June 2nd

...today was going to be an overly ambitious start to getting into some tip top shape. It was going to be a long run, with a four mile marathon pace tempo run thrown into the mix. I was thinking of running eleven miles, then doing the four mile temp, and then jogging the last two miles home. That was the plan. I was hoping for a tempo pace around 5:50 to 6 minutes. And while that didn't materialize I can at least be confident in where my current fitness level is, and where I need to go to achieve what I want to accomplish.

I'll start with the run with began a little past seven in the morning. I was debating whether to drop my shirt off at some rock cliff around a mile in, but decided not to. I then got to two miles and knew that it would be better served to run without a shirt, for the first time in recent memory. I also stopped to tie my shoelace, not because it was untied (which I have to say is starting to become a problem with my shoe. It's happened twice this week. Although to be fair that's better than the last pair, that got untied nearly every run.), but rather because it was off a bit. I then continued with my run. I wasn't feeling that spry and was debating about pulling the plug a bit and just running to some distance and turning around. I felt that way until mile five and then I started to relax. I was close to sub seven or right around that for the miles. I ran new parts of Rock Creek in Maryland, which reminded me of McMullen in some areas. I turned around at 8.5 and was exactly at an hour. I stopped to get some water at mile nine, and then hit my temp a mile and a half later.

I started the first tenth of a mile running uphill and then the course goes back downhill (very convenient). I was trying to shake off the first part of that run and was able to get it down, but not low enough for me. I hit the first mile at 6:14. I continued to press on. I really wasn't in any danger of fading, but was having a problem dropping the times. I hit the second mile at 6:13. I then eased into the run and the third mile went by with a better effort, with a 6:06. Then I hit the fourth mile and it honestly didn't feel that I was working that hard, even though the pace dipped quite a bit. I ran the last mile in 5:48 to give my tempo time of 24:21. Not really what I was expecting, but a promising start, a baseline to see where I am. I ran to get some water and jogged back to my apartment building. I did four strides in the alley and had to fight with the wind on two of them.

I ended up running the seventeen miles in 1:56:23. The first eleven were at 7:02 pace. Not that shabby. My weekly mileage was 81.75. That's probably the first time I've ran eighty this year.