dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

15.2 miles this morning in 1:46:05.  Ran 13.2 miles with Sasha, running the first 3 with Benjamin as well, while running the last 3 miles with Sasha at a moderate tempo pace.  Nothing too hard, but not easy either.

I ran at 6:00AM this morning just like normal.  We were able to run on the trail all the way back once we hit our turn-around and we skipped the detour.  It is not paved yet in the construction area, but it is not too bad.

5 miles with the baby in the running stroller in the evening.  I went really slow again, and kept the pace slower than 8:00/mile. 

I ran an 800 time trial this morning in 2:07.5 with splits of 1:03, 1:04 (possibly dead even splits, but I did not hit the lap time at 400).  My goal was to do it in about 2:05.  My high school pr was a 2:08, and I knew that the pr was weak, so I thought I could get it down to about 2:05 today but my legs just did not have it in them.  In hindsight I probably started off too conservatively, as I never really felt like I was running an 800.  The effort almost felt like a 1600 effort, but for some reason I had a hard time speeding up over the last 200m when I was trying to go faster to get the 2:05.  Even at the end, I was not in pain, and I felt more comfortable than I should have.  Part of this probably comes from not being accustomed to running that distance, as I have not run an all out 800 since I was 17.  I will probably try this again in about 2 weeks to see if there is improvement simply from being more comfortable.

I ran 5 miles in the evening.  I ran it faster than yesterday as I was not pushing the stroller.  Finished in about 38 minutes. 

I ran 10.1 miles this morning.  We kept the pace slow like normal.  My average finishing time for these runs is usually around 1:18.

5 miles in the evening in 37:47.  I threw in some strides as I came up the hill towards my house.  5 x 15 seconds for the strides with 1:05 recovery, with the first 4 run uphill and the last on a flat section of the road.

This is the only day this week that I ran less than 15 miles, which is abnormal for me.  I only ran in the morning today.  I felt really tired, because I had a long day at work yesterday in addition to helping out a little as my sister was moving yesterday.

I ran a 20 mile long run today with Sasha.  In order to celebrate the end of the construction on the trail (they finally paved it!) we ran the 5 mile tempo about midway through our run.  My total time was 27:37 with splits of 5:41, 5:38, 5:37, 5:25, 5:16 (81, 80, 80, 75 for the last mile, and 54-55 for the last 300).  Sasha originally wanted to run 86 second quarters for the tempo (5:44 pace) but once we got started he told me that he was ok with 5:40 pace.  I didn't feel too loose at the beginning, but as I slowly became more comfortable I started to speed up until I hit an 80 second quarter during the 4th mile.  I ran the last mile alone and Sasha dropped back.  At the end of the run we ran the last 2 miles fast in 5:57 (2:58, 2:59) and 5:42 (2:54, 2:48).