Week 12 of 18 begins

Yesterday: Did 8 miles with 5x600m VO2Max workout at track. Split times were as follows

02:29.8

02:29.9

02:25.6

02:26.6

02:25.7

The track I use in the morning has a lot of "elderly" people who like to walk around the inside lane, even when it's pitch black outside. It makes trying to do interval workouts tough with the weaving and bobbing. But I guess they have as much a right to use the track as i do, but i find it annoying.

Today: Did 11 miles. Until now my training plan had scheduled either a rest day or a recovery day after any workout that was moderately difficult (ie: tempo or VO2max). Today was the first day I did a semi-long run after doing a hard workout. First couple of miles were tough where I was struggling to maintain even my slow long run pace, but after mile 4 or so, I guess my legs got warmed up and running seemed easier, the so called second wind. If only I could get that without having to struggle for a few miles.

I plan on doing a half marathon race this Saturday. The only reason I want to do a half is really to set a PB since I've set one in the 5k, 10k and full already this year and it looks like I won't have another chance this year after running Chicago. I'm trying to figure out how fast I should run it though. I'm thinking between 7:20 and 7:35 min/miles which I think is doable since I averaged 7:15 during a 7 mile LT run last week. The course website says that the course is only marked every 3km. This might be a bit problematic for me since I'm pretty much a stat junkie that is a slave to split times. I may have to run with my Polar foot pod which to give me pacing feedback which I've never done in a race before.

BTW, today is my birthday!!! I turned the ripe old age of 32. Only three more years and my BQ time drops by 5 minutes. Woohoo! Something to look forward to!