February 12 to 18

Monday: 6.1 miles with the dogs..4 with Riley and 2+ with Lulu.  A relatively mild morning. 6:50 average

Tuesday: 6.2 mile cruise with the dogs again.  Much chillier this morning..neck & back sore.

Wednesday: 6.3 miles. Warmup w Riley. 4xup/down on Meadowridge. 30 second jog rest in between. Good starting point. Should rock the quads a bit. DS sighting.  Nice temps. 6:49 average.  Need to do more of these!

Thursday: 5.3 mile rainy run with Riley. It wasn't pouring but we still ended up getting soaked.  Did a loop down Noyes Neck, down Atlantic, and back through Weekapaug.  I enjoy these shorter days on . Thursdays.  Pace comfortable.  6:56 average.

PT session #5 in the afternoon.  Lots of neck and shoulder work.

Friday: 35 minutes of stretching and core work.  Trying to keep my back in check.

Saturday: 20 miles around the beach, into town, and finishing at the Y.  I got out there pretty early to ensure I'd make it to the Y in time for H's swim class.  My goal was to do 4M easy, 4M hard, 4M easy, 4M hard, 4M easy.  Unfortunately it just didn't happen.  From the first step of the run, I was feeling it today.  I did get through one set of 4M hard and banged out 6:15, 6:19, 6:15, and 6:12.  Once I hit the final hardish mile, I thought about packing it in for the day.  Instead I reframed my mindset and told myself I wouldn't overly push the rest of the run and to just do my best to run steady.  I dealt with stomach distress for the last few miles and would end up feeling queasy and impacted from it for a few hours ahead.  Average pace for the run was 6:40.  While I didn't like how I felt, battling through the mental struggle was valuable and I did get the 20 in.  This was Week 8 of LRs for me.   I think I have about 6 more long runs to do before I head off to the big show.  I'll be pretty happy when the are over and I can go back to being Tommy5k.

Sunday: 6 miles with Shara from Avondale to Watch Hill Light House and back.  Took advantage of the rare opportunity to run with Shara.  Initially we were hoping to run Haley in the stroller but the wind made it a bit to cold for her to join us (remember she's stationary in the stroller).  Finished at the preserve at about 5.5 miles, knowing I needed about a 1/2 mile more to hit a meaningless 50 miles for the week, I decided to go for it and ran hard until I reached my desired distance.  Quads and legs feeling yesterday's LR a bit.  Neck and back tight today.

Weekly Mileage: 50
Synopsis: Another solid week.  Highlights: include getting a workout in, completing my first 20 (although I wish I felt better, and getting back to 50 miles for the week. Lowlights: The long runs have become a drag but it goes with the territory of marathon training.  Only 7 LRs to go!  Although manageable, my neck and back issues are still lingering and it would be nice to get on the other side of them.