Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

This race was for the Iraqi boy and girl scouts, and it came with a free t-shirt.  My goal was to break 21:00, and I did by a couple minutes!  Unfortunately the race was almost a quarter-mile short.

My splits were 6:34, 6:42, 5:44 for 0.87 (6:36 pace) for a time of 19:00 (6:37 average).  I figure worst-case scenario I would've run that last quarter-mile in 1:45 and finished around 20:45, but what can ya do?  I like the races up at Liberty (base just to the north) more because they go around a lake that happens to be about 5K and are always accurate.  Still nice to know I CAN break 21 though!

It was neat to see the Iraqi kids because I haven't even seen a child in 4 months, the young ones were probably my oldest daugher's age.  So a pretty good morning altogether.

A nice progressive effort today, 7:54 avg.  First 5 miles easy - 8:10s and 8:20s - then 7:58, 7:49, 7:32, 7:30, 7:23, 7:14.  I was really only uncomfortable the last mile, but I'll generously award myself 2 fast miles...whatever that means.

Recovery miles, 8:44 pace.

10 miles, 7:42 AP.  I did this week's "key workout" today - 2 x 2 tempo with a half-mile recovery between sets.

First I did 5 miles @ 8:07 pace.  Then,

7:13, 7:05

3:57 recovery

7:07, 6:58

4:06 recover / cool down

My brilliant idea was to first put in some decent mileage at faster-than-warm-up pace to make the tempo portion more challenging.  And it worked, because I was truly miserable for the second set.  Mission accomplished.

5 @ 8:36 pace.

Strange pain in the crook of my ankle (where top of foot meets shin) after yesterday's run, but not during the run.  Some tendon I think.  I unlaced my top shoelace holes, loosened the laces, and it seemed to help (thanks, google).  Didn't hurt at all for this run, so, green light to go long tomorrow.

Ran an 18-miler today, which is 2 miles farther than I've ever run.  8:07 AP.

I didn't really confine myself to any pace; I just knew I wanted to run easy, with a few MP miles at the end.  Well, the tendency to speed up as the miles drag on kind of took hold.  Here are my splits - 8:28, 8:25, 8:29, 8:28, 8:18, 8:19, 8:22, 8:20, 8:21, 8:09, 8:09, 8:06, 8:04, 7:47, 7:44, 7:41, 7:38, 7:20.  The last mile would've been faster but my keys fell out of my pocket with 0.2 to go and I had to backtrack a couple steps to get them  That physically hurt.

I'd say my lungs never felt challenged until the last mile, maybe second-to-last.  My limiting factor right now is my aching legs, and all the nagging minor injuries that intensify on long runs.  I think I just don't have the long runs under my belt yet.  I felt like Frankenstein on the last couple miles - almost bit the dust just trying to hop up a 4-inch curb in the last mile.  Weak!

The other thing that makes me nervous is the tendon I mentioned yesterday showed up with a sharper, more localized pain on my foot in the last 4 or 5 miles and is killin' me now.  It's that big tendon that goes from the shin muscle all the way toward the big toe.  I got some ice from the dining facility after my run and was able to ice it a few times before it melted; I'm also gonna hit the ibuprofen hard to nip this one quickly.