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

60 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym.  Good effort.  Followed up with some hip work.

 Tomorrow is the fun 10 mile Fartlek - a pre-marathon tradition.

Woke up to thunder and lighting at 3:30 am - finally fell back to sleep and then woke up again a bit before 5 am.  I quickly checked the radar to make sure the storms had passed and then got ready and headed downtown.  I met up with a couple other CIM runners at 5:30 am.  

We ran 2 miles warm up and then started the workout.  I had programmed my watch the night before so I had to stop and find that workout to get started.  I ended up running alone since my paces were a bit faster than the others.  The trail had lots of puddles and was sometimes hard to navigate.  It was 60 degrees but 100% humidity.  I am guessing the trail took at least 5 seconds per mile off.  Not a super confidence inspiring workout but I finished it.  I met up with the other runners later and 2 of them had cut it short and the other finished but did not hit the paces he wanted.  So, I'll take it.

20 minutes @ MGP 6:55 pace (2.88 miles)

2 minutes @ 7:40 pace (.26 miles)

10 minutes @ HMP 6:30 (1.53 miles)

2 minutes @ 7:45 pace (.26 miles)

5 minutes @ 10 k pace 6:25 (.76 miles)  Not really 10 k pace here.

1 minute @ 8:30 (.12 miles)

5 minutes @ 10k pace 6:18 (.80 miles)  Better,  but still off pace.

1 minute @ 7:00 pace

1 minute @ 5:59 pace (.16 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.10 miles)

1 minute @ 6:00 pace (.16 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:58 pace (.17 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:59 pace (.17 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:58 pace (.17 miles)

6 recovery paced miles.

Nice crisp morning but quite humid and foggy.  The CIM group met up at 6 am and we did a 2 mile warm-up to Austin High.  

The regular group had 400's on the schedule and the CIM group had Yasso 800's.  It was a sparse crowd out there this morning.  I knew I would be running alone but fortunately I saw James.  I asked him half jokingly if he was going to pace me through my 800's.  Poor guy, here he was going to come out and run a few 400's and he gets roped into running 800's.  He was gracious enough to say yes.  

I talked to coach before hand and it was agreed that I would run by feel - if I felt good I would keep going and if not I would back off. At this point there is not much to be gained and today's workout is all about turn over.   I get the 800's relaxed and didn't push them.  Nice and easy on the first one and James got carried away a bit on the third, but other than that they were all pretty close.  Some active recovery in between.

2 miles warm-up.

8 x 800's  3:03, 2:57, 2:47, 2:52, 2:50, 2:53, 2:50, 2:53.

2 miles easy back to the car.  It was gorgeous - almost surreal - the sun cresting with a brilliant red, mist coming up off of town lake, leaves falling on the trail - I feel sorry for all those people who sleep in and never get to see such beauty. :-)

I put my legs in Barton Springs pool and it actually felt warm with the outside temp being around 50 degrees. 

6 recovery miles, low 8:00's.  Legs felt pretty good.

Woke up to rain though it had stopped by the time I arrived to the annex.  I brought my visor along just in case and it turned out to be a good idea as there was a light rain on and off throughout the run.  The crushed granite trail had turned to quick sand - well, not that bad - but it was mushy and took a lot of pace off.  

So - a bit over 2 miles on the trail until we hit the road.  4 more miles through some hilly terrain and then a turn around and back along the same route.  I was really in a grove about mile 8 and felt great, but at mile 10 I came back on the trail and the pace disappeared and the mushy trail took all the energy out.  With about a 1/2 mile to go I jumped back up on the road to prove to myself that it was the trail and not me that could not hold the pace.  I was able to pick it back up so which made me feel better. 

Doing a hard taper this week - only 3 days of running not including Saturday's pre-carb load run.  I might muster 20 miles.  I have been getting a lot of sleep which has been awesome.  I woke up Sunday morning at 8:40 am!  I should be well rested come Sunday.

8:43, 7:54, 7:36, 7:09, 7:19, 7:17, 7:02, 7:08, 6:46, 6:49, 7:10, 6:59.