It's all relative

AM: 20 miles, 15 of them with John.  7:35/mile average.  Felt super easy.  Really wish this flu would go away, but I know it hit me hard, so the effects will be here another week or two if I decide to keep running/exercising so much.  Stinks.

AM: 7.5 miles easy.  Nice recovery run.

AM: 11.1 miles total, 4.1 were fast.  3x1600, then 1x1200, and 3x200.  Splits were in the 5:08-5:16 range for the miles and 1200 (pace), then at strider effort for the 200s.

PM: 10 miles total, 3 of them fast.  Workout was 12x400 with descending rest starting at 90 seconds and pausing for three intervals at 60 seconds before descending down to 10 seconds rest between the final two intervals.

Splits- 1:17, 1:15, 1:15, 1:15, 1:14, 1:15, 1:13, 1:13, 1:13, 1:13, 1:13, 1:13.  

AM: 10 miles

PM: 5 miles

AM: 5.2 miles with a partner workout at the gym.  2 fast miles within it to help the team.

PM: 6.5 miles.  Gobble gobble.

AM: 7.1 miles

AM: Ran the parkrun again- was relatively cool for the first time this year, and was the coolest race since.... Boston marathon?  64 degrees, cloudy, humid..  I was expecting to run a 16:30 and clambered in at 16:19, besting my last course record by 35 seconds.  I say clambered, because this course is just so challenging.  

Good news- I definitely think 15:59 will happen here, it will happen soon, and I think I'm the one to do it first, but I'll have to hurry.  The British are starting to show up, and it's only a matter of time a college XC/track runner decides to holiday in the area.  I am in 15:30 shape currently, so I think if I just keep doing what I'm doing, I can take a real hack at it on the 21st of December.  I think I might keep running the course the next two weekends, but only as a workout basis.

Bad news- I didn't give a full effort today.  I did convince myself that I was, but the heart rate tells a different story.  In hindsight, I could tell a handful of times I mindlessly accepted my brain lying to me about my effort.  A minute after I finished, I was ready to race the route again.  

How I can improve on this course- Really, it comes down to the three turnarounds and the 90 degree turns- I just have no tenacity when it comes to building back up to pace and still am sloppy about it when I do work my way back up there.  I also can make up time with a smoother/more efficient start (I should run striders more formally prior to the 5k to fix this), and lastly I should immediately start flooring it at the final turnaround at the lookout tower.  Also worth noting, I should be coming into that last section at or below 12:29 if I am to have a chance.

This course is straight-up home-field advantage, which I'm loving.  I really don't see someone killing this course without running it once at minimum.  The gps is pretty much worthless. 

This is turning into one of my favorite mini-goals I've ever had.