Day 24

Week 4 is in full swing and the running is starting to ramp up again. Week 3 treated me very well, and I finally was starting to feel like I was getting "in shape" instead of just being sore and tired all the time.... In fact the other night I was thinking about how my legs and hips weren't feeling so tired and restless as I lay in bed... But I guess all good things must come to an end... Enter Week 4.

Last night my hips were sore and my legs restless, but at least my shin wasn't bothering me anymore (for now)...

Today I felt tired and sore some more... barely dragged my lazy ass out of the house and then... had an awesome 6 mile run!

Distance: 6.0 miles
Duration: 46:37
Pace: 7:46
HR Avg/Max: 154/172
notes:

The sky is cloudy and the temp is an unseasonable 65 degrees... I started this run with the intention of running brisk but easy and that's what I did... and after two miles I looked down at my watch and realized I was hitting 7:50 pace. I continued on at this pace through mile three. Mile 4 was a tough one because it was totally up hill and part of the uphill was a particularly steep quarter-mile accent. Subsequently I slowed down to 8:20 pace. For mile 5 and 6 I decided I was really going to push it and I knocked mile 5 off in 7:40. For mile 6 I really legged it out and hit it at 7:07.

I feel pretty good about the run. Higdon said to run it between 65-75% of max HR (closer to 75%) and I wound up more like 80-90% range but this is supposed to be a tough week and it feels good to go hard sometimes (i was beginning to think that the slow runs were making me soft). I figure I'll probably ramp down a little week 5 in preparation for the half marathon so might as well hit it hard now!

Day 23

Time to go out and do 3 miles, but first a little week 4 motivation!

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Distance: 3.43 miles
Duration: 26:39
Pace: 7:46
HR Avg/Max: 149/166
notes:

Was feeling good and haven't ran hard for a while so I pushed the pace on this a little. I feel like all the long slow distance is slowing me down a little bit because it's like my body is not prepared to go any faster. I might try to get to the track for some mile repeats tomorrow just to get a little bit of faster pace work in without pushing up the intensity too much.

Day 22

Cross-training day.  Got out an biked for about 10 miles on some hills.  Ready to pick it up and start training hard again as the milage ramps up on week 4 and 5.

Day 21

Long easy run today!  Well, actually only 6 miles but I'm still looking forward to it.  I'm in Bloomington, In visiting a friend so I'll get to see a little bit of IU while I'm running which should be nice.  Also, the weather is amazing right now!

Distance: 6.0 miles

Duration: 55:17

Pace: 9:13

HR: NA

notes:

Wonderful day for a run.  The first couple miles didn't feel great after taking two days off but the last by the last two miles I finally got in the groove and I felt amazing.

Day 20

I'm supposed to run 5 miles at marathon pace today but I think I'm going to take another day off instead.  My legs are still feeling pretty tired and having yesterday off definitely helped but I think that one more day of rest for my shin could be very beneficial.  

Day 19

Day of rest.

Day 18

3 miles today nice and easy... my legs are starting to feel pretty dead and I have some mild shin pain on my right leg.  I have been icing religiously hoping to keep it under control.

Distance: 3.29 miles

Duration: 30:01 

Pace: 9:01 

HR Avg/Max: 136/158

notes:

took this one really easy... did a loop that happened to be a little longer than 3 which should make up for yesterdays slightly shortened run.