8 weeks out

Starting to feel pretty strong. True test this weekend at the Tom King half marathon. We did a 5 mile tempo run this morning. Planned pace was 6:45-6:50. First mile came in at 6:38, then 6:40 and then a couple of 6:44's. We started the same time as the fast guys, but were only able to see them through the first mile and a half, maybe. S. really helped to keep me going on mile 3 when I seem to always want to relax to much. Somehow, I took a turn to early back into the subdivision on the final mile, and we kept hitting dead ends, which killed our pace. I stopped a 3rd of mile into mile 5. Even forgot to hit the lap or stop button on the Garmin.

Sunday's long run went really well. S. pulled me through the first 11 miles and then I finished up the final 10.5 miles on my own. Wind finally got to me on the last 4 miles home. I wanted to push in at marathon pace, but could only muster around a 8:00 pace. I even ended up walking home the final quarter mile, when the Garmin hit 21.5 miles. The wind just wore me out. Plenty of energy throughout the run. Took a powergel at 8, 14 and 16 miles and Succeed caps at one hour and then every 45 minutes.

Yesterday's picture is a reference to the 5.56 sticker I saw on the back of a pickup truck. I couldn't figure out what it meant, maybe a real short tri? Ends up that's the standard size of the Nato round used by the military. The M16 used that round, so I knew it sounded familiar, but didn't realize what it was until I googled it. Read a great blog post regarding a 5k marathon and a reference to the 26.2 sticker. I use to have one on the back of my car, but it finally peeled off. It's been replaced by the flying monkey sticker.