Fly me to the moon...

Eight miles along the trail in the late morning.  It was much hotter than I'm used to in the early mornings.  I didn't make it out to run with the gang this morning because I got to bed really late last night.  I figured sleep was more important.  The ankle felt fine, and I really only noticed it when going up and down hills.  I'm pretty sure I just strained it a bit carrying stuff up and down the hill at the park on Saturday afternoon.  Total time was 58:36 (7:19/mile).

Ran with the Tuesday gang plus one.  It was Sasha, Jeff, Josse, and Michelle.  Michelle wanted to do a tempo in 6 minute pace.  Sasha and Jeff were going to pace her for as fas as she could hold it up to 5 miles.  Neither Josse nor I wanted to go that fast this morning for various reasons.  I wasn't feeling very well last night and had a headache most of the day.  Josse wanted to be fresh for a 5K she is running this weekend.  We all ran about 2.5 warm-up and then started the tempo.  We stayed with them for the first mile and then backed off.  I came through in 5:58 for that mile, and Josse was somewhere around 6:10.  My head hurt a little after running that fast so I was glad for the slower pace.  We turned around after two more miles.  We kept thinking they would catch up to us, but they never did.  Total time was 68:42 (8:05/mile)

Ran to Sasha's house, but nobody was there.  Jeff's car was parked in the street, but no sign of him either.  I waited 5 minutes to see if they were looping the block or something, but they never showed up.  I figured they must have gone earlier and took off on my own.  Met Matt along the trail around Geneva road, and he had not seen Jeff and Sasha either.  About a half mile later we met them going the other direction.  Matt turned around at the 3 mile mark while I continued to the 4 mile mark.  It was a nice run.  Total time was 61:39 (7:28/mile).

Today was an interesting one.  I overslept and jumped out of bed a little after 6 to run to Sasha's house.  They were just heading out the door so I was glad I caught them.  Sasha wanted to run a 200m time trial.  We headed to the track and did some strides to warm-up.  It was 4x100m with 100m jog in between at around 15-17s pace.  Then we did our first 200m.  I came in around 29s right with Sasha.  Jeff was a couple of seconds ahead.  We jogged some more and then tried it again.  My time was 30.5s and once again right with Sasha and Jeff a little ahead.  The first one was from a jogging start and the second from a standing start.  I was surprised at how slow I was.  I have definitely lost some speed since university.  I used to run 28s back-to-back with no problem in training shoes like today.  Sasha and Jeff had racing flats, but it shouldn't make a significant difference.  I felt like I had another gear, but my legs just wouldn't go.  We did another 100m at the end to test timing between Jeff and Sasha.  Then it was back home with a little extra to make it 8 for the run with the gang.

Ran with Jeff, Sasha, and Matt.  Matt joined us on the trail after about 3/4 mile.  We got to the 4 mile mark, and I decided to do the full 10.1 for my long run of the week.  I don't know if I will have time tomorrow to do it.  I was getting tired towards the end, and my hamstrings and quads were a little sore from yesterday, but overall it went well.  It was quite slow though.  Total time was 1:25:27 (8:03/mile).

I went longer yesterday because I didn't think I would have time to do it today, and I was right.  We did some cleaning in the morning and shopping in the afternoon.  Then Kathleen had a baby shower with mission friends and former roommates.  After that we had birthday party/picnic with a family that used to be in our ward.  I was able to squeeze in 6 along the trail while she was at her shower.  I am still sore from the 100s and 200s on Thursday so it was slow going.  I've found that if I'm a bit sore from a hard workout like that it helps to do some faster miles.  It helps to work out the soreness.  I did 6x100m with 100 m rest followed by 2x200m with 200 m rest after a 2 mile warm-up.  The first 100 was 20.8s, and it hurt.  Next one in 21.31s, 20.97s, 19.72s, 18.62s, and 18.84s.  The first 200 was 38.32s followed by 38.59s.  I ran the rest of the way home and ended up with a total time of 43:43 (7:17/mile).  Looking forward to some rest tomorrow.