Bret

AM - a little over 5 miles this morning early in Grand Rapids before meeting for an early breakfast and heading to church.   Slighly warmer and more humid, effort was easy and slow recovery.   Left hip and a little on the right were a bit sore from yesterday's long run, but after a mile or so, it smoothed out.  

AM - 7.5 miles on my last day in Grand Rapids - we had a nice time visiting with Tracy's extended family members who live in the area.  Had great weather this morning at 49 degrees - requiring a shirt for my run today.  Ran east from where we were staying in town and made a rectangular loop back running through some historic neighborhoods with some grand homes that were built in the late 1800's by "lumber barons."   Misjudged my time, needing to get back for a breakfast we had scheduled with family, so I took advantage of some downhills to run the last 4 miles or so at sub 8 min pace.   I was really not feeling that great the last couple of mornings, but it was nice getting in some faster miles today.

AM - 4 miles very easy on the trail with Finn in the dark. 

PM - 3 miles on the treadmill after my workday was completed.   Interesting on our trip to Grand Rapids, one of Tracy's cousin's sons was talking to me at the dinner the evening before the wedding about how he'd run cross country back when he was in high school in the early 2000's and that one of his teammates ended up running in the Olympics in later years...and so I had to ask - thinking all the time, its not going to be Dathan Ritzenhein - but indeed it was.   He was 5th on the team the year they won states, and Dathan was of course their lead runner at Rockford High in Grand Rapids Michigan... over the weekend when we were at his dad's house he found a poster that the team had gotten done with their times on the championship team - he was right next to Dathan who I think ran like 14:30 or something like that.  Tracy's cousin Adam ran a respectable 16:19.   Very cool.   Dathan went on of course to have an outstanding running career, and Adam, well, he pointed to his gut and said he never ran a step after graduating high school.  :) 

AM - 5 miles in the neighborhood with Finn. 

AM - 5 miles with Dan and Finn in White Columns and on the golf course.   Got to hear about his college tour trip with his son that they did the last two days.  

AM - slightly less than 5 miles this morning with Dan and Finn from the high school and through Crabapple.  

AM - 16 miles early with the first 4 in the neighborhood with Finn, then I dropped him back at the house and ran to Redd and met Dan and Greg and ran with them for miles 7.6 to mile 14 and then headed home.   Felt decent the whole way - would have liked to have seen a faster pace but otherwise good. 

AM - 3.5 miles with Dan and the dogs on the trail before church.

PM - 3.0 miles in Boston - went for a quick shake out after my flight - here for a conference.  Gave me an excuse to run over to the Tracksmith store to try to find another merino wool running shirt (out of stock unfortunately).   

AM - ran from my hotel in town down to Riley's home in Jamaica Plain and did a run of just under 5 miles with her and headed back to the hotel for about 10.5 miles or so.  Good to meet up and catch up with her.  

AM - just 4 this morning from my hotel over the Harvard Bridge and up the Charles and back through the Garden.  

AM - 5 miles with Finn mostly on the trail.  They are doing some work to convert the northeast section of the old golf course - where we would run through the grass and parts of the old cart path - to begin the second phase of the crushed granite trail.  They've dug up and removed a good portion of the cart path and have piles of concrete to be hauled away.   Hopefully they will go much faster on this portion of the project and get the granite trail base down in the next couple of weeks.  

AM - just slightly under 5.5 miles with Finn through the neighborhood, across Birmingham and into the Groves neighborhood and back.   Quicker pace on the way back - I have noticed I seem to be in a slower training pace pattern and I would like to get back to where I am running consistently at least 30-45 seconds per mile faster at the same relative HR effort. 
 

PM - treadmill workout after my workday.  4 x 800 with full recovery after warm up.  Pace was around 3:15 for the last two.   Good effort.  Probably could have done more but was short on time and likely wiser for it.  

AM  - 5 miles with Dan and Finn on the Milton Trail.  

