They all can't be "easy" runs.

5.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start. last 2 in 15:04. 74 deg., 91% hum., 71 dp! 

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start. 

1.5  miles up. EBS. (4) x 0.25, w/ 0.25 recoveries. 1.5 down. 1:28, 1:27, 1:27, 1:26. I feel like I am starting to find the pace on these. I expect to do 6 reps on Sunday, and 8 reps next Thursday. 

Hood route.

13 miles. Hood route to legacy trail to Venice Ave and back. 6:30 am start. Extra 0.1 miles from off course emergency bathroom stop at mile 3.

So they have bugun work for an overpass of legacy trail over laurel road. If it is privately funded, then so what? I mean, it would have been more useful to construct an overpass over clark road, which is actually busy. But if "the friends of the legacy trail" want to build here, i dont care. However, if this is publicly funded, i can't think of a bigger waste of money, to benefit such a small minority. The only people benefiting from this overpass would be cyclists that do not want to slow down to push a button to cross the street.

I got out early, and chose to cut the run short. Sore from running, yardwork yesterday, stressed about going on a family vacation, blah, blah blah. 

AM: 7ish miles around Wyndham Resort in Bonnet Creek, Lake Buena Vista. 

PM: 3.1 miles with my buddy Mark, in Apopka.

6 more miles in Lake Buena Vista. 

3 last Mickey Miles. 

1.5 up. (4) x 0.25 miles w/ 0.25 mile recoveries. 1.5 down. 1:29, 1:25, 1:25, and 1:26. 

5.2 miles in Hobe Sound, FL. One of the most beautiful sunrise runs I have ever experienced. Part of the run was on the beach, part in the dunes, and part of the run looked like this:

I did not see Tiger.

Then hit some range balls, and went fishing with some old friends. I still have the cast net throwing job! Although I'm a bit sore. You don't use those muscles too often. What a Floridianly awesome weekend!

7.5 miles. Now with minimal amounts of mojo.

7.5 miles. Hood route to the stupid overpass construction at legacy trail and back. Song of the run...

https://youtu.be/zWFOh5y9LcM

7.5 miles hood route. 7am start. The run took less than 1 hour. 1st mile 7:40. 2nd to last mile 7:45. Last mile 7:15. I feel pretty good about this run. However, it was a lot of work, more than it should have been. I don't know what to expect out of an August 10k in Florida next week. My original goal (7 min. Pace) suddenly feels ambitious.

6 on the trails. 8:15 am start. 78 dew point. In a word, oppressive.

3 pm: I put together the beginnings of an "increase your vertical leap" workout for boy #2 to get ready for basketball season. Part of the workout involved us running 1/2 mile to a bench to jump on and off of. The workout looks to be a good one, as I am sore in unusual places. 

Boy #1 made the travel soccer team. I worked with him all summer to get ready. I'm trying to balance effort between the boys, even though my sport was soccer, and I understand very little about squeakyfouls / bouncyhoops. 

3.5 miles. Hood route.

Could the school system be more alarmist about the eclipse? In general, every day of the year kids, don't stare at the sun! It's simple.

I'm going to start a band - The Axis of Totality! We're going to do country covers of Sir Mix A Lot. Wait, someone already has that? 

5.5 miles. Hood route. Box jumping is the devil. I killed my legs and abs with boy #2 on Sunday. They expected 1500 runners Saturday. They've already got 2200. First time putting on a race, new course, inadequate parking.This is shaping up for a disaster. Add to that, I have to junp in my car and drive to a funeral as soon as the race is over. Then back to Bradenton for boy #1s first soccer game. I will be road warrior guy on Saturday.

Just trying to find a pace. It is swampy outside.

Fort Hamer Bridge 10k. They have been building the bridge over the Little Manatee River for two years. Someone got the bright idea that they should run a race over it, before it opened to traffic. It is still under construction, technically. The views from the top were outstanding. So, given that this is the first time anyone has run this course, that the weather before and after the race was miserable, furthering problems in already bad parking logistics, that 2,600 people signed up for the races (They expected 1,500. This was the largest 10k/5k in Manatee County history.), this race, production-wise was way better than expected. Of course, the 5kers ate everything at the finish. Also, I don’t know what races have against providing water lower than room temperature. One church had a snow cone tent that I went back to many times, so I could get some ice.  

I recognize that I’m out of shape, and not ready for racing. But there were a couple of other factors that contributed to my poor time. My co-worker ran the 5k. She got a PR! I am stunned that anyone could PR in the soup. The rain before and after really generated the dishwasher feeling that a PR was out of reach for everyone. Because of the parking situation (you can’t really park near this place), they had to delay the start an extra half hour to allow people to get there. That more or less wrecked my warm up. This is the second time this kind of thing happened to me, and both times it worked out bad. The course starts out, goes north 100 yards, then hairpin turns south to go over the bridge. Everyone had the same plan – I better get out in front of the pack before that hairpin on a wet road. It was kind of nuts, but then opened up on the big bridge. About a mile deep, hairpin #2 to go back north across the bridge again. I was braced for those turns. The course map made it clear those would happen. I was not braced for the 5 other little bridge crossings, extended running on brick pavers, or the other 4 hairpin turns on the course. Those were kind of a surprise, and really beat me up. I was solid for the first 3, then things started to unravel, but I held on. Like I said, I’m not in race shape. I was surprised by the 2^nd place age group thing. I got another tile/coaster. Eventually, I’ll be able to tile a bathroom with 2^nd place age group tiles. The guy that I used to consider my worthy adversary finished 4^th overall. He has become much faster. He asked if I would run the remember the fallen 5k in two weeks, but boy #1 has a soccer tournament. Helmet Guy has returned. He is now Blonde 80s Rocker Wig Guy (think Kajagoogoo), and he beat me by a minute.

My parents drove up with my brother, which was cool. He turns 50 on Monday. Because of the late start, I could not attend the funeral in Venice for my next door neighbor at 10. So, I hung around to get my tile/coaster. Then back to Bradenton at 4 for a preseason soccer scrimmage for boy #1, that was lightning delayed twice. Many miles were driven on Saturday, and I was wore out by the end of the day.

This leaves me in a weird spot. The race was good enough to inspire me to run faster and race more. I just don’t have the time with the kids’ schedules to make that happen. Or, at least, it would feel that I would be intentionally misplacing my priorities to put running ahead of something it shouldn’t be ahead of, if that makes sense. But it felt great to go fast-ish again. I need more of that in my life.

The guy that won senior grandmasters asked me my time, and I told him kind of depressed-like. (this is, after all, my slowest 10k ever.) He was really excited for my time, and started high fiving me and patting me on the back. He kind of changed my attitude a bit. So I said “Yeah, don’t let the muffin top fool ‘ya! The kid can run!”

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3.5 in a heavy downpour. Flooded spots. Puddle splashing fun.

Happy birthday to my brother John. He's 50! He was born with a ton of physical problems. He is really grateful to make it to 50.

Hood route. Post rain bugs.