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

9.25 on the hilly route with 5 100m strides at the end.  Overall 8:30 pace.

Wonderful morning for a run - mid 40's.  Medium long run this morning - some hills in the first few miles - very even splits around 8:05 pace with 2-3 second variation.  Ran in the Kinvara's - I find it difficult to run slow in these shoes.  

Went to the gym at lunchtime.  Did 3 sets of 15,15, and 11 reps of the "Lance Armstrong" step up followed by 2 sets of 25,25 Bulgarian squats with body weight only followed by core work - planks, etc.

6.5 recovery miles on the soft trail. Overall pace 9:00.  

I have gotten interested in nutrition lately.  This was spurred on by being dizzy after Saturday's long run.  I began to wonder if I was eating enough for the workouts and mileage that I am doing.  I went to McMillian's nutrition calculator http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/nutritioncalculator.htm and punched in my age, weight, body fat % and weekly mileage.  The output said I need to eat between 2700 and 3000 calories a day!  2700 if I want to lose .5 lbs a week and 3000 if I want to maintain. Monique Ryan in her book Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes pretty much concurs with those numbers.  It is hard to say but I am fairly certain I have not been eating this much on certain days, nor keeping track of fat, carbs and protein.  I am certain after tracking the last 3 days that I have not been eating enough carbs.  I have started a journal to track my food.   It can be hard eating this many calories when I am not hungry.  Like everything I have a feeling it is going to be difficult to strike a balance between getting enough calories to fuel my workouts yet not too many to start gaining weight.  Anyway, I will be tracking over the next couple weeks to see how my body reacts.  I should know on Saturday's 20 mile run if I feel like I have more energy or not.   

Perfect weather for a run - 38 degrees to start.  1.5ish miles to warm up followed by 4x2k with 2 minutes rest inbetween. My legs felt stong this morning - I think the strength training is beginning to pay off.  I debated doing 5 but decided against in as Saturday's long run will be quite taxing.  In retrospec maybe I should have run the last one around 8:00 and then run a 5th 2k.  Oh well, still 5 miles of quality work for the day.

Interval pace based on Garmin lap times as we ran a couple of these over the 2k mark as we did not run on a track but on the Zilker park loop.

1. 8:20 (6:44 pace)

2. 8:03 (6:28 pace)

3. 7:53 (6:22 pace)

4. 7:35 (6:06 pace)

Tacked on a bit on the cool down to get to 2.5 and 9 miles for the day.

A few recovery miles this morning around 9:00 pace.

Perfect conditions for a run - low 40's and no wind or humidity.  I wore a singlet and was a bit chilly the first few miles but fine by the latter half.  Legs felt really good today.  I woke up around 3:30 am and drank 1/2 of a carb loading drink and finished the other 1/2 when I woke up again at 5 am.  70 carbs total and 280 calories. Tried shot blocks today and I have found a new fuel of choice (thanks Dan!)  Much easier to consume while running compared to gel.  I cut them in half and rubbed a bit of flour on them to keep them from sticking together.  I put them in the pouch on my fuel belt which made it very easy to reach down and grab one.  I think the nutrition helped my running today - I felt pretty good after the run compared to last week when I was really dizzy.  I did not struggle until the last 1/2 mile.  I didn't have my watch on auto lap the first couple of miles so I had to stop and mess with it - so no miles laps for the first 2 miles.

First 2 miles at overall 9:00 pace and then as follows: 7:38, 7:56, 7:58, 7:52, 7:45, 7:33, 7:26, 7:18, 7:16, 7:02, 7:07, 7:15, 7:10, 7:06, 6:55, 6:50, 7:07, 7:14.