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

Well, what a difference a day makes. A couple rounds of antibiotics does not hurt either.  I am still not 100% but maybe 90%.  I woke up around 6:10 and was on the road at 6:35 am. It was warm and windy but the clouds were out so that helped later on.  Reminded me of the Austin marathon.  I also read that running at a 6 minute mile pace generates an 11 mph head wind. (Daniel's Running Formula)  Not sure what it is at other paces but the point when running into a wind a runner runs against the force of the wind plus the self generated wind.  I suppose this is why when running with the wind at your back you don't feel it as much since you are running away from it - so if a runner is running 7 mph and the wind from behind is 15 mph then is the runner only getting an 8 mph push?  Seems right to me since when the wind is at my back it never feels as strong as when running into the wind.  

 I don't have my Garmin as I left it in the office.  I figured I would run using my wrist watch as an estimate of how far I had run vs. time.  In the end it worked well.  I had an idea of the pace as I was running well.  I knew I was running at a good clip around miles 8-9 as I passed some other runners that I had seen in the distance with ease.  

The last couple miles were a struggle.  I did not eat anything and did not take anything with me but water.  I knew that my glycogen stores were empty or quite near.  I did this purposely in order to train my body to run at a fast pace while using fat stores as fuel.  

 I came home and used mapmyrun.com to map out my course - it said I ran 17.8 miles.  My time on the road was 2:08:00 and using the cool running pace calculator my over all pace was 7:12. Seems fast and it is an estimate, but I knew I was going at a pretty good clip. 

Cool morning??  Initially it felt good but 67 and high humidity isn't so wonderful.  Anyway, ran for 60 minutes.  No Garmin but I would say 6.5 miles at a very easy/recovery pace.

Medium long run this morning.  The weather was cool - 48 degrees - I actually had to put on a singlet.  :-)  I ran 3 miles and met up with a running buddy, Kevin, at a neighborhood park.  He wanted to get some miles in but wasn't going to run as far as me.  He mapped out a 7-8 mile course with plenty of hills.  It was great having someone to run and talk with.  The miles went fast.  We went our separate ways again at the park.  I wanted to get 15 miles in but time wise I knew this was not going to happen.  I figured 14 was doable but it would cut it close.  I had to be back at home a 7:35 to take my son to school.  When I hit 13 miles I had about 6-7 minutes to make it so I tacked on the extra mile taking the long way instead of turning and heading home.  I dropped the pace to sub 7:00 the last mile but had to contend with a long hill climb.  When I got to the house the watch beeped at 14 miles and I walked in at 7:35 on the nose.  Could not have timed it any better.

Overall pace of the run was 7:51.   [8:15, 8:05, 8:09, 8:20, 7:52, 7:55, 7:57, 7:34, 7:26, 7:46, 7:47, 7:50, 7:53, 7:04.]

6.5 recovery pace miles - have a bit of soreness in my right quad that won't go away.  I need to get out the roller tonight and roll it out.

Overall pace: 8:45

In other news Saucony is coming out with the new version of the Kinvara's. That is good news.  Why? Because the current version is being discounted, of course.  I ordered 2 pairs from runningwarehouse.com for $59 a pair.  I may have to buy a couple more pairs!

My current pairs are approaching 400 miles and still holding up well - much better that I imagined when I first bought the shoes.

Warm and humid morning - what a difference a day makes. Oh well, need to get used to it. Ran 3.5 easy and met up with the group at the Austin High track.

We did drills followed by 4 sets of 600m fast, 200m jog, 400m fast, 200m jog, 200m fast, each set separated by 2 min. recovery. I also tacked on one more 400m at the end. I wanted to run 5 sets but it was not happening - my legs were tired and I had to get back home.

I ran 2.25 miles back to the car. All in all a nice little quality workout.

Oh, so much for body composition theory of having to be 5'6" and 140 lbs to be fast - there was a runner with us who is maybe 6'2" - 6'3" and 20-30 pounds heavier than me - he killed us by 4-6 seconds per repeat. Some just have "it."

Set 1:

600m in 2:03 (5:29 pace)400m in 1:22 (5:29 pace) 200m in :41 (5:29 pace)

Set 2:

600m in 1:59 (5:19 pace) 400m in 1:20 (5:21 pace) 200m in :36 (4:49 pace)

Set 3:

600m in 1:58 (5:16 pace) 400m in 1:20 (5:21 pace) 200m in :38 (5:05 pace)

Set 4:

600m in 1:56 (5:11 pace) 400m in 1:17 (5:09 pace) 200m in :38 (5:05 pace)

Set 5:

400m in 1:20 (5:21 pace)

 55 minutes on the indoor cycle during my break - medium to hard effort.   Equivalent 4 mile run.

What a gorgeous day!  Ran 7 recovery miles @ 8:55 pace around the soft trail loop by work.  

Well,

I don't know what to make of these cool mornings.  I met up with the group at 6 am.  Many runners are in Boston or on their way, and there is also a big 1/2 today.  So it what a sparse group today.  Somehow I ended up running with a couple of the faster runners.  In a way that is good since it pushed me a bit, but in another way not so good since I deviated from my plan.  I wanted to run 8 easy followed by 10 MGP but after the first 2 miles I started out too fast.  We ran the Mt. Bonnell route - well, it's no mountain but quite steep for Texas standards. It's a really killer climb and the route to and from have quite a few hills as well.  

I managed some sub 7:00's but my pace was kinda all over the place.  I'll blame the hills and high mileage this week, and some mental weakness on my part.  Overall a pretty quality run.  I seem to feel pretty comfortable around 7:05-7:10 pace.  

Splits:  8:43, 8:21, 7:27, 7:20, 7:23, 7:10, 7:39 (Mt. Bonnell climb), 6:44, 6:57, 7:02, 7:12, 7:05, 7:07, 7:09, 7:17, 7:06, 7:22, 7:10, .25 @ 6:59.