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

Nice cool morning.  It's been a while since I have felt this good so I hope it is a sign that things are starting to come together.  Nice and relaxed.  First mile 9:00 then 7:30's - 7:20's - solid aerobic base miles.

Went out for a quick 4.5 at lunchtime on the soft trail - 7:50 warm-up and then 7:35's across the board.  

60 degrees and very humid out this am.  Ran from the house.  Not a soul to be seen.  I don't think many runners in Austin are training for the Austin marathon.  Normally I would see some out in the neighborhood - and I only saw one.  Some in my running group have mentioned that Austin has become a "destination" marathon since none of locals want to run it anymore.  Maybe there is some truth to it. 

Anyway, today was a less than stellar workout. The paces don't show how much I struggled at some points. I decided to add some hills on the end and I was doing pretty good until that point.  I seem to have lost some power in my legs - hills were always my strength.  Maybe it was a combo of the miles yesterday and the warm weather, but my heart rate started to climb - max out about half way up Rain Creek - this is probably about a mile from the bottom to the highest point with some pretty good steep sections along the way.  The road kinda makes a big 3/4 loop, both sides starting high with the middle a the lowest part.  I came down one side at a pretty good clip and then started the climb on the other side.  I thought this would be good training for Boston.  From the top there are a couple of small rollers on the way home, with another significant climb about a mile from the house.  This last climb was hard, I was shuffling pretty bad, but able to drop the pace at the top, added a mile loop when I got to the house to make it 13.  Not sure what to think about the loss of power on the up hills. 

8:47, 7:40, 7:24, 7:20, 7:20, 7:25, 7:22, 7:22, 7:07, 7:48, 7:31, 7:31, 7:22.  

7:33 overall average - not including the break I took when I paused my watch catch my breath on Rain Creek.

60 degrees and foggy - actually pretty neat weather to run in.  Simple out and back from the house - no watch - was in a zone and ran past the 3 mile point so ran a little extra.  I wanted to get in an easy 6.

Nice morning - 57 - it was actually cooler than I thought it would be - maybe it wasn't has humid as yesterday.

So the original workout on the schedule was a tempo run - but the coaches changed it at the last minute to 1000's on the track.  Russ and I traded some emails and we decided to go with the tempo run instead.   I didn't feel like the track for some reason and figured tempo would be better in the overall scheme of things.

This time we did some easy miles to Expo and 35th - yep, the hills again - and then started our tempo there coming back on Expo, turning right on Enfield - more hills - and then coming back on a nice stretch of LAB and then the last mile of tempo on the trail.  I thought we did pretty well on the trail considering how much pace it can take off.

I really needed this run.  We both ran very controlled and relaxed the whole time, I never thought at any point that I was working too hard - it all seemed to come together.  We cooled down with an easy 1.2 miles. 

Easy miles:  8:38, 8:11, 7:48, 7:13, 7:06, .35 @ 7:10

Tempo miles:  6:20, 6:17, 6:26, 6:18, 6:22, .11 @ 6:25.

Easy 1.2 miles: 7:20

warm and humid but the rain held off.  Went out during lunchtime for a 6 mile recovery run - 8:20's.  

I thought this morning was going to be gross weather wise, but we got reprieve last night from a nice cold northerly wind.  Around mid 50's to start and windy.

One warm up mile and then met Mike and Russ at the annex for 20.  I wanted to hit 70 this week.  Also fighting a bit of a respiratory infection.  Fun!

Today was the most hills I have ever run on a long run.  The rollers start around mile 4 all the way up to Mt. Bonnel.  When we got to the parking lot Russ had some crazy idea that it would be fun to run the stairs to the top for a view of the city lights.  So up we went, the view was awesome - seeing downtown that far away and realizing that we had just run that was cool.  So off we went through some more rollers and then made our way to a nice flat part.  Next thing I know Mike and Russ were cruising in the low 6's with the intent of stopping for water at the upcoming water stop.  The only problem was that the stop wasn't there and we had to keep going to the Expo hills and quite a bit further until there was water.  After that they kept cruising and I kept up with pretty much until we hit the trail again.  Then we come out the other side and start up Barton Hills drive.  This is the first time in a while I had to stop and take a quick breather during a long run.  The next couple miles were full of hills - they never seemed to stop.  Finally around mile 18 I got a good down hill and tried to cruise it in from there.  My legs felt like they normally do during the last miles of a long run.  By this time I got completely dropped by Russ and Mike and had to make my own way in.  I hope that on one of these runs I will be able to stick with them the entire way. 

I am starting to question the sanity of running with these guys.  I am sure long runs are not meant to be like this! :-)  Hills on Tuesday, hills on Thursday, and then today.  That's enough hills for me for a while.

One warm up mile and then met Mike and Russ at the annex for 20.  I wanted to hit 70 this week.

9:00, 8:38, 8:16, 7:38, 7:22, 7:08, 7:06, 7:32 (Mt. Bonnel), 7:38 (more hills), 6:58, 6:55, 6:45, 6:47, 6:38 (Expo) 6:50, 7:06, 7:26 (hills start again) 7:36, 7:11, 6:37, 6:40.

Overall pace 7:15.

My wife was gracious enough of letting take a nap!  I felt pretty beat up.

For grins here is the route map - click on elevation - large to view the fun(takes about 30 seconds to refresh):  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5282658