It's all relative

PM: on my feet all day moving, so went out in the rain for a run in East Lake for the first time. My legs were tired.

AM: long, structured run with Drew in downtown St. Pete. Goal for me was to run a total of 18 miles with a 15mile tempo at 6:45 pace. I kind of talked myself up from 10, then to 12, then 15, and eventually finished with 16 at close to MP. I'm my own worst enemy with peer pressure.

Splits

6:53, 6:40, 6:45, 6:48, 6:48, 6:45, 6:52, 6:50, 7:39, 6:54, 6:52, 6:59, 6:25, 6:39, 6:39, 6:34

Not so sure about that 7:39, but that may have been from when we met up at Demens? My watch was having a very bad day today overall, so who knows. Even with that weird mile I was averaging 6:49, which isn't too bad, and the last couple felt good and quick.

Cool down miles were rough at the end. Downpouring and tired legs are not a good combo.

AM: rained out. Gym treadmill busted.

PM: 11 miles solo in the floods/ John Chestnut Park.

AM: 6 miles solo, East Lake.

PM: "Track" was on the treadmill today. Workout I chose was one I had been thinking about doing for a while now as a 5k specific training session. Workout was: 2.25 mile warmup, 400, (2 minute rest), mile, (4 minute rest), 4x1000, 400, then a 2 mile cooldown. Quarter mile recovery jog between each of the last 5 items. The goal was to stay fast and not decrease speed on any item.

400- 1:30

Mile- 4:59

1st 1000- 3:05 (4:58 pace)

2nd 1000- 3:05 (4:58 pace)

3rd 1000- 3:05 (4:58 pace)

4th 1000- 3:03 (4:55 pace)

400- 1:12 (4:50 pace)

Treadmill makes hitting splits a breeze and also made sure I didn't do any sprinting at the end. It felt really nice to NOT do a workout in the blazing heat or rain. I don't think this workout means anything at the moment for upcoming races, but it's a good sign for the winter season.

AM: 5 miles solo, treadmill

PM: 6 miles solo, Palm Harbor

AM: Track workout in Safety Harbor with RunVie.

I got a ride from Rick, thankfully, as he lives nearby. Workout was 4x1200s with each 1200 consisting of 6 alternating 200s at hmp and 5k pace, followed by active recovery. I aimed for 43-45 and 38-40 respectively. Managing paces for 200m I learned is incredibly difficult, and this was a challenging workout simply for trying to get the paces right. I found this very beneficial not for the work I did, but moreso for managing my form, arm carriage, and noticing how to change paces and "sit" in them. I had a great conversation with Dan about how he likes to use this tactic in races like 10k's where the pace is in between as a strategy to get ahead of someone but not burn out. I suppose if you've been racing 30 years like he has, you might actually be able to consciously think about strategy during a race as opposed to drooling and worrying about toilets like the rest of us!

Splits (were a mess)-

Set- HM, 5K, HM, 5k, HM, 5k

Set 1- 45, 41, 45, 39, 47, 38

Set 2- 43, 38, 45, 38, 42, 38

Set 3- 43, 38, 46, 38, 46, 37

Set 4- 40, 37, 43, 38, 45, 37

3 miles was just right for this workout with the hard one I did on Tuesday.

AM: 9 miles on the treadmill.

PM:  Rain run.  

AM: 4 miles on treadmill. Them weights: chest, tris, shoulders

PM: warmup then 5-mile Fartlek. Very underrated workout. Need to do more of these...

AM: 10 miles in John Chestnut

PM:5 miles to check out the new job- man I live close... for better or worse.

AM: Track workout.  Light workout given my high intensity workouts scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.  No watch, just a track and 5k race pace speeding up as I went along to strider speed to finish the last 3.  Workout was: 3x200, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, 100 with 100-200m jog in between each item.  The last three items I did at strider pace, not sprinting.  Pace was at 5:10-5:15 for the first item according to those running near me, and then I just went by feel trying to mimic it.  

