Happy December Everyone

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable November and a Happy Thanksgiving.   Of course, if you didn't, things are looking better as the calendar turns to December

I continue to ride high, experiencing seemingly two months of personal and running happiness.   My current 'plan' has me running when and how I feel.   But my hidden agenda is to increase the number of days I am running, and for that reason, I enjoyed a handful of 3ish mile runs in the last couple of weeks, perhaps the first time in a while that I haven't felt guilty about running less than 5 miles.

I have also managed to add some tempo runs back into the mix too, and boy have they been amazing.   Last week before Thanksgiving I went out for a 5 mile run, the first mile was nice and speedy so I decided to hold pace for as long as possible, which ended up being a 4 mile tempo at 7:39 pace followed by a 1 mile cool down.

Yesterday, I looked at the schedule and part of the add more days plan was run (need to get to 7 for the Cookie Monster Streak) .   The log showed 74.1 miles for the month, and I wasn't just going to leave it at 77 or something like that when I could get to 80.  So I set off at lunch, PF bothering me a bit in the left foot, and right knee a bit sore, not expecting much.   After I got moving the first mile beeped off and I realized I was at 7:49 pace, so I just decided to roll with and focus on breathing for the run.   I had decided that I would try to keep this up for 5 of the 6 miles since I had done the 4 the previous week.   And it totally rocked. I felt great after the run (despite the PF and knee, which were mostly gone by the end of the run anyway).  Overall, the Tempo yesterday - 5 tempo miles at 7:50 pace, fastest at 7:30 (last mile) everything else at about 7:55.  With a 1.1 mile cool down at about an 8:30 pace, overall 6.1 miles at 7:58.  Sweet! 6 miles under 8m/m.  Time for a Dancing Banana.That is pretty much how I felt yesterday after rattling that little guy off.  It is really good knowing that I am seeing some speed improvement.   And hopefully will see big improvements this spring when I roll out the speed plan in Feb 

I have basketball games this weekend, so I will probably drop down to 3 miles a day for those days to keep it lighter and avoid too much stress on the joints.

• November Miles - 80.2 (would have gone higher but I took the first week off)
• Yearly Miles - 710.5 - Well past my goal of 600, looking to score 800 by the end of December  I have lots of basketball games the next two weeks so it could be interesting.

Next year's goals need to be ironed out a bit.   But I think I can get to those at the end of December  I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.   Remember to have fun out there.