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

We got a bit of a break with the weather - it was somewhat cooler this morning. But this is Texas - so "cooler" has to be taken in context. Anyway, probably high 60's with 80% hunidity. I started out pretty fast, below 6:00 pace, slowed a bit - overall first mile was a 6:03 - a 1% grade decline to the 1/2 way point. Slowed a bit on the second mile - more mind games than anything else - overall 6:23 2nd mile. Picked it up comimg back towards the finish. 3rd mile was a 6:16 mile. I knew at the 3 mile marker I would not break 19, which was my goal. It read 18:53. Still, I picked it up here to beat my best of 19:37. So I Pr'd by 10 seconds. Aerobically I felt pretty good. Some more power in my legs, and getting through the mental barrier, with a bit cooler weather, and I feel I can break 19:00. I placed 50 out of 5,000 plus runners and 6th in my age group. I feel pretty good about today, no speed work and only base mileage for the last 2 months.  3 miles easy warm up and 3.4 miles easy cool down after the race.

I woke up a bit on the stiff side with quite a bit of hamstring soreness.  I debated running at all, but figured it was important to get the legs loosened up and the blood flowing.  I did 4 recovery miles.  I don't know the pace, but it was SLOW.  I felt much better after the run. 

Nice easy pace today - 7.5 miles.  Still working out some mild soreness in the hamstrings.  I spent 30 minutes and worked with a foam roller last evening.  It seemed to have helped significantly. 

Went out without my Garmin this morning and did not have a route planned out.  I just ran a route that I had not done before, I went out for about 45 minutes, had some water and a Accelerade Gel,  and the came back.  My watch read 1:32:00 when I got home.  I felt good during the run but was done when it was over.  My glutes still have some lingering soreness.  I worked them over last night again with the foam roller.  I mapped out the route and came up with just a hair under 11 miles.  I think this is the longest run I have ever done midweek. 

Base mileage run this morning.  Warm - 75 degrees and high humidity.  I ran 6 miles:  8:38, 7:53, 7:46, 7:55, 7:46, 7:48.  I felt pretty good the entire run.  Switched up shoes and ran in my Lunar Trainers - more responsive than the cushy Vomeros.  Focused on leaning forward, and at some points during the run "pulling the road."  I felt that the "pulling" cue helped keep up the pace. 

2.5 miles warm up.  First hill repeat was 350m, so I had to adjust, i.e., move my starting point further away.  I think I ran the rest between 450 and 500m.  You don't realize how far 500m really is until you measure it out.  Anyway, the first 100m or so was a mild incline, and then the main hill started - mapmyrun.com shows 8% incline, and I think that is about right.  Last 50m leveled off.  I hit the main incline at 6:05 pace each repeat.  I was able to hold this pace pretty much the whole time up.  However, on repeat 5 I was at 10k pace - 6:45 - at the top.  I tried to double my rest time back down, and took about 45 seconds walking break before starting the next repeat.  1 mile cool down back home.  Good workout.  

A bit over 10 miles today, first 4 base pace, followed by 4 @ 7:23, 7:22, 7:24, and 7:23. Base pace last 1.5 miles. This week was a big mileage week for me and I did hills yesterday. So my legs are looking forward to a day off tomorrow. Some pace today was at 7:10 and my carido felt fine. I hooked up with some other runners this morning and one of them paced me at 7:20 which helped a lot.