Cowtown week 12

After Saturday's 20mi, I swam a bit on Sunday and got on the bike trainer on Monday. Neither were exceptional sessions.
We got Terri a stand mixer as a gift on Saturday. She was really excited. I caught her rubbing it and talking to it later that day.
I guess in part to break it in she proceeded over the next 48 hrs to produce: blackberry bars (really good), blueberry muffins (ditto) cupcakes and a carrot cake (really really good).
I managed to spend some quality time with the muffins.
After that rampage, no surprise that Tuesday's track day was ragged. 4x1200. Target was 4:56. Nope. Times ranged between 5:05 and 5:11. Achillies pain was nominal. But the calf feels weak.
Wednesday I did kettlebell work. It had been a while. I am pretty sure that the kb got heavier over the past couple of weeks as it sat in my garage.
Thursday was 10mi tempo run. I was about 30sec/mi faster than my goal marathon pace. It was 65 degrees this morning. Crazy warm. Ran ok but felt flat from yesterday.
In reviewing the heart rate data from the tempo run, it is clear that the effort level was good. Avg hr of 167.
It is funny, back on 12/2 this same hr produced a 12.1 at a 7:47 pace. Today it was only good for 8:17. 30 degrees warmer makes a difference.
Saturday's long run was 15mi. Coach mike had originally told me race pace and had put 8:42 on my trainingpeaks Calendar. So I was a bit freaked when I got to Valero and saw that he had 8:08 to 8:35 written on the board. I got it done at 8:21. But it was ugly. I ran 3x5 and got slower each lap. But I guess there isn't much point in an easy run.
I struggled the rest of the day. Achillies hurt and I was tired. I had to take Ellie to a birthday party at 1:30pm and I slept in the car for an hour or so. Not the best.
Next week we are going to try for 22. I was hoping that would mean an easy Thursday run but nope. Looks like a hard 8. We shall see what happens.
Good news though- I woke up Sunday to more improvement in my achillies. I can walk normally for short stretches.
Looking good.