Liftoff

AM: 20 miles. I felt the ground way too much today.

AM: 7 miles.

PM: 8 miles at lunch with Quint. March brought the humidity. *sob*

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 11 miles at track. Scheduled workout was 2x2 miles. I spent the day psyching myself up, but no mental trickery could change the fact that I'm pretty flat right now. I felt it on the warmup- a little extra soreness and fatigue, mental and physical.

I've come to recognize this part of the cycle - it arrives right on schedule in March, coincidentally with the rise in humidity. The hard part is that I'm not quite ready to give up on racing yet, but I do really need to reset my workout expectations.

Last year, I actually found the perfect solution, which was to switch gears into marathon training mid-March. Going from 5k to marathon training felt very refreshing, a different type of challenge very appropriate to the time of the season. With 10-12 weeks of training that led me right up to Grandma's marathon, which I can't say enough good things about.

I have too many non-running things to do this summer to contemplate that- including hopefully selling our house and finding a new one. But next year that will definitely be a consideration again.

For right now, I know I need to not force workouts - just put in the time, don't engage expections...I will feel stronger again, and it will be easier if monkey brain isn't jumping around and chattering throughout the process.

Anyway, I did run the 2x2 mile repeats with a few others, came in right at 12:00 for both.

Afterwards, I hopped in on 6 400s with Steve: 80, 80, 77, 77, 77, 69.

Flying out to LA after work for a long weekend on Friday, time to catch up with the family.

AM: 7 miles.

PM: 7 unpleasant miles, luckily with Quint to distract.

AM: 7 miles in the fog. New shoes!

PM: 6 miles with Quintmeister.

AM: 12 miles. Motivation has been hard to come by this week, and I haven't run hard. No excuses, I guess I just needed to ease off a bit.

One really good thing about being in a running club is that someone always has a race coming up; today I ran with the crew heading to Boston. It's refreshing to stop thinking of your own goals for a bit, and help other people.

AM: 8 miles.

Flew out to LA after work last night. Meant to recapture a sliver of my long-lost self and get into a book, but forgot it in the packing madness. Luckily I love Sudoku.

My brother picked me up in Ontario. I was trying, but I had all the personality of a turnip by that point. Went to Mom's in Arcadia, stayed up another 15 minutes then crashed.

Woke up too early, looked at old pictures and watched the sun come up. When my Mom got up we drank coffee and talked. Ran up Santa Anita into Sierra Madre, one of my favorite places around here. 

Now off to visit Dad in the convalescent hospital, then to my sister's in Glendora. Sounds like a short run with her and my niece may be on the agenda.

PM: 4 mile run into Glendora Canyone with Sis. Only tripped once.

AM: 6 miles. Yesterday at my sister's place we played frantic sessions of basketball, soccer, football and capture the flag. From an outside perspective, we must seem like complete fruitcakes, but we kind of revert to our adolescent selves when we're all together, and it's how we bond.

I was way too sore to do my planned track workout this morning. Definitely my best excuse of the week.

I did still go up to the Arcadia High track, and dragged my Mom along to walk while I did 6x400 to shake things out. 83, 82, 81, 78, 75, 76.

Afterwards, we were walking a few laps together, and a guy came up and said hello. He was taking a kid through some football PT drills, casually mentioned: silver medalist 84 olympics in 400 meter hurdles, beat Edwin Moses in 87. His name was Danny Harris. I looked him up when I got back home, interesting guy. He was very nice and laid-back, but also had an definable sense of power surrounding him. As achy as I was feeling, I was half-hoping he would tell me to sprint an 800 all out, because I would have.

PM: 2 miles.

AM: 2 quick miles before flight back to Florida.

AM: 6 miles with Richie and Mike G. Good to catch up. Pretty silly, but I have a tweak in my left hamstring from playing with my niece and nephew that is going to limit me this week.

PM: 9 miles. Track was closed down for Spring Break, so I ran on the Pinellas Trail. Kept it light- about a dozen strides between 100-400 meters.

Now that the LA trip is over, I'm ready to initiate Operation Get Ready to Race in 12 Days.

AM: 4 slow, sore miles.

Taking today off. Went to sports doc yesterday and got treatment on my left hamstring, much stretching and rolling last evening.

This morning it is improved, so I'm going to give it a day or two, and I expect it should be fine. Sometimes in the past I would have run through this, but the last couple runs I've felt like there was some compensation going on in my stride, and that never turns out well.

AM: 4 miles.

