Miles in Tampa

The wife and I are in the middle of our house/dog sitting gig in Tampa. Well, actually, I'm in the middle of it, and she has another week and a half to go. We're having a great time.

I'm also happy to say that I've not missed a scheduled run so far during my time in the Sunshine State.

I ran five miles Monday along Bayshore Drive, which were five challenging miles. I've not gotten an early start any of the three days I've run, so it's been pretty warm outside, and Bayshore has no shade whatsoever if you're on the south side of the road. The good thing is that it's about four miles of uninterrupted pavement. The sunshine and lack of shade are reminiscent of running between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach last June.

Anyway, I included a small fartlek about 35 minutes into the scheduled 50-minute run. I quickly came to regret this move. The heat really sucks the energy right out of you. So I idled back on the pace and completed the run.

Tuesday, a four-miler got me going. This was a neighborhood run around our cousin's place. Much shade for this run, and it was very nice to look around a little.

I'd planned a six-mile tempo run this morning, with four at 9:00 pace. The heat took a rapid toll. I brought a 32-ounce bottle of cold water, which helped. I wound up doing about 2 1/2 at tempo and the rest at easy pace. If I'd kept at 9:00, I'd never have finished. I'd even started doing the math for the rest of my runs this week, with the thought of stopping at 4.2. I stopped several times as it is, and taking my foot off the gas helped me get to six.

I'm not disappointed at all-- sure I had to ease off, but I made my six miles, to get to 15 for the week. It's easy for me to scrap my running schedule while on holiday, and I'm happy that I've been able to keep going as scheduled.