8min pace

Well, training has been going really well for me. This summer I've run the first 78 mile week of my life (discounting a rolling-total 80 something when I ran the 20 miler), the first 84, and now the first 91, and I feel pretty damn good and fresh and whatnot. A few things have spontaneously changed this past training block: I've run considerably slower on my easy runs and morning jaunts, and I've run considerably more impressive workouts. Last week I ran two neat-o workouts, both 11 milers. One simply had 8 miles around uptempo pace at the end (avg just under 6:10), and the other was a fartlek 40min in the middle (alternating 2:30 on at ~5:30/mi and 2:30 off at ~6:50) with the last few miles progressing to a decent tempo (6:30?). On the other side of things, my morning runs now generally starting slower than 8min pace and averaging out to slower than 7:45 pace and two or three runs a week are probably averaging to 7:15 or slower pace. I didn't decide, really, to drop my recovery paces. I did decide to start getting serious about my workouts, and after a semi-crash in philly, I stopped forcing any sort of pace on my recovery stuff and simply let my body dictate what it wanted in terms of pace.
Earlier in the summer I kept the pace of every run below 7:00 and ventured below 6:30 at the end of many of my runs. I think both styles have there place, but I wish I had started gradually switching from one to the other back when I was gradually starting to add uptempos and fartleks. Something to remember for the future.

Also, hill sprints are seriously awesomely stupendous. I do them tuesday mornings and they never fail to bring the pop back into my legs, make me feel better and faster, and eradicate the dreaded flatness I'd associated with mileage.

I'm also experimenting with a circuit of strides and strength work with no rest. So far it made me sore but did have some of the hill-sprint-flatness-eradication-effect. (I did them after my medium-effort thursday run.)

Aaand I'm excited for camp.