The Next Step

Much colder this morning and pretty windy.  I have been enjoying the nice mild mornings so today was not nearly as much fun.  I did feel good.  The only issue was that my calf continues to tighten up on me on need to figure something out with it.  It does not cause any pain just makes me concerned.  Hopefully I can just run through it and it will get better.

62:41 (7:50 avg) 

Nice morning.  Temp around 55 but windy.  Felt a little sluggish getting going this morning.  Plan was for 4 mile tempo around 6:50 pace.  Ran same workout last week so hoping this time I can build on that.  The first mile of the tempo I felt tired and had to push to get going.  This always seems to be the case for me.  After that settled into a nice pace and the rest of the way was pretty smooth.  Started to feel some effort the last 1/2 mile so seem to be improving.  Here are the splits: 6:53, 6:47, 6:44, 6:42.

51:43 (7:23 avg) 

Just an easy run.  Going to take it easy next few days before half on Sat.  

55:17 (7:54 avg) 

The mornings are starting to get warmer.  It was mid 60's and no wind.  Felt kind of sluggish this morning which is suprising considering the day off yesterday.  Have the Half tomorrow and don't have very high expectations. It would be nice to improve on my race from two weeks ago but the course is hilly and weather will be much warmer so not sure what to shoot for pace wise.  Just enjoying being back out there at this point.

31:14 (7:49 avg) 

Geist Half Marathon just two weeks after running the Indy 500 Half.  I am using these to kind of kick start me to get back in shape.  I didn't have really high expectations going into this race but wanted to push it harder to see how the body responded.  It was a decent day.  Temp around 68 but overcast and hardly no wind.  This is a smaller race so was able to get real close to the front and got off to a good start.  Tried to settle into a pace that was just over 7:00 and see how it went.  Was able to stay pretty steady the whole way.  The only problem was the 12th mile.  I was starting to feel the effort and there were a bunch of rolling hills in this area and kind of knocked me out of my pace.  I was glad to bounce back and finish strong.  Overall very happy with the race.  Can definitely feel myself starting to get back in shape.  Kind of upset that I let my fitness slip so far but excited about trying to get back to where I was.  I was especially pleased that I was able to knock off 4 minutes from my half two weeks ago.  This was a much harder course and the weather was not as good.  I don't get a lot of practice on the hills but felt I handled the rollers pretty well.  Here are the splits off the Garmin.  They are a little off from the course splits naturally.

1st - 7:12

2nd - 6:57

3rd - 6:59

4th - 7:07

5th - 7:17

6th - 7:02

7th - 6:53

8th - 7:05

9th - 7:07

10th - 7:02

11th - 7:02

12th - 7:17

13th - 6:54