Did my normal four mile run yesterday and came close to breaking a milestone.  I finished the run at an average pace of eight minutes and 15 seconds per mile.  I’ve been wanting to break that eight minute mark since turning my ankle back in May.  I used to think that i was beating the eight minute mark before that but now im not sure because I feel as fast as i’ve ever been.  I tended to mark my speed by time in zone before the ankle and now i mark it by total time on the clock which is much more accurate.

Im guessing that ill break eight minutes next week or the week after at the latest. There’s a lot of 5Ks and other races coming up and I want to be in fighting shape for those so I can keep in shape both before and after my Livestrong Challenge.

Got with Ron yesterday and he’s worked out all the details with the LAF travel agent for our trip to Austin this year to do the Livestrong Challenge.  We’ll be getting into Austin Friday morning and leaving Monday morning.  This time we’re opting to stay downtown near the convention center.  This also puts us closer to sixth street to celebrate on Sunday when we knock out the 100.  Ron’s hoping to break five hours again while my goal is to break 6.  I think this time I’ve got a reasonable shot of finishing in that kind of time, Ron has no worries for the five.

The next month will find me on my bike a minimum of 3 times a week and im shooting for four in the final run up to the Livestrong Challenge.  Austin still lives in my memory as a nightmare of hills and wind and this time I want to try not to suffer as much on my way to the finish.  Luckily I think ive kept myself in much better shape in the ramp up to October this time.

I went out today with every intention of doing a long ride of about 40 miles as one last good distance ride before the MS 150 this coming weekend.  As it always seems it didnt happen.  The ride was going to be my normal loop but doing it twice with a stop at the car to grab more water in between.  The first 2/3 of my first loop went okay with no issues.  Actually I was feeling really good, with my legs feeling almost no effort.  After the first 2/3 though I hit a long gradual hill which always slows me down but this time I started feeling a weird pang in my chest.  It was a bit unnerving and from that point on, whether it was physical or mental, I started feeling weaker and weaker.  I forgot my heart rate monitor so my theory is that I pushed it to hard in the beginning, even though I felt fine, and in combination with a slack weekend just blew up.

Hopefully it was a one time deal and id much rather blow up on a training ride than this weekend.