For Whom the Dogs Bark

Texas Marathon

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Location:

Cypress,TX,

Member Since:

Oct 10, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 24:22 (March 2010); 22:33 (October 2010); 20:47 (May 2011); 21:05 (May 2012); 21:33 (September 2012); 21:23 (November, 2013); 22:31 (September 2014)

5M:  39:22 (November, 2012); 35:54 (November, 2013); 36:03 (March, 2015)

10K: 44:08 (November, 2010); 49:20 (July, 2013); 44:07 (April, 2015)

12K:  56:03 (December, 2013); 58:58 (December, 2014)

10M:  1:11:58 (October, 2012); 1:15:24 (October, 2014)

Half Marathon:  1:53:xx (London's Run 2010); 2:05:21 (Cowtown 2010); 1:37:04 (Gusher 2011); 1:42:19 (Huntsville 2011); 1:33:47 (Baytown Jailbreak 2012); 1:33:50 (The Woodlands 2012); 1:42:52 (Texas 2015); 1:49:17 (Jailbreak 2015); 1:38:34 (The Woodlands 2015)

25K: 2:01:47 (Fifth Third River Bank, May 2014)

Marathon: 5:51:35 (Texas Marathon 2009); 6:21:36 (Ogden 2009); 4:58:29 (St. George 2009); 4:13:45 (Texas Marathon 2010); 4:04:12 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2010); 5:11:14 (Hartford ING, 2010); 3:41:43 (Richmond SunTrust, 2010); 3:39:27 (Texas Marathon 2011); 3:41:46 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2011); 3:30:35 (St. George 2011); 3:41:51 (Richmond 2012); 3:49:15 (Texas 2013); 3:46:59 (Paavo Nurmi, 2013); 3:34:04 (St. George 2013); 3:49:51 (Texas 2014); 3:31:59 (Richmond 2014); 3:28:34 (Boston 2015)

Short-Term Running Goals:

3:20, 1:30, 0:20

Long-Term Running Goals:

I'm 60, there is no long term.

Personal:

I live, work and run in Houston, Texas.  I have run 17 marathons, some good ones and some others.  I prefer straight, flat, cold, sea-level marathons, still waiting for my first one.  I feel like there are more PRs out there.  When I have them, I am told it is time to dial it back, run for healthy reasons.  I'm sure that's right, and I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife and I are from the mountains of the west.  We have five kids, three granddaughters and three grandsons.  The kids and grandkids are native Texans but we are not -- you have to be born here.

As for my blog title: I run most of my miles before sunrise, sometimes hours before. On the back road of my neighborhood two hours before daylight, I can depend on a pack of mutts behind the boundary fence lighting up when they hear my footsteps. I have wondered what they wanted; but according to Hemingway I needn't ask.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
201.4159.239.500.00270.14
Race: Texas Marathon (26.22 Miles) 03:39:27, Place overall: 39, Place in age division: 2
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.220.000.0026.22

51F at start, 61F at end, 22% humidity (lowest I have ever seen in Houston), wind N 8 to 22 mph, beautiful day for running unless you are trying to run a marathon, then you have to give it a B+, the low humidity probably saved the day.  Today was the Texas Marathon, a small 400+ marathon in the Houston community of Kingwood that takes 4 laps around a community jogging trail, basically an out and back with a loop at the far end, so all day you are seeing other runners for both the half and the full.  I ran my first marathon here exactly two years ago today, then ran it again last year and got a big PR, so this one has a spot in my heart, it is the only one I have run more than once.  Last year I got a big PR.  Today I got a small PR, but I’m happy with it.  Here is how it happened:

When I woke up this morning I still felt pretty lousy from the flu-like symptoms I have had all week.  In the early hours I could still feel the fever.  I almost bailed but didn’t, decided that part of running is to take your races as they come.  After I got moving around a little bit I felt better anyway, so I got in the car and drove to Kingwood.  Got there way early and just sat around second-guessing my decision, but when everybody is lining up you just line up.  The plan was to try to mimic the Richmond heart rate pattern:  < 160 for the first 10 miles, 160-165 for the next 5, < 170 until mile 20, then whatever I can do after that.  Whatever speed that translates to, so be it.  This turned out to be a good strategy, took a lot of the stress out of a less than ideal situation.  Here are my splits (no good skin connection for the first three miles, so no reliable heart rate read-outs until mile 4):

First 5:  8:07, 8:09, 8:01, 8:22 (158) and 8:31 (159).  As soon as I got a good heart rate reading I could see that I was going too fast.  I felt great and didn’t want to slow down and watch my 3:30 goal slip away, but I knew that if I was 100% I would have a lower heart rate at these speeds and that I was in no position to gamble like I did at Richmond, so I slowed down and let the miles come in wherever they happened to fall.

