Pump Up The Volume

So it's been a few weeks since my last post,fear not the Pale Kenyan has been diligently loggin' some miles...just not enough time to post them
So last time out I'd just gotten my feet wet w/ 10 milers and as of this weekend I'm back up to 13 milers,the two things I'll say in my non blogged runs are the evenings have gotten lighter later which means we're moving out of the arse end of Winter{hooray!!} and the Schuylkill footpath now extends south of the South St bridge
I think it was my Sat Feb 3rd 10 miler I discovered this fact.....sadly as is more often my won't I was running sans Garmin so I was unable to take advantage of this new found wrinkle in my training...however the following morning I made sure to take my Garmin w/me so I could recalibrate my routes.
Basically if I up and back from South St bridge to the Conrail bridge out and back it adds half a mile to my runs so now an 8 miler is upto the Art Museum, a 9 miler to Lloyd Hall and essentially taking half a mile off all my previously calibrated runs
Which brings us to this week.....

Mon Feb 12th
10 Miles W/ several 10 milers under my belt I felt it was time to bump up to 12s,the only fly in the ointment so to speak was this run came 12 hours after my first soccer game in 25 years......
Early on I was gung ho about making this a 12 miler but by the time I hit Kelly Drive at mile 4.5 bravado took a back seat to common sense
While delighted I had the chutzpah to want to run I felt it was prudent to channel my inner Dirty Harry......"a man's got to know his limitations" so 10 it was w/ the promise of "another day"  to follow come Thursday

Thur Feb 15th
10 Miles Settled for 10 again but knew the weekend was ripe for a 12 miler,if not two
Biggest take away from this run times two A how warm it was,mid Feb and a balmy 54 degrees,any time in Feb I ditch the thermal hat and gloves and roll my sleeves up is a good day
Unlike several of the masses I saw out there during my 10 miles I didn't ditch my jacket or running tights, a couple of nice days in mid Feb does not a Spring make
B Beginning at 4.25pm I was delighted to still have the last vestige of daylight over the West Philly as I returned home around 5.55pm
It's only a matter of time b4 I return to runs that start and end in daylight.....even if and when I bump up my midweek runs to 12 miles

Sat Feb 17th
13 Miles SO this was meant to be a 12 miler till I went all "Billy Big Bollocks" on myself and ran a 13 miler.......
Out the door by 9.25am I was loving the sunshine and lack of killer wind as I reached South St bridge at mile 2,even at an early hour there were numerous fellow runners out there gettin' their miles in
Sans Garmin I figured I just had to make the turn at 1.5 along Kelly Dr which comes in just b4 the Columbia bridge,the only problem was I guess my mind was  somewhere else as I was the other side of the bridge when it dawned on me"oh shit I should have turned back there".....
At this point several options were available to me but having felt  last week I had the measure of 10s  I thought why not push the envelope and see if 13 was doable...it was

Sun Feb 18th
13 Miles Seemed counter productive having gotten upto 13 miles albeit by accident yesterday to dip back to 12 so 7.30am I was out the door in ironically warmer temps than two hours later yesterday...
W/ trusty Garmin on my wrist I not only got an "eyeball" on where the 6 mile turnaround is for future reference I also was able to see what my splits were
7.22 7.18 8.07 7.52 7.56 7.54 7.56 7.55 7.58 7.55 7.58 7.55 7.54
Pretty fuckin' consistent,would love mile 3 back as my non sub 8 min mile,average pace 7.51 per mile for a 1.42.01 time

W/ five weeks to go till the Love Run Half Marathon I'm happy w/ where I'm at,were the race next Sunday I'm confident I could grind out a 1.40  off of 8 min miles.....since I have five weeks of training my hopes of a sub 1.30 time off of 7 min miles are realistic

Moving forward this week I'm hopeful of a 5 day training week,12s Tue,Wed,Thur and 13s on the weekend.../although w/ a 7am Spurs game and a 8.20pm Philly Spurs 7 a side kick off Sunday might be a stretch.....ah feck it 14 miles on Saturday for a 4 day/50mpw......