June 29th-July 5th Training

Monday: 1.7 miles (9:29); 6.2 miles (7:30); 6.3 miles (7:11)

Tuesday: 9.9 miles (6:58); Skipped second run because it was Mary's birthday

Wednesday: 12.2 miles with 16x60s on/off. With the dew point right at 70 and with a race on Saturday, my goal was to run 4:50-4:55 on the fast portion and sub 5:55 on the recovery.  I ended up averaging in the upper 4:40s and 5:40s and 5:16 for the 32 minutes (6.09 miles). I had trouble finding my rhythm for the first few and doubted how many I could do but once I got to around my 10th interval, I felt better.  I was going to run up to 20 but with the upcoming race, I didn't want to run too hard.  This was my first time running this workout and it was hard finding the right pace on the GPS since with only a minute per lap, the GPS can jump some.  Maybe this would be good to do on the track with a little modification; 6.8 miles (7:12)

Thursday: 7.5 miles (7:26); 4 miles (8:44); Skipped afternoon run because I spent the rest of the day driving to South Carolina

Friday: 8.7 miles (6:54); 3.6 miles with strides (7:09)

Saturday: 12.2 miles with 4 mile race in 19:11. Plan was to run under 19:30 and stay under 4:50 pace on my GPS.  It was pretty muggy with a 70 dew point and the course had a lot of gentle, gradual hills with not many flat sections. It rained before the race, but it stopped before my warm-up, which made the roads a little more slick.  The first 1/2 mile is a gradual uphill and ran that with Adam Freudenthal at a little under 5:00 pace.  Once it was over, I pushed the pace down a hill and started to break away  First mile was 4:48, and I came through two miles in 9:32.  I was pretty certain I had sub 19:30 in the bag and came through the third mile in a 4:50 split.  I debated going for sub 19:00, but there were some hills that were bugging me, so I just kept on with the same effort.and finished with a 4:49 last mile.  Really good performance because I struggle on those types of courses and felt like I could have broken 19 if I had some people pulling me along; Skipped second run because I was at my sister's until nightime.

Sunday: 17.6 miles (7:04). Ran to Strictly Running to meet up with some people to run with.  Back in the day, I would do my long runs here during the breaks in college.  I'd get hammered by the older guys and it was some really good training.  After 3.5 miles solo, I ran with some high school and college kids and ended up breaking away with a guy named Russell and Zack Langston, who was a RS freshmen last year at NC State and is a pretty good runner.  I ran 14 with them in the 7:15 range and then stopped the run at 17.6 since I hung out at the store for a while afterwards and didn't feel like starting back up again.

Week Total: 96.7 miles.  Lower volume but I had a shortened long run and three skipped runs, so it's not that bad.  One solid workout and a nice, confidence-boosting race.  Things are starting to come around. This next week will have higher volume and plan on a solid workout and long run.