Yesterday was a strange day as Carlson and I met up at Lake Mary Rd to get our workout done and ended up scrapping it to do it later when the wind would be less strong. Neither of us felt very good so instead of being demoralised by slogging against the wind for 12 miles, we just did an easy run and do it later when we would hopefully feel better. Carlson wanted to do his on the treadmill and break it up a little so I figured I would be doing it on my own either way. That would be good as I wanted to do something that would be mentally tough as I am working on that side of performance. I ran 6 miles and then we went out to the 12 mile mark where we had dropped Carlson's car off and then drove home. I rested up and tried to sleep but ended up just watching episodes of Breaking Bad on my computer. I ended up getting out of bed around 1pm and had my usual cup of Yorkshire tea (i'm loving having decent tea in the afternoons now) and a Power Bar to get ready for the workout. I killed some time by cleaning the house and realised my legs were quite tight. I wanted to feel good for the workout so I took a hot shower so that my legs would be warm and I could do some foam rolling and stretching. This worked a treat as I felt so much better afterwards and drove off to Woody Mountain Road for the workout.

Carlson was going to meet me at there at 4pm so I arrived early and warmed up on the road so I could see what kind of condition it was in (its a forest service road). I got back to find Carlson waiting for me there so I changed clothes and grabbed my new racing flats and he drove me out to the 10 mile point. It seemed so long driving the route especially as we couldn't drive that fast because of the ruts on the road. I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere but at least it made sure that I was going to have to run all the way back. I did some drills and strides to get ready and started off quite easily. I had never realised how hilly the route was for the first 5 miles but at least it made sure that i'd started off controlled (after all it was a steady state run and not a tempo). I got through the first 5 miles in 26.38 (5.21s) which was great considering it was almost all uphill. I then started to run pretty quickly as there is a mile long down hill and only small uphills from there to the finish. I had read a quote from Bill Bowerman during the day that kept me going through the workout - "there is no such thing as bad weather, just soft people". That just repeating and I started to feel very easy right to the finish. I ran 25.22 (5.04s) for the final 5 miles and finished in 52 mins flat. That was a 5.12 average and it felt easy. That was great for my confidence as my legs didn't feel beat up and I know I could have kept pushing on for a while. My new flats were great also. I wore the Mizuno Ronins and was very pleased with how cushioned they felt and how comfortable they were, even on the rutted road. After a 20 minute warm down I drove home and Julie and I quickly got dinner together as we were having our friends Rob and Jill over for a mini birthday bash for Rob. He said early happy birthday to me and I was a little confused about that until I realised that its my birthday next week. We had a really nice night with a good dinner and good wine. We relaxed and chatted all evening and then fell asleep very quickly when we climbed into bed.