They all can't be "easy" runs.

3 on the trails. then 1.5 hood. 1:30 pm start. 80 deg. 62% hum., 65 d.p.

I'm sick. this stinks. things were going well. I'm sitting here, debating whether or not I should just go to the track to do today's scheduled workout or not. 

5.5 miles. hood route. Okay, turns out this is like "allergies" more than "sick." Today's run was a test. Still mad at myself for sacrificing last night's track stuff. 2 weeks of Thursday night speed cowardice. 44 days until race day. I might have bitten off more than I can chew.

20.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen beach and back. I'm going to say -not my best run. 80 deg., 71% hum., 70 d.p. We still have the red tide dead fish stink. Also, pollen covering eveything. Further, I ran out of water with 4 miles to go. 

3.5 miles. Hood route. 83 deg., 72% hum., 70 d.p.

Then big lunch at my parent's house with a few cousins and an uncle. 

PM: 0.5 up. 5 X 0.15 hill (bridge) sprints, jog downhill recoveries. 0.5 down.

7.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail, over SWOM bridge and back. 1:12:31, 9:21 pace. 81 deg. 70% hum. 70 d.p. Full sun. Little bit of hot breeze in there. Pretty rough conditions. But there was a moment that I had, where I envisioned myself as a smooth running train, without any errant movements, feet striking the ground consistently, arms swing driving me forward, breathing all synched up with everything else. Like I have all of this inertia, and it would take a tremendous amount of force to slow what is going on here. I used to think about that stuff a lot. It was nice to have it come back for a bit today. 

7.5 miles. Hood route to legacy trail and back. 79 deg., 72% hum., 69 d.p. 59:17. 7:54 pace. Not as good as I used to be, but moving in the right direction. 

Oh, there were no "smooth running train" moments today. I had to dodge a lot of traffic, so it was hard to check out, mentally. 

7.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail over the SWOM bridge and back. 81 deg., 67% hum., 69 d.p. 1:16:29 - 9:52 pace. Lots of stopping for traffic today. With about 1.5 miles to go, I saw my mom pulling into the hospital, and spent the rest of the run wondering what was going on. Apparently my dad needed to get some blood work done and was getting it there. So no emergency. 

5 PM: at track. 1.5 up. (10) x 800m w/ 400m recoveries. Recoveries run first. 1.5 down. 3:15, 3:17, 3:23, 3:21, 3:20, 3:21, 3:22, 3:19, 3:25, 3:16. (3:19 average, kind of what I expected.) The cool down run was at a surprisingly snappy pace. I ate way too much lunch today, and I sure felt it tonight. 

Old man trekking poles was out there for the first 5.  Tonight, though, he kept himself in lane 2, which is cool. I'm glad I made it out there earlier tonight. They are doing some work on the track and so there are these 4" wide ruts in specific locations. Trying to navigate that in the dark would have been rough. 

20.75 miles. 3:25:15. 9:53 pace. Hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen beach and back. Like every other long run on this training cycle for some reason, things got really bad at almost exactly 2 hours deep. I had to really fight my way through it. then at about 2:20 in, things started to feel better. I was moving at a pretty decent clip for the last 4 miles or so. I think red tide is over now. I didn't smell any dead fish. But the pollen is still bad. 78 deg. 63% hum, 65 d.p. It felt way hotter than that. I'm just glad that I was finally able to go 20 miles. I needed to know that. 

PS. I plan on listening to 311 all day. 

5.5 miles. hood route. 

PM: 0.5 mile up. 10 X 0.15 hill (bridge) sprints, jog downhill recoveries. 0.5 mile down. At North Bridge. 

Noon time miles. 4 on the trails. 3.5 miles hood route. 1 on the trails. The rain held off until 5 minutes after I finished running. I appreciated the overcast conditions. 

Pop is 82 today. I went down to see him before my run. He was scraping the weeds out of the control joints of his driveway. He always has to be working on a project, I guess. That's what makes him happy. Why not scrape weeds out of the driveway for your birthday? 

