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

Late night last night so slept in today.  Didn't get a chance to go down and root for my friends at the half.  Did manage to run 8 easy miles when I finally got out the door at 9am.

Cold, windy, light rain, dark, 5 am, all reasons to stay in bed.  Somehow I got myself dressed and out the door.  Met up with the group at the annex but had to get started early so I took off before the huddle.

2.3 miles warm-up to Spring Creek.  Then 6 x .32 mile hill work - long gradual climb the first half then steep hill followed by a bit of a flat stretch to the end.  Was working on the second one before the rest of the group showed up.  Coach arrived early and caught me after my first one.  He told me to run these at 2:15 - first one was 2:24 and that was hard enough. So I pushed it and got down to 2:12 but most were around 2:16 - 2:18, with the last one back to 2:22 because my legs were on fire up that steep part.

Then 3 x backwards up the steep bit.  No time for hill strides as I had to get going to make a 7:30 work meeting.  Would have liked to add a couple more miles back at the end, too.  Oh well.

2.3 miles back to the annex - 7:30's or so. 

Went out for a double - I decided I better start getting ready for Boston.  LOL.  

4.75 miles easy on the trail at lunchtime - a solid 13 mile day. 

5 recovery miles at lunchtime on the trail.  Low 8:00's for the pace.

Met up with the group for 8 miles with some fartleks.  Nice and cold.  We ran most of the fartleks on the road today which definitely helps compared to the trail.  

3 x 3 mins fast with 1 min recovery in between, then 3 x 2 mins with 1 min recovery in between, then 5 x 1 min with 1 min recoveries.

Nice progressive effort - 3 minutes on bits @ 6:30's-6:40s,  2 minute fast bits run 6:10-6:20's, and 1 minute fast bits run at sub 6 pace.

Legs are feeling strong again which is a welcome relief.  Also, my heart rate seems better since I started taking a iron supplement every day.  I didn't have my blood checked but though it might be the culprit.  We will see.  A lot of the symptoms listed in this article I have been experiencing - http://www.pfitzinger.com/labreports/iron.shtml

Added some easy miles in after the workout in order to put in a solid 10 mile morning.

First run in my brand new Saucony Fastwitch which are awesome shoes.  On clearance at runningwarehouse so I may need to pick up another pair or two. 

5 miles at lunchtime around the trail.  Feel like I am coming down with something - I hope I will be able to get my long run in tomorrow.

Woke up not feeling too good, but felt that getting this long run in was critical.  I paid the price later in the day as I had to rest a lot and take a good nap.  I definitely have a respitory infection and felt dizzy after the run.

Met up at 6 am and started out with a new guy who is also running Boston and has run sub 3 before.  He wanted to do 16 but since he didn't know the route he was stuck with me doing over 18.  We ran along the Austin Marathon course.  Of course my watch died on the first mile but I checked in with Collin several times and we were running 7:07 one mile and 7:15 the next, so staying in the low 7's.  When we got to Duval with 3 miles left a group of runners that were pushing it started to run by. We hung for a while but I could tell my legs were getting tired.  I told Collin to follow those guys in and I just kept going at the regular pace.  For me the goal was to get the legs used to the mileage again before I worry about pace.