Michigan WHO???

Appalachian State: 34
Michigan: 32

I don't think it can be scripted any better. If there's one school that this was gonna happen to, I'm sure glad it was Michigan! They're the laughing stock of the nation right now and I'm loving every second of it. I was at the MSU game against UAB which was happening at the same time, and everytime they announced the score, it was like, are you kidding me?? What an embarassment. :) (The pic is of App. State students celebrating.)

So here's the recap of my week: Tuesday I did the same workout that I was supposed to do a couple weeks ago but my calves were too sore. Well I was fully intending to do it but I have a habit of getting out there at like 10:30 or 11:00am when the sun is already a bit unhappy. I warmed up for a mile then did 2 miles at 10K pace...I was gunning for about 5:55 pace and actually did it in 11:46 (5:53 pace). So that wasn't a bad start....but I was sort of gassed. Then I was to do 2 x 1 mile at 5K pace...I was gunning for about 5:40 on these. The first one I did 5:43 and that took all I had, and the second one I was absolutely gassed and finished in 5:47. So instead of finishing with 2 x 800m at slightly faster than 5K pace, I just did a mile cooldown and called it a solid 6 mile day.

Wednesday was a nice swimming recovery day, then Thursday I did a hard tempo run. The plan called for 30 minutes at half marathon pace minus 15-20 seconds. So since my goal is 6:30 miles during the half, I was gunning for 6:10-6:15 pace on this run. The first two miles went by in 6:11 and 6:06....not bad, but I felt like I should be slowing it down a little for my own good. I was running on the river trail so I went a quarter mile down and then turned around. The quarter mile out was 1:34 (6:16 pace....ok good, I'm where I want to be) and the quarter mile back was 1:31 (6:04 pace....uhhhh, did I get an adrenaline kick or something?). I think I did because I rode that kick during the last 2 miles in 6:07 and 6:02. And I really felt pretty decent. It was supposed to be a comfortably hard tempo run, and I made it that way. And in the mile warmup/cool down and that's 6.5 miles.

Friday morning I worked with Todd on my alignment exercises and then biked for 40 minutes, then that night I went for an easy 5 miler. It went alright, but my knee was barking a little after the run. Saturday was gameday (MSU is 1-0!) so nothing happened that day, but Sunday I did a "half-marathon simulation run". An 11 mile long run where I do the first 6 miles easy and then the last 5 miles at half-marathon pace plus 20 seconds. I did those first 6 aroud 7:30 pace and then whipped out the last 5 in about 6:45 pace. And those last 5 miles sucked because I had been in the sun for so long the day before, and the sun was beating down on my once again that morning. Anyway, I made it and called it 28.5 miles for the week.

Let's see what this week will bring...I can't wait for the Autumn Classic 8K on the 16th!