Bret

PM - 10 miles easy in the afternoon following a pleasantly spent day with my bride.

PM - 14 miles for a medium/long run.  Last 5 miles or so were a fast finish.  Did not have the Garmin on, so I don't know if I was at MP (faster or slower).  

PM - 10 miles on the treadmill at lunchtime.

Following up on my entry a few days ago about my friend / training partner Richie's online training coach Scott Simmons...One of his athletes - Alisha Williams had a good win at the CIM.

 "Alisha Williams, who was originally going to run the 2012 New York City Marathon, has had five workouts in the last four weeks since the race was cancelled. None them felt good. “My coach [Scott Simmons, of the American Distance Project] just told me not to panic,” Williams says. But she was worried, especially about the last 10K. Instead, she says, she felt awesome. At the 2012 Olympic team trials debutantes Peterson and Williams ran side by side for 24 miles before finishing 16th and 14th, respectively. Williams’ coup de grace at CIM came again over the last two miles. She put 41 seconds on Peterson at the trials; at CIM it was 38 seconds. Williams would claim her first marathon win in 2:34:58. "

AM - workout:  4 x mile at 1/2 marathon pace with 200 meter jog rest; 3 mile warm up and cool down.  Splits were 6:24, 6:27, 6:43 and 6:23  Not sure why the split was slow on #3 as it felt the same as the others (there were two short uphills but not too significant).  Decent workout.

PM - 10 miles easy to moderate on the treadmill after work.  

PM - after work easy to moderate 8.25 miles.  Felt ok but not great.

AM - easy 6 miles before work.  Did feel all that great again today.  Humid and foggy outside this morning.

AM - 5 miles very light and easy. Planning to race tomorrow morning. Very foggy and sticky this morning - and warm. Supposed to be the same tomorrow. Oh well - will just race according to the conditions.

Bleah!  No running or planned race today - got a bug or food from my Christmas party gave me major GI issues - very little sleep.  

AM - feeling a bit better today - went for a shake out 4 miles to test things out.  Felt fine by the end.  

PM - 6.5 miles at lunch - easy. 

PM - just under 9 miles at lunchtime out and around the dump and the Val Pak lake loop.  Ran the first mile or two with Richie who had a 3 minute masters PR in the half marathon on Sunday.  He ran 1:23:55 with a strong negative split - beating his nemesis in the twelve mile dropping a 6:07 late in the race.  Really happy for him and his progress this training cycle.  However just as we were warming into our pace he said he felt something tighten up in his calf so we walked for a bit and he tried to massage it out - but he ultimately decided to head back to the gym instead of causing injury.  He did not do any running yesterday and no massage or stretching.

Anyway - I had a good solid feeling run for the first time in quite a while.  It has been a week since I started using some iron supplements (still awaiting blood test results) and I think I may be on to something here...I think my iron has been low (or relatively low for me) which may explain a lot of issues I have been experiencing with racing and training.   

AM - 10 easy slow kinda-cruddy feeling miles before work this morning.

So I finally got my blood test results in and I think I have identified my culprit of racing malaise. Ferritin level is 24.  That may do for a sedentary person, (normal limits are 20 to 380) but not someone training as I do and wanting to race competitively - indeed from what I have read, the Ferritn levels need to be at least 35 and for many elites (not that I am an elite) it averages in the the 65-70 range.  I think Jake K's report in August shared that his was 108.    

HGB is on the low end too 13.7 and Crit is only at 40%.  

By comparison - in March of this year my HGB was 14.2 and my Crit was 42.6%.    

Will continue to focus on Iron intake with some supplementation as well as diet.   And will get rechecked again in a month or so.

PM - lunchtime on the treadmill, decent workout progression run.  3 mile warm up, then 2 miles at moderate pace 7:11, 7;03; then 2 miles at MP 6:49, 6:40; then 2 miles at HM 6:31, 6:22 then 2 miles faster than HM 6:18, 6:11.  1 mile cool down.  Felt better than I have been feeling, but not quite back to full strength or normal.  Pleased that I got through the workout, looking forward to doing workouts like this where I know I feel good and solid.  The iron deficiency should improve with the supplements over the next month or so.  With just a week of introducing the supplements, I feel considerably less fatigued and challenged by faster pacing.  

