weekly wrap up: 2/16/15 – 2/22/15

Just the weekly wrap up...nothing more to see here. Little late this week but oh well.**Monday** - 8.17 easy pace; 7:19 avg pace. Achilles tendon still a little tender but I can tell it's on the mend. Ran in the Nike Free's to support the heel a little more.**Tuesday** - 8.3 easy to moderate effort; 7:14 avg pace. Couldn't quite settle into an easy pace, wound up running a bit faster towards the end but nothing special. Slightly feeling the Achilles issue but nearly gone.**Wednesday** - AM - 8.32 recovery pace; 8:24 avg pace. Early morning miles with David, Heather, and Laura. No Achilles issues so I mentally decide on a workout for tomorrow.**Thursday** - AM - 7.55 tempo run; 1 mi fast warm up @ 7:00 pace, 5 mil tempo @ 6:14 avg pace. Splits: 6:29, 6:16, 6:13, 6:06, 6:06. 1.55 mi cool down @ 7:10 pace. This was a huge confidence builder for me. To run under 85 minutes (1:24:59) in the 1/2 marathon I need a 6:29 pace. This run tells me I'm likely in shape to run that pace and the fact that the Heavenly Half marathon is all downhill it's a very good indication that I should hit my goal. Just gotta stay healthy to the start line. PM - 3.8 tempo effort; 7:09 avg pace. Did the Sole2Soul adventure run with David. He definitely gave me a run for my money, I was hurting out there. Sheesh.**Friday** - AM - 8.44 moderate effort w/fast finish; 7:07 avg pace. All the hard running yesterday made my legs feel completely fucking worthless today. Every now and again when I know the volume (or intensity) has been piling up I get the "jimmy legs" ($1 to Seinfeld) as in, I can feel my legs wobble and buckle a little bit while running. They just don't want to work and today was definitely that. Still, on my fucked legs I managed to squeeze out a marathon pace mile at the end.**Saturday** - 9.01 - 6 miles easy last 3 @ marathon pace. 7:03 avg pace. Splits for the final miles: 6:44, 6:41, 6:11. Complete 180 from yesterday. I got a good nights sleep and so this run felt fantastic. Easy pace stayed very nice and controlled and then the 3 mile tempo effort towards the end was SUPER easy to hold and I even let loose on the last mile for fun. Love runs like this.**Sunday** - 13.33 long run. Moderate effort with last 3 progressive; 7:08 avg pace. Splits for the final miles: 6:58, 6:38, 6:27. Did this long run with only coffee before hand as this was designed as a depletion run, ie. to deplete all glycogen/fuel. I ran at a harder effort than easy pace but not quite as hard as marathon pace. The last 3 progressed down to 1/2 marathon pace but just barely. I was definitely out of fuel for the end of this run cause the "jimmy legs" started to come back. I wanted to go under 6:25 pace for the final mile but when I dug down I had nothing left. Spent the next couple hours exhausted and eating. This was a very good cap to a hard week.**Total** - 66.92Skipping the long run last Sunday was definitely a good idea as the Achilles issue worked itself out by Tuesday. Thursday was the 10 day out mark meaning it was the last day to get any kind of workout in so having the 6:14 avg pace on that gave me a huge confidence boost. I keep telling myself that I'm pretty much guaranteed a PR since even my high end aerobic pace is right around my old PR pace. Having this race being downhill means hitting that or going under won't be a big stress other than the aftermath with all the quad muscle damage. I also have been going back and forth on whether I'll really surprise myself; will I hit my goal or will I obliterate it on the fast course? Only a week left until I find out.