Bret

AM - awoke later than planned and then got absorbed with watching the women's marathon, so I just went out for an easy 4 to make it back in time for church.  Legs no worse for the wear after yesterday's 20. 

AM - 8 miles - hill training on the same hill as last Wednesday - with a few more drills.  Will be doing this workout on a bridge with Richie on Thursday if all goes as planned this week - for a longer, steeper effort.  Missed my second run yesterday - not intentionally, but life's events took me down a different path than expected.  Got to bed a bit earlier and got about 7 hours of sleep for a change and was well-rested when I went out this morning.   

PM - 8 more miles on the treadmill at lunch - which was well-timed to watch the pre-lims of the men's 800 and the first race of the women's 1500 pre-lim heat.  In between they showed women's synchronized swimming - not a big fan. 

AM - easy 6 miles before work - little stiff to start but moved along after that at a pretty reasonably clip.  Lots on my mind this morning unrelated to running, sorted some things out and was finished before I realized it.  One of the many things I enjoy about running...

PM - belated start and rather extremely muggy conditions this evening made for an unpleasant running environment.  Stayed on the light and easy side and ran just under 11 miles up Belcher by Innisbrook and across Klosterman Road and around by Helen Ellis Hospital in Tarpon Springs and then back down the trail past the Chimp Farm where the apes and orangutans were already snoozing, under the tunnel of Alt 19 past Well Springs park, through Crystal Beach and back by the high school. 

PM - 7 miles at lunch after a late night and an early start to work this morning.  Felt pretty rested on the run - got to catch part of the 5000 meter heat with Rupp at the end of the workout.  Will plan to do another recovery run after work this evening. 

PM - 6.5 miles more after work - a bit slower.  Not too much time between workouts today. 

AM - got up early with an invitation yesterday from Richie to run hills on the Misner Bridge down in St. Pete this morning.  Much to my surprise this is some kind of major St. Pete local runners' gathering place for hill running in an otherwise primarily flat geography.  The Misner Bridge is part of the causeway leading up to the Skyway Bridge - it is the last exit on 275 before the toll plaza and has a running/biking path that parallels the highway.  Counted at least 20 runners who all parked at a hotel near the beginning of the footpath at 5:45 am.  The path is marked with spray paint for a "start" and in .25 mile increments.   Bottom to top the bridge is 800 meters and probably a 4% grade - more or less.  I did 9 miles of hill drills including warm up and cool down while Richie did a tempo run.  Drew was there with a college runner doing a much faster tempo run at sub-6 pace.  Legendary masters runner Joe Burgasser (google him if you are curious http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18128 )  who is probably 75 years old now was out there - can't believe he's still doing workouts at his age. 

Although, this was a good hill on which to do the workout, it took me 40 mins of driving to get there.  And I had to get up at 4:30 am in order to make it to work on time.  The scenery of Tampa Bay is nice as the sun is rising, but the path is right next to the highway, with cars/truck barrelling along a 70 mph - quite loud.  Richie was kind enough to let me shower and clean up for work at his house which was on the way back to my office.  Not sure if I will make the trek next week for benefit of the hill.  The Clearwater Beach Bridges are actually steeper and may be a bit longer (and closer to my home). 

PM - 6 miles easy after work.  Legs felt a bit fatigued when I started but were fine after a couple of miles. 

AM - 6 miles easy this morning.  Felt ok - but not great.  Got some better sleep last night - nearly 7 hours. 

PM - 8.5 miles on the treadmill.  Expecting to still be fatigued, I planned just a rec. run, but after I got started, it did not seem like I needed to take it that easy - not that I felt really fresh or anything;  just thought I should moderately increase the effort through the run.  So, I gradually worked the pace down to MP on the last 2 miles. 

AM - early - 20 miles.  Drove down to St. Pete and met Richie and Drew at the North Shore Pool at 5 am..  Ran around the Pier for a toilet break and the made our way north through Snell Isle where we picked up Drew's friend Cameron who is in his second year of college at Emory.  We also picked up an acquaintance of Drew's named Scott who was about 15 miles in to his early run.  So we had a group of 5 skinny guys pounding through the pre-dawn hours of the Shore Acres neighborhood.   It was actually quite an enjoyable group with lots of conversation. 

Scott pealed off at 40th and headed back and then we ran up to 62 Ave and stopped for water at the Mangrove Bay golf course.  Continued north on 1st street to Richie's neighborhood where we picked up his friend Steve and stopped at Richie's house for water.  The pace was steadily increasing as the miles rolled on, with both Drew and Cameron happy to run sub 7:30's or better.  I felt good but decided when we picked up Steve to hang back with him and Richie and told Drew and Cameron to have at it.  And they did.  Within 2 miles they were out of sight.  We grabbed some water at Coffee Pot Bayou park and at our cars back at the pool - did a quick loop down the Pier and back to complete the effort.  Richie decided to run a couple more miles with Steve, but I had enough fun for one morning.