Second 5:  8:29 (160), 8:31 (159), 8:25 (158), 8:33 (158) and 8:40 (160).  So just like Richmond, the old ticker held steady through these miles and set me up for a decent second half.

Third 5:  8:35 (162), 8:41 (160), 8:34 (164), 8:32 (162) and 8:16 (164).  I intentionally sped up here, using up some energy I had left in the bank in the early miles, but didn’t really go that fast.

Fourth 5:  8:19 (165), 8:22 (168), 8:24 (168), 8:26 (170) and 8:12 (171).  At mile 16.5 I was taking my last shot of EFS and caught my shoe on a sidewalk lip.  Down I went for the third time in a month.  I am getting good at this, I rolled to my left onto the lawn and managed to not stick my arms out.  Still got a nasty scrape on my knee that drove my younger granddaughter nuts.

Last 10K:  8:08 (172), 8:28 (171), 8:37 (168), 8:37 (167), 9:04 (168) and 8:42 (168).  There were no high heart rates at the end like Richmond, just didn’t have the strength today.  Plus a weird thing happened at about mile 22.  I was coming in for water, yelling for it from about 50 feet away, stepped up and took it, then a fairly heavy woman coming the opposite direction, staring at me, veered right into my face for a spectacular head-on, helmet-to-helmet collision.  I won despite giving up 30 pounds, but how does this happen?  I think these are the same people that drive 45 mph in the left lane.  Some of my friends in the biological specialties need to isolate this gene so we can eliminate it from the pool.

I finished in 3:39:27, 39th place overall.  Half marathon split was 1:49:37, second half 1:49:50, almost dead even.  A little more than 2 minutes better than Richmond, but the course is about 0.2 short I think, so my overall pace appears to have been almost identical.  Several other people said the same thing.  How is it that there is so much variation in certified courses?  I think there were about 400 running the marathon, but not sure.  It usually takes this race a while to post results, and they don’t do age group or anything like that.  But my son went and got the results for me, so I think they are official.  Anyway, it felt really good to finish and get a PR under the circumstances.  My daughter ran the half in 1:48:38, 8:17 per mile, so she ran faster than me, and got 32nd overall, very proud of her and her rapid progress.

I got compression socks this week and had my family put them on after the race, but I still had some cramping and so was stuck on the lawn for a while.  Pretty soon this guy comes up and starts talking to me, asks me if I ran the marathon and what did I think.  I non-committally said it’s a long ways.  Then he asks if I am part of the local running club and I said no, I drove over from the other side of town.  Then he says he wants to talk to the local club about nutrition, anybody who would eat a pepperoni pizza (I had just had three pieces) after running a marathon has their head up . . . .  whoa, got a live one here.  Turns out he is a multi-level marketer for a prominent vitamin company whose product is so good it cures cancer, diabetes and heart conditions, in addition to actually making you younger.  There I was, stuck on the lawn waiting for the calf cramps to subside, the ultimate captive audience.  Got out of there pronto with the help of the compression socks and without buying anything.

One last thing.  This is the "Texas Marathon", and as you may know, everything is bigger in Texas.  Here we are holding our finisher medals:

Solid brass, about 5 pounds apiece.

Comments(16)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Taking the day off, might take a few days off although I feel pretty good.  Now that I have slept on it a couple of nights, still very happy about Saturday's race, but pretty sure there will be better days.  A few wind-up items and then I will put it to bed:

1.   It was only a 2-minute PR but it was significant in a couple of ways.  I moved down one age bracket in the BQ chase, and for women I am now BQ-qualified in the open category (no surgery planned, however).  I also beat my old long-term goal of 3:40.

