Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 11 miles on mural, 6:07 pace. basically a carbon copy of the morning run yesterday(the 10th mile was even a 5:54 split again), but i ran the first 4 miles a little slower and the last 7 a bit faster.

PM - off. a couple of weeks ago i mentioned how i wore old pegs to work and felt like they were straining my legs, well wore them to work today and ended up spraining my ankle. nothing major, but the tempo run tomorrow is probably off. i'll play it by ear but two strong aerobic 11-milers over the weekend isn't a bad way to get in shape either. i'm planning on running a 10k as a tuneup race(yes, really) in 10 weeks so this is about the point where i have to be hitting every mile and repeat i need to though. maybe i can move the tempo to tuesday if i'm lucky. or i could be absurdly lucky and wake up in the morning like it never happened. fingers crossed for the latter.

PM - 3 on mural, 6:20 pace. felt like 7:30 pace. came to the conclusion this morning that waiting until the AM tomorrow would be best for the ankle, but when your HR is staying under 50 all day food doesn't burn off easy and i was starting to gain a bit of body dysmorphia. also, even if this run doesn't tell me definitively if the ankle will hold up tomorrow, figured if i couldn't manage this then i definitely couldn't manage something at least 5 miles longer in the morning. run would have been a bit faster if ethan didn't show up for about 10 minutes in the middle for some small talk. i hate conversating during runs, but ethan's a wholesome dude and he wasn't exactly long-winded matching my pace so i eased up.

AM - 8 on sokol, 6:11 pace. weird run in that normally the pace ping-pongs as it drops during the flat gravel section and inflates during the grass hills, but it was the opposite today. strongest i've felt on sokol since probably april, not sure how much is being in better shape than a couple weeks ago and how much is my legs being extra lively. very muggy and wet out. ankle felt fine but i cut it a loop short(wanted 10) because i work today and didn't want to risk reaggravating it. think this means i'm in the clear though.

AM - off. was walking down the stairs of my apartment in the early morning to drive to sokol and my ankle flared up pretty hard once i'd gotten down the steps. went back inside and iced the ankle for about 15 minutes and it wasn't an issue for the rest of the day. weird.

PM - 3 on mural right after work, 5:45 pace. couldn't cool the jets off for the life of me so i stopped early despite still going strong(3rd mile was a 5:38, lol). training has been very mediocre since the hurricane struck but i've ran enough to stay loose so my legs were just absurdly overcharged. not worth much in gained fitness, but it's still fun to let loose.

AM - 10 on sokol, 5:58 pace. ran miles 6-9 in under 23:20. sokol is a tough course so getting my first aerobic run under 6-minute pace in months here makes it a little extra sweet. i think i'm still a few weeks out from 5-minute pace really being a regular occurrence like it was at the tail-end of last spring, but that day will come. i'll make sure of it.

PM - mile on hilton after work, i think it was a 6:12. the shift i'd come off was incredibly miserable and i just didn't have anything in the tank. still would have done the run if the grass on hilton weren't incredibly overgrown(couldn't run on mural since parking was closed off for the football game tomorrow)

AM - 11 on mural, 5:57 pace. got work today so no time for a long run, supplemented it by covering the last 7 miles in 5:55, 5:54, 5:50, 5:50, 5:50, 5:51, and 5:43. would have still preferred 20 miles at 6:05-6:10 pace but it's whatever