The new normal?

Getting the miles in. Did 5 on Monday at 8:02 pace (opps, a bit fast for recovery), 8 miles yesterday morning with strides at a 7:57 pace. I was going to do a 10 miler with 5 at LT but realized that i'm paying money to race a 10 miler race this Sunday. And LT speed is supposed to be your 15K to half marathon pace. Anyways, that got me thinking that i'll do the entire race at LT and get some benefits out of that.

Today, did my 14 miler on an out-and-back course. The wind was pushing me on the way out so the way back was tough. But amazingly, I was able to keep my pace up and even stepped it up. I did the first few miles in 7:54 pace but by the midway point, I was reeling off 7:45s and near the end, the 7:39s. Finished 14 miles in 1:48:14 with average pace of 7:43, not a whole lot slower than 3:20 marathon pace. I definitely pushed it as I was fighting against the wind, but my average heart rate was about 159 bpm.

I know my increased training and my loftier goals means that I gotta run faster. Even my everyday runs need to be a bit faster than my normal runs this past spring, or even for the past few marathon training cycles. It's feeling good so far. We'll see, though, as I'm due to go out for my 11 miler in 8 hours!