Bret

Took the day off from running to spend time with the family on Mother's Day.  Also was my daughter, Bradlea's birthday - who was born on Mother's Day 23 years ago.  Had a nice day.

AM - 4 miles with about 6 x 8 second striders.

PM - lunchtime workout on the treadmill. 8 x 400 with full recovery - with the exception of the first couple - I pretty much did these at 80-81 seconds or 5:21 pace.   This was a good workout for me.  Expect to feel a bit sore as this is the fastest that I have run in a while.  Normally I would have taken an extra day of recovery after a Saturday race, but I really felt like I had a workout in my legs today - and in hindsight, given that I was able to run these as well as it seems that I did; then I think my result on Saturday was more along the lines of not dialing in the right pace early on and not having done really any speed work in months.  And the fact that I was not sore or tired (although I did take yesterday off) I kinda feel like my effort on Saturday was more equivalent to a a short tempo run workout than a race effort.   Will do a few weeks of mixing in some more faster turn over/speed work and see how that impacts the next 5k result.

AM - 5 miles very easy this morning in a light rain.  Did not feel too sore after yesterday's workout. 

AM - 3 miles easy before work.

PM - limited time - 6 miles at lunch.

PM - had to get to work early this morning, so no morning run.  10 miles on the treadmill at lunchtime.

AM - 4 miles in the morning with the sunrise on the golf course before getting ready for work.  A bit tired and tight for some reason - but the softness of the surface was nice.

PM - So I decided to do another workout this week.   I thought it went well.  4 x 1200 at 6 min pace per mile or better with a 4 min recovery on the treadmill following a 15 min warm up. Did the first three at the following ppm 6:00, 5:54, 5:49 (so between 4:28 and 4:21 for the actual time per rep) and then on the last one instead of stopping at 1200, I decided to complete the full mile at 5:49 pace.  Finished with a mile cool down.

Granted, these are on a treadmill, but I still felt good about my speed and ability to sustain the pace for the workout. 

I have noticed over the last several workouts, that I am really fatigued and tired the second day following the hard effort both mentally and physically, but then I am ok by the third/fourth day.  Much more so than when I was younger.  

Trying to strike the proper balance the benefit of the workouts against the potential for injury and fatigue (a constant in this sport, I well know) - is to me a more profound challenge I am encountering as I near age 50.

AM - nice easy 10 miles this morning with our house guest Nick - who is here with his with and baby daughter for the weekend.  Went out after for about a 3 mile walk with Finn who got "fixed" this week and by doctors instructions is not permitted to run for at least 10 days.