August 11th- August 17th

Mileage for the Year 2014
2,616 miles

Mileage for the week 8/11- 8/17
73 miles

8/17
18 miles (Skinny Raven Half Marathon: 1:13:39)

I had a decent race this morning.  I actually felt pretty strong for the first 7-8 miles, but then I did kind of check out mentally and didn't stay strong for whatever reason.  I was running solo, but I just didn't feel like going to the next level and hurting a little more.  I know I need to get better at that.  I've run faster, but I did when I had more workouts under my belt during training.  I believe I'm going to cut back just a little in mileage and make sure my workouts are spot on.

Here it is:
2.5 mile warm up with strides
13.1 mile race- 1:13:39
2.5 mile cool down

8/16
4 miles (4 x 20 sec. strides)

Just an easy shakeout run with some strides to get ready to race tomorrow.  My legs do feel better than they have all week.

8/15
6 miles

I ran an easy 6 miles after an all day In-service.  My legs still felt a little heavy, but after a few miles I did feel better.  Kept it easy the entire run.

8/14
11 miles (7am/4pm)

First day back to work at South today.  I was able to run 7 pretty easy, but maybe a little to fast for recovery during my lunch hour.  I felt okay towards the end.  Then in the evening around 7pm I did another 4 miles, but kept that at recovery pace.  I didn't feel all that great either.  Just heavy legs and tired.  I'm sure I'll feel better the next couple of days.  All easy running until Sunday.

8/13
12 miles

I decided to run the half marathon course to try to familiarize myself with it.  I parked at westchester  and headed out. They were paving parts of the bike path, so I had to detour some sections.  It was also raining pretty good the whole run.  It's basically a gradual uphill the first half and turnaround and gradual downhill the 2nd half.  I need to make sure I save something for that 2nd half so I can roll. I'm actually excited to race. I'd like to have a fast time, but just running hard is going to set me up for the big picture, which is my fall marathon.

Kept it pretty easy today. Felt good.

8/12
10 miles ( 5 x 800m @ 5K pace w/ 90 sec rest)

Ran up to Hanshew to do this workout on the track.  I actually felt pretty good with the 800s.  I just tried to keep it honest and not push the pace.  I'm not use to running the VO2max stuff and usually the first session is the hardest for me.  Nice to turnover a little bit today.

3 mile warm-up w/ 4 striders
5 x 800m (2:34, 2:33, 2:32, 2:32, 2:30)
3.5 mile cool down

8/11
12 miles (7am/5pm)

Both runs were to Huffman and back at easy recovery pace.  I felt surprisingly good, especially after a big week.  I'm gonna cut my mileage down this week to recover for my 1/2 marathon on Sunday.