It's all relative

AM: 10.2 miles- long warmup and striders, directly into a treadmill tempo at the end, then gym work, followed by a 1-mile slog home.

Workout was a 25-minute, 5-mile tempo @5:00/mile. 

25 minutes later my heartrate was still 7-10 beats below max, and I felt I could have held on a couple more miles which is encouraging.  My perceived effort was probably an 8.5/10.  I had been thinking about this workout since yesterday and certainly wanted to do it at a 2.0 incline on the treadmill, but I just didn't have the cajones to do it from the start so I set it at 1.0 incline.  With a mile and a half to go, I upped the incline to 2.0.

In hindsight, I realize I had the capability to leave it at 2.0 incline the entire time, but- not shockingly- hindsight is 20/15.  Next time I will not be so easy on myself- growth only comes with failure and uncomfortability.

PM: 6 miles

PM: 10.6 miles

AM: 10.5 miles with the group, 3 of them fast helping people pace- was around marathon pace effort.  

PM: 11.7 total with 4 miles at the end of hill sprints @5:50-5:00/mile & recoveries of 7:30/mile.  2.2 total miles of hill effort, although it seemed longer.

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I will be very sore tomorrow, but it had to get done.  Now I am getting close and my confidence is about as high as it has ever been for the 5k.  My plan is as follows...

1/9 Sprints/Striders 

1/11 Weedon Island for a 5k workout/tempo... then if I'm feeling good I'll go hit the gym to do a workout afterwards, but I might just mail that in depending on my morning effort.

1/12 Long run to prep for February- unavoidable 18-20 miles @ medium pace.  Yuck.  Maybe I should just run 2 hours here and call it whenever the time hits.  That would be the best idea.  I can then do a short run later on to hit mileage.

1/14 300s or maybe 400s @1:08-1:09 with 1:15 rest.  (maybe 600s @1:43-1:45 with 1:45 rest?)

1/16 Hill work on the treadmill (OTF?)

1/18 Weedon Island is a possibility, but I am wondering if I should just hit up Clermont and use that as my 3k workout/trial effort.  This may be okay, since I won't be tapering yet, so I won't have any illogical thoughts.  This would be a nice opportunity to run the clay loop too.

1/21 200s workout.  12x200 @30 seconds with 2:00 jog recoveries or rest.  Best to do this in trainers I think.  

1/22-1/24 taper- 6, 5, 3 (w/ 10-15 striders), 2 miles (w/ light striders)

1/25 Race day- Go HAM.  I almost want to do a light run in the AM.  10 minutes would be ideal.  It seemed to work out last year okay, minus the bee stings.

PM: 10.5 miles

PM: 10.5 miles, finishing with 0.5 miles of striders.

PM: 7.5 miles

AM: Weedon Island Parkrun (WIP) 5k.  16:12, although at the last minute I did decide I felt like trying for the record again.  I suppose out of habit of trying.  Came through 4k on pace to tie it, but just did not have it.  Mindset is everything I suppose.  I was able to coerce a couple of friends out of the woodwork to join me at the event, so it was nice to see them attend.  I really don't understand why more don't attend the parkrun- it's literally free.

I'm split on shooting up to Clermont next weekend.  I theoretically should just get some decent mileage in and stick to WIP on Saturday.  I think that's the most logical thing with the race season starting the next weekend.  However, wasting the only normal-weather month in Florida is just such a shame.... we'll see I guess.