An accidental Half Marathon
Miles: 16Total Miles for Week: 57I had no running partners this week. Kathryn was running a 5k with her YMCA kids that she coaches, Carin was volunteering at a half marathon that her sister was running with, and Cherise was running Saturday. I was planning on running Sunday with Jenny, but got an e-mail Saturday that she wouldn't be able to run. Usually I am fine running by myself on the bike trail, but I just didn't quite feel like running all 16 miles alone. I started thinking that maybe I would go run the half marathon where Carin was volunteering, the Blue Moon Half Marathon. It was close by, and not too large, so I would be able to do race day registration. Also

Sleepy Sammy
Miles: 8.5Average Pace: 9:20Thanks everyone for the nice comments you left about my BQ goal. It is always scary to have such a daunting goal, and scarier for everyone else to know about it too! I appreciate your support!This morning I met Carin to run in the hilly neighborhood. We hadn't been in a while, not for any reason, I guess no one really coordinated it. The weather was GREAT again! Hooray, Florida finally has our nice outdoor weather. Carin and I ran the usual route, 1.5 miles flat warm-up (to get to the neighborhood), 3 miles hills, 1.5 mile flat back to our cars. After that I added on the extra mileage needed for the day.

Yasso 800's
Miles: 10.5My smart coach plan does not have yasso 800's on it, today was supposed to be a tempo run, 7 miles @ 8:17 pace. I figured since Saturday's race was 13 miles @ 8:15, it would not be a big deal to substitute that tempo run out. I have always been intrigued by yasso 800's. The workout is to run 8 - 10 800meter repeats at the minutes and seconds of your goal marathon time, and take an equal amount of time for a recovery jog between each one. Not only is it a great workout, but is also supposed to be a good predictor of that potential marathon time. For today, my goal for the repeats was 3 minutes, 45 seconds, or at a pace of 7:

Out of the Neighborhood
Miles: 11Average pace: 8:42Another weekday 11 miler. Phew! Mark wasn't running this morning, so I was on my own. Instead of staying all in the neighborhood today, I ran up to the Starkey Blvd. bike path. I don't usually like to run that way because I have to run on a sidewalk on a busy highway for about a mile or so to get to the bike path. It wasn't too bad this morning, though, because it was starting to get light out when I left and the traffic hadn't picked up yet. Once I got to the bike trail, it's a pretty nice route, a straight out and back.On the way back, my speed got a little faster without feeling like I was trying hard to go fast. This is prob

Happy Birthday to Andy!
Miles: 11Average Pace: 8:54Today is my oldest son's 11th birthday! (He's the one in the "captain" shirt with the root beer.)This morning I ran with Mark in the neighborhood. He's been feeling a little sore in one leg since Saturday, so for once, I was actually running more t