2.  I put the finisher's medal on a food scale (you can tell that work is busy today).  It weighs 48 ounces, exactly 3 pounds, so they exaggerated when they said it was 5 pounds.  By comparison, however, I weighed last year's medal and it was a mere 30 ounces, so this year is a definite improvement.

3.  Looks like my official finishing place is 39th out of 317, not 37th and not quite a top 10% finish.  I am listed 40th by gun time, but I was 30 seconds late crossing the starting mat so one slower runner is listed ahead of me.  I was the 36th male and second in age group by about 1 minute.  My daughter finished the half 30th overall out of 300, 10th female and first in her age group.

4.  To squelch a nasty rumor started by Burt, I am not making up my spill at mile 16.5.  Here is the photographic evidence, which I think documents a pretty bad owie.  Sorry if anybody is squeamish, but this is not a pretty sport.  (Burt, it's the left leg, and you can tell by the bony knee structure that it is mine.)

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.503.000.000.005.50

39F, 80% humidity, wind NW 5 mph.  Fantastic running weather this morning.  I have been fighting a work schedule and a persistent cold all week, but mostly a creeping lethargy --  I knew I needed to get out for a run today even though I don't have the time.  My wife did the seminary run so I was able to sleep in a little.  Then ran 5.5 miles in 47:52, average pace 8:42 per mile, flat shoes.  Ran first two at low heart rate, 10:03 and 9:29, then 3 at GMP, 8:00, 7:51 and 7:39, then 1/2 cooldown.  Heart rate still a little high, but it felt really good to get some endorphins back into my system.  Still slammed by work but more optimistic now about getting through this rough patch.

I need to make a plan for the year.  Even though I didn't get a 3:30 marathon, I'm thinking I was probably close under better conditions and I should go ahead and target a faster one.  That is the only way I can get better.  It doesn't happen for me if I just go out and run without a plan. 

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.003.000.000.009.00

42F, 61% humidity, wind E 1 mph.  Just another day in paradise.  Worked late last night, got to bed at 1 then met Wade at 6 at the YMCA, the whole group was going 21 as their final long run before the Houston marathon.  Wade only wanted 9 and that was OK with me.  He wanted to do three fast ones, so we started out in the 9:15 to 9:00 range for five, then did three at 8:00 to 7:50 then one cooldown.  Overall 9.00 miles in 1:20:08, average pace 8:56 per mile. I was showing very low heart rates (157, 153 and 146 for the three fast miles), but I don't think that is correct unless I'm a lot better than I was a week ago.  Possible I suppose after running almost nothing this week, but not likely, especially since it went down instead of up.  I felt lousy getting out of bed this morning but much better after I ran.  I should run more often.

Got my work out last night so hopefully things will be a little more reasonable that way and I can get back into a rhythm next week.  It has been a week, time to get going.  I may go back to Argentina a week from tomorrow, so it may be hard to maintain a schedule for a while.

Happy weekend all.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.040.000.000.0010.04

37F, 96% humidity, wind NNE 6 mph, cloudy.  Nice brisk morning out there.  Ran 10.04 in 1:42:01, average pace 10:10 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Not a particularly good pace but no sense drawing any conclusions based on one day.  I have been dong a lot of faster running lately and neglecting the slow side.  It may be time to run almost exclusively low heart rate for a couple of months, but still thinking about that.  Legs feel fine.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.058.000.000.0010.05

34F, 50% humidity, wind N. 7 mph.  10.05 miles in 1:23:29, average pace 8:18 per mile, fast miles between 7:50 and 8:00 (one 8:03, two 7:45).  Tuesday night run.

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.020.000.000.0010.02

28F, 56% humidity, wind N 5 mph.  Very cool out there for us coastal types.  I knew when I ran late and fast last night, followed by TexMex at 10:00, that this morning was going to be a bad run, and it did not disappoint.  Started out low heart rate and went slower and slower.  Final tally was 10.02 miles in 1:45:16, average pace 10:30 per mile, regular shoes.  This was one of the more difficult runs I remember, I was ready for it to be over from the beginning, and it never got better.  I was fully wrapped, two shirts, long pants, gloves and beanie; still, my hands were still so cold I could barely fix breakfast when I got in. 

