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

Nice morning - a tad bit cooler than it has been.  1.5 easy and met up with James, we did another 2 easy and then 5 at MGP.  1.5 easy back to Barton Springs pool.  Splits:  9:17, 8:39, 8:49, .5 @ 8:39, 7:30, 7:18, 7:13, 7:25, 7:30, 7:59, .5@8:00.

I did not have a good day today.  I am not sure what went wrong.  Humidity was at 90% it seemed and the temp was about 78.  I did not have a good night sleep at all and mentally I was not in this run.  It seemed I was working extra hard and not achieving much.  I got a side cramp that lasted the rest of the run at mile 8.  I missed a turn and ended up with 14 vs the 17 I wanted to get.  This was probably a good thing.  I did manage to skip 2 waterstops all together and keep forging ahead.  I suppose I am not too worried since this was a recovery week.  Still a bit concerned though as I was off 30-40 seconds of my normal long runs and I struggled.  I thought if I went slower it would feel easier.  I  I did not even bother with strides I was so tired. Splits:  9:05, 8:41, 8:49, 8:19, 8:23, 8:17, 8:26, 8:36, 8:36, 8:33, 8:26, 8:04, 8:25, 8:30.

A bit over 8 miles in 72 minutes.  Nice and easy recovery miles.  Warm and muggy. 

4.5 mile warm-up followed by 5 @ MGP with 1.5 mile cool down with a jump in Barton Springs to finish it off.  Warm and muggy.  MGP miles 7:18, 7:22, 7:25, 7:13, 7:05.

8 recovery miles - 8:30 overall pace.

Easy run today - I tried to find the balance of a good aerobic zone without going too fast in advance of tomorrow's workout.  The last mile and a half was a good mild downhill stretch.  I am hopeful that the  Steamtown course is similar - I cruised along with out much effort and when I glanced at my Garmin it showed at one point I was at a 7:13 pace.  Splits:  9:27, 8:15, 7:56, 7:57, 7:49, 7:34, .5 @ 7:54. 

Ran from BS pool to meet up with the group (1.5 easy miles) - decided to go with 8 miles Fartlek run.  2 additional easy miles easy followed by 16 x 1 minute hard with1 minute recovery in between each hard minute.  Hard minutes began at 6:40 pace and progressed down 6:20's with a 5:53 pace for the last minute.  2 easy to finish off the run followed by strides.  Nice dip in the the springs to cool down.

 35 minute core workout during lunchtime - squats, suitcase carries, planks, etc.

 Day off or very easy run tomorrow - 18 mile long run on Saturday - that will give me 62 miles for the week.

warm - humid - and super hilly course to boot.  Struggled at times to complete, but better than last week's 14 miler.  I'll post splits later - nothing to write about but my mine focus now is to just get through the first couple 18-20 milers.

My legs felt really good this morning - even after yesterday's 18 mile run.  Hard to stay within recovery pace:  8:47, 7:54, 7:45, 7:55, 7:54, 8:04, 8:08.

2.6 mile warm-up followed by 5 mile MGP (actually running these faster than my BQ pace of 7:38) -first 2.5 miles over hilly course - with  1.4 cool down followed by strides.  MGP miles:  7:29, 7:27, 7:20, 7:05, 7:15.  Next week I will increase another mile to 6 @ MGP.

Nice and easy miles on the trail.  Probably should have kept the mileage a bit lower - might have been a good idea to do a recovery double today.  oh well.

6 miles around the trail in 90 degree heat - tried to keep the pace in check as we have a hard workout tomorrow - overall pace 8:00.  Did some long strides and jumped in barton springs to cool down.  ahhhhh 

Parked at the springs - tried to be there a bit early as I wanted to get in an extra mile before I ran to runtex to meet the group.  I had about 3 extra minutes so not that much time.  I thought it would be tight but hoped that the group would not take off at 5:45 but a bit later.  I ended up 2.6 or so before I got to Runtex and the group had just walked out the door of the annex.  We did another 4 miles easy followed by 3 @ tempo pace.  I ran a 1.6 cool down back to the pool.  Finished with a couple long strides at 5k pace.  I was disappointed in my tempo pace - I am not sure why I found it so hard - it was difficult to keep my heart rate under control - it must have been the heat and humidity.  I feel that I was running stronger a few weeks ago.  Tempo pace: 7:05, 7:09, 6:51.  

Decided to take a day off from running - did a 60 minute spinning class instead at medium effort.

