Last Week's Struggles

Days since last run less than 80°F: 12 (July 4th)
Days since last run less than 70°F: 80 (April 27th)

37¾ miles for the week
M – 0 miles, slept in, 86°F at 4AM
Tu – 5¾ miles, average pace 6:57 mpm (The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:00 going out and coming back into a pretty strong Gulf breeze was 13:39), 86°F at 4AM [S-B/Dow]
W – 5½ miles, with 5x800/200 then 400 recoveries, average pace 7:20 mpm, 800s in 2:56, 2:55, 2:59 (went to 400 recoveries), 2:53, and 2:53, 88°F at 7PM and sunny [B’Wood Track]
Th – 0 miles, 84°F at 4AM
F - 8 miles, average pace 7:27 mpm, 87°F at 5PM, filtered sun with some high thin clouds and a fairly strong SSW breeze making the going out portions cool and the coming back portions hot but fast, low tide with a pretty good sand surface [Surfside 8½-11-8½-10-8½]
Sa – 7½, average pace 8:56 mpm, mostly cloudy 89°F at 3PM but it felt cooler later in the run, the mountain bike trail was in good shape but had way too many spiders, this might be my last run on this trail until the spiders go away [SeaC/NTrail-MBT/SeaC]
Su – 11, average pace 7:34 mpm, started out with a few sprinkles, but it was starting to clear by the end of the run, 82°F at 2PM [SeaC/NTrail-2x2M/SeaC]

I was able to get some pretty strong runs in this week, even though my mileage was down a little. I was really happy with 13flat for the first half of Tuesday’s tempo run, but was disappointed with the second half. Even though it was pretty warm, the extra cooling from running back into the wind didn’t nearly compensate for the extra effort. Despite the big slowdown on the return half, the Dow- total was almost half a minute faster than the old July best.
I felt pretty strong during Friday’s run. Even though running with the wind was way too hot, it felt good to run in the low 7s. I would have liked to have run a little farther on Sunday, but I was pretty happy with 11 miles at that pace, especially after feeling a little “off” the first several miles. Overall, it was a decent week despite having to cut short Wednesday’s 800s and missing Monday and Thursday.

I skipped the Lunar Rendezvous 5K on Saturday. After missing Thursday's run and running hard late on Friday, I couldn't get motivated enough to wake up early and make the drive to Clear Lake. I haven't run a Houston-area race for a few months now.