In the process I saw the food scale sitting there (we have a houseful of food Nazis, that's why we have a scale in the kitchen) and got an idea.  Went into the bedroom, got my flat shoes and put them on the food scale, in a very sanitary fashion of course.  (Good thing Mrs. Flatlander doesn't read this blog.)  9.95 ounces (about 5 ounces each).  Then I weighed my regular shoes.  27.15 ounces (about 13.6 ounces each).  Learned a couple of things:  Turns out that shoe weight is by shoe, not by pair.  And left shoes don't weigh the same as right ones.  My left flat shoe is 4.85 and the right is 5.1.  Forgot to weigh my socks but I'm guessing they are half the weight of the flat shoes.

This all came up because I got a book in the mail yesterday, The Competitive Runner's Handbook.  (I got it not because I am competitive, but because it is supposedly chock full of answers to all the running questions one might have.)  I haven't looked at it much yet, but happened to glance at the shoe section.  They had nothing good to say about minimal shoes, said they are worth a few seconds per mile but the benefit diminishes with distance.  No, mine are worth about 20 seconds per mile at the same heart rate.  I have measured it more than once, apparently they haven't.  Hoping for better advice on other stuff.  On the other hand, Once a Runner also arrived.  Pure poetry.  I learned more by reading the first few pages than I will ever learn from a handbook.

Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.008.010.000.0010.01

32F, 24F wind chill, 50% humidity, wind NE 9 mph.  Still very cold by our standards but runnable.  I came very close to skipping this run because I was still hung over from yesterday's modest but painful effort.  But went out anyway, was in a hurry due to work deadlines so ran it fast.  Happily the aches and pains faded as soon as I got warmed up and the run went fine, albeit somewhat difficult.  10.01 miles in 1:20:34, average pace 8:03 per mile, flat shoes.  Left the heart rate monitor at home, it doesn't work very well at this temperature, but I was working hard.  Ran 2 slow then 8 fast.  The fast miles averaged 7:38, slowest right at 8:00 (mile 3) and down to 7:27 for miles 5 and 6.  Then I started running out of gas so I let my pace drift by about 15 seconds per mile and managed to finish the last 4 OK, never went over 7:45.  Probably harder than it should have been.  It was a 10K effort but not really 10K speed.  But it was what I had to give today, and I was glad I did.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.270.000.000.0010.27

38F, 50% humidity, wind SE at 3 mph.  Very good running weather today, but I wasn't a good runner today.  Went 10.27 miles in 1:48:05, average pace 10:32 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes, quite a bit slower than a normal run under these conditions.  Maybe I was still worn out from yesterday, but I didn't feel like it.  It was OK though, I enjoyed the run and felt fine when I was done. 

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
15.590.000.000.0015.59

44F, 85% humidity, wind ENE 6 mph, rainy.  Very nice running weather, but slow again for the second day in a row.  Ran the same route as yesterday, 10.29 in 1:48:46, average pace 10:34 per mile, flat shoes, so even slower.  Not sure what is going on but not panicking just yet. 

Then in the afternoon I ran in a church-sponsored 5K.  The teenagers are getting ready for a 3-day trek in March to commemorate our pioneer heritage, so today there was a 5K run/walk organized to help certain of them know that they needed to get into shape.  Altogether there were 230 runners, very nice turnout.  My friend Wade organized it and did a great job.  As I told him, I have paid quite a bit of money for races that were not organized as well as this one, and this one was free.  Everyone at church today was talking about what a blast they had and lobbying to repeat it next year.  Isn't running great?

My daughter-in-law came out from downtown to run it and to support the trek preparations, so we ended up running together, had a great time, very nice of her to come out.  I ran some more miles before the race, then 2.8 for the "5K", then went back out to bring in my daughter who was walking it with some friends.  She didn't seem too embarrassed to have a parent show up with bony knees and long white socks (just kidding about the socks, the knees are no kidding).  I even convinced them to run a little bit, so altogether I ran about another 5.3 miles, total of 15.59 for the day.  It was a good day to take it easy, as my Achilles was hurting by the end of the day.  It feels better today, probably going to be OK if I don't do anything overly stupid -- not that I won't.

Then, we drove to Kingwood and met Smooth and her daughter for a nice evening at a pretty good local restaurant.  Compared a lot of notes and talked a lot of family background and a lot of running.  It was a great time, glad to meet another blogger.  Thanks Smooth (and your daughter) for taking the time to meet us!

