1300, 11, & 20

I am a few days behind. Friday was a DNR. I got out of work around later than normal at 5:45 and Heather had dinner cooking when I got home. That was just enough to put my mind, which was close to to taking a day off, over the top.

Saturday morning I had to skip the normal long run to take the GREs. I'll say that I was very nervous going into the test and my confidence was not riding to high, especially when it came to the math section. Things seems to just get worse as I worked through the test and a horrible feeling of dread was building with each question. I debated not even reporting my scores when I finished the test, I'd come back and try another day. Thank God I decided to report. I clicked the report button and nearly fell out of my chair when I saw a 700 out of 800 in analytical and a 600 out of 800 in verbal. For a total of 1300. It was about the best score I thought I would be capable of, and that was if the planets aligned and God happened to be a great mood that morning. Needless to say I was happy.

Got home ate a late lunch and headed out for 20 miles. This 20 was doomed from the start. I had eaten a big plate of Pad Thai Chicken only 75 minutes before starting, my Ipod was nearly out of battery and wasn't going to make it through the run, and the thought of finishing 20 miles in the dark at 6:30 pm just didn't feel right. I bailed early on the route, opting for 11 miles in 81 minutes. I was happy with the decision when I finished.

I had a relaxing Sunday morning and got out the door at 10:30 for my run. Followed the same route as Saturday which was a basically huge tour of East and West Fairmount Park starting with the Bloody Nipple and ending with Lemon Hill with St Georges and Belmont Mansion in between. Got down to Kelly, bought a gatorade from Chief and headed down the path extension to the turn around. I passed Alex going the other direction. He was also in iPod land, we stopped briefly to chat and kept going. Once I got back to boat house row I picked up the pace and mile 17 into the wind 6:46, mile 18 with the wind at my back 6:26, mile 19 which was half with and half against the wind 6:26. I was totally spent and took it very easy for the last mile. 20 in 2:26.

Easily the fastest 20 I have done in training. I was happy to hit those splits at the end of this run. My calves were burning horribly 5 minutes after finishing. That's a feeling I haven't had in a while. This puts me at 70 for the week and 150 miles in the last 2 weeks. I have earned a good taper for the week leading up to Caesar Rodney.