"I don't really need a duck"

Noon - 4.0 miles @ 6:30 pace - 26:01.71 - 4 movin', groovin', nutritious (but not smelly) miles along the parkway.

No night run.   My body said sleep and thus I obeyed.

Noon - 4.0 miles @ 6:49 pace - 27:17.19 - I had to negotiate some slickery patches of snow but otherwise it was a nice run (I am certain the extra sleep last night didn't hurt either).

10:56 pm - 7.25 miles @ 7:15 pace - 52:40.45 - A nice night run with only a few slippery patches.

Noon - 4.0 miles @ 6:29 pace - 25:57.29 - I was comfortably going along at 6:40ish pace when I had a guy pass me going the other direction a quarter of a mile from my turnaround.  I decided after my turnaround to pick up the pace and see if I could catch him with his half mile head start.  I didn't go all out but my next mile was 6:12 and I ended up passing him about 500 meters after that (It took me a little over a 1.5 miles to close the half mile gap).  My last mile was 6:19 (three quarters of it clear of my rabbit) with the big hill.  I did see a big hawk along the parkway.

Noon - 4.0 miles @ 6:44 pace - 25:56.82 - It probably helps that I didn't get out and run again last night (it's been a very busy week).  I will probably get out for three runs today.  As a side note I cleared 2000 miles in a year for the first time in my life today.

5:49 pm - 7.25 miles @ 7:02 pace - 51:02.70

10:41 pm - 4.35 miles @ 7:09 pace - 31:08.11 - A realy calm and nice night run.  Felt warmer than my run at 6 pm.  I guess we can chalk up today a Ragnar training day.

6:34 am - 7.25 miles @ 7:27 pace - 54:01.03 - Tired and slow.

Noon - 4.0 miles @ 6:57 pace - 27:50.88 - Felt better than this mornings run.

7:30 am - 13 miles @ 7:01 pace - 1:31:10 - Another fantastic running event with Sasha in low 20 degree weather that actually felt kind of nice. We did a couple mile warm-up and then got going on the Fast Running Blog 5 mile course tempo run. The plan was 6 minute pace until failure or 5 miles. I held a 6 minute pace average through about 3 miles and started backing after that. I struggled holding pace when Sasha peeled off to use the facilities and really couldn't keep it going once he caught back up with me. I ended up finishing the 5 miles in 30:48 with an average overall pace of 6:09. We doubled back on the course to get some more mileage in and worked our way down to a high 6 minute pace (I sort of led this consciously) before Sasha challenged me to hit the last quarter in 90 - which I did. This run felt better than two weeks ago. I feel like I am making some progress but I definitely have more work to do. We will see how things look in another two weeks.