Recap for...most of July?

Just when you thought I'd never blog again! Here I am!

Mileage Recaps:
Week of June 29 - 42mi
Week of July 6 - 19mi (achilles trouble so took a few days off. Lotsa biking)
Week of July 13 - 42mi
Week of July 20 - 45mi

Week of July 27
Mon: 8
Tues: 6 + Gym
Wed: 4 (meltdown so cancelled workout and slogged through a panic stricken 4 mi before packing it in back to the office)
Thurs: PT (2.5 hours of sleep due to late night at office so decided to take the day off)
Fri: 8

So things are going rather well. I've been chilling in the 40-50 miles per week range for awhile now. little problems here and there like sore shins, an achilles strain, and a little fatigue from the first time running real mileage in 2.5 years but overall things are going well. I haven't done any speed workouts since the race on the 4th, mostly because I lost a week due to the achilles strain, then wanted to do a week of just running before I hit up some speedier stuff again, just to be safe. Then i honestly just got too comfortable with just hitting up the roads and after this week which was supposed to be my first week back to workouts got screwed over by a couple of ridiculous work days...I just have slacked. So tomorrow is an 8 mile tempo (ha!) which I'm just doing in a race for "fun." I've never done a tempo taht long before so I'm really not sure what pace I can run it in, but will probably start out slow then just try and knock down the pace from there.

Had a great run this morning. One of those days where you just get in the zone. I felt smooth and just so alive out there. Wasn't necessarily running all that fast but just felt so happy to be running. It's days like these that I craved when i was injured. Just the freedom to hit the pavement and zone out, sweat, breath, and tire. Running is the only way I know how to meditate.

Oh, I'm gonna start blogging more reguarly now. In case anyone cares.

St. Patty's Day 10K

Saturday - 10K Road Race (6.2mi)
Splits: 7:15, 7:00; 6:56; 6:51; 6:48; 6:41
Time: 42:46

So I decided to jump in a 10K this weekend despite the race being about a mile longer than anything I've run since Dirt Dog in November. I had a really good reason though. There was pizza and beer at the end. How can you pass that up?

So luckily for me my friend Andrew is training for a marathon right now and agreed to run with me during the race. The original plan was just to run our normal running pace and just kinda do the 10K as a fun run. Considering I couldn't warm up OR cool down cause the mileage would be asking a little too much of my body right now, AND considering I haven't run longer than about 4 and a half miles at this point, i figured just making it through the race would be an accomplishment. But we took off at a decent clip and were both feelin' pretty good. Andrew was great to run with and I just kinda held on as he cut down the pace to finish it up in about 6:40. I was really happy to be able to run that pace and feel so comfortable. I felt strong the whole time, and the whole experience got me super excited to start doing some workouts and to really rally for a race. I'm also so relieved that the knee felt good the entire time. Am I really going to beat this knee thing? It's almost surreal to think my running life could be normal again after 2 years of chaos. I'm giddy just thinking about it.

Anyhoo, I'm pretty exhausted now after the combination of getting up early, tempo'ing it for the first time in forever, and having a couple of beers + Greasy pizza. But it was totally worth it :)