Bret

PM - 7.0 miles easy in a light rain during Delaney's soccer practice.  Took the morning run off to try to rest the soreness in my hip - and had a busy workday which caused me to a miss a lunchtime run.  Came close to taking a zero today, but glad to have gotten a run in as a stress reliever.  No hip pain while running.  Little stiff about an hour afterwards.

PM - 10 decent miles outside in the heat at lunchtime. 

PM -- Plan was to do 10 to 12 at marathon race pace on the treadmill but time was short between Delaney's soccer tournament games so I kept it to 10 with a warm up and cool down.   Actually was not feeling that great so I am not sure if I would have pushed through for another two even if I had time.      

PM - 8.0 miles easy from Longboat Key to Sarasota and back.  We are staying on the beach in Sarasota for a soccer tournament in which Delaney's club team is playing.  Weather issues resulting in an adverse ruling on a game yesterday and a late goal in today's game by the other team ended their streak of reaching the finals in tournaments - so we have the afternoon and tomorrow free.  Always a bright side...

PM - back at home 6.0 miles in a very warm humid windy day courtesy of the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee - not the least bit enjoyable. 

AM - easy shake out run - was shortened to 3 miles when weather turned into a heavy downpour with blinding winds and lightining...Yesterday evening I did not get in my second run because of the same...Gonna need to hit the tready later today if this keeps up.

PM - workout on the treadmill:  2 x 20 mins at 6:24 pace with a 10 min rest and 2 mile warm up and cool down.  Little tough getting through the latter half of the first one but felt good about the workout when I was finished.  Total of just a little over 10 miles.

AM - easy 6 miles in a light rain - a bit fatigued from yesterday's threshold workout.  Feeling a bit tired this week.

PM - 7.25 on the treadmill at lunch.  Nothing special.

PM - lunchtime - 6.5 miles with 6 striders at the end.  Less humid today, but even so, I felt pretty fatigued - with an overall malaise from start to finish on this one.  Regret not running early this morning.

PM - second run 8.25 in Tampa during Delaney's soccer practice.  Had a very pleasant run - sharp contrast to the earlier run today.  Humidity was only about 60% - probably the biggest difference.

PM - 10 miles on the treadmill at lunchtime. Felt ok.

PM - after a long day of driving to Altamonte Springs and back for Delaney's soccer game today - I started my run at around 6:30 pm - and just had very little energy - so I stopped at 2.5 hours and called it a night - right around 17.5 miles.

Took the day off - I think my first one in a few weeks. 

AM - 4 miles easy this morning - felt creaky and sluggish to start - probably ran ok - but was hoping the day off yesterday would have me feeling refreshed this morning - but as it turns out - not so much.

PM - lunchtime - I ran on the treadmill as the outside temperature seemed way too hot.  Glad I did.  I also wore the HR monitor for the first time in a while and decided to keep the pace in HR Zone 3 - as I think I may be doing some of my easy runs too hard.  Indeed I sometimes get impatient on runs and will pick up the pace just to get them completed faster.  I think this was a good idea - as I kept the pace pretty steady at 7:30-7:35 and had an avg HR of 137 for the 7 miles I ran.  Felt somewhat rested and less drained afterwards.

PM - good threshold workout.  2 mile warm up then 8 x 5 mins at 6:24 pace on the treadmill with a 30 sec rest between each one - then 2 mile cool down.  I used the heartrate monitor on this and had to slow the pace slightly on the last three to keep myself in the threshold zone and not exceed it.  Pleased with the effort. 

AM - easy 3.0 miles - shake-out run after yesterday evening's workout.  Felt good - though I tend to have a delayed onset of soreness - so expect either my second run today or tomorrow to feel it a bit more.

PM - short on time, I was able to squeeze in about 6.5 miles during lunch outside.  Though it was hot, the humidity was down - so it wasn't too bad.  I was extremely hungry during the run - to the point where I was a bit shakey.  Odd too, because I had breakfast and a granola bar and juice later in the morning too.

PM - 12 miles more or less during Delaney's soccer practice.  Nothing special.

Unplanned day off.  Had too much going on at work then drove my 2nd daughter, Riley, a senior this year in high school, to UF for a campus tour - then will stay for the Tennessee game on Saturday.

AM - had a horrible night sleeping at the hotel - lots of revellers for the Gator/Volunteer game were up late stomping around - plan was to try to get up early to get a long run in, knowing the rest of the day would be tough to get much more in -- but the lack of sleep kept me from getting up too early.  Got 10 miles in with a jaunt around the newly resurfaced track at UF.  People were already setting up tailgate parties at 7 am for a 3:30 pm game.   

Late night return from Gainesville, then church this morning followed by a soccer game for Delaney - was lucky to get this 5 miler in around 9:30 pm - just to avoid a DNR.  The next 10 days will be tough for my training as I have to travel extensively on business.

