"There are no compromises." -Once a runner

Went to the Sipsey Wilderness area in the Bandhead National Forest 1hr south of where I live in alabama.  Tried to do an 11.5 mile loop but since the trails were not marked I just did 2 out and back sections.  I missed the first turn because some people were camping at the trail junction and had tents over the diverging trail so I didn't see it.  Trail was very poorly maintained but had some awesome technical parts and some bluffs and waterfalls that were mostly dry now. Because of getting lost and bushwacking a bit because of the horrible trail it took 2hr 8min.

6 easy miles on grass with Wim, a new guy I am running with who is a 16:10 5k guy on 45 miles/week.  I hate it when people are faster than I am who don't work as hard as I do.  But it happens a lot.  I was pushing it just a bit because it was early which I am not used to.  The heat is really getting serious.  Even at 8am this morning it was almost 90 degrees.

Horse trails at Percy Warner Park very slow.

3 miles warmup, strides

200 - 30

400 - 74

600 - 1:55

800 - 2:42

1k - 3:25

800 - 2:45

600 - 1:58

400 - 79

200 - 31

2 miles warmdown 

These workouts in the heat are tough. I just did my best to not die much.

AM: 3 - ran to work because my sister needed my car. I am thinking about making this week a cut back week. I have been at 70mpw for 6 weeks now and although it is doable I wonder if it might be better to take one week at 50-60 and then get back to higher mileage. I definitely want to do some tempo work this week because I didn't do any planned tempo last week.

PM: 11.5 easy felt good. Felt like I might bonk because of an early lunch but after the 3 home I went inside and downed a can full of pear juice and it held me pretty strong throughout the rest of the run.

am: 3 to work

pm: .5 up, 2x2miles+2k at tempo pace  5:42 pace, 5:44 pace, and 5:45 pace respectively 3 min rests in between then 3 miles warm down on my way home

I was pretty happy about this  workout.  I did it indoors and again I was surprised at how fast I went.  I started a bit too fast but held pace fairly well.  I am virtually certain that this workout indicates just sub 17 for 5k on a cold day on a flat course.  Sometime soon I am going to make a PR progression chart to better see when I have improved quickly and figure out what I was doing a lot of then and the few months before.

8.5 on the percy warner park horse trails.  I did it at a crawl and in the last .5 miles I heard some people behind me gaining.  Nobody has ever passed me on this route, so I had to hold them off.  I barely made it to my turn without them passing me.  I got a look at them as they went by and I felt a lot better because they were definitely college runners.