 x 400  1:18, 1:19, 1:19, 1:16, 1:17, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, 1:18, 1:19. 

Legs got a bit tired on the last on so I decided not to push 2 more or add any 200m repeats.  Heart rate was maxed out on the last 2 - I can tell I really missed running the repeats leading up to Boston.  I won't leave this component out of my training ever again.  I used to be able to run 16 of these at this speed.

Got sucked into an all day conference that I had not planned on, but it

got out early.  I was able to hit the gym on the way back for 5 easy on

the indoor track.  Followed by a good foam roller and stretching

session.

2 miles warm up followed by 3 miles at "short tempo" pace, which means "around" 10k pace, followed by 2 miles @ 7:20 pace.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the paces in the history on my Garmin.  I thought I ran these miles a bit slower.  I did stop at 1.5 miles for a 30 second stop at the water faucet.  The plan for next time is to do this without any stop, however brief.

Tempo miles:   6:12, 6:02, 6:05

Met up with the group this morning.  It was warm and humid.  We ran the trail with 3 x (3,2,1 hard with 1 minute recoveries in between.)  For some reason this was harder than my 3 mile tempo on Tuesday.  It could be the trail and the heat.  I do know that by the third set I trailed off of the lead group - I couldn't hang.  I definitely have a lot of work to do to get back to where I need to be.

3 x (3 min hard, 1 minute recovery, 2 min hard, 1 min recovery, 1 min hard, 1 min recovery)

Times of hard minutes ranged from 6:12 to 5:52.

68 degrees, muggy - 5:30 am.

7 mile recovery, no watch, probably ran it a bit faster than needed.  Took the hilly route on the way back.

70 degrees and humid.  This will be the conditions for the next 6 months!

Met up with the group at the annex.  I thought I was going to stick to the trail but after using the port-a-potty the only person was Mike.  We ran a couple easy and then followed the group route into the hills.  Yikes, it was Boston all over again.  We took it nice and easy on the inclines though.  8:50, 7:30, 7:26, 7:20, 7:38, 7:19, 7:04, 7:20, 6:59, 7:14, .5 @ 6:45.  My legs could feel it on the last mile.  3 speed work this past week caught up with me.

7 easy pace - out and back from the house.  73 degrees at 5:30 am and humid.