Liftoff

I'm going to bullet point this one. Sorry for the unattractive presentation, but I'm eager to press the reset button on and get on with Father's Day.

• I was surprised (and mostly happy) to see Jon Noland at the start. He is a Masters runner who thumped me in a 10k last Feb. As I warmed up, I told myself I am in better shape now, and I could take him.
• He joined me for a warmup mile. We compared notes- he was a little stiff after running a 4:26 mile on the track last night. He is preparing for Masters Nationals in Jacksonville in a month. The realization washed over me that he is a signficantly better runner than me.
• I need to make time to run with him in the future.
• No excuses day. Hot and humid, sure, but the course was shaded and the humidity was if anything better than most of the week. I was well-rested, nothing hurt.
• Planned to run 5:10-5:15 for the first mile. Came in around 5:12.
• Jon and a college guy were about 6 seconds ahead.  Instead of digging in, I just let go. 5:20 second mile, 5:25 3rd mile. Got the college kid in the second mile as he was dying off.

Sick of bullets. Today was an underperformance, plain and simple. Wasn't a disaster. It was flat and sluggish. It's been a couple months since I raced, and it felt like it today. I ended the race far too fresh, and mentally was lacking.

This happens though. My focus has been overwhelming on endurance. It may not be healthy, but I'm going to think of this as a workout of 3 miles @ 5:19 pace rather than a 16:30 5k.

Still, I feel like I should have run closer to 16:15. It's never good to check out like that in a race.

I'm pretty over it already. My girls were out there cheering, which is always great. And we get to spend the rest of the day goofing off.

PM: 4 miles. Laziness cancelled starting tomorrow.

Plan for the week- Tues: 2 x 2 miles @ 5:30 pace for track. Fri: bridge repeats, pretty hard effort. Sun: long run with last 5 miles @ MP.

We saw the new Pixar movie Inside Out with our girls yesterday. Our younger daughter is pretty hard boiled, but our older daughter is sensitive. The movie isn't frightening, but it's very emotional, and she cried for most of it. I took her out for a break and the first thing she said to me when we got outside was "Why would anyone make a movie like that?!" I'm hopeful it was more cathartic than traumatic.

It might have been more traumatic. I still remember the bad feelings I got from Pete's Dragon, which I saw in the theater when I was about her age.

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 8 miles at track. Workout was 2 x 2 miles with 5 minute standing rest between. Splits: 10:58, 10:57.

Although Sunday's 5k felt negative at the time, several positives came out of it. One of them was that I knew this workout would feel manageable, and it did. This was the best I've felt running on the track so far this summer.

Coach Joe was quotable as usual: "Every time I've had a bad race, all it made me do was want to try harder. It just renewed my running. To really train...to overtrain...oh, and by the way, there is no such thing."

AM: 12 miles.

PM: 6 miles at lunch with Quint.

AM: 11 miles, bridge repeats, hard. I really want to go to sleep now, but I have the next best thing across the street from my office- a homestyle Cuban place that serves Cafe con Leches that should be classified as Schedule 1 drugs.

PM: 7 miles at lunch with Quint.

AM: 10 miles, felt pretty lousy on the way out, light fartlek on the way back, just to end the misery.

PM: 5 miles. Late afternoon run with Quint. Mostly to battle the summer slog, we came up with a running game. The rules were:

• Set watch to beep every 1/2 mile
• No looking at the watch except when it beeps
• We have to stay together
• Every 1/2 mile has to be faster than the last, otherwise game over

We got through 4 miles like that, starting at 8:45 pace and ending a little under 6:30. It wasn't intended as a workout per se, but getting a little quality was a bonus.

Mostly just looking for ways to break up the summer running. Other ideas under consideration are:

• Superhero / Carnival costumes
• Parkour
• Acting out historical scenes

Quint isn't actually aware of these ideas yet.

6 miles. A bit before noon in the middle of errands on the Pinellas Trail to get in a few overpasses.

I was very close to skipping my run and grabbing lunch somewhere, but I dragged myself onto the trail. As I was getting to the top of the last overpass, I was patting myself on the back for making it out there. Some guy rode by on his bike and muttered "Looks like you need something to eat."