So, today was different.  Woke up at 3:30am and couldn't sleep, and decided to join RunVie for their 5:30am Tuesday track run which I've never been to.  I got there and only recognized 3 people and only really knew 1 of them and no one at my pace, so that was a tough start.  At the end of the workout, I felt as if I could do more and faster, which was what I wanted to feel after, but I'm very surprisingly feeling quite sore in my feet/achilles, which is usually a bad sign for me.  The plan is still to do both 5ks this weekend, but I suppose my body dictates what actually happens.  I'll try a shakeout later today likely and/or take a day off.  

AM: 4 miles on the treadmill then chest, tris, shoulders.

PM: 8 miles.

Planned day off. First day back to work!

PM: 8 miles, 7 striders

AM: 5 miles, a couple of striders (6).

PM: Likely skipping the track 5k. Game time decision I guess. I suppose in the end I want to be very healthy for the winter, and I am starting to learn my body now entering my 7th year of running (it'll be 6 years ago on Tuesday since I started! Happy run birthday to me!), Therefore, I can kind of tell running two hard 5k races in 12 hours isn't the best idea at least currently. Although it'd be nice and more mangeable to PR on a race with tons of faster runners and a rubber track, on the other hand it's the dead of summer in Florida. In other words, I'd be a fool to expect to run a top-notch race with such heat, humidity, and dewpoint.

I am feeling much more relaxed with this decision and can chase a PR later on in the season and can just have fun tomorrow 's road 5k instead. Fortunately, tomorrow's course is probably the only truly accurate one in the series, so at least I can gauge my fitness a bit and start comparing some numbers to last year to update my expectations for my half and marathon coming up.

Race season begins again! This was a local 5k with 440 people total doing it, so pretty small, but a pretty great after-party. This was my third year in a row doing it, so I knew the course quite well- an out and back with fifteen or so 90-degree turns. I didn't see any runners I knew and then all of a sudden Nick Miehe pops out of nowhere, possibly the last person I'd expect at a 5k road race. I knew I wasn't in his class if he was in shape, but I was excited to hang on for fun as long as I could. I took the first mile in 5:09, and wondered why he was not about 5-10 seconds ahead of me, so I looked back and saw him about 30 seconds back with 2 other guys. I was utterly shocked. Mile 1.5 clicked through at the same exact pace, and turned around and fortunately saw them about 45 seconds back. I was grateful for this as my legs were slowly cramping. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was apparently running with his dog, so that explains the 17:41 finish. The rest of the race was taxing in the sun and (un)fortunately at the end- as I wasn't close enough to break 16 to worry about breaking it- I didn't have to do any sprinting or speed up at all. I was very thankful for that as I had some terrible leg cramps by that point. It ended up being a weeny PR, slicing a couple extra seconds off, so that's always nice.

I really don't understand this cramping issue I continue to battle in races, and seemingly races only. During the cooldown I was literally limping for the first mile until my heart rate dropped. This cramping happened last year and the year before that in this exact same race, and likely will happen in the 10k race in a month- as it has happened the last two years there, too. I'm guessing it's overheating related at this point, but I don't know for sure, just that it tends to be the most severe in summer races.

Rough Splits (poor gps)

Mile 1- 5:09

Mile 2- 5:20

Mile 3- 5:24

Finish- 0:22

PM: 12 miles

PM: track workout in St. Pete. Workout called for 600 repeats. I joined in with Drew, Quint, and Cory for the last half of their bridge/hill repeats. Workout called for: 2 sets of 5x600s with 200m in between items and 400m between the two sets. The "hills" after were approximately 0.1mi with the downhill being the recovery. All active recoveries.

Splits

Set 1- 1:55, 1:51, 1:54, 1:52, 1:45

Set 2- 2:00, 2:03, 1:57, ------, ------

Bridge inclines:31, :26, :25, :24, :22

Went way too fast in the first set. Wanted to keep them around 1:55, but the high schoolers kept challenging those paces at different times, and I just couldn't help being competitive. The 1:45 really did me in. Bailed on the final two and join the hills to get some form and quad work in,

I FINALLY got my friend Cory to make it out to track. Ideally he will come every Tuesday. Now if only I can convince Tyler to join we'd have something going... Drew is understandbly focused on doing marathon specific stuff, so I am trying to stop being lazy with my workouts as they're mostly solo. We'll see.

PM: 11 miles in the sun. Gotta work that tan...

