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

Nice morning - ran 8 easy.  First mile slow and then seven miles around 8:00 pace.  Legs are still be bit sore from Saturday's run.  

6 miles on the soft trail at lunchtime.  First mile slow and then 5 @ 7:50's.  Nice breeze and low humidity. 

Sublime morning - low 60's and no humidity - nice and cool.  Started out with the full moon and ran through the sunrise to a beautiful sunny morning. 

I took the hilly route out and then looped back on the flat route though still overall net climb.  Then I veered off on a new course with a 2 mile out and then back - mostly flat with a gentle roller here and there.  Then brought it home with a 2 mile tempo.  I was cutting it close time wise as I need to be back in time time to take my son to school.  I wanted to finish with a 3 mile tempo but misjudged the mileage left to the house - mostly due to the new route - I was not sure what I had left.  I thought for sure I had at least 2.5 miles.  In the end I had enough time to eek out another .5 but it would have been pushing it.

Really a good run and other then the first warm up mile @ 9:00 and mile 5 with the big hill @ 8:02, I kept the pace  between 7:25 and 7:40's  with the last 2 tempo miles at 6:34 and 6:22.  Legs felt remarkably fresh and strong this morning.

Ah, the humidity has returned.  Still not too bad but it is only a matter of time.  6 recovery miles  this morning.  First mile was 10:00 - must have been choclate chip cookie bindge that I went on yesterday evening.  Legs are a bit sore from the gym workout yesterday, too.  The other miles were 8:40's - 8:50's. 

6 on the trail at lunch - overall pace 8:10.  I have problems running slow like I should be doing today.

OK - I am a wimp, at least I feel like a wimp after this morning.  Of course, I tend to be pretty hard on myself when things do not go as great as I think they should.

The plan today was to run a couple easy and then 5 @ tempo pace with the group and finish at the annex and then a 1.5 easy back to Barton Springs. 

I started at the Springs and ran 1.5 miles to the annex and met up with the group as they were leaving.  It was 75 degrees already at 5:30 am and even with my slow paced miles my heart rate was up more than normal.  I knew it would be somewhat of a tough run.  Additionally, I have been fighting a cold or something.  I tend to get this light dizziness feeling so that did not help either.  But I digress.

Once the group took off I was with the front group and our easy warm-up mile pace was 7:25 - already too fast.  After about 1.5 miles we come across the interstate bridge and hit the other side of the trail.  From here it's a 5 mile loop.  Russ and I picked it up immediately; the others fell back as they were going to do 3 miles or so at tempo.  After mile 2 I could tell it was going to be a tough run.  My mental weakness started to show up here.  It seemed a lot harder this morning that the tempo we did 2 weeks ago.  Maybe the mileage from the last 3 days took its toll as well.  At about mile 3.5 Russ started to pull away a bit and I struggled to maintain pace.  At the 4 mile marker there is a bridge to take with one mile left after that to the annex or continue straight to the springs.  At this point I was hurting so much that I kept going straight to the springs where I had parked.  I got the the springs and kept going to the end of the parking lot to get a full 1/2 mile in.  I had to sit down on the curb for a few minutes - my heart rate must have been maxed and I felt really, really bad.  I could not even muster the strength to run any cool down miles.  I went and jumped in the 68 degree water of the springs for a nice cool down.  When I got home I took my son to school and then had to lay down for 15 minutes.  Anyway, tough workout and I felt really disappointed in myself at the end.

Tempo miles: 6:45, 6:32, 6:34, 6:31, .5 @ 6:25.   (Slow end of tempo pace, too.)

Not feeling all that great today.  I managed 7 easy @ 8:40's pace.  My legs have some soreness, the miles from this week are taking their toll.  Not sure about tomorrow's run - go by feel I guess.

68 degrees at the start - which felt cool compared to the 78 degrees over the past couple of days.  Still the humidity was terrible - had to be close to 100%.  At points during the run the pace felt manageable and then my HR would climb - towards the end of the run it took everything just to hang on.  I had to slow down quite a bit just to finish.  I am feeling a bit in the edge of burnout lately, I think I need to take a couple days off and recharge and repair.  Legs felt heavy around mile 15.  If someone I knew would have drove by I would gladly have stopped the run and got inside the car for a nice ride back.  

The course was hard - hills on the front end.  I split from the group at mile 5 - they were doing a 14 mile route to the top of Mt. Bonnell and back.  Since I wanted to try to get some MGP in I was not going to run the big hills.  So I ran most of the run alone.  Tough going and did not get as many MGP miles in as I wanted and no sub-7:00's - but given the weather and my tired legs I am OK with that. I am actually surprised by the last 4 miles, I felt like I was crawling while running those miles.

Splits:  9:02, 8:32, 8:03, 7:41, 7:27, 7:12, 7:29, 7:23, 7:21, 7:19, 7:13, 7:10,7:06, 7:11, 7:18, 7:24, 7:29, 7:29, 7:29, 7:39, 7:16.