Belleair Classic 10K

Another 10K run in the books. Didn't really know how this one would go since my running has been hampered over the past 8 weeks or so with nagging pains and mini-breaks. I had absolutely no goal today......except to run hard. We didn't taper at all, obviously with New Orleans 70.3 in 4 weeks. We did move our "long run" (only 11 miles for me) to Weds from Thurs and then I did my bike threshold intervals (3 x 10min) on the computrainer on Thurs. Legs quite dead, as expected so, hence, no real goals. This race starts about 1 1/2 miles from our house so it was nice to ride over on the mountain bikes! Thanks to Outspokin, we were able to leave the bikes in a guarded corral. This course is deceptively hard and rolling. I know it's Florida but there are some rollers on this course. The Dane and my advantage was that we run on these roads all the time. The Dane felt he was defending his home turf; I, on the other hand, just didn't want to be slow or get injured. Well, the good thing is, I didn't do either. Started out way too fast, 6:05, then cooled down into a remarkably steady set of miles the rest of the way that were between 6:33 and 6:38, depending on the hills. I am quite happy especially since I haven't done ANY tempo runs or speed work since maybe September. Something to work with, I think. I came close to breaking 40 minutes which I haven't done in over a decade I'm sure. The Dane ran really well, a full minute in front of me - time he hasn't run since the mid '90's!
We will do some tempo TT riding tomorrow and a longer brick and call it a week. The fitness is ok, maybe not great for a half IM in four weeks but something to work with. We did an open water swim today too, whew - cold water! Now's the only chance I have to swim in water as cold as (or close to) what we'll face at IM Canada in August!
Good day, good week so far and got to catch up with friends, esp Sharon B, that I haven't seen in a while. Good times and perfect weather now!
Aloha