Bret

AM - 3 miles with Finn before heading up to Asheville to church and to spend the day exploring the downtown a bit. 

PM - a little over 6 miles along hwy 64 to view Toxaway Falls after spending the day in Asheville. 

AM - about 4.5 miles this morning- part of it with Finn.  He was spooked about something- and so he cut his workout a bit short - so I went back out afterwards.  Upper 40's - crisp mountain air.  Pleasant little run. 

AM - so yesterday ended up being just a one run day - as we did some canoeing and then later played tennis - and the daylight was gone before I knew it.  As a result I decided I would head out early before we got busy today.  Ended up heading down a couple of side roads which had some very aggressive dogs - and after a couple different efforts I just cut it short to slightly over 3 miles.  

PM - We traveled to Pisgah National Forest and did a hike that Delaney had done with a cross country camp at Brevard College a few summers ago.  I thought we were were doing about a 2 mile hike - which I planned to run down and then take an alternate route up for about 5 miles.  Again my plans changed, as we unintentionally took a trail that was 4.4 miles up to John Rock - which really was only runnable for a portion - with way too many roots and tight areas.  When we finally reached the rocky outcropping of John's Rock we had hiked for nearly 3 hours.  Our way back was a bit over 2 miles - which I later googled and found out we covered about 7 miles in total.  So I am counting it, since it took about 4 hours.  My puppy Finn came with us, and was a trooper - enjoying every minute of it.

PM - tired from the long hike yesterday so I slept in.  Went out around 4 pm with Riley to a different trailhead in Gorges State Park on Frozen Creek Road - we found a runnable trail called Catebreak - which in its full length is over 10 miles out and back - but she developed  a blister and was really not in shape for that distance anyway.  Good for 5 miles and some nice conversation. 

AM/PM - we went to Gorges State Park today for a 4 mile hike to see Rainbow Falls, which was really worth the effort.  Following the hike, which took a couple of hours, I had Tracy and the girls, take the jeep back to the cabin, and I ran back to tack on an additional 6 miles for the day.

AM - 1.5 miles with Finn before packing up the cars to head home.

PM - 4.5 miles late in the afternoon - thinking about doing a race tomorrow morning. 

Decided late yesterday that I wanted to race today.  There were several races to choose from, but I ended up selecting the MamaBear 5k in Buckhead.  When I was warming up, I ran into another race going on close by - a Race for the Cure event.   Riley and Delaney expressed vague interest yesterday evening in racing, but I was pleased that the both decided to get up and head down with me.

A bit disappointed with a couple of aspects for this effort.   1.  The time, of course, but more so with regard to the fading last mile; 2. Loss to a gent in the last tenth of a mile who I traded leads with for most of the race, and who ultimately was the overall masters winner.  Consolation was that he was 7 years my junior.   Have not run a 5k in ages, so the first mile was somewhat cautious/conservative at 6:37, second mile 6:32 (all of which made sense given my recent 3 x 2 mile workout in the same range), but the last mile ended up 7:07.  Little mental lapse in the last half mile resulted in me letting my competition pass me and let my pace drop off by 30 or more seconds.  

Overall, though, there were positives.  Course was very nice - not too hilly, and the event was well organized.  I saw improvement in pace per mile - since the 10k I did a few weeks ago (granted it was a 10k and not a 5k) - and felt stronger today then I did then.  And it seems that I have selected relatively small races in the last 2 - which have resulted in age group wins. 

My girls ran together and surprised me with a neck and neck sprint to the finish at 28:30.  They really enjoyed the race, and I love how even at their ages - they are still very close and enjoy each other's company.

I think I need to see where my speed has gone.  I will do a little work over the next few month in my training - with the hope of seeing more speed come back - but may ultimately have to adjust to "old man" times if things don't start to show improvement.  

PM - easy 4 miles shake out in the early evening on the golf course.