Bret

AM - 4.5 miles in VA Bch in the rain.  Heading home today.  HR was up too high for the pace I was running.  Calling the cardiologist tomorrow. 

AM - 3.25 miles with Dan and Finn in the rain this morning in the neighborhood.  Watch was not recording the HR very well - and we kept the pace very easy at just under 10 mins.  Did not feel as bad as I had felt the previous couple of days - but will be scheduling a cardiologist appt as soon as possible later this morning. 

AM - 4 miles with Finn up to North Valley.  Felt much better today - more fluid and relaxed and though my HR was still higher than normal, it was not nearly as high and the overall "feel" was better.  

AM - 3.25 miles with Dan and Finn at Milton HS.  I had an early cardiologist appt. so we just did a short run.  Dan actually ran less because his left hamstring was really painful.  My pace was better and I felt stronger - so I think the additional iron supplements have begun to make a difference.  Cardiologist agreed that the iron-deficiency symptoms (weakness, fatigue, high HR in exercise) are more consistent than heart/circulatory problems - but will keep an eye on things over the next several days.  

AM - just less than 5.25 miles with Finn this morning through the neighborhood across Birmingham and into the Grove.   Pace and strength was good.  HR was high after the second mile climbing the steps - and remained just under threshold at 8:45 pace; last mile was anaerobic at 8:15 pace - so not great or even normal for me, but its getting in range and the improvement over last Friday for example was materially better where I could not even cause myself to run sub 9 min pace let alone 9:30( like physically unable regardless of the HR).  So this is progress from that perspective.  Probably categorize this as a tempo run with a VO2 max finish.   Will run light and easy aerobic pace tomorrow and the next few days, hoping to see more progress by next week this time.

AM - just under 5 miles this morning with Finn in the neighborhood.  Ran easy with the intent of keeping this aerobic and this seemed to go well today - pace gradually went down as the run progressed and my body got comfortable and though the last mile or so which had some uphills saw my HR get a little high, the overall average was where it should be, and the pace was nearly back to normal for me.  

AM  - 11.25 miles with Finn on a windy chilly morning as a front was making its way through.   This was an interesting day as initially I was not super motivated to run too far outside and in fact had considered doing a longer run indoors to manage my HR better without all of the hills outside, but Finn really wanted to run.  So, my thought at first was to go about 7.5 or 8 but the route I chose gave me options - and because I felt reasonably decent around 2-3 miles I opted for one of the longer turns, which took me out Taylor road.  At that time my HR was in zone 2-3 and I was running about 8:30 pace for mile 4 but when I turned on Batesville and the long uphill, my HR got up to 160 and correspondingly, (or maybe because of it) the left hip injury just seemed to be weak and fatigued - as if 5 miles was the limit for it today but I pressed on, bypassing the Triple Crown turn (mostly because I wanted to avoid the very steep hill to Freemanville) and turned later instead at Providence which honestly at that point my pace slowed to just under 9 mins and though I was ok on the flats, and downhills, I wanted to get at least 10 miles without too many sharp climbs, so I ran the cut-through at Summit Hill elementary and headed up Thompson Rd.   The two climbs on Thompson and the one in North Bluff when my HR was already in the high 150's were humbling.  When we started up the climb on Dinsmore, Finn unexpected stopped to throw-up and so I decided to take the shortest option home down the trail behind the old Milton country club.   My form was completely favoring my right side for strength to carry the left side functionally weakend muscles through.   Nothing hurt, but I probably looked pretty bad finishing up essentially on a tired set of legs and nearly bonking.  Pleased with the pace just over 9 mins which last week was almost a minute slower and the distance was 3.5 miles shorter.   Hoping to recover well and see additional progress next week.  Never had a marathon where I was training with the goal of being able to endure just to finish - but this is the reality given the last several weeks of set backs.