Bret

AM - very slow and easy recovery shake-out from yesterday's long-ish run.   Getting to a point where the old body just does not bounce back as quickly as I would like even from moderate efforts on medium-long runs.   Oh well - nothing I can change about that - just roll with what I am given.

AM - 4.75 mile trail run with Dan who is back from a vacation in Maine.   Got to hear about his trip and catch up a bit.   He's out the next 2 days or so to take his son off to Va Tech for his first year in college.  

AM -  3.75 miles with Dan quite early as he leaves to take his son to college today.  Pretty decent pace after the first mile. 

AM - 5.25 miles solo this morning from Wood Valley into the North Valley neighborhood  and coming back all the way up Dinsmore instead of cutting over on the trail through the backyard.  Intentionally kept myself from even beginning to push at all today - wanting to not strain or injure anything in the last 10 days.  Not that I expect to run fast in the race - so it is a little weird to do, but my mindset is to be able to complete the event in a healthy and relaxed form. 

AM - 4.25 miles with Dan on the Milton Trail this morning.   Lots of people out walking and running on the trail this morning which is usually completely absent anyone except ourselves at that hour.   Felt crappy in the first mile and really the first half of the run - but seemed to be fine after the turn-around and distracted with conversation.   Dan was back from dropping his son off at college - his last child out of the house - and so our discussions centered around that change in his life stage with he and his wife now effectively empty-nesters with his older children already out of school and living on their own. 

AM - 3 miles - tapering.  First mile was extremely slow and unsmooth - slightly better in the second and got down to a decent pace in the third - but legs felt depleted - nutritionally.   Had a special gala function last night with some different foods - none of which had much in the way of carbohydrates and I did not do any fueling before the run.   Hamstrings telt much better after having breakfast.  

AM - 8 miles with the guys on the Greenway.   Relaxed feeling effort which was a little bit faster than the pace Richie and I plan to do Sydney next week - He's not been running very many miles due to work commitments, but he always gets up for these races - and the weather is supposed to be very comfortable in the upper 40's to start.