9 miles

Felt much better today (7:50 pace). I will be happy when the weather starts to cooperate a little more =)

7 miles

Easy run. Felt ok but overall just not a good day for a run.

12 miles

Planned to run 1:30 today... stayed out for an even 12 (1:31:51). Legs felt really good today but HR was a little higher (in the 160's toward the end). It was pretty hot and humid again today though. Finished with a 7:00 last mile... felt really smooth and easy.

8 miles w/ speed

Legs felt really good today after the first set of speed. Average pace was just under 7:30.

7 miles w/ hills

7 miles with a few hill repeats at the end of the run.... getting ready for the big hill next weekend during the 5k.

7 miles w/ speed

7 miles on the treadmill this morning. 2 minutes of speed every fifteen minutes... 2x1:00, 1x1:00 + 2x:30 and 4x:30. Felt good.

10 miles

10 miles this morning in some pretty sticky weather. Felt pretty good today so will probably do some speed again tomorrow.

7 miles w/ speed

Legs were feeling better this morning but still a little heavy at the start. 7 miles with 2 minutes of speed every 15 minutes... 2x1:00, 1x1:00 + 2X:30, 4x:30. I felt much better after the first set of pick-ups.

6 miles

Still a little tired today so I took it very easy (8:14 pace). It has been very hot lately and it looks like it will last a few more days. High nineties during the day only cooling to mid seventies at night.... combined with 90% humidity doesn't feel very good. We usually get at least one of these streaks every summer... hopefully it ends soon.

13 miles

Slow run this morning... between being a little tired from the race yesterday and the heat/humidity it was not one of the most enjoyable runs. 13 miles at 8:02 pace.

5K- 19:08

Small race this morning.. I think 54 people in the 5k and 20 people in the 10k. None of the college runners showed up so I wasn't sure if there would be anyone to run with. The course was an out and back with a 180 turn around. The weather was decent... 60 degrees with a 12-15 mph wind.

It turned out that there wasn't anyone to run with except the guy that went on to win the 10k. I was about 10 meters behind him until the 5k turnaround point and then by myself for the rest... I went on to be the overall 5k winner! Woohoo =) Second place was a high school boy in 21:14. Kinda fun =)

Here are the splits and average HR:

3:42.7 (180)
3:45.3 (187)
348.7 (193)
3:53.0 (195)
3:53.4 (196)

Max HR was 201

I think I ran a little more even than the splits show considering that the wind was in my face for the second half of the race. I felt pretty strong through 2 miles... my legs actually felt really good throughout the entire race. I am excited to race again in 2 weeks after I have a chance to get a little speed in my legs. Fun time =)

8 miles + speed

What a fun run! My tight calf that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now felt great as did everything else about this run. It's amazing what a good email can do for you =) Today called for 8 miles with 2:00 worth of speed every 15 minutes. I did 2x1:00, 2x1:00, 1x1:00 + 2x:30 and finished the run right at 60 minutes with a 1:00 stride. Average pace ended up being 7:30 as even the segments between the speed were a little quicker today. I found myself falling very comfortably in the low 7:40's as soon as I backed off the speed. It was a really fun run and looking forward to the speed sessions made the miles go by very fast. If I wasn't racing on Saturday I would have been tempted to stay out much longer. Good run!

Can you blame me?

I am having a pretty tough time right now... 3 weeks left until I have to start leaving these 2 sweeties at daycare. Needless to say I am quite the emotional mess lately. So how has this been affecting my running... I really don't think I am going to worry about the marathon anymore. I would like to still run it but am starting to realize that running 70+ miles/week while I am trying to balance family time and study time might not be realistic. Family obviously will come first and if something has to take the back burner it will have to be running. So I think I am going to drop my mileage some right now and do a little speed work to get my legs in something that resembles racing mode. And then I will just see how things go from there. I will still run as many miles as I can fit in to my schedule (without stressing myself out too much... something that I tend to do from time to time =)). If it happens that I can still run enough so that I can run the marathon, great! If not, at least I will have had a chance to run some races this summer.

14 miles this morning.

7 miles yesterday.

9 miles

I have been thinking for some time now that I don't want to focus my training on TCM. I really want to spend the rest of the summer running some races. I am pretty sure that I will still run the marathon (just with a different goal in mind)... assuming that I can put in enough miles during school for it to make sense.

9 miles for today (a little faster than usual just because it sounded fun). 7:30 average pace with the last 1.5 miles at 6:45 pace.

10 miles

Legs felt good today... 7:50 pace for 10 miles (under 150 HR).

8 miles w/ hills

8 miles on the treadmill with some inclines. Felt pretty good today.

10.5 miles

Legs felt better today. 7:53 pace with 148 average HR.

7.5 miles w/ 3 mile evaluation

I knew I was tired before I even started this morning... my standing around HR was 80 (about 20bpm higher than normal). I had planned to do 3 miles at 6:50 pace and then monitor HR and recovery time. The 2 mile warm-up wasn't enough to loosen my legs very much but it was starting to rain and get windy so I started the eval miles anyway.

6:48 (174)
6:50 (181)
6:49 (185)

The first mile actually felt ok but my legs were definitely tired. Mile 2 was a little harder and mile 3 felt about the same as mile 1 (even though the winds had picked up and the rain was dumping). Probably the most telling part of the run was that it took 3:00 to recover to 130.

7 miles

Recovery run. The long run yesterday wore me out more than I thought. My legs weren't really sore this morning.. more stiff and tired than anything.

18 miles

I have been taking it easy since the race so it felt good today to go out and get some good miles in. My legs felt really good and I tried to run a fair amount on grass today... probably close to half of the run was spent running back and forth on the edge of the golf course. 2:21:47 (7:52 pace). Average HR was 157... stayed under 160 until the last 2 miles (164). A recovery shake and ice bath later my legs are feeling good.

7 miles

Easy run at 8:02 pace.

7 miles

Another easy run this morning found my legs feeling good. 7 miles at 8:02 pace (146 HR). An easy 7 or 8 tomorrow and then I should be ready for 17-18 on Sunday.

5 miles

My legs felt ok this morning.... no soreness, just a little tired. I ran a slow (8:20 pace) 5 miles at 143 HR. I am going to take the next few days really easy so that I am recovered and ready to start next week with a good long run on Sunday.

10k

40:51 for 2nd place (9th overall). Here is the breakdown:

3:48 (184) | 3:58 (186) | 4:00 (189) | 4:03 (189)
3:56 (189) | 4:09 (191) | 4:05 (191) | 4:07 (190)
4:12 (191) | 3:50 (193)

Max HR was 203. It was pretty hot out on the course... it was mostly on an asphalt bike path with no shade. It was about 77 at the start of the race and we had to stand around in the sun for an extra 15 minutes waiting for the race to start.

I am disappointed because I let myself shut down a little after the first place girl starting pulling away. Instead of being mentally tough I started telling myself... she's 10 years younger than I am, she was the conference champion in the 10K this spring, blah blah blah.

Anyway it's probably ok because my legs feel really good a few hours after the race.

7 miles

Easy run today. Legs felt great after yesterday's 13 miler. Average HR 151 at 7:55 pace. My left calf and shin were a little sore yesterday and today... maybe due to running more of my miles on the road instead of the treadmill. Nothing serious but I will watch it nonetheless. I am standing in a cold water bath drinking hot chocolate right now instead of rushing around at work to finish everything by 7:45 like I am used to. It's a wonderful thing to be done working =)

13 miles

A shorter long run this morning. 7:51 pace felt nice and easy. HR stayed under 160 for most of the run.