PM: 7 miles.

AM: 5 miles. Pushed the jogging stroller down to Northshore Park and ran around with the girls.

AM: 17 miles, averaged 6:45. Started with a good group, but after a few miles warmup we started picking it up, and it was just Mike and me for the second half.

Some people are good at taking downtime to recover- I'm not. I'm not a health nut by nature, so when I'm not training with focus, I tend to eat worse and stay up later.

I knew I needed to test my hamstring and shake the dust off this morning, and I think that got done, but it wasn't pretty. The combo of lazy running, a Belgian chocolate pie last night and ascendant humidity made this one a struggle. It was basically a progression run through about mile 13 when we managed two miles at 5:45 then 5:35, then I had to throw in the towel.

Definitely not adapted to the humidity yet. The dew point was 69, which is unpleasant, but at the peak of summer this would be dream weather. After the 5:35 mile, my heart rate was through the roof.

I think Mike knew I needed to take my mind off the suffering, so he spent the next mile describing the role of three-dimensional shapes in Greek philosophy, how they were translated into theories of the elements, and how those theories led Kepler to elliptical planetary orbits. Since the discussion was based on a lesson for his elementary students, I was able to follow about 75% of it in my stupor.

I spent the next few hours at home useless, promising my wife I'd get productive as soon as I could move again.

Skipped the morning and ran 8 at lunch with Quint. Felt surprisingly good.

Lunch: 10 miles. Met up with Quint, Josh and Christina at Northshore Pool. Coach gave us a good plan: 4 mile tempo, commit to a pace, and start accordingly to finish together. Josh started off early since he was looking to run easy. Christina signed up for 6:30 pace, Quint for 6:15, and I was aiming for 5:45. Christina started, Quint one minute later, then 2 minutes later I took off.

The competitive angle on the workout really helped us today. We hooked around the Pier, and although my first mile was 5:42, I saw I had only gained about 10 seconds on Quint!! I managed to catch him at 3.75. Splits were 5:42, 5:38, 5:32, 5:25. Considering we ran this at noon, this was a very good workout for me, the first in awhile.

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 8 miles with Quint at lunch.

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 6 miles with Quint and Josh.

Half marathon this Sunday! It is the last race in a local series. You need to run three of four races to place in the series, with your top three times summed up. Also, participation in the last race is mandatory. Top five places win money, which has an interesting effect. The cash is nice but not life-changing, but it does bring a lot more focus and competition to the events.

On the men's side, first place is locked up barring a broken leg. I'm currently in second, but there are four guys close behind me, all of whom are running better than they were at the beginning of the season. That's not so much the case for me. I haven't exactly been slacking, but treading water might even be kind. Thankfully, I haven't worried about my time and pace Sunday - my focus will be on racing well. I expect the race to go out fast. I will need to balance keeping within range of the leaders against not blowing up. It will be a muggy day, and that will play a role too.

AM: 6 miles.

AM: 6 miles, couple strides.

Today was the last half-marathon in a series that began in late October. I went into the race a bit flat today, and not as focused as usual, but I was motivated to run hard in order to maintain my place in the series standings.

I've been guilty of some long race reports, so I'm going to keep this one under control. Also, it would be easy to make this into a complainfest.

I'm actually very satisfied with my time, despite running 1:30 faster three months ago. Although the temperature was not bad (low-70s), the dewpoint was also pegged at 70 degrees, which is not fun for racing.

As expected, the race went out fast, and I ran my first 3 miles faster than I ever have in a half in order to stay within reach of my guys. Hard to say if this was a mistake or not. After the first miles, I slowed, almost metronomically, for the next 4 miles or so, until I cratered in the low 5:50s.

Luckily for me, a similar scenario was playing out for everyone else as well. This race has long straightaways and it's easy to see where your competition is, so I knew I was about a minute behind the guy most likely to pass me in the standings.

In the last 5k I was able to gather myself for the final push. I finished plenty back, but held my spot in the standings by 13 seconds. Perhaps a hollow victory, since I finished well behind 3rd and 4th in the series, but I'll take it.

If this sounds  a bit negative, I wish it didn't- I was very happy with my time and focus. It was simply the experience of running this race that was deeply unpleasant. Probably in a couple days I'll be talking up how awesome it was.

Splits:

1. 5:29
2. 5:35
3. 5:34
4. 5:39
5. 5:44
6. 5:49
7. 5:53
8. 5:48
9. 5:50
10. 5:56
11. 5:44
12. 5:46
13. 5:38

.1 ~5:25 pace

AM: 8 miles.

