Bret

PM - lunchtime 5.0 mile recovery run around Feathersound and the Carillon lakes.  Legs felt pretty heavy and sluggish today following yesterday evening's long run.

PM - lunchtime on the treadmill - cruise interval workout.  5 x mile @ 6:10 pace w/a 1 min rest.  2 mile warm up and 1 mile c/d.  This was a good workout for me.  Had a few doubts a couple point during the last two - but hung in until the end.  That pace is manageable for me but just on the edge of being really tough as the miles begin to add up.  Definitely a mental element involved too.  Good confidence builder workout.

PM - after work 10 miles easy to moderate with Richie in St Pete down through Old Northeast and Coffeepot Bayou to the Northshore pool. Cool windy evening good conversation. Talked about some destination race plans for the next few months.

PM - after a full day of home improvements I was able to squeeze in an easy 6 mils at the end of a long day. 

PM - after work - 20.00 miles on the roads.  After easing into the run for the first 2 miles I kept a consistent pace of between 7:25 to 7:30 per mile and then miles 13-18 I ran between 7:10 and 7:15 before cruising in the last 2 miles.  Very pleased with the effort - building on the confidence throughout the run.  Afterwards however I felt pretty drained with the effort - sometimes when I do a long run I get chilled after and have to bundle up to stay warm in the house - not sure why that happens, but it did tonight. 

PM - lunchtime run of 5 miles - recovery type run following yesterday's long run.  I was a bit sore and heavy legged today.

AM - early start at the gym due to work day committments. 5 x 1000 @ 5:43 pace on the treadmill at 1% grade with a 3 min rest between. 2 mile warm up and cool down. Was not feeling 100% this morning with some lingering fatigue from Monday evening's 20 miler. I had a tough time with this workout this morning - though as Rob once told me, "hard workouts are supposed to feel hard, what did you expect?" Anyway, got through it - will take tomorrow off and do a race on Saturday.

PM - lunchtime run - easy 5 miles with Richie.  Both planning to run a 10k tomorrow morning - the Armadillo run in Oldsmar. 

Had a pretty good race this morning.  My plan was to run between 6:10 and 6:15 per mile for at least the first 4 miles and then hang on for the last two.  As it turned out I did even a little better than that.  Richie and I warmed up together and I ran into an old friend from high school and college, Craig Oldham who was there with his 4 daughters to run the 5k.

Richie and I ran together for the first couple of miles.  Mile 1 was controlled at 6:03 and Richie kept tugging at my shirt to keep me from going too fast.  He was very conversational and I knew he was feeling competitive.  The 5k and 10k started together so we knew a number of the runners in front of us would be peeling off at the 5k turn around.  We backed off to 6:13 in mile 2 at which point we saw our friend Drew Chandler heading back on the 5k having already made the turn around and he was battling for the lead.  This of course resulted in a surge of adrenaline for Richie who increased the pace, especially when it appeared after the 5k runners had made their turn, that we were in the top 5 in the 10k. 

Richie began to pull away from me with another younger runner, constantly calling back to me to stay with him.  He was thinking that I was dropping off the pace, when in fact I was steady and actually ran mile 3 at 6:11. 

We made the turn around and Richie by this point had pulled away from the younger runner who I was keeping in my sites about 50 to 60 yards in front of me.   Mile 4 was 6:13 and I thought to myself, "well, I have done exactly what I had planned - 6:10 to 6:15 per mile through 4...I feel good, let's keep it going." 

Mile 5 had us running into the stragglers from the 5k on the out and back course and it was a bit of a game of frogger weaving around them and somewhat distracting - so my split was 6:24.  But though I could barely see Richie, the other runner in front of me looked to be faltering a bit, so I refocused my concentration with the thought that I may have a chance to reel him in before the end.

Mile 6 was 6:15 and I could see that I was coming within striking distance to catch the runner in front of me.  He was running high on the curve and I was cutting the tangent when my friend Craig appeared on the road with a camera to take my picture.  He decided to run with me for the last 2 tenths of a mile - which was nice of him, but it completely threw me off my focus to catching the guy in front of me. 

I ended up running the last 2 tenths at 5:53 pace - and may be would have ended up 5th overall if I had not been distracted (may be not).

In any event, I was quite pleased with my fitness and my competitiveness. 6:03, 6:13, 6:11, 6:13, 6:24, 6:15 (and 5:53 ppm for .2 miles).

Richie ran 37:36 and was 3rd overall.  He was very pumped after the race.  He ended up running under 6 mins per mile for the last 3 miles. 

We did a cool down together, I visited with Craig and his young daughters and picked up 1st place age group award. 

Easy 5 miles around the Carillon office park at lunch time.  Really nice day - light pace.

20 miles on the treadmill at 7:19 pace with the last two at MRP (6:44).  Felt reasonably good for the entire run - but was pressed for time to complete it before work - would have liked to get an extra mile or two in.  Pleased that the MRP miles did not feel "hard."

Easy 4.5 miles around the Carillon office park at lunchtime.  Very nice weather again today.

My daughters had a high school track meet today.  The competitive swimmer, Riley has decided to run track this spring but has been hampered with injuries.  Her very first track meet was today - she ran the open 800 and clocked 2:57 - not bad.  Her teammates were calling her "Nemo" - fish out of water.

