Rhett

It was a beautiful still morning in Lake Havasu City. The sun started to rise a couple miles into my run. Birds were chirping as I ran through the park towards the lake where I saw people getting out on their kyaks and gliding over the glassy water. As I approached the docks right before I reached the London Bridge, the ducks were out swiming and quacking.  I passed by a few walkers and then crossed under the London Bridge. About half mile later the sidewalk that runs along the channel runs out.  That is my turn around point.  As I turn around I can see the sun coming up over the horizon right behind the London Bridge. It is a pretty sight to see.  On my way back towards the bridge, I had to hurdle a little yippee dog that was on too long of a leash.  The own laughed, I just kept moving heading along the channel back towards the park.  My watch beeped...mile 6. I did some quick math and realized I had averaged 7:15 for the first 6 miles... way to fast for an easy run. I consciously switched down to more of a recovery effort for the last 4 miles continuing to enjoy the beautiful morning. I passed some more walkers and a runner or two then I was climbing back up the hill back towards home looking at the mountains that surround the city until I hit 10 miles and the fun was over signifying I had to start the rest of the day.

AP 7:23

I woke up this morning feeling really tired.  All my seminary students were tired as well, but we survived class. I changed at the church and headed straight to the island for my fast running day.  I sure could have used a little caffiene, but didn't have any so I drank a sip of water and started my warm up.  I did a 2 mile warm up along with my usual running drills I do on fast days, butt kicks, high skips, running backwards, and bounding.  I do 3 sets of each during the warm up run.  My two miles was up and I wasn't feeling too much better.  I decided to give it a go anyways. 

The plan 2 x 3 miles (goal 19:30).  The first mile of the first repeat felt ok, but the second one felt horrible. I was about to call it a day about 3/4 the way through the second mile because I was so tired. I even took half a walk step and reached to stop my watch, but before I hit the button I changed my mind and decided to go for it and see what happened.  I ended up finishing the first 3 mile repeat in 19:16. I was spent though.  I took my half mile recovery very slowly, but it went by way too fast.  Then I starte on the second repeat.  It actually wasn't as bad as the first and I finished it in 19:19.  Then 1 1/2 mile cool down to finish my 10 mile run.

The cool thing was on each of my repeats each mile got faster. First repeat (6:28, 6:25, 6:21). Second repeat (6:30, 6:26, 6:21). Today was a good mental exercise, pushing through the will to stop and being able to still hit my goal. Hopefully it makes me a stronger runner.

10 miles at a recovery effort, nice and easy.  Another beautiful morning in Havasu.

AP 7:59

4 fun easy miles. I had a little pep back in my step today.

Then 10 mile hilly bike.

Legs are feeling fresh and ready to run long tomorrow.

Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!

53 degrees, clear sky, no wind, lake of glass, people out and about walking and enjoying life. I love Havasu this time of year.

Blake and I headed out for a nice long run. We always have so much fun running and talking that the miles juss fly by.  Through 15 we were right around 8:00 pace, then we separated for marathon paced miles.  I did the next 6 averaging 6:47 (6:42,6:53, 6:46, 6:51, 6:48, 6:42) where we met back up and did 2 cool down miles for a total of 23 miles.

Marathon pace felt so much easier this week than last week.  I was very happy about that.  One more week of hard training, then on to the taper!

30 minutes on stationary bike with a Tabata in the middle.

5 painfully slow recovery miles on the TM. (AP 8:27)