The Next Step

Had a good day at church then hanging out with the family.  Went on a 20 mile bike ride right before dark.  Pushed it pretty good and averaged 20 mph for the ride.  Felt good after.

Nice morning for running with temps around 60.  I felt pretty good today but still had some pain with the achilles.  After a mile or so the pain went away and felt ok the rest of the way.  Just took it easy today and enjoy the great morning.  Now going to do some things with the family and enjoy the day off.

1:19:13 (7:56 avg)

Nice day this morning with light wind and around 60.  I went to the track today to do some 800s.  I haven't been to the track in probably around 6 months so didn't know what to expect.  Today I planned to do 6 x 800 with 400 jog recovery.  I thought I would target 3:00 to see if I could hold that pace.  I did a 2 mile warmup and felt pretty good.  My achilles was still a little twingy but felt ok after the warmup.  After that I started the 800's.  Here are my splits:

1st - 3:02

2nd - 2:58

3rd - 2:58

4th - 2:57

5th - 2:56

6th - 2:56

These turned out a lot better than I expected.  I felt pretty good throughout but my legs were getting heavy on the last two and I could tell my form was starting to break.  Otherwise, it was a good workout and a good surprise concerning my fitness.  Did a 1 1/2 warm down.

61:33 (7:42 avg)

Huntsville, AL: Traveled down yesterday for a short trip.  I got out real early today and the weather was OK.  It was warm and humid.  I felt a little sluggish this morning and just took it real easy.  Nothing real special but did get to see a beautiful sunrise on the way back.  

65:21 (8:10 avg)

Had a busy morning so ran during lunch today.  It was warmer then and sunny with a pretty good wind.  Today I wanted to do some MP miles and planned to run 4 miles at MP around 7:00 pace.  I am not sure what MP really is right now but just figured I would run controlled without pushing too hard.  I ran 3.5 miles and then picked it up to the MP pace.  I ran the next half around 7:00 pace then ran the next 4 miles in 6:53, 6:52, 6:53, 6:45.  This is certainly faster than MP for me but slower than tempo but it felt pretty good.  Figured that it was good just getting in some faster miles.

57:56 (7:14 avg)

Awesome morning for running.  It was low 50's with some light wind.  These kind of days really make me look forward to fall.  I was sluggish getting going this morning.  I haven't slept well the last few days.  A lot of stress at work right now so that probably has something to do with it.  Anyway, just ran easy today but was kind of out of it the whole way.  I ran over to the park and did a lap around there to get some time on a softer surface.  It was good to get a recovery run in and hopefully will have some more energy tomorrow.

64:54 (8:08 avg)

It was raining this morning so I waited to run until after lunch so it was warmer (70's) and windy.  I felt pretty good today and the running seemed pretty easy.  I didn't really pay attention to my pace but just ran how I felt.  It ended up being a good run.  I had wanted to go longer today but since I ran later in the day I had too much going on and had to get back home.  It still turned out to be a good week.  

1:33:24 (7:47 avg)