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

8 recovery miles in the neighborhood.  Could feel the soreness in the legs from the last few days - which is good.

5 ish recovery/easy miles on trail at lunchtime.  Cloudy, 50's, and breezy, perfect running weather in my book.  I had rained earlier and the trail was quite deserted.  Funning how many fair weather runners there are.

Russ and I exchanged a few emails last night about if we were going to make it this morning.  There was a 60% chance of thunderstorms forecasted.  But when I got up at 4:50 am there it was pretty calm.  I parked at the Y to get in some extra miles and also so when I was done I could go take a shower and get ready for work.

I met up with Russ at the main starting point and we ran to the hills.  This workout is called Meriden because that's the main street's name.  I will never know how they heck the coaches discovered this route.  I think they just like to torture us.  It amounts to a 1000m course (actually .65 miles so it's longer than 1000m) that takes off on a steep decline - 6 min pace is no problem here, then it turns left into a nice hill and then another, then another steep decline followed by a very steep incline back to the start.  Obviously, 1000m track pace is not something that can be done on this course.  The coach wanted Russ and I to start around 4:15 for the first repeat and work our way down, but the first one came in a bit fast and and so did the second one.  When we finished our last repeat he was like - I want you guys to run a 3:45 on the last one the next time you run this.  That ought to be fun.  

To finish if off we did 3 x backwards on the big hill, and then 3 hill sprints all the way up.  My legs were like Jello.

So -

2.75 miles warm up followed by 6 x 1000m on a hilly course with 90 sec recoveries -

.65 miles @ 4:07 (6:20 ish pace)

.65 miles @ 4:06 (6:18 pace)

.65 miles @ 4:05 (6:16 pace)

.65 miles @ 4:02 (6:10 pace)

.65 miles @ 3:56 (6:03 pace)

.65 miles @ 3:56 (6:03 pace)

then 3 x backwards and 3 x long hill sprints

2.75 miles easy back to the Y. 

LUNCHTIME run - 5 miles with 4 on the trail and 1 on the grass around Zilker park.  58 degrees and sunny! 

I figure I will take a day off every 10-11 days, and today is the day.  Even slept in.

Met up with the group at 5:45 after I squeezed in an extra mile or so.  Hooked up with Russ for the long trail loop for 4.5 easy and then 20 mins at MGP. 2 min recovery, 10 mins at HMGP, 2 mins recovery, and then 6 x 1 min at 5k pace.  We started the MGP with 5.5 miles to go but should have started earlier as we quickly ran out of trail.  After the HMGP part we only had 3/4 mile, so we took our recovery to run back a quarter so we would have a full mile to get some of the 5k paced stuff in.  Still did not get it all in, oh well, still ended up being a 12 mile morning.  I was happy that the legs felt good because after Tuesday I wasn't sure how they would hold up.  Last time we ran this loop after a hard workout we could hardy break 7:00 miles.

Easy miles working up to 7:50 pace and then

3 miles at MGP - 6:59, 6:46, 6:42

1.52 miles at HMGP - 6:16 pace

1 min @ 5:45 pace

1 min @ 5:42 pace

2 mins @ 5:35 pace

LUNCHTIME RUN:  4.5 easy on the trail and 2 miles on grass at Zilker.  Amazing how the stride improves after coming off of grass back to a hard surface.

5 + recovery miles at lunchtime.  I ran to Zilker Park on the trail and grass when I could and then did 2 full loops on the grass - no watch but each loop is about 2k.  My hamstrings are sore so they better recover quickly or tomorrow's 20+ miler won't be any fun.

Met up with the group around 5:45 for another hilly long run. This time we headed south with some good climbing and then did what we call the lollipop loop through Barton Hills, then back down to the trail for a mile and then back up Expo to Enfield, to the hills of Pecos, up to the top of Mt. Bonnel then back down the other side with Scenic added in on the way back.  Ugh.  We ran the stairs to the very top of Bonnel for the obligatory view of downtown.

Went super easy the first few until settling in to some mid 7:00s and then picked it up after Mt. Bonnel down to 7:00 pace for a couple and then last 5 @ MGP -6:49, 6:37, 6:41, 6:45 and 6:10.  We then tacked on super easy cool down mile and then 6 x 75m strides on grass to finish up. 

Wore my compression socks again and the legs felt good.  I may be wearing these on all future long runs and the marathon itself.