NoleRunner - I can't help but take responsibility for the idoiotic pacing...I said I wanted anywhere from 5:10-5:20 pace and I was way off. The pace felt fast, but I chalked it up to still having marathon legs and no speed. No doubt you would've at least broken 33, and probably been around 32:30 if you had run 5:10-15 the first few miles.
Another - Nice bounce back week after the stomach bug. When you say "Boston simulation" over 14 miles, are you referring to the last 14 miles of the course or are you crunching the full 26 into that simulation?
Silky - Learning how your body recovers from hard efforts, whether it be 5k, half, or full marathon...is sometimes best learned through a trial by fire.
Abu - Funny about trying to catch a stray dog on your run. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. My buddies and I had just finished up our long run, it was in the middle of summer and we were dead tired stretching/laying on the driveway. A few minutes later, a woman comes by and asks us to help her find her dog. Long story short, we ended up running another 5ish miles on top of our 17 mile long run...but it was fun, felt like we were actually using running to our advantage. Sucks about your 4 mile race, just chalk it up to a solid workout and move on.
4TM - That's an awesome week, especially considering you "only" had 6 miles on Monday. You sound pretty beat up dude, though one thing I've learned is that you constantly have these "issues" and continually run well despite them...very admirable. BTW, one of my training partners is coming up from Orlando to run the NYC half, he's run a 1:08:04, and shooting for 1:07 low up there.
brumrunner - Excellent XC 10k! Especially considering it was at the back end of a huge mileage week.
stamford - I've never actually trained specifically for a half marathon, so I don't have any "key" workouts per se, but there's a few that I really like to do leading up to a half. A good mix of speed and endurance...
Ladder workout, something like 400, 800, 1200, mile, 12, 800, 400. All segments somewhere around 10k pace (maybe slightly faster) and with half distance recoveries.
12x400 w/ 400 jog recovery around 5k pace.
But my favorite "indicator" workout is a simple 4-5 mile tempo at HMP. The key for me is not get faster each time I do this, but to make that pace each time feel easier and easier.
blaznbison - Holy sh!t...you probably had close to 15 flat in you judging from those splits....I can't imagine running sub 4:40 in the last mile of a 5k. You're looking very strong.
Pittsburgh Joe is back!