Bret

AM - did an easy 4 miles shake out this morning.  Using some older Gel Nimbus shoes that felt like the compression was gone on them this morning - either that, or my legs felt like lead, but definitely one of the two.  Running at Midnight race tonight - we'll see if they loosen up by then.

PM - Midnight Run - With a pretty late night storm causing some indecision in my house about whether to run this race, my daughters all bailed, but I decided the storm was about overwith and after a hurried registration and warm up was quite pleased with the rain having ended and the weather conditions not as warm and humid as it usually is.  Saw Doug during my warm up and right after the turn around during the race itself.  Race was full of high school cross country boys and girls.  I was running reasonably well (though I could not see my watch in the dark and was only guessing at pace) through 2 miles where I edged up to what I thought was my age group competition.  Just then I had an immediate and urgent GI issue - which caused me to back off the pace to keep things in order.  (Fortunately it turns out my competition was the next age group up).  Came out of it and finished well over the last half mile.  Splits turned out to be 6:04, 5:59 and 6:28.  Won my age group with this same time 2 years ago too.

Doug ran well - 20:19 (I think) and I met up with him and Travis and the rest of his family after the race.  Travis ran 17:44, finished 6th overall but 4th in his age group.  Bunch of young ones up front in this one!

Decided not to do the 10k after the stomach issues - and feeling generally too fatigued to head back out in the dark especially with the wet roads and no lighting except for luminaries out on the Causeway.

Anyway - not too bad of a night. 

Ended up taking today off to spend it with the family for July 4th.  Breakfast, then beach, then soccer game (Rowdies v. Stikers) at Al Lang field in St. Pete, followed by the fireworks.  As my daughter put it:  "A successful July 4th celebration with the family."

AM - 4.0 miles easy with Delaney this morning.   She had backed out of the Midnight Run on Sunday night, but awoke early yesterday and had her sister drive her to the gym to run on the treadmill before we went to the beach (sister was not happy about that) - so I have to give her credit for her committment.  Anyway, we did an easy run this morning, which was tougher on her than it should have been - but it was considerably humid (88%) at 6 am.  She's headed off to a running camp for 2 weeks on Sunday and wants to be ready for it. 

My left foot was sore again this morning - which I attribute to the race on Sunday night in racing flats.  Probably a combination of intensity and lack of much cushioning / support in the shoes (Ascics Tarther).  Will do a secondary run this evening.

PM - 11 miles easy this evening after work.  Actually after my first day back to work after vacation, I was not really motivated to go out to run, so it really was not "easy" to do.  Had a decent run though as I went through Spanish Trail and the up Belcher to the extension past Alderman and turned around by the girls' elementary school.  I remember in high school we'd come up to Alderman Rd to run "hills" - as that was about as close as we could get to finding any of them.

AM - 3.5 miles with Riley and Delaney this morning.  Riley's morning swim practices changed from MWF to Tues/Thursday - (she has afternoon training everyday) so she wanted to continue to work on her fitness with cross training (what swimmers call "dry land training") on her off-mornings.  She sort of struggles and complains as a true fish out of water when we run.   I really enjoy running with them as they chat and cut up on each other.  Delaney revealed to me yesterday that she prefers running with me because it keeps her from stopping when she's feeling lousy -and when she can't run with me she goes to the gym to run on the treadmill because she feels that she won't stop because the people in the gym would see.  Funny stuff.

Anyway - I will do a secondary run either at lunch or at the end of the day today.

PM - lunchtime 10 miles on the treadmill.  Cool indoor temps with the ipod for a change, made for a pretty enjoyable run today. 

AM - 5.5 miles in a very humid slog of a run this morning. Tropical system is moving in from the south making the already steamy weather even more thick and heavy.  Delaney went with Riley to the YMCA to run on the treadmill during Riley's morning swim workout, so that Delaney could do some strength work following her run.  I did not have time for all of that so, just ran on my own this morning.

PM - 12.0 miles at the gym on the treadmill.  I did a heartrate zone workout using the Garmin.  First time I have done this.  I set it for a range which would have been roughly zone 4 between 155 and 163 bpm.  The Garmin will provide an alert if the HR drops below or goes above the target zone.  I  first did a 2 mile warm up and then 9 miles at a pace which averaged roughly 6:40-6:45 except the last couple of miles where I was exceeding the target zone perhaps because my body temp was going up and so I reduced the incline and then the pace slightly to keep it close to the zone.  Then I did a mile warm down.  The zone is basically my MRP.  Little disappointed that the ppm was not faster and that I had to slow it a bit to keep it in the zone, but overall, I thought it was a useful workout. 

AM - significant thunderstorm this morning required Delaney and I to go to the YMCA to run on the treadmills this morning.  Felt surprisingly fresh and not fatigued from yesterday evening's workout.

PM - After a bit of a stressful workday I went out for a run in a light rain this evening - 8 miles easy.  Actually did not really feel all that great.  Not sure if the fatigue in my quads was from yesterday's workout as a delayed onset, the two treadmill runs, or the extra miles this week, but this was a bit of a slog. 

AM - very early start to get out before the heat.  Planned to meet my friend Ken with the group who meets in downtown Clearwater to run over the beach bridges.  Ken is just starting his training for the Vegas marathon in December, so he was not up for a really long run.  As a result I went down early and ran for an hour before he and group arrived at 6 am.  We started with a plan to run a bit longer, but Ken was not feeling his best, and though I would have been tempted to do 20 total, we only did an hour together - so 2 hours total for me and just under 16 miles.  Ready for a rest day as was feeling a bit fatigued at the end myself.