They all can't be "easy" runs.

12.9 miles. Hood route to Legacy Trail to Venice Avenue and back. I weighed in last night at a girthy 193 lb. I was pretty upset about that given that I'm 12 weeks to race day today. My new schedule calls for me to run 1 mile at marathon pace today. So the second to the last mile I ran at 7:10 pace, which is faster than I expected. I started this run at 7:30 a.m. which made the heat and humidity just miserable. So I'm pretty proud of the 7:10 Mile. But I'm also bummed about my weight. I would do more of an in-depth mid-year report, but I'm off to the Rays Astros game right now with my boys and my brother.

5.5 miles. hood route. 6:15 am start. song of the run: https://youtu.be/gSF9QT4jmsQ

our first dance at our wedding reception.  

pm: 1.5 hours of soccer. it was really warm. like bonus gravity warm. Since I've started playing so much soccer again, my juggling skills and cross have really come around. Also, that Japan v. Belgium game was one of the greatest I have seen. Huge contrast to the flop fest of Brazil v. Mexico. Neymar is single-handedly trying to ruin the sport by spending as much time as possible flailing around on the ground. Almost none of that in the Japan-Belgium game. Soccer, when played at that tempo, is really exciting. I'd like to go to shooting school in Japan. Those guys can light it up. And for Belgium's star scorer to allow the game winner to pass through his legs, to go to another player to put it in, to have that presence of mind, and realize what is happening, in that intense of a moment, in the biggest game of his life? Wow. What a finish!

Tempo Tuesday. Hood route. 6 am start. in the soup. 0.75 up. 3 miles in 23:34. 7:51 pace. 1.75 down. (yes, I'm calling those 3 miles fast.) 

I've been thinking, I need start this training cycle from where I am, not where I was in 2013/2014. I may get back to those paces someday. But if I am constantly falling short of those numbers in my training, I will get discouraged, and go back to "all easy miles, all the time" training, which is kind of what got me here in the first place. If you look at Louisiana, today's tempo is a weak effort. If you look at Brookings, well hey, I just ran 3 marathon pace miles! You have to start from where you are, not from where your running-residual-self-image says you are. 

Long story short, I'm feeling pretty good about this morning's effort. 

10.2 miles. Hood route to Legacy Trail to Colonia and back. 6:30 am start. 

6 am start. 1.5 miles hood route up. (4) x 0.25 mile repeats with 0.25 mile AR (with recoveries run first). 3.5 hood route down. 1:25, 1:26, 1:27, and 1:24.

10.2 miles. 7am. Gooey.