Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

5:15am, 73F.  That sure was a nice 2 days in the low 60s last week, but I guess summer is back - it hit 100 yesterday afternoon.  Still, I'll take low 70s any day.

Picked up the pace a little today, 7:56 avg.  Last mile 7:32 to make sure the 8-minute guy lost for once.  I was hoping 8:00 would feel like a nice long-sustainable cruising speed so that maybe in January I could do 26.2 miles at that pace.  But it still gets the lungs/heart working a bit too much for now.  Still got time to work on that though.

This was my first run on a half-dose of NSAID and my foot felt decent enough so I'll continue on half a pill for a few more days before trying to run without it.

5:15am, 73F.  8:21 avg.  I'm going to attempt 12 miles tomorrow.  My plan is to take it nice and slow.

My arch supports finally came in the mail, but the instructions say not to use them for "athletics" until you've walked around in them for a few days.  I did run up and down the street to test them and other than feeling like there's a bubble under my arch, they felt good.  I'm definitely not positive that it's the right solution, but seems like they might help me out once I get used to them.

5:15am, 72F.  8:18 AP - Easy 8 (avg 8:34), then 8:17, 8:02, 7:41, 7:15.  Really felt good today.  Although in the early miles I was forcing myself to run 8:30s and people kept messing with me, like speeding up when I'm about to pass them.  I know that's exactly what I like to do, but it's somehow ok when I do it.  Normally I would've done everything in my power to speed by them but I was worried about completing all 12 so I ran my own steady pace like a big boy.

5:15am, 73F.  Plan was for 4 warmup, 3 @ 7:20 (new tempo pace), 1 cooldown.

The 4 warmup miles were @ 8:33 avg.  I always see the exact same people on the first few miles around Lost Lake.  My nemesis, Jingle Keys, was giving me a run for my money today.  I can always hear him from about 50m away.  Anyway, the tempo portion was 7:18, 7:17, 7:17.  Then I cooled down with an 8:28.  I haven't done much stamina work lately so this kicked my butt today; I would not have wanted to do another mile like that.  Gotta get used to feeling the pain again!

I also wore my arch supports today.  No issues with them.  It was interesting though, the insert really felt like a big bubble under my right arch - the semi-injured foot (getting better and better by the way), but the left foot felt like the arch support wasn't even there most of the time.  So maybe I really need them.  Who knows.

5:15am, 72F.  Easy 7, + 1 @ MGP.  8:24 avg.  No NSAIDs in my system for this run.  Went pretty well - I can tell a difference, but I can definitely continue without anti-inflammatories for now.