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.890.003.500.0012.39

48F, 93% humidity, calm, foggy and misting rain.  This is very good running weather.  I got almost 8 hours of sleep and felt much better this morning.  Ran the first half at low heart rate, averaging about 9:55 per mile or so, almost back in my zone.  Then the goal was to run two sets of 2 at 6:30, but I wasn't strong enough to pull that off.  I ran one at 6:59 and felt pretty trashed.  Ran a recovery mile, then did 1.5 at 6:55, a little better.  Ran another recovery mile then another fast mile at 7:00.  On this one I felt like I was able to get into a smoother, more relaxed rhythm, even though it was still difficult.  Then jogged it in.  Overall 12.39 miles in 1:52:03, average pace 9:03 per mile.

I ran across some references over the weekend to age group All-Americans, got curious and looked it up.  Turns out the standards are ridiculously loose, I have already met all of them for 5K through marathon for the road racer category and I am an average runner.  Inexplicably, they are much tighter for the track category (18:25 and 39:00 for my age group).  But in the process I found out that there are standards for national ranking by age group.  For my group they are:   5K: 18:20 (5:54); 10K: 39:30 (6:22);  half: 1:27 (6:38); and full: 3:00 (6:52).  Those are worthy goals and a significant accomplishment for any 55-year old who can do it.  To put things in perspective, this morning I ran 2.4K at a pace slightly slower than target pace for a 3-hour marathon.  Hard to believe there are old guys running around that fast out there.  They must be wearing very short shorts and doing yoga.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.220.000.000.0012.22

51F, 96% humidity, calm.  12.22 miles in 2:04:58, 10:14 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.135.002.000.0012.13

37F, 100% humidity, calm and clear.  Beautiful morning with almost a full moon and Saturn (or whatever it is) still hanging around at dawn, mid-sky in the south.  I bundled up but didn't need to.  Even though we had high humidity it felt warmer than yesterday because it wasn't raining or getting ready to rain.  For the first leg I had only 70 minutes to run, so I did 3 at low heart rate, one transition mile at old marathon pace (8:46), then two fast ones, 7:08 (166) and 6:53 (176).  Then jogged in for a mile and had to make a seminary run to pick up my daughter.  After getting her home I went out for five more, one warmup mile and four at progressive pace, 8:10 (155), 7:52 (162), 7:43 (166), and 7:33 (172).  Last one was harder than it should have been but that is the story lately, interesting that my heart rate for the 7:33 mile was about the same as for the 6:53 mile.  I think it takes the heart a while to get up to speed.  Overall I ran 12.13 miles in 1:46:22, average pace 8:46 per mile, flat shoes.  Good run, but don't know where my best speed went.  I did a 6:34 mile on November 22, less than two weeks after a marathon.  Maybe I have been gaining weight, but I am afraid to check it.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.160.000.000.0012.16

53F, 93% humidity, calm and cloudy.  Temperature dropping all day today, but running this morning was very comfortable.  Ran 12.16 miles in 2:07:42, average pace 10:30 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Compares to a similar run last week in regular shoes.  Also had a run in this range last week in flat shoes, so looks like I am definitely slower all of a sudden across all heart rate zones, no idea why.  I got on the scales expecting to see 5 extra pounds but it wasn't there.  Has to be something else, but hopefully it won't last long.  My liver is probably regrouping or something.  (Does that sound bad?)

Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.020.000.000.0012.02

29F, 21F wind chill, 74% humidity,couldy and wind N 8 mph.  Cold, but predicted winds were 20-30 mph, so could have been much worse.  Usually the wind dies out some by the time it gets this far south.  Did a full wrap and wasn't that cold except for my fingers, which were like 10 popsicles by the time I finished.  Wimpy I know, but the cloth gloves were not doing it for this southern runner.  It has cleared up now and I think it will be even colder tomorrow, but probably no wind.  I ran 12.02 miles in 2:02:06, average pace 10:10 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Got 4 in a row under 10 so a little better.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.060.000.000.0020.06

