Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured

I am in Phoenix for a conference and how nice it was to be in the desert.  This makes me homesick for my SG, crisp mornings and dry air.   The plan was for an easy 6-8  but I picked it up after three.  

I headed east for 3 miles and then turned around and I figured I would add a .25 out and .25 back at each intersection I came to to get me to 8.   The way back had some down hill which helped with the pace, but really once I got down into the 7's it wasn't too hard to maintain - just hard to get there and why is that?

Splits:  9:13, 8:36, 8:12, 8:04, 7:51, 7:47, 7:33, 7:44 & 8:29 for the last .26

Avg Pace 8:08

 PM:  4 miles on the treadmill at the hotel.   Progressive starting at 10:00 min pace and ending at 8:06 min pace - speeding up every .5 mile.   Hot and sweaty. 

Easy, or what was supposed to be easy miles around Scottsdale.   Ended up a little faster than planned but felt good. 

Avg Pace 8:37

Another beautiful desert morning.  It was crisp with the scent of desert blossoms and the sun was rising....it doesn't get any better!

I had planned on taking it somewhat easy, but that went out the window pretty early on.  I ran the same route as Monday, just added a little on to the out/back piece and did not do the .25 turns.  Mile 3 was a gradual climb that I picked up the pace and went sub 8, I knew that wasn't what I had planned so I slowed Mile 4 down to just over 8 but mile 5 was right back down to sub 8.  Mostly due to the slight downhill grade but also because I was trying to pick off a runner  - accomplished!

Avg Pace 7:59