Is it really August already???

Lukas Verzbicas (GREAT READ!), Meb competing in 2016 Olympics?, NYC Marathon Hall of Fame and their new inductees, new marathon trial standards for the marathon, and a stacked Great North Run.

Tuesday, July 30th - 7 miles.  4 miles in the afternoon around Creve Couer Lake during lunch, and felt very sluggish.  Legs are pretty beat up.  Ran high 8 min pace, and was glad to be over with.  At night, ran with Megan to do her track workout.  She is running a 5K this weekend, so did an abbreviated workout as a rust buster.  1/2 mile up, 1 mile at race pace, 4 x 200 a little faster than race pace, then 1/2 mile down.  We targeted ~8:30 mile, and she hit 8:17 (2:05, 2:05, 2:05, 2:02) and showed great consistency on her pacing which is a huge weakness for her typically.  200's were in 53, 54, 54, 48, so blazed through those (sub 60 was goal).  Good workout and feeling optimistic about a PR for her.  I, on the otherhand, felt like garbage but made it through ok.  Breakfast: breakfast casserole and banana.  Lunch: grilled chicken sandwich with avocado and a few sweet potato fries.  Dinner: Cleveland Heath Chop Salad with chicken.

Wednesday, July 31st - 10 miles.  Waited till evening to do my prescribed workout (6 x 1 mile at 6:10-6:20 pace, 1 minute rest).  Humid but decent weather conditions, and ran out to the trail and did a 2 mile warmup.  Did first 4 repeats on the trail towards Troy before it got too dark, then switched over to Village Circle.  Went out pretty hard on the first rep, and tried to get locked in to pace.  Was definitely getting tired after the third mile, and started to struggle towards the end.  The minute rest was flying by, and quite honestly it sucked.  Bugs were everywhere, and was constantly brushing off my chest.  My Village Circle reps felt better, and was pushing hard on the uphills.  Last rep was mentally great - split 3:08 at the halfway point (wanted to go harder on this rep) and was really tired, but powered through and felt strong on the last quarter to hit my fastest split of the night.  Wanted to quit, but worked hard and hit my goal.  It was my only mile split where I negative split.  Slow cooldown to finish it out, then soaked in the shower and stretched for a loooong time afterwards.  Busted out some recovery socks and slept in them - legs are D-E-A-D!  Splits were: 6:11, 6:20, 6:19, 6:20, 6:14, 6:11.  The effort felt much harder than it should have, but it's been awhile since I've done a workout like this so hopefully more a rust-buster than anything.  Breakfast: banana and apple.  Lunch: fish sandwich and banana.  Dinner: taco pie (relatively healthy, at least has a lot of healthy components).  204 miles in July, 1376 miles in 2013.  Solid month!

Thursday, August 1st - 6 miles.  Early run with Crystal.  Did Old Faithful out and back.  Legs were pretty tore up, and we went pretty slow but it went by very quickly.  Nice cool morning made it easier too (temps were 63).  35:32 for our 4 miles, then did 2 more at home in 17-18 minutes.

Fartlek tomorrow, and lots of mileage over the weekend.  Vegas next week for a guy's trip, so trying to get in some hard work while I can!