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

8 easy around town lake trail this morning.  It was quiet and peaceful.  Legs felt good - maybe the shoes?  Only time will tell.  I think the legs are now ready for some punishment - let the fun begin. :-)

Windy and cool - had big storms overnight but it was not raining when I headed out.  7 recovery miles - 8:40's - nice and easy - saving my legs for tomorrow.

40 degrees and windy this morning.  I ran 1.5 miles easy and then met the group at the annex. We ran the lollipop route this morning.   It is called this because if you looked at it on a map there is an out and back with a big loop in the middle.  It goes through a section of town called Barton Hills - it it is pretty dang hilly.  We ran up Robert E. Lee road which is a straight up incline, then got off track a bit which required another good climb, and then finally made it over to the lollipop which has some really good rollers.  The paces don't seem that hard but the course made it so. We turned it into a pretty good progressive run. 

Ran some strides after the run.

8:26, 7:59, 7:55, 7:54, 6:59, 6:47, 6:44, 6:44, 6:35, 6:25.  w/.5 cool down @ 8:15.

Very easy out and back from the house - no watch.  

4 easy at lunchtime.

30 MPH gusts, 36 degrees, windchill in the 20's - call me a wimp but I decided not to run 1000's on the track this morning.  I have done it once before in similar conditions and it was just terrible. Fortunately, I got an email late last night from Russ asking if I was going to go to the workout.  We kinda both talked each other out of it with the intention of running Saturday's long run hard instead.  

I went the the gym and ran on the indoor track.   7:30s according to the lap clock and then picked it up on the last 2 to around 6:30 pace.  Nice run even though it was rather long to be running around an oval - still prefer it to a treadmill.  At least when I am running I generate a breeze which helps keep the heat down.  I usually start to overheat running on a treadmill.

Holy moly this was a tough run - especially the last 4 miles. The plan was to run this hard since we skipped the hard workout on Thursday.  I did not have a set number of MGP miles but I thought at least 10 would be good.  This training I am trying to run MGP miles at 6:50 or below to get my legs use to the pace needed. We ran the 14 mile Grove route but had to do an out and back at mile 12 - it was tempting to keep on the trail and finish at 14 but we pushed through and added the extra miles on.  My legs were getting tired.  I think the soft trail takes something off the pace so we were probably working harder than what the paces say.  Russ and I managed to stick together the entire run which was great.  It was cold but no wind so it did not feel that bad.  The sun coming up was a welcome sight indeed. 

Overall average pace was 7:01.

 8:32, 7:41, 7:13, 6:59, 6:55, 7:10, 7:12, 6:55, 6:49, 6:59, 6:45, 6:48, 6:38, 6:27, 6:42, 6:20.  followed by 4 x strides.