Switched up the schedule a little bit today since we had to walk down to Ralph's to snag some groceries before doing anything else. (Made the 120 IQ move of getting yogurt and frozen berries for post-run smoothies...these hit the spot). Eventually got out the door at 11:05am when the weather was a warmer 75ish, sunny, and little wind. About 20min. before heading out, had a granola bar and two aleve. Reason for this was to avoid any 'drained' feeling by putting at least a few calories in my body and the Aleve to help my left achilles and make sure I could get this quality effort in. After the hills and hiking around Torrey Pines yesterday it felt decently sore, so wanted to try and fix this. Worked wonders! Feeling it somewhat tonight, but less so when compared with this morning. Anyways, the run took Nobs, Crispy, & I down Dawes Street to Mission Bay and then we started working our way clockwise around. The beach area here was shockingly nice...much more my speed than the boardwalk area directly on the Pacific. Somewhat crowded, but didn't impede our progress too much. The other group that headed out roughly ten minutes before us said they got some University of Oregon comments and even though all three of us were wearing our featherlight O hats, we got none of that. Got pretty sweaty pretty early on for this one, but never seemed to get excessive (in other words avoided any stinging eyes). The first six to seven miles of this run were my favorite in terms of scenery. Super beautiful shots of the calm bay with nice beaches and parks for the most part. Fiesta Island was a let down and although it allowed us to really drop the pace to low sixes, it was aesthetically unpleasing. Biggest dog park I've ever seen though. I did enjoy whipping it past the Sea World parking lot as I've been there once before, but that was almost ten years ago so didn't really remember much, other than some of the rides that I could see towering over Mission Bay. After this was where we made our error. Should've kept going straight but turned right too early which had us cutting across Mission Bay over two bridges rather than cutting up the left side. Then took a right upon recognizing a park and did some more oopsies before eventually meeting up with Ingraham which would take us back. 14 miles in the heat had my temper on a short fuse, but thankfully only a brief squabble. Dropped Nobs off before adding on just a slight bit on the starting portion of the route before turning around and getting things up to seventeen. Legs started to feel dead during the last half mile as yet again the pavement started to wear on them. In the middle of the run though, got in a great rhythm and was very smooth. Surprised the pacing was below 6:15 for so long as it felt easy. Dropped one sub-6er. Cardio still a little messed up by a nose I had to snot rocket a few times and a slight cough now and then, but can't complain overall. Run also went by quite quickly. I feel like when I have that LR mind set going into things, hitting 8 or 9 miles as the over halfway point makes things seem not so bad. Achilles felt just some slight twinges throughout the day after this. Walking around through Balboa Park and downtown SD this afternoon/evening helped loosen my legs up. Afterwards was R8 rolling, standing stretches, & 50 push-ups. Cruddy Kinvaras @ 301.02 miles.