Bret

AM - just under 6 miles this morning.  Started off very slowly expecting my body to be tired - but it really wasn't.  Pleasant run around the neighborhood. 

AM - so I took my second half of yesterday as a rest period before moving into the hill resistance phase of my training today - I think I needed a little rest if not physically, definitely mentally.  Watched the Olympics and dozed off to a nap in the early afternoon etc. 

So not having done this specific type of training before, I am doing so with a bit of a trial and error approach.  I found a little hill about 2 miles from my home with which to proceed with my steep hill running.  Basically a run up the hill with slow forward momentum concentrating on good posture and exagerrated knee lift.  The "hill" is only about a 3% gradient over about 700 meters.   Not sure if that is steep enough.  Anyway, I did the "up" and then jogged for about 400 meters and then ran back down the hill quickly at about 6 min pace, jogged for another 400 meters and then did the up again.  Repeated the "up" 3 times and did a cool down back to my house.  Definitely felt it in my quads and was a bit wobbly afterwards.  The reading I have done on this suggests gradually working into this and limiting the effort on the first few sessions to only 15 mins.  I may have done about 20 mins this morning.  I think I may need to find a steeper hill to really get the benefit of the workout.  Perhaps my friend Bam may have some input on this.

Planning an easy session on the treadmill at lunch for recovery.

 PM - 8 miles on the treadmill at lunchtime, mostly between 7:03 and 7:15 pace.  Very comfortable.  Wore the HR monitor which is a measure I use to evaluate my fitness level every week or two.  Easily maintaining the low 7 min pace at under 140 bpm shows continued progress.  As an example - in the Paris Marathon in April - I struggled to run at 7:08 pace at 160 bpm.  Now I am cruising through a recovery 8 miles at faster pace at 20 bpm less than I was 4 months ago.   Hopefully this trend will continue. 

AM - 5 miles easy before work. Legs no worse for the wear from the first hill session yesterday - probably took it too easy and the steepness was insufficient.  Will head down to Clearwater for tomorrow's session. 

PM - 12.5 miles on the treadmill after work due to a thunderstorm which kept me inside. 

AM - 7.25 miles including 2 miles of warm up and same of cool down and hill resistance training in between.  Was up too late last night watching the Olympics to get up early to drive to Clearwater to run the bridges for hills, so I went to different hill location than Monday which was steeper but only about 150 - 175 yards long.  Spent time doing sets of steep hill running, bounding and sprining drills.  Was very fatigued on the warm up and completely shattered on the cool down back to the house.  Could be some DOMS from Monday's workout.  This hill was not as steep has I had thought it was in my mind's eye, once I got to it.  Nevertheless it was steeper and given the weariness of my legs now, I assume it was sufficient for the intended work I was doing. 

PM- Richie called me just before lunchtime and we met outside the gym for an easy run.  Did the dreaded dump run because there was a storm brewing to the north and east, but to the south it looked relatively clear.  Only one crack of lightning as we left the parking lot and with the exception of a few raindrops we kept dry.  Winds were blowing the stinky landfill odors our direction on the way out.  Got 7.5 miles in at about 7:30 pace with some good chatting along the way.  I had to hit the showers and get back to the office for a meeting, while Richie continued for a couple more.  Anyway, he did a nice workout yesterday with Drew - where Richie did 4 x 1 mile at 5:40 pace off a 90 second rest.  Drew did 3 x 2miles at the same pace and rest.  Those boys are as fit as Bam. 

AM - 8 miles this morning before work.  Felt a bit stiff to start, then ran a bit more quickly than my norm for an early morning run, which then wore me out to the point where I backed off and finished up with a light gentle run in the last couple of miles. 

PM -  8 more miles  at lunchtime.  Feeling a bit fatigued today.

AM - 4 miles very easy this morning.  Quite tired getting up today - noticed my RHR was a little elavated so I decided to keep things short and easy.  Really felt refreshed afterwards - not too far and not too hard - Will play it by ear as to my second workout today.  May do some LT work or may continue to keep it aerobic and light. 

PM - had a great workout at lunch.  20 min warm up then 25 mins at sub AT; then 1.5 miles cool down.  Though I had not read Bam's suggestion before I headed to the gym to consider doing another recovery run, I had in my mind that if I felt reasonably rested and relaxed in the warm up I would go for it, otherwise I would just keep it easy.  

I would describe this as a "time trial" of sorts, because I really have not tested what I can do since starting this aerobic build-up a few months ago.  So I started out at what I thought was my threshold pace at 6:20 but within a few minutes I realized that this was not fast enough and gradually settled in at 6:03 which is what I ran at for basically 4 miles.  Wore the heartrate monitor and never exceeded my anaerobic threshold number of.  Also wore my Ascics Tarther racing flats.  Felt very excited with this and fairly confident I could run just about sub 6 min pace for a 10k based on this effort. 

AM - early start at 5 am.  Met Richie in downtown Clearwater and did an out and back over to the north end of the beach over the bridge and back for 7.  Got a drink and headed back out over the bridge to do the "big loop" which goes over the Sand Key bridge and the Bellair bridge and back through Bellair.  We made wrong turn and ended up finishing up along the trail instead of along the golf course.  Richie was a bit tired a slowed somewhat in the last few miles and I slowed to wait for him.  Pretty good group of runners showed this morning at 6 am and we saw them going out as we were coming back in from the first loop.  Linked up with Heather and friend Debbie as we crossed the Sand Key Bridge - they are both training for a half ironman in September.  Ran about mile with them until we pulled away.  Very solid good long run for me this morning.  No soreness or fatigue to speak of from the training this week.