8/30-31/14. 8 miles sat, 12 miles sun. easy weekend.

8/30/14. sat. 8 miles.  nothing too special, just another 8 mile saturday.  trying to take these 2 runs easy this weekend, and prepare for a major mileage week next week.  i ran at what felt like a good smooth pace, averaged 8:24 min/mile moving pace.  it was cool enough (just under 60 degrees) so that i made this run without carrying any water, and it felt pretty good.  went to T's yoga class afterwards, tried to relax and get some stretching in.  i notice that my painful heel/instep on my right foot makes some yoga poses really difficult.  the whole underside of my foot felt tight/sore . trying to stand on one foot was pretty hard, not due to balance, but because of how stiff/tight my foot was.  otherwise, i felt pretty good.

8/31/14. sun. 12 miles. the weather was fantastic, absolutely the best running weather.  mid 50's possibly up to 60 degrees, fluffy white clouds and patches of beautiful blue sky.  felt great.  this is pretty far to run through mukilteo, though.  i end up making extra loops and detours to add some miles to my regular routes.  that's frustrating, i'm much happier running straight out and back, or even better yet, 1 big loop.  kept a decent pace, 8:32 min/mile, didn't feel like i was straining too hard.  really ironing out my long run strategy - hydration, fueling, gear management.  i'm pretty used to running with the Nathan pack on, no surprises there.  just another training run, 12 more miles under my feet.  after the run, we hit the farmer's market and then spent a little time down at the beach.  although puget sound is icy cold, not my idea of water I want to go in, i did stand with my feet submerged until they went numb.  i figured maybe an icy soak would help my feet and toes feel better.

27 and a wake-up.