I guess I haven’t reviewed in a while. I’ve been skipping my Thursday run lately because I push back the Tuesday run and that pushed back the rest of the week. Other than that, the week day runs have been quite good. The longer runs on Tuesdays/Wednesday have been quite fast since I mainly do the berm or roads, but averaging 9 min/mile pace while I’m trying to go slow. Which makes me feel a little better about my pace.

Then comes the long run on the weekend. The 10 miler with Kelly felt great! Exactly like I would want to feel at 10 miles in the half. Then came then 11 and 12 mile runs. Much less great L Both runs had really really low points in the middle that I had to run/walk through, though the starts were pretty good.

For the 11 mile run, I knew it would be pretty bad because I hadn’t had a day off since Tuesday and ran fast the day before (and 5 miles). So I was expecting it to be back, but not as crushing as the middle was. Though, like most of my long runs, the end felt really great and made me forgetting about the terrible middle. I ended happily jogging along trying to forget that I was going back to a car which contained Maddie (who had rolled in fresh human throwup during her 3 miles of the 8 mile run). Needless to say, I didn’t get to recover for quite a while after the run since Maddie needed a bath before we could do anything.

Yesterday was the 12 miler in Hayward which was good and bad. I gave blood last Thursday and got a flu shot on Friday, so just like the 11 mile run, I had a very good excuse for my body wimping out. And wimp out it did. I ran the first 2 miles with Ian along the lake in the only flat part of the run (which was supposed to be all flat). This part felt great and for about a mile more until the good sized (2 nice 400 foot) hills showed up. I also am definitely not in shape for heat anymore and the wonderful 80 degree sunny California weather really got to me. The rest of the middle, again, felt like death and at half way I was ready to give up. Luckily it was a loop, so that just wasn’t an option. The loop ended up being only 9.5 miles instead of 12 so I had to add a nice 13 minute out and back to it which I was dreading at 6 miles, but was very nice at 9. Overall it felt good by the end, but I need to figure out how to get the middle to feel better than a forced trudge.

I am really looking forward to some good single track and trees and definitely hopeful for the downhill. I’m banking on that allowing me to maintain through the middle of the run. We shall see! Just a 7 miler in the way!

In other notes, my left ITB has been bugging my left knee, so I didn’t lift last week. But still at 75 lbs squats and 135 lbs deadlifts. 3 sets of 5. So I might have quads at some point! Still looking forward to some cycling, a little more swimming, and maybe some hot yoga through the winter! Just have to keep running too!