I have been off the blog and not running since July 3rd due to the birth of my son Russell on July 4th. Being awake for almost 36 straight hours and being on my feet during most of the 14 hours that my wife was in labor really caused my ankle to flare up. due to this and being very busy learing how to take care of a newborn, i took some time off from running. Today was my return to work and was also the start of my 18 week training program for the philly marathon in Novemnber. i was scheduled to run 8 miles with 4 tempo miles in the middle, but my body was not up for starting my day at 5am. i decided to take a long lunch break and was able to get in 6 miles including 4 tempo miles (treadmill 1.5 incline). i ran 1 warm up mile at 9:00 pace, followed by 4 miles @ 6:45 pace, and finished with a cool down mile at 9:30 pace. This workout was very hard for me today due to the time off and lack of sleep but i was happy to fight through it. at some point soon, i will need to get up early for my workouts. hoping my body will cooperate. | 