They all can't be "easy" runs.

5.5 miles. Hood Route. 

Happy Easter!

8 am on Venetian Waterway Park. 81 degrees. 68% hum., 69 d.p. no wind. 

0.9 up, 2 @ 16:13, 1 easy, 2 @ 15:53, 0.9 easy, 2 @ 15:29, 1 easy, 2 @ 15:32, 0.9 down. 

I was feeling the effects of the Easter diet today.

I finally signed up for a race this weekend. La Crosse WI Marathon. May 2. That is 26 days from today.  This is way shorter of a training cycle than I'm used to. I'm also training differently for this race different than what I normally do. It's kind of an experiment. Also, this race is unique for me, as it is on a Saturday, starts at 6:00 am, the course consists of approximately 20 miles of crushed gravel bike trail, and 6 miles paved bike trail.

1.65 mile North Bridge Loop, then 5 miles on the west Venetian Waterway Park. 45:57 (9:11 pace). Then 1.65 mile North Bridge Loop. 8:30 am start. Pouring rain throughout. Much faster on the way out of the 5 mile part, due to a strong tailwind. 

7:30am on Venetian Waterway Park. 70 degrees. 15-20 mph wind coming from the north east. 

1.2 up (my usual last minute bathroom stop was out of order and I had to run to another bathroom. But because of this, I met a group of local runners that go out every monday wednesday and thursday at 6 am), 2 @ 15:12, 1 easy, 2 @ 15:32, 0.9 easy, 2 @ 15:22, 1 easy, 2 @ 16:15, 0.9 down.  

I was running into the wind on reps #2, and #4. Running with the wind on #1, and #3. I'm not happy about that last one. It just never felt right. the breathing cadence with my steps was off for some reason. 

24 days to race day. 

4 on the trails plus (4) x 100m+ sprints and jog back on each of the laps. 7 am start. 70 deg., 84% hum., 65 d.p.

5 on the trails at 4:30 pm. 85 degrees. I really wanted to run first thing this morning, but the people that give me paychecks had other plans. Seriously, I logged on to my machine at 6:30 am, they see that I'm on, and start calling? I don't know if running this late will mess up my planned long run tomorrow. I know these 5 miles felt pretty smooth. 

20.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail over the circus bridge to caspersen beach and back. 3:14:58. 9:24 pace (That's a minute per mile faster than last week.) First half 1:38:30 (9:30 pace). Second half 1:36:28 (9:18 pace) No finishing kicks, but I did slightly push the pace more than last week throughout the run.  73 deg., 59% hum., 58 d.p.

The only negative about this run is that I had another Emergency bathroom stop. This week at mile 4. The rest of it was pretty smooth sailing. 

21 days to race day.