Boston, here I come?

Objective: 12 mile run

Today's run was tougher than I hoped it would be, I think due to a mid-run pit stop which made my stomach feel better but didn't make the rest of my upper body feel very good.  Legs felt great, and I ran a nice steady pace, averaging 7:20/mile for the duration.  With the baby, these Sunday runs simply have to be done very early in the morning, luckily my wife is leaving me alone for most of the middle-of-the-night activity.  Big week coming up with about 55 miles scheduled, this is going to be quite a test.

14 weeks down, 4 to go!

Objective: 5 mile easy run

My early weekday morning runs began today and the first one went very well.  Today wasn't much earlier than in the past (out the door at 6:15 instead of 6:45ish), but tomorrow will be much earlier with a longer run in store.  I paced 7:06/mile for the run and felt just fine doing it..that's faster than I usually go for these easy runs but the effort level was pretty low. 

Objective: 10 mile run

The final double digit mile weekday run kicked off bright and early, at 5:45 AM, and went really well with an overall 7:14/mile pace.  I was up for an hour during the night with a gassy baby, but it didn't seem to affect me too much.  Mile 6 was a bit slower than the rest..there's a good hill at that point, but I felt like I was dragging a bit as well.  Luckily that cleared up and I finished strong and felt great at the end.

Objective: 5 mile run

Pretty typical morning run, with a 7:24/mile average.  I almost wasn't able to get out early enough due to a fussy baby, but luckily he calmed down and I got the run in and laundry done before heading out for work.  My legs felt great and I had plenty of energy, but wanted to be sure to take it easy on this run with intervals coming up tomorrow night. 

Objective: 8 x 800 repeats (3:00 per interval)

This run was supposed to be done yesterday, but a cranky stomach got in the way of that.  So I did it tonight, after walking to the park with my wife and baby, and they patiently waited for all of the running to be over with.

In the first fast interval today I finally got under 3:00 with a 2:56, which was a 5:27/mile pace thanks to the slightly longer than 400m laps.  From there I was back to normal, going 3:04, 3:13, 3:17, 3:17, 3:17, 3:14, 3:16 (5:36/mile up to 6:19/mile)..very consistent although not as fast as I would have liked to have gone.  I didn't feel like I went as hard as I could, as I wasn't wiped out afterwards like I usually am, but I didn't feel like I could have been going too much faster.  In reality, these times are fine, as they are right at my 5K pace..so there's really nothing to worry about.

Objective: 10 mile pace run

I intentionally shortened today's run, with week 11's bad finish fresh in my mind.  Going 10 and then 20 in consecutive days was too much for me then, and I don't want to risk it being too much for me again.  So I set out for 5 miles, trying to get faster with each one, and managed to do that (7:17, 7:10, 7:06, 7:03, 6:35), while finishing right at my race pace overall.  Big day tomorrow, gotta get up nice and early to get all 20 miles in!