Bret

PM - easy to moderate 6.0 mile recovery run.  Weather was good - much less humidity and mid 80's - felt like Fall.

PM - at the gym, did 20 miles on the treadmill.  Richie joined me for the first 10 miles or so, mostly running, but taking time to stretch and chat and show me some core exercises I should incorporate in my strength training.  Felt fine running at 7:30 pace with a 1% grade for most of the way.  Started feeling a little crappy at 16 miles so in mile 17 I ran a marathon race pace mile - to change things up.  That wore me out, so I ran the last two  miles at 7:40 pace with no incline.  LOL.  Drank a myoplex protein drink and some gatorade and then did an ice bath when I got home.  Rob, thanks for the suggestion to use swim jammers with the ice bath - that made it a little more tolerable.  Little bit concerned about feeling rough toward the end, but still have time to be rested before the race and I am training pretty hard.

PM - lunchtime run - easy recovery run - first few miles were around 8 - 8:30 then increased to comfortable 7:30's or better but still in recovery feel.  Richie met me at the trail around the lake at Feathersound at the end of the run and took me through a core strength training routine for about 20 mins that pretty much nearly killed me.  Then I jogged back to the gym. 

AM - early start - 9.0 miles or so including warm up and cool down - track workout.  Richie met me at the Palm Harbor Middle School track at 5:30 am.  Cruise intervals with short rest.  3 x. 1 mile and 3 x 800.  Plan was to do the miles at 6:20 with a short rest and then the halves at 3 mins with a shorter rest.  Did the miles all at 6:10 - 6:13 and the halves all at 2:53- 2:55.  2.5 min rest on the miles and 1 min rest on the halves.  I was pretty tired/fatigued from Monday's 20 miler and yesterday's strength / core training and was not mentally up for this workout.  Richie was constantly in my ear pushing me through - can't thank him enough for the commitment - the track was dark (no lights) so at one point he found a flashlight app on his i-phone and ran next to me for a while shining the light on the track!  LOL.

Felt good to get the workout done - and pushed through some tired mental thoughts today.

PM - lunchtime recovery run of 6.0 miles.  Kept it light and easy - then did buttkicks, high knees, bounding and striders at the end.  Followed up with core/strength work for about 15 mins in gym.  Quite sore still from my first day of core work on Tuesday.

Rest day

AM - 10 miles total - 2 mile warm up with 8 miles at marathon race pace.  Did not feel all that great this morning - but decided to push through it.  Felt good about mental toughness of running on a day when it would have been my preference to back off the pace when I wasn't feeling it.