AM - 13 miles in total for my longer run today.   Did about 2.5 miles with Finn early in the neighborhood and then drove downtown to meet the guys and did around 10.5 miles with them - which was good because I felt really "off" when I started, but running in a group and getting distracted with conversation got me through it, and I actually felt reasonably good for much of the last part of the run. 

AM - 3.5 miles with Dan and the dogs on the trail before church.  

AM - 5.25 miles with Dan and Finn from Milton HS and through Crabapple.  

AM - 9 miles in NYC.  Coincidentally Dan was scheduled to be in NYC on business for his company as well - so we coordinated to run from our respective hotels (mine in Midtown and his Downtown) and then did a loop together.   We met on the Hudson River trail and shot over into the Village heading east and made our way back after going south for a bit.  It was kinda cool to do a run in a different city with my daily running partner.  

AM - just under 6 miles with colleague Aaron from our hotel in NYC up the Hudson River trail and then over to Central Park and back down 5th Ave.  Too fast as always with him but good conversation and company on a work /business trip.   

AM - 8 miles from my hotel in Hell's Kitchen up to Central Park around the reservoir and then over to Riverside and down the Hudson River trail.  Ran too quickly particularly when I entered the Park - (there are too many runners that make me feel like I need to compete in some way) so I ended up at threshold and then had to maintain for the second half of the run - slowing just a bit - but overall this was an unintended workout.   Going to need to take it easy tomorrow as we are traveling overnight on Friday to the UK.

AM - 4.75 miles on the trail with Dan and the dogs.  Needed an easier run today and got it.   They are doing a bunch of work on the trails making it a little challenging to navigate a bit at times.   

AM - 15 miles in London in a moderate to heavy rain.  Had a plan of a route but got a little lost but made it work.  

AM - 4.25 miles around Hyde Park in a drizzle with spells of no rain.  Felt a bit "off" this morning and so took it very easy.  May need a day more to adjust to the travel.  

AM - 6 miles from my hotel in Mayfair through Green Park and Westminster across the Thames and along it until the Millennium footbridge back towards St Paul's and back along the Mall.   Cloudy but no rain yet today.  Felt a little bit better today than yesterday but still not normal.  

AM - London Mayfair around the perimeter of Hyde Park to Kensington and back in a steady cool rain - pretty drenched when I finished.   Feeling a bit more normal today. 

AM - caught a cold late yesterday and was feeling a little stuffy and achy today.  Ran from the hotel passed the Palace and through Westminster toward Chelsea and over the Thames and along it back through the Mall and Green Park. Rain had ended shortly before the run and the sun made a rare appearance.  Heading home later today but may have delays due to a hurricane coming through the panhandle of Florida.  

AM - 3 miles on the treadmill this morning due to tropical storm Helene passing through at the time.   It really was not too bad outside other than a lot of rain, but we thought it was wiser not to venture outdoors.   I also picked up a cold on my travels and so thought that was a good idea to stay inside and run a bit shorter than normal.   

AM - I did a couple of miles in the neighborhood with Finn, then drove to the parking lot downtown to meet the boys. We ran out old Milton Parkway toward crabapple. Dan got stung by a bee or a wasp or something, and was preoccupied and distracted by the sting and decided to turn early. Greg and I continued on for the remainder of the run and ended up running the last few miles at about 7:45 pace. When we got back to the cars, we were surprised to see that Dan had not yet returned and so we called and found that he had taken a route through a neighborhood for some more miles and so we went out and met up with him and ran another mile and a half or so.  

AM - 3 mile jog with Finn before church.  Consciously tried to keep my effort as easy as possible.

AM - 5 miles with Finn in the neighborhood.   Good bit faster than yesterday.  Really trying to keep the efforts light and no straining or pushing as I am now less than 2 weeks before Chicago.  Even though my planned effort in Chicago will be to match pace with Richie - which I expect to be around about 9 min pace - which should be well within my level of fitness; I will also be doing NYC 3 weeks later with my two daughters - and so I will just be trying to do these events with measured sustainable efforts.