Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 12.2 miles, averaged 8:02. HR 146.

Did a sporadic pickup for 2 miles and did 6:55, 6:20 without too much effort. Somewhat flat from the bike race yesterday but not too bad. 

Looking forward to working back into things after a down/recovery week.

Lunch: 7.7 miles, averaged 8:25. HR 141.

Got a delivery of two pairs of Kinvara 5s. Yep, Kinvara 5s. My absolute favorite shoe. I got between 700-900 miles on my first 5 pairs and ran two marathon PRs in them. Definitely the best all around shoe I've run in. 

Hamstring still a bit sore and tight but it hasn't been doing the twingy thing it was doing last week.

PM: 7.9 miles, averaged 8:13. HR 146.

Nice evening. Foliage is peaking. Got in an honest easy paced run for once in the evening. Feeling recovered from Detroit. Took a while.

AM: 11.2 miles, averaged 8:01. HR 152.

20 x 1' On/Off @ 5k Effort

30'/20' down. It was fairly cold (39 degrees), but it warmed up a bit. 39 is fine with me anyway. Felt pretty good throughout the workout. Maybe a working a little bit harder than normal, but maybe this is the right effort for the workout as I was starting to really get blasted the last 10-15" of the last rep. About 5:43 average pace. Need to get the pace down on these. A cobweb clearer from the half marathon 9 days ago.

PM: 6 miles, averaged 10:02. HR 125.

Anxious and ticked off for now good reason, so I ran a little longer than my typical 4-mile shakeout after a morning workout.

Lunch: 6.7 miles, averaged 9:45. HR 127.

PM: 6.8 miles, averaged 9:34. HR 128.

Ran around a few of the neighborhoods and enjoyed Halloween vicariously. Foliage seems to be right at peak.

AM: 7 miles, averaged 9:21. HR 128.

PM: 6.1 miles, averaged 9:17. HR 127.

Headlamp died at the beginning of the run. It was fiarly dark. Peaceful, yet creepy.

Jeff Shadley informs me that I surpassed my 2017 mileage totals. 2017 was a rough year of multiple colds that knocked me so bad I took many days off. This might be my most consistent year even if it hasn't been my highest mileage. I have taken only 12 days off this year from running, but only 11 days completely off. At the end of my run streak this year, I did a short commute ride and then almost 40 miles in the evening.

AM: 8 miles. Did some hill blasts.

Drills and Strides + 8 x 8" Hill Blasts

Cool and not quite raining, as it has been all week. Saw a few deer. I was social and pleasant to people. I was sluggish warming up, but felt pretty explosive on the blasts.

PM: 6.2 miles, averaged 9:39. HR 129.

Noon: 13.5 miles, averaged 7:26. HR 157.

6-Mile Steady State Tempo

4 up/3.5 down. Workout was supposed to be 40' aerobic builder. I figured I would probably go about 44'-45' and do around 7 miles if I was feeling good. On the warm up I felt pretty spry, which I did not expect given how my legs felt yesterday and how they have been feeling on Saturday workouts. Got out fast and tried to ease off but as is typical I actually sped up. After that I just tried to hang on and get through at least 6 miles. I left about 2-3' and could have kept going a little bit after 6 miles, but given that it was pretty fast and the effort was higher than it was supposed to be I called it good.

Splits: 6:16, 6:11, 6:17, 6:13, 6:16, 6:13 (6:15 average)

Averaged HR was 176, so a touch high. Pleased to be working the paces back down for workouts. It has been a little while since I was running workouts in the low-6s.

PM: 4 miles w/ Megan, averaged 10:21. HR 124.

Mileage PR by 1.3 miles. Previous high was 102 September 20-26 2015 during Philadelpia Marathon training. This was pretty good without a significant long run, just consistent doubles all week of about 65'. Most of the mileage was pretty slow so it doesn't actually feel that hard. 8-10 weeks of this probably would.