AM: track workout in Safety Harbor with RunVie. Workout was intended to be something Dan called a "flush out." No idea what the hell that means, but he's been doing track forever...

1200, 2x400, 800, 3x200, 600, 4x200, with 400 active recovery between long items, 200 between short items, descending speed starting at 10k pace, then 5k, then 3k, then mile pace.

My paces started at 5:30 per mile and then dropped eventually to 4:20 or so. Just not useful speeds overall, as my fitness can't match those in a correct workout. Still entirely too much rest in between items, so I just kept jogging extra which is just giving too much recovery... Enough to turn an 8.25 mile intended workout into 9 miles... Next week I plan on just keeping the correct speed for a longer time and then returning to the group to get the same "time-spent-working-hard" benefit I'm clearly cheating myself out of. I'm disappointed I wasted this workout, but hopefully, finally, learned something from it.

No running today.  Helped a friend move.  

AM: solo run. Need new shoes.

AM: Was expecting to do about 20-22 miles today, with ideally 10 fast miles at around 5:55 pace after a couple miles of warmup.  Got through about 6 and thought I'd heart out the rest at whatever pace- just if anything to make me learn a lesson.  It was an ill-thought out choice and I threw in the towel after 8.  Also unforutunately had to have Drew drive me back to my vehicle at the halfway mark which was forever away.  Although I'm very thankful- it would have been a terrible waddle back...

Splits for the "10 miles"

(3 mile warmup), 5:51, 5:52, 5:53, 5:55, 5:55, 5:59, 6:23, 6:40, xxx, xxx (3 mile cooldown w/ strides)

I just need to work smarter- I wasn't ready for that workout and I need to realize I'm constrained by my fitness I have- not the fitness I think I have- and shouldn't just expect results that I haven't had indicators for.  In the end, I'd rather fail in practice than in the game and thus I'm happy with the 6 miles and it can only help.  Period.

PM: 11 tired, slow miles slugging through the heat.  

PM: track workout. 1600, 1200, 2x800, 4x400 with 200 between each similar item and 400 rest between each different item. Splits: 1600- 5:19 1200- 3:55 800s- 2:37, 2:35 400s- 1:18, 1:15, 1:15, 1:12 Hot, humid, gross day. Just trying to descend paces from 5:20 downward. Very lucky to have Drew out there today. I was still feeling Sunday's workout too, sadly. Jim, quint, Charles, and Cory were also welcome additions. News on Sean G is that he is back running 10 miles a day and 20 mile long runs... Tyler should be joining us on Tuesday too, although he's a wildcard but he did run college and he just got out... This is shaping up to be a phenomenal training season for the Fall at this rate!

Too busy with school today.  Stuck there from 7am to 7pm.

AM: Track workout.  Workout was honest Yasso 800s- did the full 10x800 with active recovery of about 400m to equal the time of each 800.  Warmup of about 3.5 miles.

Splits- 2:42, 2:42, 2:42, 2:40, 2:41, 2:41, 2:40, 2:39, 2:41, 2:33

This is generally a tough workout since it is so long.  I wanted to be right around 2:40-2:42, and I was very pleased with this workout.  Even the last item did not feel too bad and I didn't reach down too deep for it which I'm happy about.  Everyone bailed as there was lightning (but no rain) a couple of miles away, but I was already geared about after being too busy to run yesterday, so I had to run.  The weather was very humid, so I had doubts about completing the workout however.  Definitely feeling better than on Sunday.  I'm thinking it was the ice cream sundae I had last night.  Good fuel...

No running, busy busy....

PM: first day of coaching, followed by 11 slow miles with a couple of newer runners at noon.

AM: Long run on the Clearwater bridges with Drew. Tried to get a bigger group together, but it ended up being just the two of us. The 20 miles flew by and we did about 9 bridge crosses which was a nice fitness challenge. We finished just in time as the last bridge was taxing to say the least. Loved this run, and very happy I got it in with some bridges.

PM: So... the heavens opened up today... I can't imagine I've ever been more water-logged.  I'm including pools, the ocean, and every other swimming adventure I've ever gone on.  It felt like a veritable monsoon- and it's Florida, so that's saying something.  I thought I was in that scene in Forrest Gump:

"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit... We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath..."