All haggling about supplements aside, if Salazar really wants to understand why Americans are losing to Kenyan runners, he should revist that classic American sports documentary, Rocky 4. Except we're Drago.

Based on his Twitter feed, Ryan Hall seems to be in the loop, although the fatal misstep in his LA buildup was taking his cues from Rocky 5.

Really, when you trim the schlock back from those six movies, what's left is the searing masterstroke How Awesome is Mr T?

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 10 miles at track. I was able to run pretty hard tonight, which is not the norm two days after a half marathon, obviously. The race was draining, but didn't beat my legs up too badly.

The workout for tonight: 4 X 800 WITH 200 REST, 2 SETS WITH 400 REST BETWEEN SETS

Mike and I decided to start at 2:40 and work into the sets. It was a drag in the heat but we worked through it and walked away pretty happy.

First set: 2:40, 2:37, 2:36, 2:30
Second set: 2:36, 2:34, 2:32, 2:30

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 5 miles at lunch with Quint.

I was tired this afternoon at work, when my client requested a new application/report, to tell them what was about to happen with the massive processing application we've spent months developing runs on their files.

I was trying to explain that reporting on that ahead of the application running was tantamount to executing the same functionality on the same data set.

I failed.

Day off.

I'm feeling hopeful I can lower my 5k PR in a couple weeks at a local track invite, but I need a tuneup to make that happen. I'm going to jump into a local 5k tomorrow night to get into gear. It's non-certified, and widely described as noticeably short, so time is irrelevant. I do want to run as close to 5:00/mile as possible to see how I hold up.

AM: 3 miles, couple strides.

PM: 9 miles.

Fun local race last night. It rained lightly until about 15 minutes before race start. This plus the cloudy skies made for better conditions than we've had in weeks.

After months of battling injury, a teammate and great runner - Sean Gallagher - made it out last night. He is not near peak fitness, but he still took the race out fast with a couple high school kids and other ambitious types trailing in a phalanx behind. He's one of those guys who will go out hard no matter what, and it's pretty awesome.

I wasn't sure what to expect from most of those runners, but one guy I knew was serious was Mike, who was hanging a bit back with me. After about a third of a mile we moved up to the front and starting setting the pace. One of the kids came with us, and lasted until about mile 1.25.

This event is a precursor to an IndyCar race held annually in downtown St. Petersburg. The 5k winds through the narrow canyons of walls built up to contain the cars. I ran steady and tried to slowly lower the pace. Mike remained with me until shortly after the 2 mile mark, when I was able to open a small gap. With him close behind, I was motivated to keep moving - knowing that if we were close at all near the finish line he would crush me.

Sadly, reports of the short course proved true. It measured between 3.04-3.06 from the informal survey I took. We estimated it took 20-30 seconds off an actual 5k time.

I was very happy with this race. I wanted a test run before the track race in two weeks, and I was hoping I had some 5k fitness. Everything came off well, and I think I have a shot at running 15:4x on the track.

One impressive constrast that really stood out was how far Mike has come in a year. We raced a 5k for the first time almost a year ago. In that span he has gone from a guy in the upper 17s to hovering close to the 16 minute barrier. At this time next year, I'll be chasing him.

Splits:

1. 5:09
2. 5:06
3. 5:02

AM: 7 miles with the family pushing the jogging stroller.

AM: 17 miles. My wife got the morning long run slot, so I ran later with Quint around Tierra Verde. Felt good, averaged 7:12.

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 5 miles with Quint.

Looks like a rocking race at Carlsbad yesterday. Masters winner in 14:58, almost 25 seconds on 2nd place.

My cousin was 10th in 16:16. He wasn't completed satisified, but I think that's an awesome time at 45. I'd probably say the same thing. I guess we're related.

While on the family brag topic, my sister was 2nd female in an LA trail marathon yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't figure out the name of the race (worst brother ever).

Very proud of both of them.

AM: 2 miles.

A cursed day. My wife got stuck early, meeting a running friend, when her car battery died. I was late to work.

At the office, I picked a fight with the network team that was unpleasant but needed. Meanwhile, we're putting an offer in on a house we can barely afford. I am trying to manage contractors making our house (hopefully) saleable. I feel both stressed and remote.

Out of work late. An accident on the bridge heading into St. Pete brought traffic to a crawl, so I had to bail on the plan of mile repeats with Lee and Mike.

Time to go to sleep.