PM - nice 7.5 mile run around the Mall in our Nation's Capital after a long day at work and travel.  Pleasant evening with lots of runners and walkers out and about, made for a good evening.

AM -  Hotel in DC gave me a free pass to a Bally's Fitness club as they did not have their own fitness room - and because it was raining, I decided to use it for my workout this morning.  Had a surprisingly excellent workout - love when that happens unexpectedly.  2 mile warm up and cool down - with 4 x 10 mins at 6:24 pace (1% grade on theTM) with 2 min rest between each.  I would have to say this is the first time in this build-up that I was well in control and not overly stressed at this pace.  Felt very good, and could have easily punched up the pace a bit or gone longer for each of the workbouts.  Quite pleased with how I felt - especially since I have have been having a number of workouts where I have not felt very fit or strong.  Maybe the base training is finally starting to pay off.

AM - In Sydney Australia - lost Wednesday to time zone/air travel - arrived at the hotel on Thursday morning around 9 am and went out for a quick shake out run of about 3 miles around the North Sydney Oval - where they play cricket.  Very pleasant weather in the 60's and sunny.  Heading off for work meetings and hopefully catch up on a few hours of lost sleept this evening.

AM - Got a good night's sleep and was up at sunrise for a spectacular run from North Sydneay across the Harbor and around the Sydney Opera House and around a park and back - covering about 10.5 miles at a pretty good pace - with some short stops for photo ops.  Off to work meetings and hopefully a little down time tomorrow to see some sights.

AM - was not feeling all that great this morning and it appears that a rainy day is in store for Sydney so I decided to do a treadmill workout.  2 mile warm up then 4 x 1 mile at MRP then 2 mile cool down.  Felt kinda crappy. This workout was not in the original plan - but I think it is a good workout nonetheless given all of the travel etc.  Will try do a second run later in the day.

PM - after a little sightseeing and a visit to the Olympic Park I came back to the hotel and did another appx 8.5 on the treadmill (14k as they have them all metric here) as it was rainy and cold outside.  Had a reasonably relaxed run, then went out for dinner after watching World Cup Rugby (French v. NZ) at a nice restaurant / bistro called Felix. 

AM - last day in Sydney before heading to Melbourne.  Cold, rainy and windy, but I did not want to get on the treadmill again.  Ran around the harbor and across the bridge and back - felt very fatigued from the ups and downs of the terrain and from the long travel week by the end.

PM - short flight to Melbourne and a little daylight left allowed me to get a quick 4 miles in and take in a view of the city.  A run is really a great way to see a town when travelling.

AM - in Melbourne - easy to moderate 8 miles on a cool morning in the 40's.  Really pretty run through some parks and botanical gardens in the City - amazing how much faster I run when the temperature is not in the 90's with 80% or higher humidity.  I think I averaged 7:15 pace without much effort.

PM - in Auckland, New Zealand 4 miles rather quickly at close to 7 min pace and then 4 miles at threshold (6:25) pace or better along the water (Hobson Bay) in very cool temps in the 40's.  Had a long day of travel yesterday from Melbourne with a 3 hour time difference in NZ - putting us 17 hours ahead of US Eastern time - we arrived after midnight, took a hotel near the airport and then with only a few hours sleep headed to our offices in Whangarei NZ (pronounced with an "F" sound so it is "Fon Gar Ay") and then back around 4 pm in enough time for a run.  Would have loved to go further south to Nelson to see the US match in World Cup Rugby but it would have been too tight of a schedule and besides, I would have missed a great run.

AM - 10 miles on a brisk Auckland, NZ morning - I purposely held myself to 7:30 pace - as I noticed I was really hammering a lot of my runs with the cooler weather, just because it felt so easy - but then was getting fatigued later after the run - so this was a good respite.  Heading to Singapore this afternoon - where the weather will not be as comfortable. 

AM - 7.5 miles in a pre-dawn smoky, humid Singapore morning.  Travel from NZ yesterday with a 10 hour flight and a 5 hour timezone change had my body confused about normal sleep cycles - got about 5 hours of sleep last night but was up really early and decided to go out for a run to kill time before breakfast and business meetings today.  May get a second run in later today before heading back home.

PM - 8.0 miles in and around a jungle outside of downtown Singapore - a technical trail run with twists, turns, hills, rocks, roots, monkeys, crocs (or something like a croc) and plenty of heat and humidity.  Actually got turned around and ran further than planned, but it was a good workout to wear me out before my long flight home tonight to help me sleep.  If I could figure out how to post a video or photos on this blog - there was a very unexpected moment where a monkey came up and took Richie's drink bottle and opened it for himself as we were taking photos.  Really interesting experience.