Rainy morning on Beach Drive, first time it's been wet in awhile. Small crowd again, only saw three other Slugs. Started at a good pace (6:40, 6:35, 6:50), then at mile 3 had to hit a bathroom pretty seriously. So I did a walk-run for mile 4 (8:40) and was overjoyed to see the Waterman port-o-pot. Got back on the road feeling better and returned to the pace. I knew I was pushing a bit and maybe didn't need to, since this wasn't a speed workout, but I've struggled with consistency on this run somewhat lately. This run continued that, I was pushing fairly close to Tinman Tempo on some but then lagged a bit on a few — 6:15, 6:48 to the turnaround on a slight uphill, then 6:40, 7:00, 6:05, 6:30, 6:18, and 6:43 when I tried to ease off. I shouldn't complain about having some fast miles on a 12-mile run, but I never felt in control of the pace or focused on the splits. I didn't set out with a pace in mind, maybe that was the problem. But I felt fine, the knee twinge from the other day was nothing more than that, and I rushed home to shower and grab an early ferry to Seattle. I spent the rest of the day painting, so Sunday was a needed rest day. 1:21 total. I felt good about the week, two runs over ten miles and 35 miles total. The goal for next week is over 40, then evenly bring that up to 50 by the first or second week of September. If anyone's reading this, go read this week's New Yorker article on Ryan Hall and marathoning. It's a great read, more for a general audience than runners, but some really interesting stuff about the origin of marathon racing in the U.S. Then think about having a scientist cut out a chunk of your thigh muscle (you'll see what I mean).
| 