| 6/12 | 15 miles | 8:12 pace |
| 6/13 | Rest Day | |
| 6/14 #1 | 7 miles | 8:22 pace |
#2 | 6 miles | 3.5 mi. race @ 6:12 pace |
| 6/15 #1 | 4 miles | 7:52 pace |
#2 | 8 miles | 8:21 pace |
| 6/16 | 7 miles | 8:27 pace |
| 6/17 | 15 miles | 8:05 pace, muggy |
| 6/18 | 7 miles | 8:22 pace, very hot |
I'm actually quite pleased with this week's effort. The hardest bit at this point is thinking about doing it 17 more times. Granted, there are a few easy weeks in there to keep me sane and healthy, but there are also some undeniably intimidating long runs at marathon pace.
Speaking of pace, I dropped my average mile time by about :30 this week. Part of that might be coming off of a week of running at altitude and part of that is a conscious decision to up the intensity a bit. Either way, it hasn't felt like a huge increase in effort, so I'll stick with this pace for a few weeks before dropping to my goal pace of 7:52 (or one minute over 3-hour marathon pace) for my normal, every day mileage.
It really is saying something that I'm comfortable running not too much over 8 minute pace though, since this is the week that summer really came to New York. The past few days have been hot and muggy and I haven't put any effort into running at cooler hours. My Saturday 15-miler was actually begun just after noon. My next goal race is another half, just about three weeks away, so I figure that I might as well do what I can to acclimate. Odds are it will be a hot and sweaty 13 miles, but since temperature is a decidedly democratic factor, all I can do is prepare for it just as well as anyone else might.