It's all relative

AM: run in St. Pete. I was really hoping to see Drew or Sean out this morning but they were both MIA. This was my last St. Pete long run for likely about a month, so I was bummed to miss out on the conversations. Maybe I can drop by for a mid-day run during the week and surprise Drew. In other news, Lee's birthday was today and the little turd failed to tell us during the run. Facebook had to tell me and remind me I'm a crappy friend. Facebook- always looking out.

The run felt sluggish even with the 4-mile descending tempo, but given 2 races, 2 workouts, 1 tempo, and leg day yesterday in the past week and a half, I suppose that's not surprising.

Shut out of running.

But...

Went to Weeki Wachee for a kayaking adventure.  B. E. A. Utiful.  What an experience.  Particularly if you have the head for some questionable tree climbing and jumping into some suspect waters- which I apparently still do.  Surprisingly not burnt and I will absolutely do that again.  Hopefully next time there will be manatees (and maybe mermaids?!?!)...

AM: 8 miles @ track in Safety Harbor.  2 x 10:00 minutes @ Half marathon pace with 4-minute recovery.  Turned into marathon (dream) pace pretty quick, but that's okay- it's unreal hot and soupy.

Noon: Ran a mile warmup then gym with Danny.  Biceps, Traps, Lats, Rhomboids, Teres... no abs since I'm planning on running again this afternoon.

PM: 10 miles @ track in East Lake.  Workout was 4 x 1200 with 400 recovery with Anthony.  We were thinking of going to St. Pete, but Sean wasn't a definite and Lee was a "no", so we stayed local.  We figured we'd start at 5:20/mile pace and work down.  Well.  We stayed at 5:20 pace and held on for dear life.  We really needed each other today for this one.  Temperature- 88, dewpoint- 75.  

Splits (@ mile pace)- 5:19, 5:20, 5:21, 5:21 (3:59, 4:00, 4:01, 4:01)

AM: Ran 1.5 then went to the gym- chest, tris, shoulders- moved up in all with 5x5, then abs

PM: Ran 10.2- half of those with Anthony who had to cut it short with some dead legs.  He has been putting in a lot of miles, so I guess it's time for a cutback.  Perfect timing (for both of us) actually, especially with very few opportunities for me to run next week.

AM: Track in Safety Harbor.  Alright.  This workout was a monster, but I can tell it's one of the workouts I needed to add to handily get into the mid 15s for a 5k.  I... commandeered.... it off another runner's blog with times I'm looking to achieve, so I knew it had some merit.  

The workout: A couple of striders to get the heart-rate up then 3 sets of 10 x 150m with 50m recovery at > fast interval pace.  450m active recovery between sets.  Also, it was a lane-changing workout.  So I'd start in lane 1, then work up to lane 6, and then restart to get to the 10, which made it easy to remember the item I was on as well as challenged me to (try to) match times.

How did I feel?  My quads were worked harder than any workout I've had in a long time.  I also felt challenged to recover so incredibly fast.  That 50m recovery is NOTHING after going from full tilt to a recovery jog pace, and often I'd get down to "recovery" pace and I'd be 3-5 steps away from starting the next one.  

Set 1- All ranged from 30 to 34 seconds.  Set 2- 30 to 33 seconds.  Set 3- 29 to 33 seconds. Shockingly, my fastest one ended up being a lane 6 item in set 3, which i feel very good about.  

Noon: 1.5 miles warmup then gym: tris, chest, shoulders, abs, calves, glutes (and light quads/hams).  

AM: Early call this morning.  Ran solo before meeting the team to babysit their gear.  I got to test out the new playlist and it is on point.

Next up, cruise to Jamaica,Mexico, and the Caribbean- unless I get antsy this afternoon and want to work out.  Ya mon!