Monday: I thought I'd test out my legs and try to go for a slightly longer run on Monday, so I ran down to the beach at dusk and started running along the beach to the Redondo Beach Pier (around an 8 mile round trip starting from my house). It was really nice - my legs felt good, it was nice and cool out (it's been surprisingly hot here the past week or so), and I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset while I was running. After I'd hit my turnaround point, I was heading back to my house when I ran into an old high school cross country friend who also happened to be heading to the pier (back where I had just come from). I figured that it might be nice to have some company (I've been doing all my runs solo thus far) and since this day was supposed to be my long day anyway, I figured that I'd just turn around and run back to the pier with him. It was also pretty nice just being able to catch up on what was going on with some of my Torrance friends (it turns out that one of our best friends from high school just got engaged to his longtime girlfriend). Anyway, by the time I ran back to the pier again and took the long way home (so that I could run by where my friend had parked his car), I had done a total of about 12 miles at between 6:30 and 6:00 pace (I threw in some fartlek sessions to taste), running generally negative splits (I probably finished up around 6:00 minute pace). The part that really surprised me was that although that was considerably longer than I had planned on running, I ended up feeling pretty relaxed and pretty strong at the end of the run. All in all, I'd say that it was a pretty good day. I guess this whole consistent training thing might be paying off.

Miles: 12

Tuesday: My legs were feeling a little sore today after the run yesterday, so I ran about 5 miles today at medium pace, just to get some mileage under my legs while not really stressing them. I'm going to be meeting with some old cross country friends to go a bit farther tomorrow.

Miles: 5