This week has been pretty solid.    My hill workout on Tuesday was a little disappointing.....my legs were tired and heavy.......but I found my strong and got it done.  (Just a warning.....I am a little obsessed with Saucony's new ad campaign and will probably be using the slogan an obnoxious number of times in my posts.)   I told my partner Brittany that sometimes Finding Your Stong just means finishing the workout and that was definitely the case.   So, while I didn't run up the 6th avenue hill as fast as I would have liked, I ran up it the 6 times my workout called for and that is all that really matters.   The other thing that really matters is Susannah got to go see the petting zoo goats after our run.   And oh, how she loves them!

  

The day before the hill workout, I did a 6.5 mile run with 5 at race pace.   Felt pretty satisfied with this effort.    Here are splits for that one:
9:35
8:51
8:31
8:14
8:24
8:18

Then Wednesday came the first 20 miler.  I was mentally prepared because the weather report said 100% chance of rain and predicted the rain to be "heavy and steady" for the hours I was planning to run.   So I was ready......dreading it, but ready.   Waterproof jacket.....check.    Hat.....check.   ziplock bag for phone.....check    A determination to run 20 miles even if it meant pneumonia......check.  
After all my meticulous planning and prayers for strength and will power though, God decided to give me a break.   So even though the weather forecast on my phone was still reading a "100% chance" of rain, I enjoyed 20 miles of sunshine with only one 5 minute shower that came at the perfect time and provided the perfect amount of refreshment I needed at mile 11.   Thank you Lord!!

The surprisingly good weather must have been symbolic of the entire run, too.   Despite my fears of heavy legs after running hard Monday and Tuesday, I was pleasantly surprised with my performance.   I averaged a 9:35 for the first 15 miles.   I felt good but wanted to stay conservative because I knew that this week was a 3:1 workout so I was supposed to run the last 5 miles at race pace.   And while my training plan author, Hal Higdon, would definitely frown on it, I decided to go pretty much all out for the last 5 miles so I could do a little mental training in preparation for the pain of race day.   It was tough, but I gave it my all and this was the result:
Mile 16  8:34
Mile 17 8:25
Mile 18  8:09
Mile 19  8:05
Mile 20 7:50
I think I Found My Strong on this run.   ;)

I took Thursday off to rest my legs and then did a 6 mile easy run yesterday.   Felt pretty heavy but averaged a 9:15 pace which felt slow and easy.

Today I was supposed to run 10 easy miles, but we are having a serious wind storm and the jogging stroller creates quite the resistance, so I ended up only doing 8.   My hamstrings are a little whiny with me so I decided cutting it short was the wise choice.   I averaged a 10:05 but that was with the crazy, crazy wind and several stops to give Susannah snacks.   I don't think she liked the wind either so she was whining along with my hamstrings.

Taking tomorrow off and then hitting it hard on Monday with 7 x 800 repeats.   Happy Running everybody!