Cool Runnings!

Lunch - 6.25 miles on the treadmill today (I forgot my sunblock and didn't want to get sunburned).  After having had a goose egg on Friday and Saturday due to fathers and sons campout on Friday night, and Saturday being a nightmarishly crazy day, it felt good to get back into the swing of things.  Warmed up first 1/2 mile at 8:00 pace, then bumped up the speed to 7:30 pace until I hit 4 miles.  Then bumped up the speed to 6:58 pace for the rest of the run.  It felt very good to get in the run.  Average pace of 7:20 for the entire run.

Lunch - 6.5 miles on the treadmill (I forgot my sunblock again).  Decided to break up the monotony by turning today's run into a medium-hard workout.  Warmed up nice and easy for 1 mile, then into the workout.  2 miles at 5K pace (5:42/mile), then 1 mile easy to recover, then another mile at 5K pace, followed by 1.5 easy mile.  Hard stuff.  This is my goal 5K pace to get me under 18:00 for the 5K this year.  I will have to see if I can do it or not.  In any case, I was pretty spent after this workout.  Nice and easy tomorrow and then next day to let my legs recover from today.  I need to find another time when I can run, as it is mostly too hot now to run with the boys, so they have been running on our treadmill (which sadly I cannot use because it makes a horrible screeching noise when I try to run on it - but they don't have any problems).  I may start waking up earlier so that I can get in a few miles in the morning.  Otherwise there is no way I will be able to get in much more than what I am doing right now.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel at 9:20 pace. He did a really good job. When he first started out, he was running at 8:15 pace. Afterwards I ran 0.65 miles with Joey at 9:57 pace. I told Joey that my legs were a little sore from running hard at lunch and to not run too hard, and what does he do? He took off! Finally, 0.15 miles with Adam at 12:15 pace. All of the runs with the boys were done in my aqua socks.

Lunch - 6 miles outside.  I forgot my Garmin, but finally brought my sunblock today, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.  Calves and hamstrings felt a little sore from my speed workout yesterday, but gradually loosened up as the run progressed.  Average pace of 7:25/mile.

AM - woke up at 5:30 so that I could run a little bit, did 1.5 easy miles in my aquasocks to simulate barefoot running.  Legs were pretty stiff at first, but loosened up after the first 1/2 mile, and I enjoyed the rest of the run.  I also got my new shoes from Steve yesterday, so I will be running in them today - looking forward to it.

Lunch - 6.1 miles outside.  My legs were absolutely trashed today - no snap to them, just felt like rubber the entire time.  I did get to break in my new shoes, which felt nice - I could definitely tell the difference between the new ones and the ones that have almost 600 miles on them.  Just pushed through today.  Average pace of 7:28/mile.  For some reason, it also felt hotter today, although it really wasn't that bad.  It was probably about 86 when I finished - not horrible, and certainly much cooler than the other week when it was over 100 when I ran to pick up my car.

Lunch - 6.2 miles outside.  Legs felt better than yesterday, but still a little rubbery.  That could have been from playing volleyball last night for an hour.  I was struggling a little bit today with my breathing, in spite of what felt like an easy pace.  Average pace of 7:26/mile for the run.  Did not get up early this morning because I didn't get enough sleep the night before, and if I am going to get up early and run, I need to be in bed by 10:00.

AM - 10 miles this morning without eating breakfast, which pretty much ensured I would be burning mostly fat on this run.  Ran 4 miles to the HS track, average pace of 7:53/mile, then did total of 3 miles on the track.  First two were average of about 7:30/mile, and the last one was about 7:15.  Then ran back via a different route.  By this time I was really feeling the effects of not having eaten anything, and felt like I was just plodding along.  I decided that it would be a good idea for me to push the last mile to work on improving my fat-burning capability at faster speeds.  Slowly increased speed from 7:55/mile or so to about MP effort with a mile to go.  Last mile in 6:47.  It was pretty difficult, both to maintain turnover as well as from a cardiovascular perspective.  We'll see if I get in any more miles today.  I am still kind of sore from volleyball - mostly either my piriformis or my gluteus medius on my right side.  Stretched it out last night, will stretch some more today.