Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured

Glad to be back home .....  last week was long and rough.   Every time I start to get in a really good training groove, all heck breaks loose at work and running takes a back seat.   I am trying hard not to let that happen this time.

8 easy miles this morning at 4:45 am.   2.6 on my own, 3 with the group and another 2.6 afterwards.  

Beautiful starry morning and 60 degrees!   Again everyone bailed and I started out very annoyed, but I also know that I would not have gotten as good of a work out with them - so I am letting it go.  

Today was one of my favorite workouts: 

2 mile warm up

mile 1: 1 min on/off

mile 2: 2 min on/off

mile 3: 3 min on/off

mile 4: 2 min on/off

mile 5: 1 min on/off

2 mile cool down

Kept the on segments right around 7:00 min pace and splits are:

9:10, 9:01, 7:48, 7:51, 7:52, 7:50, 7:36, 8:46, 8:57 - avg pace 8:17

Hot and humid this morning, but I am not complaining - I hope we get some rain out of all this.   The wind was minimal when I started but picked up through out the run.   

I warmed up for 2 and then met Saskia and we did 1 more warm up mile together.  The plan was MP for 4-5 miles, but I knew that it was not likely unless I was running on my own.... the problems I have created for myself and I sound really finicky, I am just frustrated by the whole situation.

We hit the first two at MP 8:04, 7:44 and at that point Saskia was pretty far behind so I circled back to get her and said let's recover  and then start again.   We recovered for a little over a mile, up the big hill and then I said let's pick it up.  We stayed about 8:20 - 8:30 for about .6 of a mile and I had enough and took off trying to see if I could get it down to MP - ended up at 8:07, just off.  Recovered and headed back home.   

Avg Pace 8:48

Another beautiful starry morning and 55 degrees!  Haven't seen that forever, I broke out my long sleeve Boston shirt from a couple of years ago to celebrate.

1 mile to meet Erica, 3 with her and then 2 back home.    Nice, easy relaxing pace.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Meet the group at the running store this morning for a long run.    I started out with Lindsay and Melissa with the intention of repeating the same as my 13 miler with them a few weeks ago - Start out with the fast group and hang on.   Today was much better once we got to the 3 mile mark.   The first few miles were tough and I felt like I was having to work much harder than I should have been for the pace we had, but once I was warmed up the run started to click.  I was feeling good but expecting water at the 6 mile mark and there was none, so I had to wait.  Finally took the gel at 7.5 and started feeling better.   Melissa was running with us off and on and at this point Lindsay was ready to kick it in gear, so my plan was to hang on.....didn't do too terribly bad, but knew that pushing too much would not be overly beneficial.  Sticking to the mid 7's and cruising along.    I knew once we left the trail I would be in trouble if I could see Lindsay, so there was added incentive.   Of the last 3 miles, mile 12 & 13 are a pretty good gradual incline and I was able to stay on target, but very grateful for mile 14 which was downhill.  I am very pleased with how this turned out and I felt much better than I did on the 13 miler.  

Splits:  8:40, 7:57, 7:58, 7:55, 7:59, 7:51, 7:47, 7:45, 7:34, 7:28, 7:49, 7:54, 7:54, 7:43, 7:28

Avg. 7:51