"No one ever drowned in sweat."

4.0 TM miles this afternoon, AP 9:30.  Sometimes I feel like I am going so slow at this pace, but this is the pace my training schedule said to run.  I am sure I will feel differently tomorrow.  I'm supposed to run 5 miles at a 8:13 pace.  I'm nervous I won't be able to since I took it easy last week and I'm worried my knee won't cooperate. I guess we'll see!

My knee bothered me a little bit today so I made sure I stretched for 5 minutes before and after my run.  Everything I read about preventing injuries suggests cross training, strength training, and stretching.  I'm not sure what my next race will be after the SL half. I don't think I'm doing Wasatch Back anymore b/c I can't find anyone to stay with my kids. Plus if I run it, I won't have any money left to run any other races the rest of the year.  Maybe I'll run a couple 5Ks or a 10K instead and try to get faster.  Either way, I know that I need to focus more on improving my overall strength so that I don't have any more injuries. 

6.0 miles at 5:00am this morning. Have I mentioned that I'm really not a morning person?

Mile 1 - 9:35; Mile 2 - 9:00, Mile 3 - 8:13 (I had a hard time maintaining this pace so I slowed it down), Mile 4 to 6 - 8:35 (still was pushing myself pretty hard, but I knew I could finish at this pace). AND...My knee didn't hurt at all! Hooray!!! 

My brother came down to visit from Logan so we ran together this morning around Herriman. He's also running the SL half and told me before our run that he thought he'd be able to run at about a 10:30 pace.  I wasn't opposed b/c I didn't know what would happen with my knee.  Our first 5-6 miles were in the low to mid 9:00min pace.  He did great! At around mile 9 my knee really started to hurt so we decided to walk/jog the rest of the way back.  Our goal was to run 10 miles, so overall we both felt pretty good.

I've been taking Ibuprofen on and off all weekend for my knee and have tried to stretch as much as I can. I think I might have to finish out my training on the darn treadmill b/c yesterday's run was not fun.  I hope it won't bother me too much during the race in a few weeks!