Week 11

Monday 9/22 - 4 mile recovery run at 8:39 pace
Tuesday - 4 mile pace run instead of the scheduled 45 minute tempo run. Found my pace after going out too fast at 7:44. Mile 2, 3, & 4 were 7:59, 8:02, & 7:53 - right on my 8:00 race pace.
Wednesday - 5 miles at an even 8:33 pace.
Thursday - Opted to run hill intervals with Dave in the afternoon; bad decision. Marked out 1/4 mile hill on CR 150 and ran an easy 2 mile warmup. It was 85 degrees and calm. By the 3rd uphill I was feeling it a little, by the 5th and final uphill I knew I had pushed too hard. Jogging back to the truck recovery came slowly. I felt out of it after we finished, the heat was getting to me. Ice in a towel on my neck and cool water on my head helped after about 15 minutes. I drank 16 ounces of Gatorade and lots of water. Felt better on the way home and realized that hard workouts are best left to cooler weather!
Friday - REST
Saturday - Scheduled for 10 miles. Ran 4 warmup miles with Dave. Then planned on running the Balloon Fest 10K like a tempo run starting out around 8:00 pace. The best laid plans.......I went out at what felt comfortable but I knew was fast. Tried to slow myself down and Dave caught up to me before 1 mile. We both were shocked with a 6:48 first mile. Feeling good we slowed down to 7:09 & 7:07 miles 2 & 3. We were talking and felt good so picked up the pace a bit to a 6:58 mile 4. Dave started to drop back as I sped up to a 6:31 5th mile catching a couple people along the way. Mile 6 I pushed hard to a 6:19 and finished 7th overall and 1st in my age group with a surprising PR of 42:00:01. That's right, 1/100 from going under 42 minutes! Great race with over 100 runners and chip timing for the first time. Lots of fun! It felt good to run comfortably for 4 miles and be able to push hard at the end.
Sunday - 20 miles - Started out easy with Mick at a 9:00 pace and my legs felt good. Ran a few slower miles with Rich then picked up the pace by myself for the last 8 miles at about an 8:15 pace. It felt good to have this first 20 miler behind me without any problems. Now I'm ready for a step back week.