Day 199

• 5 miles
• 6:54 mins/mile pace
• 0710
• From/To home
• Ran hard this morning.   Started off thinking I needed to average sub 7:15/mi pace since I won't be doing a long run this weekend (traveling for work), I at least needed to make myself hurt a little bit.  Well, first mile was 7:10, so I figured I needed to hold onto that...then I relaxed a bit and sped up.  Legs felt fine, but the lungs weren't very strong, I was breathing pretty hard and was unable to push the pace on the last mile beyond what I settled into during miles 2-4...I take this to mean that I was pretty much done as I wasn't averse to making myself hurt the final mile, I just couldn't sustain an increased effort.   Anyway, I was very pleased with the overall pace considering I didn't believe I could hold sub-7 minute miles for more than about 2 miles, but then I started realizing things like:   I need to average 4 seconds per mile faster than that, for 5 times as long and then for 1.2 miles after that if I'm going to break 3 hours in a marathon.  Being unable to push the pace at the end means that I was done, so, while I stopped the run because I didn't have time to run anymore and still make Case's soccer game, it's just as well since I wouldn't have made it much farther anyway.  Not sure how I'm going to get the speed aspect of my sub-3 hour goal down, but at least I have some time [Still targeting Tucson marathon in early December, though I haven't signed up yet]...and at least I finally decided to pick up the pace a bit.    That is also good in relation to the effort Craig and I will make in a few weeks, which is really what I should continue thinking about instead of some race months away, I guess. 
• Current shoes now have 417+ miles on them, need to get a new pair...