Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

8:35 avg, evening run.  My left knee was sore this morning.  The only other soreness was my left calf down toward the achilles but I'm sure it'll be good after my day off tomorrow.

Goal was 2 warmup, 4 tempo @ sub 7:30, 2 HMGP.  Splits: 8:29, 8:22, 7:29, 7:17, 7:21, 7:08, 8:08, 7:47.  Averaged 7:45 for the entire 8.

This run was basically the same as 1 week ago with an extra HMGP mile at the end.  It was a bit windier which might be why I couldn't quite equal the tempo times from last week (could not even manage 8:00 pace into the headwind this time), but I still hit the overall targets there.  I also did not quite meet the HMGP on mile 7 as I was pretty wiped out, but managed to make up for it on the last mile to average out to sub-8 recovery miles.  I was definitely relieved to hear the beep at 8 miles today, so I know I got good training.

Recovery @ 8:33 avg pace.  It was really windy again, but I saw a fox on the way home.  So that's something.

Goal for today: 2 ez, 2 @ 7:30, 1 @ 7:00, 2ez.  Splits: 8:19, 8:17, 7:24, 7:25, 6:59.76, 9:11, 8:40.  Average was 8:02 for the whole run.

Got that 7:00 goal mile by the skin of my teeth.  The first 0.3 or so was right into the 20mph wind and kicked my butt to the point where I kind of mentally gave up for a bit during the next 0.3, which was crosswind.  But, I found a finishing kick for the last 0.4 with the tailwind.  I brought the mile pace from 7:33 to 6:59 in the last 0.4 miles.  I thought the graph of that mile was cool, but I'm apparently too dumb to figure out how to paste it in, sorry.  Ctrl-c and ctrl-v no worky.  Anyway, I actually had to walk for a good 10-15 seconds afterward before I could started slowly shuffling home.

I actually started feeling some decent fatigue in my legs today.  I've been hitting it pretty hard lately so I'll take that as a good thing, but for next Thusday before the 10K I'll dial it back a bit to give myself a shot at a good time.

8:39 pace.  Weather actually looks perfect for my long run tomorrow.  What is going on here?!

Absolutely perfect weather - 40 degrees at the start, warmed up to 50 by the end, and less than 5 mph wind!  My new long-run strategy: start slow and get faster.  I played a little game trying to improve each mile a few seconds from the previous one.  By the end I was getting pretty good at it by just staying close to what I wanted for most of the mile, then fine-tuning the last 0.1 or so.  Garmins are fun.

Splits were 8:45, 8:43, 8:40, 8:37, 9:02, 8:33, 8:31, 8:29, 8:27, 8:21, 8:06, 7:52, 6:48, 0:55 (7:47 pace for 0.12).  Overall pace 8:22.  1:49:53 total.

I got basically the same overall pace as last week but this run was fun and I felt great the whole time.  Last week I felt like crap for the last 6 miles.  In mile 5, I dropped my cell phone trying to grab a Gu so that's the reason for the 9:02.  It broke into about 3 pieces and I had to fumble around forever trying to get everything back in its pouch - stupid fuel belt.  I was pretty annoyed that it ruined my little game.  In the last mile I was just trying to go a smooth tempo pace but I kept noticing the pace drop - it really felt great so I decided to murder the last third of a mile or so and got a great 1-mile split (6:48) for me, especially given that it was mile 13.  Then jogged in the stub to make it about a HM.

This run was pure enjoyment -  I know I'll probably never get weather like that again but I'm hoping that I can have that much fun in windier conditions as long as I take it easy at first like I did today.  In other words hopefully the strategy, not the conditions, made it fun.  By the way, thanks for the advice last week, everyone.  I also feel 100% better physically after today's run versus last week where I limped around all day.  Ok, enough words.

WM - 44.1