26F, 81% humidity, wind NW 2 mph, clear and cold.  Bright moon, waning but almost full, gorgeous morning for a run.  Bundled up double wrap and was on the road before 5.  Met Wade at his house, ran down to the Y and joined them for 4 of their 8 miles (most of them are running the Houston Marathon in a week) before breaking off and heading home.  I left Wade at his house and ran a few more to get 20, last 4 were 8:47, 8:37, 8:25 and 7:41, 20.06 miles altogether, 2:58:23, average pace 8:54 per mile, flat shoes.  Felt good to run in the brisk weather this morning, but not nearly as good as the big breakfast and hot shower afterward.  No ice bath for this runner.  Breakfast was 4 glasses of of grapefruit juice, one calcium pill, one piece of toast with peanut butter, one glass of chocolate milk, 1/3 cup of whole wheat boiled (with 1% milk, brown sugar and blueberries), and one egg (cooked Sunnyside up in honor of allie).  No wonder I'm not losing any weight.

Wade had a good week.  He has been in search mode for 6 months and got a job on Thursday.  CFO of a start-up oilfield tool company, gets to keep his old salary and has a ton of upside as the company grows, and he is staying in Houston so I'm not losing a running buddy.  Plus he is getting some running speed back, he has almost caught back up to me all of a sudden, which makes sense -- he was faster than me in high school and he is 7 or 8 years younger than me.  He announces his new job on Wednesday.  Would have qualified for a nice severance package (about 3 months of salary) if he waited two more weeks to announce.  His wife asked him why he couldn't wait to announce and he said he didn't feel right taking severance from his old company when he already had a job.  He was a Mormon bishop for five years and I would say he was flying his colors high this week.  Not sure I would have come out the same way as he did, but I have complete respect for a decision like that.  So many people I deal with are fun to be around in most circumstances but they behave differently when money is involved.  It is an honor to count Wade as a friend.

In contrast to Wade, I found a $1 bill by the side of the trail this morning.  I think I spotted it first because I have the poorest running form, always looking at the ground.  Caused a 15-runner pile-up while I stopped to scoop it up and do a victory dance.  I'm not in Burt's league, but it's a start.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.130.000.000.0014.13

46F, 100% humidity, wind NE 8 mph, rain.  Actually turned out to be pretty good running weather.  It looked awful when I anxiously peeked out the window dark and early for a preview, but once I got my feet wet (literally) it was fine, wind wasn't too bad and it was just warm enough to leave gloves at home.  I intended to do only 10 but felt good and had the time so I kept going.  Plus I thought I would be traveling later this week, but that just got cancelled.  Ran 14.13 miles in 2:21:25, average pace 10:01 per mile, low heart rate.  I had a 9:54 average pace through 10, after that the miles started catching up with me but I never got slower than 10:15.  My LHR pace is gradually getting faster again, still not my best but improving, legs felt strong today.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.026.000.000.0012.02

46F, 87% humidity, wind NNW 8 mph, blustery and clearing.  Finally saw the moon and it was dry out there.  Felt pretty stiff from yesterday, even though it was a slow run, but no injuries, so I felt pretty much OK from the beginning today.  Turned out to be a good run.  I planned to run 5 at low heart rate, then six at GMP (7:30) then cool down one.  When I woke up my mojo failed me and I decided to go for 4 fast miles, because I have been having trouble hitting 7:30 lately.  The slow miles were uneventful except for one incident with a small dog.  at 4.75 miles I sped up and hit my stride going into mile 6.  The speed felt hard but not overwhelming and I thought maybe 6 wouldn't be so bad after all.  7:38 (156), 7:18 (163), 7:21 (167), 7:21 (170), 7:16 (173) and 7:18 (175), average 7:22 for the 6 fast ones.  I let up on the gas pedal a little bit because I want to run some more fast miles this week.  Wade and I have decided to run a half in Beaumont on the second Saturday in March.  My nephew, his wife and her father (who is from Beaumont) are also going to run it.  Original plan was to run 7:30 pace but now I think it might be possible to go faster.  One morning doesn't make a race, but today was a good omen.

OK, about this dog.  Some 8-year old girl accidentally let him out the front door and he was relentless.  Very small but wouldn't go away.  She was out there trying to chase him in a house coat, crying in the cold.  I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there while the drama played out.  Not a good situation, but I don't want to be bitten no matter how small the dog.  This one definitely wanted a piece of me and the girl knew it.  I have no idea why this poor girl's parents didn't come out and resolve the situation, some people have no manners.  But it was a small price to pay for a good run.

Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.070.004.000.0012.07

33F, 88% humidity and calm.  Very nice morning but a little cold on my sensitive Texas skin.  I got out early, eager to run some more fast miles.  The plan was to do 2x2 miles at 7:00.  Didn't make it.  7:15 was the best I could do.  I could feel stiffness in my inner thigh that stayed around after the run.  Probably OK but not the best situation -- that probably held me back some, but this speed felt very, very fast today.  Results were 7:15 (161), 7:13 (169), one slow mile, then 7:15 (166) and 7:14 (172).  The last one felt particularly fast but it was the same.  Overall 12.07 miles in 1:49:38, average 9:05 per mile.  I think to some extent I had hangover from yesterday, legs just weren't quite as strong.  It's OK though, training is not a linear process.

I ordered some new Jingas (the flat shoes I wear almost all the time now, they are made in Brazil but shipped from England) a few weeks ago.  They haven't arrived so I finally sent this message:

"Would much appreciate a status update.  The tracking system says my order was despatched on January 6 and shoes mailed on January 7, now "winging their way toward me", but there has been no landing and no further information.  Even a corked bottle launched from Liverpool would have arrived by now.  Would appreciate knowing when the airplane is expected to run out of fuel and land."

They wrote back immediately with a long, customized and detailed explanation.  It was like I am their only customer.  Something goes wrong with every order:  missing shoelaces, wrong size and now this.  But they are so charming and quirky that I can't get mad, and they always fix it.  So if you want some flat shoes and a little bit of adventure, order Jingas.  They are on sale through January for 30 Pounds Sterling, plus "shipping". 

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.070.000.000.0012.07

38F, 88% humidity, wind W 5 mph.  Thought it was going to feel colder than it did.  38 is my new 48.  Ran 12.07 in 1:59:41 average pace 9:55 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Original plan was to do 3 fast days this week but I was a little worried about my right achilles and heel which have been acting up somewhat the last couple of days, so I took it easy today and will probably do the same for the rest of the week.  Despite some tired legs, all of my splits were under 10 except for the first (10:31) and the last (10:00), so continuing to improve at the low end, still not back to my 9:30 days but that is coming.  My best ever slow run was 9:42 per mile back on December 1.  It was 28F that morning, so the cold isn't the issue.  Anyway, feeling good but gotta go, can't hang around to chat.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Whiffed on the run this morning.  Got on a call at midnight last night, people from Taiwan, Beijing, Singapore, France and U.S., all speaking bad English (but better than my French or Chinese) for 4 hours talking about arcane West African accounting rules -- got to bed just in time to turn off my alarm.  That was fun.  Honestly, I probably need a day off anyway.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.070.000.000.0020.07

52F, humidity 82%, wind SW 5 mph.  Really nice running weather, felt good to run without the usual accoutrements.  I had to be somewhere at 8:00 so I was out the door at 4:30, kind of funny, my alarm clock went off this morning at almost exactly the same time I went to bed Friday morning.  It's one advantage I have being old, sleep is optional.  The plan was to run 20 at 9:00.  First mile was 9:21, so I sped up and the second was 8:34, and I mostly left it there for the rest of the run, dipped into the 8:20s a couple of times toward the end.  I ended up running 20.07 in 2:54:01, average pace 8:40, flat shoes.  Heart rate never broke 160 and it was below 150 most of the run until I sped up a little bit toward the end.  Legs were quite sore and still are, but no particular stress otherwise.  This was basically my marathon pace going into Richmond, so I am improving.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.100.000.000.0012.10

56F, 93% humidity, gathering clouds but calm.  Good running weather.  Ran 4 then did the seminary run, then 4 more then a second GI break then 4 more.  So overall speed was down, but I was slower this morning no matter how you cut it.  I ran 12.10 miles in 2:03:02, average pace 10:10 per mile, flat shoes.  Too much rich food over the weekend.  But it was a fun weekend meeting bloggers and monitoring their races.   My daughter-in-law's bosses were a sponsor of the half marathon, so she and my son drew duty at one of the stations.  They passed out water and Gatorade, but my daughter-in-law was also in charge of the music and organizing cheers.  Her bosses were so impressed they promised a raise.  We'll see if that holds up today as they are recovering from their hangovers.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
201.4159.239.500.00270.14
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