They all can't be "easy" runs.

10 miles on Legacy Trail. Slow. 84 Degrees. I was pretty beat down for this run. Bad diet and sleep last night. This is not the best way to start the year. The only positive news from this run is that I did not give in to the urge to cut it short. Oh, and some kid caught a nice Spanish Mackerel off the Roberts Bay Bridge.

I don't have much in the way of a year end wrap up / look ahead into 2017. I mean, 2016 was a pretty bad year for me running-wise. I feel like I know what was missing. All of my runs were meaningless, untimed runs. If you want to race longer distances you need to train longer distances. Same thing goes for speed and recovery. So, if you look at what I did last year, you would think I was training to race 8-9 minute pace for 7.5 miles. I did that over and over again. How could I expect anything better on race day? So this year, I hope to train myself to run faster. Bring back the speed work, tempos, and intervals. I hate those things because the run magic never happens on the track for me. The run magic happens when I'm crossing the Dona Bay Bridge at surnrise, in a state of running induced spiritual creaminess. (Wait, what?) I just need to get back to doing the speed work that will lead to continued championship mediocrity. I also need to take recovery - sleep - diet more seriously. 46 years old will be here soon. Yeesh! On the bright side, ..... ...... ..... No where to go but up from here!

3.5 miles. Hood route. 27:04. 7:44 pace. 69 deg., 100% hum., 72 d.p. I had to stop for traffic a couple of times. Also, the thickest fog I've seen in a while.

3.5 miles. Hood Route. 30:47. 8:48 pace. 6:00 am start. 63 deg., 82% hum. 57 d.p.  I went out to the track, intending to do interval running this morning. When I have run the track in the evenings, there is, at least, some light on the track from the baseball fields next door. No one is playing baseball / softball at 5:30 am. I'm going to have to run intervals in the evenings. 

3.5 miles. Hood Route. 6:00 am start. 29:56. 8:33 pace. 60 degrees, 73% hum. (how is this not 100%?), 60 d.p. Super Foggy. When dew point = temperature, you get fog, apparently. Like, water droplets on your eyelashes that you periodically have to blink away - Fog. I expect much sympathy from the snow-running folks. 

I started late to avoid some storms. 7 am start. It was supposed to be the usual 10.2 mile - hood route to legacy Trail to Colonia and back run, but I needed to find a POP @ 6 miles in. I had to take a .8 mile detour to find one because most of the homes are built in that community. TMI, but crisis averted. I caught some rain @ 8 miles in. It was windy the whole run. Kicked the last mile in 6:41, which kind of surprised me. I didn't think it was that fast.

7.5 miles. Hood route. 7 am start. Cold. Mid thirties. Short stride in the cold weather. A few bursts of speed in there. Skee bop doo bop a bee dop bo.

2:30 pm. Grass field / barefoot running. 2 up. (8) x 100 fast, jog back. 2 down. 50 something degrees. rat tat doodle dee day da day.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 40 something degrees. 6:15 am start. I tested out running with a headlight this morning, since I plan on headlight running at the track later this week, and have only done this once before, and that was @ 2 years ago. It went fine. But i wonder if there was a benefit to the cold weather. I already had asomething on my head covering my ears. I winder if it would be different if it were warmer outside.

Also, I ran my first race 6 years ago today. A lot of stuff has happened since then, running and otherwise. It's pretty crazy to look back.

6 am start. hood route 1.5 miles. 10:31. Then home. Then 2 miles around the block easy.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6:15 am start. I had to take the last two days off from running. Spouse was out of town. Much respect to the single parent runners. I couldn't figure it out for two days.

10.2 miles. Hood route to Legacy trail to colonia and back. 5:45 am start. Last mile 6:34. 65 deg., and humid. Super low tide. If you had shoes that could walk on oysters, you could almost walk across Dona Bay.

We spent a couple of hours at the beach yesterday skimboarding. I crashed on my second run. Fortunately, I only sprained my pride, and because of how I landed, I accumulated a ridiculous amount of sand in my shorts. Then my kids used my own lines on me, to make me skim again, so I had to do about a dozen more runs after that. You can't lecture people about not giving up, if you give up. 

I was kind of nervous about it when I went running this morning, but there were no side effects. I did 7.5 hood route miles, just beating the 9 minute man. 64 degrees, or so. I saw 6 other runners out today, which is, like, 7 more than usual.

Then I went home and took the boys to the soccer fields, so I could do my barefoot runs. 2 up, (8) x 100 sprints, jog back, 2 down. Ususally I do this stuff after church, but I decided to get this out of the way early today. I'm really enjoying the barefoot running. I believe this will make me a more efficient runner.

Then church, then back to the beach for more skimming. The water, although colder than I like, is this awesome shade of blue right now. It's really striking. We got up to about 82 degrees today. I just hung out on the sand bar, while the boys went skimming today.

It has been a great weekend.

Drove to Fruit Cove. Went canoeing with Johnny at sunset. Saw a baby gator. Awesome.

7.85 miles. In Fruit Cove. 6 am start. Pretty sluggish this morning. Extra foggy out. Then canoeing with spouse. Then to the funeral of my grandmother in law. Great lady. Then back to Venice.

6:15 pm. AT TRACK! Say what? Seriously, AT TRACK for the first time in ?!

2 up. (4) x 400 fast, 400 recovery, 2 down. Fast 400s were 1:25, 1:25, 1:25, and 1:30.

Just easing back into this speed stuff. Nothing crazy.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6am start. Still hot and humid around here.

6:45 start. Hot and foggy. 1.2 around the block miles. Then 10.2 miles. Hood route to Legacy trail to colonia and back. 6:58 last mile. I wasn't really feeling it today. Although the sunrise through the fog was amazing. I think I was a bit dehydrated.

7.5 miles. hood route to legacy trail and back. 6 am start. Hot. Humid. Breeze. I do not envy those running into this soup in Clearwater today. Yuck-O!

11:45 am. Grass/ barefoot miles. 2 up, (8) x 100 sprints, jog back, 2 down.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6am start. 26:09. 7:28 pace.

6:30 pm. At track. 2 up. (4) x 800, with 400 active recoveries, 2 down. 3:03, 3:04, 3:07, and 3:04. I had the place to myself. There's something liberating about being able to run and not care about what strange involuntary noises come out of you.

5.5 hood route miles. So very hot.

5.5 uberslow hood route miles at 6am. I'm looking to go longer than usual tomorrow. 16.25. Time to dust off the camelbak.

16.25 miles. Hood route to Legacy trail to Circus Bridge and back. 6am start. Last mile in 6:51. Camelbak. Tried out a couple of new Gu flavors. Yucko. The run felt great, mostly because of the 41 degree dew point. It's like, so foreign.

Now off to boy #2's bouncy hoops game. They're undefeated, and things are getting unbearable.

7.5 miles. Hood route to Legacy trail and back. 7am start. 50 degree drizzle. Steam coming up from the lakes. This run felt way better than it should have. There were some good moments where everything was clicking. I don't know if the barefoot stuff is going to happen today. It might be too cold / wet for that.

2pm. At field for barefoot running. 2 up. (8) x 100ish sprints, jog back. 2 down. I had a chance to weigh in tonight. I do not like what the scale says.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6am start.

6 am start. 0.4 up. 3.5 hood route miles. 25:43. 7:21 pace. 0.8 down. 40 something degrees this morning. Yowsa. I also had to dodge some traffic. This is becoming more of a problem, at least on these timed runs.