I can do it. I will do it NINE times!

AM-I'm just counting today's run as fast miles because I ran with Ross Decker the whole way and that's fast. My miles were 6:48, 6:40, 6:46, 6:42, 6:44 and the last .83 was 5:22 (6:27/mi pace). At 3.7 or so, I stopped for a one minute breather, since Decker was wearing me out. I really need new shoes, my arches were sore almost the whole run. After, we stretched lots, so maybe I won't be so sore tomorrow.

PM-Since in the WBR, you have to run 3 legs within a day or so, I decided to do a bit of two-a-days to get me used to running on fatigued legs. I ran out on the trail to St. James and around back to my house - 3.18 miles total, my goal was to keep my pace under 8:00 and I succeeded (avg 7:43/mi), though it was pretty tough. Lately, my left knee has been bugging me like it did during the track season and during this run it hurt the whole way, so I'm going to ice it and such. XC conditioning/practice starts tomorrow!

XC practice this morning, ran warmup, stretched and did agilities (they made me tired which was pretty pathetic). Then we went on the Washington Parkway loop - it was supposed to be 5, but my watch got it as 4.69... anyway I tried running kind of fast - under 7:30, and did ok, my avg. was 7:14/mi with one 7:47 (uphill) and another 6:35 (downhill) mile. Felt pretty good, but my legs are pretty fatigued from yesterday's runs. I'll probably take it way slow this afternoon.

Afternoon run, way too freaking hot outside... ran out on the Industrial rd a ways and back. I basically died, but hey... once you're dead you've got nothing but your soul to lose! And who needs a soul anyway? Ran pretty dang slow, didn't even time it so I wouldn't get depressed. (Probably was around 8:30-9:00/mi.) 

Evening run, ran (1 mile) to WBR practice today, and instead of Webb, we did repeats! .7 mile warmup to the trailhead, then 2x1600m repeats then turnaround and 4x800m repeats back with a couple minutes rest between each. Times were 5:52, 5:54, 2:57, 2:50, 2:52 and 2:54. They were ok I guess, though I was hoping to be a bit faster on my 8's, but oh well. Pretty exhausting workout... I'm pretty sure that I'll be sore as heck tomorrow. Hopefully not? After, cooled down .7 back to the church, then 1 mile back to my house and 1 around the park by my house to get to 8 today. My feet are begging me for new shoes - tomorrow! (I hope...)

A little warmup and such at xc practice, then we did a 3 miler out around that one stinky pond behind walmart. Ran real easy and comfy, left arch is real sore to walk on, but it felt ok to run on. Legs pretty tired out, but not as sore as I thought, so that was nice. I haven't decided whether or not to run some more miles this afternoon/evening, since I'm doing the 10k tomorrow. I think I'm going to take this evening off because my left arch has been hurting lots since this morning, especially while trying on a couple new pairs of shoes and running in them.

AWESOME RACE and huge PR (-4:14)!

Only did a bit of warmup - about .8 right before the race began. My foot was bugging me as I warmed up, so I was a little leary starting out. It felt surprisingly good until the last 1.5 or so when it hurt lots. The race was almost totally downhill, which made it fast, but it really wore me down. Here's my mile by mile play by play:

1 - 5:41, was just excited to get going and just went with the flow (which was a fast flow for sure)
2 - 5:58, kept at it going fast, but realized that I probably couldn't hold onto this pace much longer, so I slowed up a titch the last half
3 - 6:13, settled into a good steady pace that I felt like I could keep up and just went with it, getting a little tired, but I looked at my watch and realized that I'd just set a 3 mile PR of 17:52, so that made me happy
4 - 6:14, kept it consistent though this mile felt lots harder than last, the whole race Josh Decker was between 20-50 meters ahead of me and I wanted to beat him so bad, I wouldn't let him pull farther away no matter how tired I was getting
5 - 6:14, was surprised to see that this mile stayed consistent since I felt lots slower and it had a couple tiny uphills, but I guess I just wouldn't let myself blow an awesome race because of a little fatigue
6 - 6:11, legs felt pretty wiped and foot hurt, but I was almost done, so I stuck it out
.11 - ?, when I got to this last bit I didn't realize I was almost done until I only had a little to the end, so my kick was kinda short, then I forgot to stop my watch (I don't usually race with one)

Sadly, Decker beat me (curse you), and after my foot hurt lots and that made me sad, too. But I won and got a course record, so that's way fun! Ran a bit of a cooldown with Holt and Steve H. afterwards. I'm way elated about today's race. :-D

Woke up with really sore legs from yesterday, esp. calves, but I was already registered for the race, so I decided to do it anyway. Warmed up a bit and tried stretching out my soreness which wasn't all that successful. Foot was sore like yesterday while warming up, but felt fine while racing. Pushed it pretty hard the whole race, avg 5:43/mi - fast times since it was downhill like yesterday. If I hadn't run the 10k yesterday, I probably would've been faster, but hey, double double gold medals is pretty fun!

This evening, I went on an easy 5 miler with my little cousin John. Well, I meant it to be around 9:00/mi - I thought he was fast enough, but apparently not... avg. min/mile was 10:47. He kept stopping and I could hardly stand running that slow, so I would run circles around him, up cul-de-sacs and back and took off a couple of times to run faster - so it ended up being 5.68 plus .25 warmup and .25 cooldown. I mean, my legs were freakishly sore, but man, there's no way 5 miles should take and hour to run. I don't think I've run that slow ever.