Bret

AM - between Delaney's soccer games today - easy 6 miles around the Clayton State University campus in Morrow, GA.  Nice again today, with a little more humidity.  Will be here overnight if her team wins in the semi-final match this afternoon - with a final game Monday at 12:30.  So - plan is to run a 10k race in Atlanta tomorrow if her team advances, but if they do not advance, I will do a long run at home tomorrow morning after a late flight this evening.  Her team has not lost yet, and has only given up one goal...so we'll see.

AM - in Morrow GA again.  The good news is that Delaney's team advanced to the finals today, but the bad news was the the 10k race I was hoping to run in Atlanta closed its registration before the end of her game on Sunday - and there was no race day registration or packet pickup.  A big race - with 11,000 runners on a point to point course.  Logistically, it would have been challenging to be able to get there and back in enough time to get Delaney to her game.  In the end I did not want to run in a race unregistered and would not have been in the right frame of mind to race well, worrying about that and getting back in time.  So I slept-in a little and did 12 miles this morning around the perimeter of the Clayton State University campus.  Felt kind of off this morning - and it was warmer and more humid - Did it at a moderate pace.  Not a bad run but certainly not as good as I have felt the last two days.

PS - Delaney's team won the Atlanta Cup U15 Girls Championship for the B Division following a 0-0 draw, two extra time periods and a penalty kick shoot-out.  Great finish to a great weekend.

AM - 4 miles easy this morning.  Significantly more humidity back at home in Florida - yuck. Trying to plan out the training for this week.  Will do a fast treadmill workout at lunch and then figure in a possible 5k race on Friday evening.

 PM - 6 miles - treadmill actually after work as I was too busy at work to take a lunch.  2 mile warm-up then 3 x 1 mile with 2 min recovery at 1% incline.  Did them at 5:44, 5:33 and 5:32.  Felt reasonably strong throughout.  Thought about doing a 4th one, but decided it was good enough.  Interested in gauging the recovery - as the last few hard workouts I end up with a 24 hour delay in actually "feeling" it; and needing the recovery day not the day after, but the 2nd day after. 

PM - took the morning off and did an easy 7 miles at a late lunch today.  Quite hot outside, still summertime hot here.  Last mile was probably not needed - so I feel a little drained from the high temps.  Otherwise a good run - no signs of soreness from yesterdays workout.

AM - easy 4.0 miles early this morning.  No issues or problems.  Will do an easy 6 at lunchtime or later. 

PM - easy 6 miles on the treadmill at lunchtime.  Kept the pace in the low 7 to 7:30 range - very light.

Well - the time is not so great - but under the rather uncomfortable conditions of over 90 degrees and over 90% humidity at the end of a long work week - I am not too upset.  I was second overall in the race.  The winner was well out in front of me by nearly a minute and a half and the next closest competitor to me was over a minute behind.  I think I lost concentration somewhere in the second half of the race and though I thought I was maintaining an even pace - I slowed more than I realized.  First mile was 5:55 second was 6:12 and third was 6:35.  Race started on the small beach end of Fred Howard Park which has a long causeway out to it.  It is nearly a mile from the beach to the park on the causeway.  I  had moved my way into 2nd place about 3/4 of a mile into the race and could see the leader when he hit the first mile split and it appeared that he was under 5:30.  I never saw him again after he turned.  When we entered the park we made a series of twisty turns for all of the second mile which slowed me down a bit.  When we emerged from the park we had the last mile heading straight into the sun with a slight headwind.  The leader may have been in front of me but the sun's angle was blinding so I really couldn't see anyone to focus on.  With no one close behind - I think a zoned out a bit.  I finished strong and really did not feel spent afterward.

Immediately following the race, I ran back across the causeway to the park to my car to make it to Delaney's cross country meet in Tampa.  She was supposed to run at 8:00 pm but was designated to the JV squad which I had not expected, and they started at 7:10 (exactly when I left Tarpon)  - so I got the play by play from my wife who was there and arrived just when she finished. 25:20 for her first HS 5k cross country race.  She was first on her team to finish and later when the varsity girls ran, it turns out that her time would have been 5th on the varsity team this evening.  So she will move up in the next meet. 

The XC meet location was a mud bog in high heat and humidity.  I counted 7 ambulances on the scene - all actively administering first aid to distressed runners.  Delaney's team's number one runner  actually pulled out the race just before the second mile but then later rejoined.  It was  just that hot and humid.

Delaney lost a shoe in the first mile - in a thick mud bog - and she was quite upset at the end of the race because she only had one shoe on for the last two miles.  She was not alone - many many athletes lost shoes on the course. 

It was a great night though - we stuck around to watch two other races and then went to my friend's sandwich shop "Henry's" for meatball subs.  Mud and sweat all over us. 

With the warm up and the cool down I got about 7.5 miles in this evening.  I think if the conditions were better and there was more competition I would have been in the low 18's. 

Rest day following race last night.  Attended Delaney's club soccer game in the morning - heat index was 105.  Ouch.