Beautiful morning in Starkey park. Started out at 6:00 with Keith, Raj and Tim for an easy paced 7 miles, out and back on the bike trail. Met some more people in the parking lot for a bigger group. David, Randy, Jorge, and Eric among others. Started running with Eric for the second leg where we picked up the pace from 8:13 to 7:31 to 7:18. At 3.5 out I had to turn back as I was on a tight time schedule this morning. Said goodbye to Eric but kept on the pace that we had gotten into. Last 4 miles at about a 6:52 average. Pace felt hard at first but I got used to it and was able to keep going. Average pace: 7:56 I didn't blog until late at night. I had a lot more details to write, but when you don't write the down right away they kind of slip away. After the run we went to Orlando to see my niece in an Irish dancing competition. It was very interesting to watch and great to finally see her dance. After the dance, my brother and family were heading back up to Rochester after a week down here so we said our goodbyes and we headed back to Tampa. Stopped for dinner on the way home and before I knew it, it was late at night. So, as for yesterday's run it was a good accomplishment for me since this is the first long run where I have done more than just 1 sub-7:00 minute mile at the end. It felt hard but it didn't feel draining. I've done this pace for up to 8 miles and I'm hoping to stretch it out to 13.1 miles in just a couple of weeks. I'll either make it the whole way or crash before the end. If I crash before the end then I'll know where I'm at fitness wise by hitting a limit. If I do make it all the way I'll have a huge PR. I'm going to concentrate on continued steady training, getting lots of sleep and being careful with my food. The other thing about yesterday's run is that for some reason running with Eric always feels hard to me, regardless of the pace. He is a lot faster than me but even if he is running a slower pace than he normally does it seems faster. This might be because I'm not the one setting the pace so I don't know what to expect. I need to get over this so I can get better at racing. Instead of running at a pre-determined pace, just try and catch up to and maybe pace the next guy in front.
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