Delaney had a pretty good meet.  Ran the 4 x 800 with a 2:49 split.  Her team won.  Next ran the open mile and recorded at PR at 6:13 and then was recruited to run the 4 x 400 at the end of the meet.  She was the lead off leg, and I was nervous for her, but she ran really well, with a 69 split and  kept even with her competition - in fact she was not even the slowest leg.  They won that event as well.  Then I had to drive her to club soccer practice in Tampa - oh to be young...

On treadmill at 1% grade - 12 x 400 at 79-80 seconds per rep with a 90 second rest.  2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down.  Tough workout but also a confidence builder.  Had my doubts about the last 2 reps, but did not crack.  Pleased with my fitness level.

Rest day.

On the treadmill - 4 x 3 miles @ 6:30 pace with 800 rest - 2 mile w/u and 2 mile c/d.  This was a tough workout - more so mentally I think than physically, perhaps because it was on the treadmill.  I switched from a regular treadmill for two of the reps to a Woodway - which I usually like, but I noticed my left calf felt a little tweaked as well as the back of my right knee, so I switched back to the regular treadmill for the last rep.  Was watching the Gators game against UCLA - which turned out well for Florida while I was doing the workout.

Early AM - 5.0 mile recovery run before a week of business travel.  Legs felt a little heavy - not sure if that is lingering from the workout Saturday and before or just because I got an early start this morning.  Looking forward to a run in Central Park tomorrow if my schedule works out.

AM - run in Central Park while on business here in NYC.  Did 12 x 400 @ 5k pace with 400 recovery around the reservoir.  I was really tired after a long day of travel and meetings yesterday so I started out a bit sluggish.  The ground was a bit soggy and still full of puddles from a steady rain yesterday, so dodging those obstacles and dealing with undulating and uneven surfaces made this into more of a strength workout than I had done last week when I did this workout on the treadmill.  Pleased with the effort, though struggled to really get any speed or turnover going. 

I did 4 miles easy around the Carillon Office park at lunch today.  Heading out to Phoenix this afternoon.  Busy travel week.

AM run in Phoenix.  I had what I would describe as a poor workout.  I am a little distressed about this.  The plan was to go for about an hour at MRP.  I had to travel for business again and arrived yesterday evening.  I had an early business call at 6 am and needed to squeeze in the workout before a 9 am meeting.  Ran down to the hotel fitness room at 7 am which was quite warm and hopped on the treadmill.  Only did about a half mile warm up (perhaps problem #1) and then ramped up the speed to MRP.  Immediately I felt "off" but continued to push through - but clearly was not feeling like I could go the entire time at that pace.  Sweating profusely I decided to go outside where it was cooler instead of using the treadmill after the third mile.  Headed up the street at MRP once again, but felt pretty stressed at that pace.  Began to wonder what was wrong, "is Phoenix at altitude?..., did the lack of a proper warm up cause the problem?..., was the treadmill calibration off?..., do I just suck etc"  So, after another mile at MRP, I slowed down significantly and began to run along a canal with a dirt path - which had lots of other runners on it.  I decided I would regroup for the next mile.  Made a turn around and picked up the pace again, but still felt off - so I dialed it down again - and my Garmin told me it was a 7:30 mile.  Then, oddly, I felt fine, and ran the next mile at 6:38 with relative ease.  Too late for any more running I went back to the hotel. 

I don't know what to make of this - but it certainly is a blow to my confidence.

4 miles easy around the Carillon office park at lunchtime.  Ok I actually ran the last mile at MRP just because...

10 miles easy on a warm sunny afternoon.  Ran the first 3.5 with Riley at a very relaxed pace and then when we looped by the house and she finished I did another 6.5 on my own at 7:30 pace.  Felt ok but not great.  Will concentrate on rest and sleep this week.  Weather forecast for next Sunday keeps changing.  Last night it was showing 67 degrees and rain...

Easy 4.0 miles at lunch around Feathersound. Felt very relaxed and strong over the last 2 miles after getting warmed up. Took yesterday off and have gotten at least 7 hours of sleep the last two days. (A vast improvement over my average of less than 6 hours per night). Will do some leg turnover work tomorrow and try to stay rested and healthy through the weekend.

Final leg turnover workout before race on Sunday.  1.5 mile warm up and then 4 x 400 at 5:50 ppm with 1:20 recovery and then 2 x 200 at 40 with 50 second rest.  On the treadmill at 1% grade - 1.5 mile cool down.  Felt very good - relaxed  and strong.  If the race was today on the treadmill, it would have gone very well.  :)

Easy 3.0 mile recovery run.  Went out around 6:15 this morning.  Weather radar showed some severe storms to the north but which looked like they were going to west to east and not dip south.  Made it about two thirds of the way through before I got caught in it.  Probably one of the worst storms I have seen - which is still going on right now complete with hail, tornadoes, high winds and lightning.  No worries, it made the run all the more exciting - I was only in it for about 5 minutes anyway.  Felt very good again today.  Will take tomorrow off and then a light shake out run scheduled for Saturday after my flight.