PM - 10 miles easy at lunch (dump run and val pak) quite windy - felt good, not sore/fatigued from yesterday's workout as I had been expecting/experiencing recently.  

PM - a little over 11 miles easy on a pleasant Saturday afternoon.  

AM - only time for a short 4 miles this morning before church services and then a flight to the West coast for business.

PM - in Palo Alto for business meetings.  Started really early for an east coast call at 6 am, so no run in the morning.  Finished up with work around 4 pm so I went for a run around the city and the Stanford University campus.  Cool and rainy - ran easy to moderate.  Bit jet-lagged. 

AM - good workout - was cold and rainy so I stayed inside on the treadmill.  3 mile warm up and then 6 x 1 mile at HM pace with a 200 meter rest.  All miles were at 6:25-6:30 pace.  2 mile cool down.  Felt better as the workout progressed.  

Travel all day - no running.

PM - good  mp/tempo workout.  3 miles warm up easy, then 4 miles at MP (between 6:40 and 6:47) then 3 miles cool down easy.  

PM - 10 miles easy after a much busier day at work than I had wanted or expected.  

PM - 16 miles on a cool and windy afternoon. Traveling tomorrow to WV to be with my inlaws for the holidays. Understand they got a dusting of snow yesterday. May be a White Christmas.

AM - only enough time for a quick 6 miles before church and travel today. Probably the coldest morning of the season so far. Low 40's. Will not see that temp the rest of the week in WV though.

AM - 10 miles easy in wintry Moundsville WV - took about 5 miles before I was warm enough to run at a normal pace.  Very Christmas like outside with snow on the ground and crisp temps.  

PM - after the Christmas morning activities subsided - I ventured out into the raw rainy/sleety WV weather and had a pretty good workout.  3 mile warm up and cool down.  8 x 800 at 10k pace (6:06) with a 400 rest.  3:04, 3:04, 3:07, 2:59, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00, and 3:01.  Slower ones were into the wind. 

Merry Christmas everyone. 

PM - really a bad weather running day - morning started with snow turning to rain and then snow again, resulting in a slushy mess.  I held off running for most of the day, but finally decided to run several short loops near my in-laws' house where the roads were cleared and salted.  Sidewalks were a bit of a gamble with ice and slippery areas.  Not a complete loss - got a few good miles in until it was too dark and started snowing again.  Then, I figured I had pushed my luck and headed inside.  

AM - Tempo run at half marathon pace.  4 mile warm up (because it was very cold and the trail I was on was mostly ice and snow - so I delayed until warm and for the surface to improve) - then 4 miles tempo - 6:31, 6:34, 6:23 and 6:17 and then a 2.5 mile cool down.  Pleased with the workout - perhaps ran too hard on the last mile and knew the effort was a bit high to call it half-marathon.  Will be happy when I can return to Florida where cold weather running considerations are few and far in between.

PM - 10 miles easy - went up one of the hills here and along a ridge on a chilly snow-covered day.  Took it easy going up and warmed into a moderate pace to finish up.  

AM - 6 inches of snow overnight - roads not cleared, ran around the town on the snow and ice early this morning - snow still coming down too - only got in 5 miles before I saw my father in-law shoveling his driveway - and so I took over from there.  Niece is getting married this afternoon (and the only reason I am still here :)).  A bit of stress around the family about the weather conditions keeping folks from making it into town for the ceremony.  

PM - woke with a head cold yesterday morning and a snowy cold 16 degrees - and so with a long day of travel back home, I thought better of it and decided not to run.  In stark contrast, it was a beautiful day at home in Florida - and I was even able to run shirtless on a very pleasant afternoon around the Feathersound neighborhood across from our new office building.  (We moved locations within the same office park).  I now have a clear view of Tampa Bay from my office window.  

Richie met me and we ran a few miles together.  He's nursing a slightly tweaked calf muscle.  

Run was good and my head cold did not seem nearly as bad as it did yesterday morning.

Finished up the year with slightly more than 3700 miles.  Significant milestone for me.  Averaging just over 10 miles per day and would have to rank that my best running achievement for 2012 because I ran nearly 1100 miles more than I did last year.  Not bad for an old guy.