On the seventh day, I rested

I think if God could take a rest day, I can too, right? (On my training schedules, Sunday is always day seven.) So, after two quality medium-long runs (one of which could probably be called "long"), today I gave my legs a break from running and even from cross-training. I think they needed it; with the weekend runs plus my speed work from Wednesday, my legs have been feeling rather tired and achy. I hope this will leave me fresh for the new week tomorrow.

Friday - pace run. 9.5 miles with 7.5 at ??? pace. The ??? is because my actual pace was a little better than marathon pace but not fast enough for half marathon pace. I had planned to do a few miles at around 9:00 and then push toward 8:30. But circumstances conspired to keep me around 9:00 until the final 1.5 miles. I had to stop twice to take work calls. The second one was so long that I completely cooled off and my legs stiffened up. It was an effort just to revive my 9:00 pace, let alone pick it up. But my final full mile was around 8:38 and the last half mile (.57 actually) was sub-8:00 pace (7:59 to be exact). So I felt it was a success anyway.

Saturday - long run. Planned distance -14 miles. Actual distance - 15 miles. Running time 2:27:09, average pace 9:49. Yesterday was our nicest, warmest day this year and I headed out in a sleeveless top and shorts at 9 a.m. My legs felt pretty tired and heavy, so with that plus the unaccustomed warmth, I wasn't sure I could maintain a sub-10 "easy" pace.

My first two miles were warm-up pace at 10:32 and 10:17. Mile 3 was downhill so I picked up the pace (9:31) and passed the 5K distance at 31:03 (10:01 pace). Now I just had to maintain a 10-minute pace for the remainder.

My route had some decent hills, ups but also downs, and I was ticking off some decent miles pretty easily. (Well, as easy as running ever is.)

The splits are a little off because my watch shut off during a bathroom stop so I have a couple partial miles in there.

Mile 4 - 9:30
Mile 5 - 9:55
Mile 6 - 10:01(long hill)
Mile 7 - 9:54
Mile 8 - 9:52
Mile 9 - 10:03 (short, steep hill, but it's the last hill!)
Mile 10 - 9:48
Mile 11 - 9:32
Mile 12 - .2 at 9:34 pace
Mile 13 - 9:36
Mile 14 - 9:41
Mile 15 - 9:30
Mile 16 - .8 at 9:26 pace

I am pleased with the negative splits, but I recognize that it's partially due to the road terrain.

Later in the day we had a combination birthday party for Rod and my niece Eva, who will be two this week.

Here's Rod and me in our party hats enjoying dessert (with lighting problems due to the sunshine, even though it's almost 8 p.m.).





I gave Eva twin baby dolls for her birthday...my sister is having twins in a month or so! Even though this is not the greatest photo, you can see Eva with her babies.





That crazy Bo Peep outfit she is wearing was a gift from my mom...usually she has better taste.

Today I spent many hours in a chair in the sun, reading blogs and books on my iPad and sipping iced coffee. I spent a lot of time trying to get a decent self portrait with the iPad camera and I have not really succeeded yet! I always seem to come out looking distressed....




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