Week of 4/13 Runs

4/15: 5 miles, 8:10 pace

4/16: 10 miles, 8:27 pace

4/17: 5 miles, 8:07 pace

Wednesday: Like I said earlier, I had to push back all of my runs by a day because I took Monday off to move.  To be honest, I would have rather ran.  Either way, I took the extra day’s rest to turn this run Wednesday run into a MP run.  It felt good to stretch my legs and really push the pace.  My goal pace is right at 8:00, so I was close enough if you take the stoplights and general slowdowns into account.  I honestly think that holding this pace for the entire race in 4 weeks will be a stretch.

Thursday: 10 miles – fail.  I really hate to say that because my pace was actually right on target,

 but this was not a good run.  Like I said earlier, I got really cold and looking at my splits, I think

 that I tried to run too fast and bonked towards the end.  My splits were really inconsistent at

 8:17, 8:08, 8:10, 8:39, 8:24, 8:47 (!!), 8:43, 8:25, 8:45, 8:10.  Ah well, live and learn.  These 10 mile runs are always tough while on the road

 because I don’t bring my water bottle (so, no water for all 10 miles) and only recently have been eating anything during the run.  The night before the 10 miler, I went to Target to pick up a few things including some sport beans or a gel.  No dice – they were sold out or something.  So, I considered a powerbar but they only had Vanilla…..PASS.  So, what did I go with?  Gushers!  They are really soft, they have a lot of sugar, and they taste really good.  Why have I not thought of this before?

Friday: Damn, didn’t get any slower on this one.  I am really going to try to throttle back my long 20 miler this weekend to a 8:40 or so pace.  I assume that with my faster runs mid week, this will not be a problem.  The good news is that I was able to wear a sweatshirt, so instead of freezing, I was a bit warm.  I think after Thursday’s run, I’ll take a bit warm vs cold.  But, come talk to me in three months when I am in Phoenix..  Whew.