awesome run

...weather wise. beautiful little evening run in the upper 70s, light breeze, and low humidity. all day i thought i was going to regret not dragging myself out of bed at 5am when it was in the low 60s, but it turned out to be a very nice post-work run.

due to tomorrow's 2-mile race, i opted for an easy 6-mile run today instead of my usual 800s. i had another 2.5 miles of repeats on the schedule, and i figure an all-out 2-mile race is an equal substitute.

tonight's run took me over three creeks, gave my legs a break on soft grass, and when the cars wouldn't move over, made me run in waist-high grass weeds. i also ran past a cow farm and mooed at the cows, but they weren't polite enough to moo back.

i remembered to hit my splits at (roughly) each mile today, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. although in my own defense, it's hard to read my nike+ at 5am when there is no light source since the designers were dipsticks and didn't think to put a little green light like every other running watch/computer has... anyway i really remembered at about each 1.1-1.2 miles by i figured at least i was being fairly consistent. it was still hard to keep my hr in the lower-150s but i felt comfortable the whole time, and i noticed myself taking fewer, deeper breaths more naturally throughout the run.

the breakdown:
[miles - pace, avg hr]
mile 1ish - 9:00, 143
mile 2ish - 8:53, 151
mile 3ish - 9:40, 157 *this mile was pretty much all uphill
mile 4ish - 8:58, 157
mile 5ish - 8:27, 160
mile 6ish - 9:10, 159

i did pretty good for the first 4 miles, and i don't really know what to say about the last 2. i didn't feel like i was pushing it any harder, but maybe i was tired from all the hills. or, i'm just still out of shape. i'm willing to bet it's that.

in goofy-training news, i am 130miles into my 917mile+/- training plan! now if i can just keep it up for 16 more weeks...

pm run:
6.21miles, 55:16 (8:53 mile)