Am I Sore or What?

I wanted to start today's blog by thanking everyone for your kind comments and tweets the past couple of days about my last post. I appreciate the words of encouragement. Training for a marathon means a long journey to get there. I am finding that I need to force myself out the door every now and then to put in a run. Especially those long boring ones.

Second - I need to apologize to those whose blogs I try to loyally read - I'm behind! Work has been really hectic, and when I pile an extra 2 to 3 hours a day for running, I kind of run out of time and energy before I collapse in bed. I'm going to try to get caught up this weekend (but, I need to work and put in a 20 miler on Saturday..hmmm...).

Speaking of running - I am *sore* today. But, last night was a quality workout. 5 miles general aerobic followed by 6 miles at half marathon pace. Everything went per plan - first five miles at a 10:01 pace with heart rate at 78% of max, the final six miles at an average pace of 9:40. (I was targeting the slower end of my half marathon training pace (9:15 - 9:45 per mile) due to the heat (it was still 82 when I started my run) and because I'm feeling some tweaks and niggles here and there.) But I am paying for it today. My legs and lower back are screaming at me. Did I say I'm sore? Oh yeah.....

I'm hoping to work through it though so I can push through the 13 miler on the books for this evening. Wow. I *never* would have thought that this old man would be pushing though these miles! If I can do it - so can you!