Sun 12/6 - AM 60 minutes incl. 5k road race

Pancake flat 5k in Mansfield, my early December fitness check at this point. Results not so promising, felt flat and listless from the moment I woke up and unable to maintain anything resembling a decent pace. Nothing to run for in terms of place which removed any competitive motivation, not that I could have done much better than the thoroughly mediocre 5:30 or so pace I ended up with. In fact the last mile was likely close to 5:50 as pride finally gave way to some semblance of logic and I shut it down somewhat in the final 600m or so. Not sleeping enough or well enough, same old story there. This will start to matter a lot more in a few weeks' time when I'm trying to actually race worth a damn. A shame what with near perfect conditions, relatively warm with only light breezes. Went for a meandering cooldown with the CH followed later on in the afternoon with a nostalgic hike around Great Hill, first visit there in years and all the more enjoyable for the company. How I ever made a habit of running on those rocky slippery trails I'll never know.

Sat 12/5 - AM 70 minutes very easy

Area 51. Had to double check the math because the loop I ran shouldn't take this long to complete. Combination of an evening workout with a morning run made for a shambling putter for sure. Legs barely responsive. I thought about doing a short shakeout in the late afternoon but common sense prevailed.

Fri 12/4 - PM 55 minutes incl. 3 (5x200)

Back to the track, originally this was to be yesterday but a combination of adverse weather forecast and lingering fatigue pushed it back a day. In fact took a while to get out the door as I lolligagged about the house before getting out the door. Conditions mild enough that I was able to keep it local and put off going indoors which is convenient if nothing else. More of the "new" interval work with a distinct focus on a float recovery. My impression thus far is that an overall set length of 1600-2000m including recoveries is about all I can take, and 6k total of work is plenty. In fact starting to feel wobbly on the floats during the last set. Reps were a bit faster which was somewhat of an emphasis. I'd like to think it's a good bang for the buck though. The splits for the first set are lost to history as my watch ran out of memory and I had to clear it, but the whole thing took just over 7:30 with the reps being in the 39 second range and the recoveries in the 51 range. Second and third sets:

38.0/50.9
38.5/49.7
38.1/49.3
38.0/49.1
37.6/49.2
total 7:18.3

36.6/48.9
37.5/49.5
37.2/49.0
37.5/49.0
38.1/49.2
total 7:12.5

If nothing else I think I found my sweet spot for the float pace.

Thu 12/3 - PM 70 minutes easy including hill drills

Area 51 to Levittown. Thought I might feel better than I actually did, which kept the pace on the low key end of things. Even the drills were more tiring than I would have liked. Nevertheless followed that up with a few short quick pickups on the way in, or at least as quick as I could make them. Fairly chilly.

Wed 12/2 - PM 45 minutes easy

Area 51. Fairly dismal run in certainly dismal conditions, with rain showers picking up in intensity throughout the afternoon. Dragging more than I'd like as per usual.