Status

After some solid training before the US trip, it all took a bit of a turn for the worse.

The few days before went well, and the trip was only supposed to be the standard out and back, 3 days all in total. As Thursday was a long day getting there, there would be no running, but a run planned for Friday.
As it turns out, there was an unexpected issue with the aircraft, which meant going nowhere fast until Monday night! At least I got my planned run in on Friday, a beautiful easy 9 miles along the Seattle coastline.
After a nice surprise trip to a Billy Joel concert on Friday night, and a few complimentary beverages, I wasn't in much shape for a run Saturday. Sunday I set aside the afternoon, and again a slightly shorter 6 miles easy, a 30 minute gym session on some light weights, followed by two fast miles on the treadmill.
As I was not going to make the virgin night run, I hoped for the local club 5k on Tuesday night.

I flew back to Ireland on Monday night into Tuesday, landing back in a sunny Dublin just after 4pm.
When I got home I had hoped for some time to sleep, and I got a little cat nap of about 40 minutes and went and signed up for the 5k. Unfortunately, as I strolled over to sign up, I realised I had gotten the start time wrong by 30 minutes, and it was a quick dash to get changed and make it to the start line.
This was the first short race I had done in a very long time, and I was a bit unsure how I would fair out. I looked around for some familiar faces, trying to position myself with those whom I had previously compared well with.
At the off, I set the watch for a 6:10 mile pace, and mile one was 6 minutes flat. This felt pretty comfortable, and I had forgotten how much the adrenalin of a race helps your performance. The route is a particularly rolling route, with practically no flat segments, and a net uphill gradient.
At mile two, I was still going well, and the hard segment never arrived. I finished at 18:39,  2nd M40,  28th out of a field of 315. While nothing great, I was pleasantly surprised.
The effort was constant throughout, and I managed a pretty solid sprint finish.

A 6 mile easy recovery on Wednesday, wife's turn to get out after work on Thursday. Friday, 1 mile warmup, 10k at 39:37 and I was quite pleased with that too, two miles easy to finish.
Saturday, a 9 mile at 7:20 and then a 9 mile bike ride. Why? I ran out to a friends house and cycled home!
My planned long run Sunday didn't happen as I got a short notice call to go to work which scuppered the rest of the evening.
Today no run either as I had a very eRly start and a long day in the UK. I am consoling myself that the routine should stabilise now, and the weather is forecast good for the rest of the week, so plenty of long runs for a high mileage week in the last 5 days is on the cards.