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I expected less today after a 13 hour drive home yesterday and a long run on Saturday.  As it turns out, I felt much better after my run today and much worse after my drive yesterday.  Average speed was 8:39/mile, much better than what I called a recovery run last Monday.

8.61 miles took 1:13:54 or 8:35/mi.  After the first couple of miles, I started counting paces in groups of four.  380 groups of four or 1520 paces takes me a mile.  The result of this strategy was a pretty consistent speed and a steadily increasing heart rate, which maxed out around 160bpm at the end.

I tacked a little on to my normal route to better stay with my training plan, but I'm only supposed to run 13 miles this Saturday.  After that it's the big 20.

August should be my heaviest training for a Sep 18 first marathon.

Took 1:16:13 for an average pace of 8:50/mile for 8.61 miles.  I took the last two days off to nurse a foot injury (hot and cold packs) and to avoid getting struck by lightening that has been very active the last couple of mornings.  I'm just hoping that my daughter at camp is OK through all this.

I replaced my long run with a long drive today.  Went down to southern Utah and back.  Upon my return, I ran in the afternoon.  I never do that.  I felt sloggish and the weather was hotter.  Took 1:04:01.