Finally, a Decent Run

Yesterday after work I went for a run that was going to be 4.5 miles, I’m having a cutback week this week and am trying hard to keep mileage under 40 (preferably even closer to 35-37) and have a 20 miler this week…Tuesdays run in the rain was OK, I went .5 miles further than planned because of where I was in the run, so I was cutting back yesterdays wanting to run today as well (which I still might do, but can’t go further than 2.5)…I have 2 days of rest scheduled into this week as well, right now I might even have 3, which I really hate!! Anyway, I got out after work yesterday, it was cooler, low 80s, which is still fine for me, only a light wind but no humidity (well very light) which is what the drain factor for me is…I started out and it felt good, I had also taken Wednesday completely off so my body should’ve been fully rested and it was. I hit the first mile at 8:30…The next mile, a bit hilly, came in just under 9 and the rest were slowest of 8:40 and fastest of 8:25…all feeling easy, in fact it felt so good that I turned it into a 6 miler (average pace for the run was 8:36), which is why I really mean no more than the 2.5 today (I'm at 16.5 already for the week with a 20 miler tomorrow). I am running a half marathon tomorrow, mostly as a training run that gives you a nice technical shirt, I’m going to get to the start line early enough to get hopefully 4-5 miles in before the race, and then I’ll run the race and get another 2-3 in after to complete my first 20 miler of this training cycle. Weather should be good, slight chance for rain I think, but it should be cool. I’m figuring on running a 9:30 or so pace for the warm up run, then the marathon at or around 9 minute pace, maybe picking up the pace at the end see if I can PR this from last year and then the cool down slower to try to get an average closer to 9:10 or so for the entire 20, but we’ll see. I just hope the legs feel good tomorrow…it is a pretty nice course and is only a 15 minute (if that) drive from my house to the start. There was decent food after and even free tickets into the pool that is located by the start. I didn’t use them last year but maybe this year I will!!