Feeling Fit :)

I've been grinding out the miles lately. In the month of June I ran 38 times for 196.7 miles (5.176 mpr). It was my best month of training since March and I'm definitely feeling the benefits from the consistency. In early June a 5 to 6 mile run was a tough run, but that run is now pretty standard and I'm getting back to the point where I'm not going to step out of the door unless I plan on running at least 4 miles. My regular long runs have been 8-10 miles and I'll probably start increasing that distance to 12-14 miles by the end of the summer. I ran 8.25-miles tonight and felt great. If I can continue with this training through July 18 I'll start working in a quality workout once a week. I'm looking forward to it, just need to keep grinding out the miles.

Long Run

I ran 10-miles last night with Molly and Victoria around town. I enjoy running with the girls from time to time. It spices things up a bit and they always make me smile when I hear the topics they discuss and their opinions on various subjects. I will say that what their conversations are completely different from what the guys talk about. It reminds me that men are indeed from Mars and women are from Venus.

The run went well and considering it was still about 90 degrees when we started (we started running at 9pm) we ran pretty quick. We started pushing the pace the last mile or so and it felt good to run hard for an extended period of time. I haven't done that in a while. Another positive is that Molly and Victoria appear to be in pretty good shape. Hopefully they can continue to build on their current fitness. If they do they are going to set themselves up for a good cross country season.

Routine

I feel like the routine of running is back. I've run 40-45 miles each of the past two weeks and a 5-6 mile run is not as challenging as it was a few weeks ago. I'm still struggling to keep a respectable pace, but I think that has more to do with the weather than it does with my fitness because I feel strong and effecient.

I ran 7.5 miles last night with Molly while Matt rode the bike. It was a good run, but we ended up averaging around 9min/mile, which is too slow for me to do too often. I think I'm going to do my first real workout sometime this week, probably Thursday or Friday and it will probably be something threshold oriented.

Feeling Good

My training has been going fairly well the past several weeks. I finally feel like I'm back to the routine of being a runner and I've noticed that I've been feeling stronger and more efficient on most of my runs. On Saturday I ran 7.8-miles, which was my longest run since April 15, and last night I put my shoes on with the intention of running 3-miles, but just before I started I decided to go ahead and do 4-miles. About 2.5-miles into it I decided to go a head and make it a 6.5-mile run. I been feeling strong an efficient again, however, my average pace is significantly slower than it was just a few weeks ago. I've been averaging about 8:20 to 8:35 per mile. My only justification for this is the fact that it has been significantly hotter and more humid than it was just a few weeks ago. Sunday morning I went for a run and the humidity was at about 98%. I don't handle the heat and humidity well, so I'm going to try to do most of my morning runs indoors at the HKC and the bulk of my running in the evening on the roads. This is about the best way I can figure to deal with the weather.