It's all relative

PM: 7 miles solo.

PM: 2 miles solo.

AM: Ran the BDR Safety Harbor Half Marathon and finished 1st.  It was a dog fight for the first 7 miles with James O., but fortunately a 5:24 mile put him away and then I could tune out a bit.  Definitely is always a lot of fun to compete against him- that being said I'm selfishly happy I pulled away.  Not happy with my time, but I knew I have a lot of work to do. 

Splits- 5:54, 5:37, 5:33, 5:46, 5:37, 5:24, 5:38, 5:39, 5:42, 5:48, 5:45, 5:53, 5:44, 0:33

Weight is down to 151 at least, so that's nice and my diet has been clean for two weeks.  Time to keep it up and weigh in at 147 next weekend.

AM: 16.5 miles with Anthony

PM: 7 miles and then the gym with Elia- chest, tris, shoulders, abs.  Then ran home 3.5 miles.

AM: 10.5 miles, 3 of them fast with the group.  Nothing crazy speed-wise, just clearing ut the cobwebs from Saturday.

PM: 10 miles solo.

PM: 12+ miles in Safety Harbor.  A couple of quick intervals for fun.

PM: 11+ miles, and gym- arms, back, and abs.

PM: 3.5 miles and then a workout- 3 miles hovering mostly around 6min mile pace on the treadmill which felt super easy, but I also did some rowing between sets, and then lifted a bit.  Mostly lower body, abs, and light shoulders.  Finished with a 3.5 mile run.

I forgot to weigh in today, which is unlike me.  I'm quite certain I'm under 149 pounds, but still not near where I need to be.  I have been eating very well for 3 weeks now and been losing weight consistently for that time and it has had a sincere affect on my running.  As I get older, the adage of eating well rings truer.   

I will focus on skirting under 145 for next Friday which seems reasonable, but I'll double-check when I hit a scale on Monday morning.

AM: 6 miles and gym- chest, tris, shoulders

PM: 4 miles.

AM: 21 miles, most with Anthony.  I can't call them slow miles, but they weren't fast either.  So I supposed 21 "honest" miles will suffice.  

PM: 10+ miles running to the gym and then back.  Did chest, tris, shoulders, obliques, and abs at the gym.

AM: 7.4 miles in Safety Harbor.

PM: 10+ in East Lake.  Did fourteen 400s with descending rest ranging between 1:13-1:15.

PM: 11 miles, some with Anthony.  Felt pretty spry.

PM: Ran a 5k and then did a 5.3 mile progression run on the treadmill.  Wow- I did not think I had that in me.  Started at 10mph (6/mile pace) for 0.4 mile to get loose and then jumped to 11mph (5:27/mile pace).  Every two minutes there on out I just bumped it up another notch or two until I got to 12mph (5/mile pace).  I held that for 6 minutes before upping the incline a bit to finish strong.  Completed the 5 miles in 26:40 or so, but more importantly had a lot left in the tank so I just kept going at 5/mile pace for two more minutes before bringing it down bit by bit with my confidence soaring.  

I don't fully understand where the fitness is coming from- I haven't been pushing myself to go dark at track- but I suppose a large portion of it must be diet related.  I never knew I had fallen so far off track, but I'm happy I'm back and feeling healthy and bouncy every time out the door.  

No running.  

AM: 12.5 miles in Clearwater over the bridges.

PM: Gym with a workout: 6 miles total with hills on the treadmill, 5 of them at effort and included some fast 1-minute intervals to keep me honest.

AM: 17 miles, about 9 of those with Anthony on a humid/foggy morning.  Florida is incredibly weird in the spring season.  I walk outside (albeit it was at 4:55 in the morning) and am chilly (and shirtless), but then 3 miles in it has warmed up 5 degrees and the humidity has increased and it is just killer.  Even the street lights are making their own micro-clouds of mist underneathe them.  

PM: 8 miles solo.

AM: 10 miles total, 3 miles fast/race pace.

PM: 9 miles solo.

PM: 5 miles, 4 with Anthony.  85 million degrees outside and humid.  It's not so much the temperature as much as it is humidity/dew point.  the real issue is my sun glasses fog up like I'm in a steam room and that's just annoying.

Forecast for the weekend: Florida record-breaking heat of 86 degrees, up to 80% humidity, and 7-10 mph wind, and you don't even want to know the dew point.

I'll be sweaty and miserable, but at least I know everyone else will be too.  One of my very fast friends decided to join for Gasparilla in the 15k Saturday and/or the half marathon on Sunday- however he is from up north.  I am worried he doesn't know what he is getting into with the weather down here.  The weather really does completely change your game plan, so I hope he heeds my warning.

