Training Aug 10 - 16

Monday - AM 10 PM 4
Tuesday - AM 10 PM 4

I am doing my recovery runs as slow as I need to in order to be ready for the week's key workouts. I am also going out of my way to run on grass, and seem to be carving a trail through the field in West Potomac Park behind the FDR memorial. In the afternoons, I train on the treadmill at the gym, which is boring, yes, but isn't training inside an ice box more conducive to not feeling like hell all the time?

Wednesday
AM - 3
PM - two sets of 1600, 1200, 800; 400 jog between everything. Hung in with the group as long as I could. Legs were tight. Fell off slightly in the second half, but not much. 4:54, 3:38, 2:22; 4:58, 3:40, 2:25 - 11

Thursday - AM 10 PM 5
Friday - AM 14
Saturday - AM 9
Sunday - This is becoming a staple workout for us each training cycle. We meet at Angler's Inn on the C&O Towpath, pile into cars and head up to Riley's Lock. We warm up two miles and then begin 4 sets of 2 miles hard, 1 mile easy at Mile 23. It was boiling. Dirk and Karl were setting the pace, and the rest of us did our best to keep up. Usually, one aims for half marathon pace, but when its this hot, even half marathon pace feels all out. The first was smooth: 10:44. For the second, I really dug in, continuing the trend of not thinking, and I was surprised to see we only hit 10:27, because it felt like 10:00. The third was 10:44 -- went out hard and bit it. Last was over 11; I was too bleary-eyed to say for sure. 11:05? I didn't quite have the power in the second mile of each of the last reps, but I was still pleased with the workout. We added on whatever to get 17.

Total - 96 (Didn't need to slog out 13 on Saturday; I knew what was coming on Sunday.)