What a difference a week makes - last week's 18 mile run was grueling - today was much better.  Last week's course was much harder though.  This week I started at my house and ran to downtown, getting in some nice stretches of downhills in preparation of Steamtown.  I did hit a couple of good climbers too.  I met up with the group's route at mile 10.  The positive part was that I only stopped at one water stop and that was to refill one of my bottles.  I ran the whole way by myself as well. Carried flasks of Cytomax and it worked very well for me. Overall pace was 8:10 so 30 seconds off my BQ pace.  Splits:  9:13, 8:27, 8:12, 8:21, 8:20, 8:09, 8:26, 8:04, 8:08, 8:11, 8:03, 8:03, 8:08, 7:59, 8:02, 7:56, 8:00, 7:43.  Followed by strides.

8 recovery miles - seemed especially humid this morning compared to yesterday morning.  8:20's.

Stratford route - 4.5 miles easy followed by 2 miles of hills with 1.5 miles cool down.  Strides at the end and a dip in the pool. We pushed the hills pretty hard - mile 7 was a 6:59. 

Gym at lunchtime - squats on smith machine focusing on back strength, cable work focusing on hip flexors, abductors, and some core.

11 mile loop from Barton Springs.  Fairly easy run but picked it up a bit on the last couple miles.

6 super easy at the indoor track during lunchtime.  I have a hard workout scheduled tomorrow - wanted to save my energy for then. 

Big Workout Day -  4 miles easy miles followed by 8 x 1000m with active recovery in between intervals.  1000's - 4:09 to 3:50 (last one) followed by a couple easy miles (7:50's) with a dip in the springs to cool down.  

Coach said something about getting up to 12 x 1000 before the marathon.  Ouch.

Favorite link of the day - makes me want to take a year hiatus and travel the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhCqXhzTeY&feature=PlayList&p=216B3EC392E1B12B&playnext=1&index=11

5 recovery miles.  That's about it.

Warm and humid, as always.  8 easy followed by 6 miles at MGP:  7:25, 7:30, 7:20, 7:18, 7:23, 7:04 with 1 mile cool down with strides.  A nice dip in the springs to cool down.  Good quality week this week.  Next Saturday is our first 20 miler - can't wait (really I can.)

I had this sharp back pain since Thursday - I think I did something while tearing out bamboo roots in our back yard.  I still managed to run Friday and Saturday - but the pain was enough to keep me awake at night.  It even hurt to breathe and expand my lungs.  I took yesterday off and thought about taking today off as well.  But I decided since the strain was not caused by running then running it would aggravate it.  I went out at lunchtime - it was sunny and hot - heat index of 94 degrees.  I managed a pace of 7:40's to 8:10's.  My theory about my back was correct, I did not make it worse, in fact, in some strange way the running helped loosen it up a bit.

Tough workout today.  I ran 4 and a half miles easy followed by hill workout.  4 sets of 1 x 200m hill, 1 x 250m hill, 1 x 320m, I ran the downs pretty fast so I did not have much recovery between sets.  I got through 3 full sets before taking a break for water and letting my HR come down a bit and then finished the last set followed by 3 x backward up the hill and 3 hill sprints (total 4 miles.)  Ran 4 miles easy to finish and a dip in the springs afterward for a nice cool down.  Counting the uphill as threshold miles.  I am walking around work now with pretty sore legs. That's a good thing in my book.

5 easy miles at lunchtime.  My quads are still a bit thrashed from yesterday.  I hope they recover by tomorrow am.

Warm and humid am.  Legs still a bit fried from the Tuesday's hill workout.  I decided to eschew the group workout this morning and do my own thing.  Dan and I were going to meet up and that did not pan out either.  So I stayed up north.  I have been wanting to get at least a couple good MGP miles on a nice long down hill to prepare for Steamtown.  I ended up running an out and back for 2 miles as warm up and then heading out down Jollyville and then 360.  360 allows a nice 2 mile down stretch and it was good getting a feel of pace vs effort.  The only problem with this route is when done with the MGP there is a 1/4 mile hill with a gradient of at least 12% waiting, followed by a lesser hill before it levels out some.  This was tough after a good effort MGP run, but excellent training nonetheless.  Overall MGP pace was 7:28. Splits: 7:30, 7:30, 7:27, 7:40, 7:17, 7:24, 7:27, .5@ 7:30.

day off - I wanted to go to a spinning class but it did not work out.  I did make it to the gym for some core work, though.

20 miles today - warm and slightly humid.  The plan was to make it through and not worry about pace too much.  We hit lots of hills.  I had my garmin stopped between miles 11 and 16 for some reason.  I practiced not stopping at any of the water stops.  I waited briefly at a couple for the runners I ran with, but skipped the last 3 - 4 stops.  I had my fuel belt on so I had my own water/cytomax.  Tried to pick up the pace on the last 4-5 miles - hit a couple 7:50's - 8:00's, the majority of the first miles were 8:20 - 8:30 pace.  Overall pleased as I am feeling pretty good right now and in the past these types of runs would wear me out completely. Strides at the end @ 5k pace followed by a dip in the springs.