And the Lucky Number is. . .

. . . 9:30. This seems to be the number of the week. Pick it in the lotto and see what happens. It seems to be speaking to me.

Saturday I got in a long run at the lake. I've actually not been looking forward to running at the lake. There's not a ton of options as to where you can go and it's getting a little boring. And taxing. The damn hills take it out of my legs for days to follow. I wore Tom's garmin this time and averaged a 10:05 pace or so for 11 miles. I'll take it. I'm looking forward to fall for a little variety in the landscape.

Sunday I took off. Monday I had a nice and slow 45 minutes on the hills and thanked my lucky stars for heading home.

Tuesday it was time for a tempo run. The night before I had talked to Tom about the possibility of making this a cut back week. We were considering doing a half marathon near the lake and I was a little concerned the miles were taking a toll. While I haven't had any injuries this time around, lots of people around me seem to have stuff cropping up and it's been on my mind. I decided to plunge ahead and see how I felt.

I hit the track nice and early after a terrible night's sleep. I wanted to do a 5 mile tempo run with an 8:30 pace. Mile one came in at 9:00 and I was really struggling. I finally warmed up but each lap was seriously hard. I was barely making 8:30s so I called it quits after four miles and extended my cool down home. I decided a cut back week would be good.

Wednesday I went out for a slightly longer run. I always make my tempo and long runs but the "longer" run has been hit or miss. I decided I wanted to do 5. I was surprised how good I felt and even more surprised to see a 9:30 pace. This is a bit faster than what I normally do but my breathing wasn't labored and legs had spunk. Huh.

Thursday was a nice and easy 4.5

Today I decided I wanted to get my long run because the rains are a comin. But that meant running in pea soup. It was 80 degrees when I left this morning and muggy as all get out. I didn't have the garmin (Tom had it at work) so I decided I would go for about 8 and just watch my breath and my legs. Besides being incredibly drenched, I felt fine. In fact, the park where I went, saw lots of runners and I enjoyed a lot of conversation which always makes the runs go faster. Lots of happy old people out walking and moms with carriages willing to shout a hello. I love that stuff.

On the way home I was actually passed by the dad of one of Grace's classmates. I shouted hello and we ran for a while. He was sick of the heat and wanted to head home but I wanted a little more and plodded on. When I got home I g-maped the course I had taken. Eight miles in 1:16. A 9:30 pace. How about that?

The numer 9:30 is exciting to me. I feel like since I trained for Broad Street I've sort of plateaued. This training cycle has not been as consistent as Broad Street but nonethless, I feel like I've been still putting in my time. That my pace has dropped about 30 seocnds (for at least this week), is a sign to me that I'm making progress. But I guess that could change next week. We'll see.

But I tell myself not to get preoccupied with "progress." It's this dance between running for fun and running for fitness. I want to keep improving as a runner but not at the expense of enjoying myself. This is tough particularly at this time of year with so many wonderul events coming up. There's a local 5K I'm dying to run in October and I keep visualizing myself smashing my PR. That would be pretty cool. As long as I have fun smashing my PR;)