No running.

PM: a couple of easy miles.

Gasparilla 15k Race Report

Weather- hot (80s), humid, no breeze... gross.

Race prep- I felt pretty good coming into this.  I'd been sick for the last two weeks, but had been training through it just fine, so I wasn't worried.  I figured a sub 51 was in the cards, with a long shot at sub 50.  I was content with that.

The race- Geez did I misjudge myself.  The first mile was a 5:18 and it felt- too fast.  So I dropped the pace a bit.  Still felt too fast.  I hoped to find my groove, instead I found that I had made a huge mistake.  Mile 5 I started blowing up.  I wasn't even close, but kept trying to push, while getting passed by 5 runners.  One of those runners I had beaten easily in a half just weeks before pretty handily by over a minute, but today he returned the favor and then some. 

I was thankfully able to out-sprint a college kid at  the end to finish in 9th, thankfully.  Other than that, it was a pretty negative day.  I'd like to say I at least worked hard, but mentally I don't think I truly did.  I need to work on that- let's see if I do.  

Splits- 5:18, 5:26, 5:25, 5:31, 5:48, 5:26, 5:47, 6:03, 5:50, Finish- 1:42

1st half- 25:25, 2nd half- 26:41

Gasparilla Half Marathon Race Report

Weather- absolute trash.  Don't listen to what anyone says about this being a "winter race in Florida."  Ya right- if by "winter" you mean "80+ degrees, humid enough to fog your sunglass before putting them on, and a guaranteed tan/burn an hour after sunrise."  Truly delightful.  

Race number two of the weekend... this is a cool race since some of the pros, Kenyans (sorry I mean the "American citizens who definitely weren't recruited to run for the US in the Army"), and wannabe pros come out for it, like Meb last year.  Sara Hall for example won it this year and Tyler Pennel (5th in the Olympic trials) finished 4th this year.  I gotta say, even though they technically dropped out because of the heat/whatever, it felt pretty cool to run past some of the pros as they were walking/waiting to be picked up.  The little things in life...

I started off slow and controlled, focusing on my form.  I wasn't really trying to "race", but instead was trying to feel good for the whole run.  My legs were surprisingly only moderately sore after the 15k yesterday, but I'm happy with this decision to be conservative- it would have been a ride on the struggle bus if I tried to run a decent time, and I likely would have failed miserably. 

At about mile 7 I decided to get a bit more serious, especially when I saw RJ coming up in front of me (who also ran and beat me in the 15k yesterday).  He did not look like he was going too hard and I was coming up on him pretty quickly.  He thankfully saw me at the turnaround and waited a couple of seconds for me to catch him.  He said he was just about to pack it in so-to-speak when he saw me, but I think I reinvigorated him a bit.  We talked for a bit through miles 8 and 9 and then caught our first runner.  The moment we did that a competitive fire kind of lit in both of us and we tracked down about 8 more- more on that below.  The last mile and a half were now a bit of a struggle, but I didn't have to reach too deep.  RJ motored ahead, and I welcomed that- he earned it and was much more fit.  It truly was a good experience running with him and then racing with him. 

I crossed the finish line smoothly about 14 seconds behind RJ and felt pretty comfortable- with both my run and my decision to be conservative today. 

I have to say, the best part of the race was passing other runners.  I kind of felt bad- as if I had dogged it a bit- but, selfishly it feels good to outwork someone on the run.  This weekend was super humbling, so I really needed that to salvage any semblance of confidence moving forward. 

Splits- 5:58, 5:58, 5:54, 6:00, 6:02, 5:51, 5:54, 5:58, 5:58, 5:58, 5:37, 5:52, 5:53, Finish-0:42

1st half- 38:50, 2nd half- 38:45

PM: 11 miles and the gym- arms, back, and abs.  

AM: 10 miles in Safety Harbor.

PM: 11.6 miles total.  I didn't mean to run that much, but the three guys I was meeting at the track were late, so I just kept running.  We did 7x800 with 400 jog recoveries, starting slow.  

Splits- 2:57, 2:56, 2:43, 2:38, 2:32, 2:30, 2:29

I felt fine and could have given more effort, but thought better of it after the extra work this past weekend.  I still feel a bit sick and it has been going on for now 2 and a half weeks.  Throat is now scratchy and the slight nausea continues.

PM: 11+ miles and the gym- chest, tris, abs, obliques, and shoulders.  Broken into 2 runs really: 7.5 miles at 7-7:30/mile pace, then gym, and then 4 miles nice and easy.