February 11th-17th

Monday: 5.7 miles (6:36); 11.1 miles (7:08)

Tuesday: 9 miles (6:44); 6 miles with 6xhill blasts (6:56)

Wednesday:  4 miles (6:50); 11.7 miles with 4.76 mile tempo and 4x200m with 200m jog.  Ran 4:53 average for the tempo with splits of: 4:58, 4:54, 4:54, 4:56, 3:34 (4:42 pace).  Was hoping to average 5:00, so I was happy with the workout.  Ran to the end of LSC and back (3.55 miles) and up-and-down Bison Way, which is a gentle climb a little over half a mile each way. Pretty tired at the end, but I closed pretty quickly.  Gas tank feels very strong and the turnover was easy, but my speed isn't up to par right now.  Ran the 200s between 30-31, which was pretty tough.  Back in the day, I could close out my college workouts with 2-4x200s at 26. I miss that college speed!

Thursday: 4 miles (6:54); 11.3 miles (7:13)

Friday: 5.7 miles (6:41); 7 miles with strides (6:52)

Saturday: 9.5 miles with 5k race in 15:04. Ran the Predators Fangtastic 5k, which was going to be a showdown with my cross-town friend/nemesis, Connor Kamm.  He has a lot more foot speed than me but is in base training mode, so I knew he wouldn't be as sharp.  It was really windy with the first two miles having a lot of uphill running, with most of the last mile being downhill.  Got out quickly and gapped Connor about a half of a mile in.  He pulled up beside me a minute or two later and we crossed the mile in 4:54, which was pretty tough.  We ran together for about another half a mile and he had me pretty scared because the hills were getting to me.  Gapped him again a little bit over halfway, came through two miles in 9:56 (5:02 second mile) and then ran the last mile pretty hard, with a 4:40 split to win by 18 seconds. It felt like I ran a ton faster than 4:54 and 5:02 for those first two miles but the course is certified, so I guess the wind and hills played their toll. Felt good at the end but can tell my speed is really poor right now; 5.5 miles (7:19)

Sunday: 22 miles (6:06). Connor came down to my house for the run and we are going to start trying to train together when we can, since we play to each others strengths/weaknesses, are both chasing the Marathon Trials standard and having a training partner makes life much easier.  We ran The Grinder, which is rolling with 2-3 nasty hills on it.  Felt good and dropped off Connor at 16.25ish with 6:14 average.  I then ran up-and-down Saundersville and got rolling on the downhills with 5:32, 5:33 for my last two miles, with some relaxed effort.  I think yesterday and today show that I'm definitely a marathoner. Long running comes natural, while 10k pace and faster is a real struggle for me.

Week Total=112.5 miles. Solid week with a great workout, decent race and really good long run.  Next week, I'll try to run a little more volume with a half-marathon/marathon workout and a hard, hilly 10k tempo and long run.