It's all relative

AM: After a good warmup, I took to the start line.  This is surprisingly a tough course for being in Florida (no real hills).  Lots of weird turns, U-turns, 90 degree turns, turns while switching surfaces, and the end allows for NO speed since you have to zig-zag a parking lot.  Needless to say, I should be happy with the result, but I'm not.  

The 10k left with the 5k group, so I decided to go out at around 5:28-5:30 or so.  After about 2.5 miles, I was breathing relatively okay, but there wasn't anyone behind me, and the ones that were within 20-30 seconds were guys doing the 5k, so after looking back after the turn off, I just relaxed into a slower pace.  I wasn't really happy with myself for this, but in the moment I couldn't talk myself out of it.  Disappointed in my effort today.

Splits-

Mile 1- 5:26

Mile 2- 5:26

Miles 3 to 6.2- Averaged between 5:40 and 5:50s.

PM: Slow run in Tarpon Springs.  I've never had more bugs stuck to me in my life.  Got a funny cat call today though.  She yelled, "you look wet!"  I'm not sure what that means...

PM: Workout in Safety Harbor with Tyler and Cory.  This was a really fun take on a workout.  I stole the idea from a workout I saw and just added some competition to it.  There were 10 items with like rest in between each.  The items ranged from one minute to four minutes.  The fun part was at the "halfway" mark (meaning 2 minutes on a 4 minute interval) you would turn around on the track and race to the start line.  

You would earn 1 point for being in the lead at the turn around, and 2 points for being the first to cross the start line.  With some tweaking, this is a great way to incorporate every runner in my opinion.  It was perfect since our fitness between the three of us isn't equivalent yet.

Final tallies:

Me- 14 points, Cory:10 points, Tyler: 6 points

Loved this workout, and we all worked hard at strategizing and during each item (which is key for making it beneficial.)

No running today.  

Will be at work from 7am until 8:30pm...  I'm not happy about my efforts lately making room for my running.  I hate when training wanes like it is doing right now.  I feel so much weaker as a runner in this mileage.

PM: 17 miles.  Ran with Cory and Tyler for about 10 miles and the miles flew by.  Then a storm rolled in so track was "cancelled" with the run group.  Fortunately, a few crazies decided that they weren't afraid of no ghosts- I mean rain- and wanted to run a couple anyway.  So I tacked on some more miles.  

Interestingly, the night should have been over, but I then had an impromtu business meeting at a wine bar that my fellow coaches asked me to.  That was odd to have and unexpected.  But certainly an experience- particularly in wet clothes.  Then 10:00pm rolled around and a group of my younger friends in their early 20s wanted to play some ultimate frisbee in the pool, so I went over there and had a ton of fun.  Felt like college a bit again and it was nice having fun and hanging out in the hot tub afterwards.  Then that went on until midnight, and then for some reason I got roped into going to the beach.  That turned into 2:30am (and a lost towel and sandals), and I finally made my way back home by 3, just in time to wake up at 7:00am and start a new day.  Oh to be young.  Particularly when I'm not young anymore.  

PM: 10 quick miles after school.  A pair of children drove me crazy this afternoon, so it was much needed.  I needed the miles to relax that out of me.

Early AM- 4:45 start.  7 miles with Dow and company, around 9:45 pace.

Late AM- 6 mile run with the new run group.  Wasn't planning on running, but I can't say no.  Had just drank a giant load of coffee, so it was an interesting experience for 6 miles.