and the magic number is . . . . . . . 8!!!!!!!

That's right, another 8 miles in today. I felt pretty good though. Once again I was on the bike path, but I brought the music and my watch to help me along. The music, just because I wanted some tunes. The watch, because I wanted to see how fast I was actually running. I started out and the Achilles was a little tight, but not too bad. After a 1/4 mile I was doing fine. Then the pace. I tried to keep it at the pace I've been at (the sluggish feeling pace) and when I looked at my watch I was at a 6:05 pace. Honestly, I had to do a double take. I was at a comfortable pace, but overall I felt like I was holding back. The stride wasn't the best and the knee lift wasn't where I like it, but the effort was under control. And then when I tried to concentrate on my breathing I dipped below 6:00 - - not what I was expecting, but pleased.

So I had to "force" myself to slow it up a bit. I covered the first 4 miles in a 6:18 pace. I turned around to come home and told myself that no matter how I felt I was going to dial back the pace. Well, that didn't work too well. There was a head wind going out so the tail wind helped push me along. I covered the last 4 miles averaging 6:14 feeling great. The last mile I was clipping along at a 6:10 pace and the final 1/4 of a mile I decided to pick up the pace. I was able to dip under 6:00 and did my last mile in 5:58.

Great day to run with great results. Now all I need is the motivation to get some longer miles in.

Miles this week - 32
Miles this month - 232.5
Days thus far in the month - 29
Days ran this month - 25
Days off this month -4
Miles this year - 1619.7
Miles in the month of January - 241 (Average 7.77 miles per day)
Miles in the month of February - 205.5 (Average 7.34 miles per day)
Miles in the month of March - 267 (Average 8.61 miles per day)
Miles in the month of April - 271.7 (Average 9.06 miles per day)
Miles in the month of May - 190.3 (Averaging 6.14 miles per day - Marathon month)
Miles in the month of June - 211.7 (Averaging 7.06 miles per day)