Noontime "tempo?" 10.2 Miles Hood route to legacy trail to colonia and back. 72 deg., 41% hum!, 48 d.p.! Camelbak. 1:20:56. 7:56 pace. 

7.75 miles. Hood Route to Legacy Trail, over the SWOM Bridge and back. Stellar weather! 63 deg., 46% Hum., 41 d.p. 1:11:44 - 9:15 pace. 

5 PM: at track. 1.5 up. (10) x 800m w/ 400m recoveries. Recoveries run first. 1.5 down. 3:17, 3:18, 3:17, 3:17, 3:16, 3:17, 3:18, 3:19, 3:14, 3:15. (3:16 average. better than expected. That's 3 seconds average better than last week.) 75 deg. 48% hum., 55 d.p. Full sun. There was a headwind at the start / finish. The headwind in last 100 meters of rep #6 really discouraged me. I had to dig pretty deep not to bail on the workout, and I'm glad I finished. The cool down run was not nearly as smooth as last week. 

I had the track to myself for every lap. They filled 1 of the 3 (4" wide) ruts that cross the track as the repair process is on-going. 

1 month to race day. I know people like to use these runs as a marathon predictor tool. But a 3:16 marathon just seems so far out of reach. Oh well, I've got a month to figure this out. 

20.75 miles. 3:28:23. 10:03 pace. Hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen beach and back. 80 deg. 75% hum, 71 d.p. I looked like I was swimming at halfway. I'm not happy about the pace, but happy I could finish the run. 

7.5 miles. Hood route. 1:07:56. 9:03 pace. 55 degrees. 80 degrees and sunburned yesterday. Cold ears today.

PM: 0.5 mile up. 10 X 0.15 hill (bridge) sprints, jog downhill recoveries. 0.5 mile down. At North Bridge. 

7.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail over the SWOM bridge and back. Noontime miles. 64 deg., 32% hum., 34 d.p. constant 14 mph wind out of the north. 1:12:41. 9:23 pace. 

10.2 miles. Hood route to legacy trail to Colonia and back. Was scheduled to be a 10 mile tempo, but after the 2nd bathroom stop, I decided I couldn't really call it that. The weather was fantastic for the whole thing. But for some reason, my paces/breathing were off from the beginning. Bummer.

And by the way, How does publix know when I'm going to show up to use the bathroom, and therefore, it's time to clean the men's room? I have used the "Family Restroom" more often than the men's room there, because it's always being cleaned when I show up. 

PM run: 1 on the trails then 7.5 miles hood route. It's been a while since I ran the sidewalks in the dark.

10.2 Miles. Hood route to Legacy Trail to Colonia and back. 80 deg., 71% hum., 70 d.p. 1:34:37. 9:17 pace. Even split. I think this was going to work out to be a slight neg. split.

But then a dude on a motorized bike wrecked about 10 yards from me with a mile and a half to go, and I sort of lost what I was doing in the minutes I spent helping him out. He was turning off of pinebrook road into the publix shoppping center. It's a wide turn, and he was moving quick, and it looked like everything was going smooth. He had a set of golf clubs strapped to the back of his bike. As he went around the turn, the weight of the golf clubs shifted, sending him into the curb. He landed in grass, did a decent tuck and roll, had on the padded gloves and helmet. I didn't see a scratch on the guy. But he threw his chain, and it took us some time to get that together. For a while after that I was in a slow jog mode, thinking over the dangers of these motorized bikes that all of the seniors and homeless folks ride. I see more motorized bikes on the legacy trail than I do conventional bikes lately. 

6:15 PM: at track. 1.5 up. (6) x 800m w/ 400m recoveries. Recoveries run first. 1.5 down. 3:09, 3:21, 3:19, 3:16, 3:21, 3:16. It got windy on the last 2 800s. 

5.5 miles. hood route. 84 deg. 48% hum., 61 d.p. About a mile and a quarter into the run, there was a dead otter on the side of the road. It didn't take me long to run out of "Otter Destruction" jokes.