Now that we're well into spring, I may as well post about winter. That is, Florida winter. So here's a three-in-one. I missed the Gasparilla half marathon--the local race I look forward to all year. And it was for a silly reason. I had trained well and felt good the week prior to the race, but at a bootcamp class the Wednesday before the race, I did an exercise the totally killed my hamstrings, only I didn't know it until the next day. And they weren't just sore; I could hardly straighten my legs to walk, let alone use my hamstrings to propel me on a run. But feeling this kind of extreme soreness is not unusual for me after this particular bootcamp class; it's certainly happened before. So I thought by the time Sunday rolled around, I'd be fine. But then as Friday passed, and soon Saturday, I was far less confident that I'd be healed in time to race Sunday. I did everything I could think of to expedite healing: massages, smelly muscle rubs, foam roller, st...

This morning I ran the Tampa Bay Lightning Bolt Run 5-miler . This is a smallish race that takes place in downtown Tampa, starting at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, home ice to the Tampa Bay Lightning (did I mention Tampa?). I ran this race last year for the first time, and I remember it well. I didn't have much of a time goal prior to the race, but when a runner friend asked me my goal, I decided to go for a 45-minute race. I came in at 44:59, and that was with a lot of help from another friend Lyle, who is also a Team in Training coach. I remember that it felt tough almost the whole time, my legs burned, and I wasn't sure I'd make my goal. So this morning, a little less than one year later, I only knew that I wanted to PR, which I was on target to do pace-wise since my recent Gasparilla victory  (victory is a relative term, of course). It was a cold morning (for Florida), in the low 50s, which is a perfect running temperature for me. I've been taking things pretty easy...