8 Miles

I missed my long run yesterday and Andy and I ran it today instead since we both had the day off. It's been an amazing week - clear, sunny, and mostly in the high 50s-low 60s during the day. Today we added another mile to make it 8. I iced the shin and took an Advil before we set out, then iced again when we got back. Not sure if it was necessary, but it's continued to bother me a bit, and I was concerned about the longer distance. No problem during the run though, and I felt much better than I did on the 7 miles last Sunday. In fact, I still had a little gas in the tank at the end, despite running at a faster pace today. We completed the run in 1:27:52 for an average of about a 10:58 pace. I still haven't managed to calibrate the Nike +, but it seemed a little more accurate with the miles today and I think the pace is pretty right on.

The run was definitely a confidence booster for the 10k this weekend - I'm setting an ambitious time goal of 1:03:30, a 10:15 mile, which is last weeks 5 mile tempo run speed, but only a little slower than my 5k time. According to my schedule, I should also start adding a short recovery run on Fridays, but I think I may stick to my current schedule this week to give myself two days rest before the race.

I'm already thinking beyond the 12k in March about a training plan for the Marathon in July. I'll be up around 20 miles per week by then, and I'd like to be running 35 a week consistently by late June. Other than that, I'd just like to finish in under about 4.5 hours and feel good enough afterwards that I'm ready to train for the next one.