For Whom the Dogs Bark

Two one-hour sessions on the hotel TM.

Two more one-hour sessions on the TM.  The second one was tough.  I am in Taipei now but leaving for Dubai in a couple of hours.  If Dubai is safe (and I think it is), I am going to run outside.  Just can't stomach any more time on that machine, it drives me nuts.  I can run forever outside without iPod or company, but I would never get fit if that infernal machine was my only option.  TV doesn't help, I just can't stand to run in one spot.

That is all.

61F, 47%, SSE 3 mph in Dubai.  Finished at 73F.  My flight got cancelled yesterday, so didn't get in until 5:00 this morning, got to the hotel at 6, got unpacked and went running.  I felt great for the first 4 miles, then I didn't feel so good.  I was just exploring, it looks pretty safe around here.  I was trying to find a path along the beach but I never did.  Everything is private or under construction.  I was planning on 20, but when I tried to turn into a side road at 17.93 miles I got stopped for about the third time, the guy in the guard station made me detour along an area that was unrunnable at that stage.  I tried to run again once I got back onto a flat surface, but didn't feel good and was getting a salty face, so called it a day at 18.00 miles, 2:33:27, average pace 8:31 per mile.  I seem to have flu symptoms, too much traveling and not enough sleep.  But at least I got to run outside, not a perfect day but it beats the machine.

60F, low humidity and wind.  My internal clock is still screwed up, so I woke up shortly after midnight and worked until daylight.  Then went out for a quick run before going to meetings.  I had aspirations of doing a LHR run but it wasn't working with all of the biorhythm disruptions I have right now.  So I tried to not push it too hard but didn't worry too much about staying extremely slow.  Ran 10.66 miles in 1:37:56, average pace 9:11 per mile (I know I'm in the Middle East, but I see absolutely no connection).  I did let loose a little bit and took about 2-1/2 miles at MP, 7:36 and 7:22 plus a part of a mile until I got to a corner where I couldn't keep running.

Heading back to the U.S. in a couple of hours.  This is an interesting place, it's like the whole place has been built in the last 10 years.  A lot of the buildings are ridiculous, the architects were given the keys to the money vault and the accountants all went on vacation -- all kinds of outlandish buildings.  It's like a contest.  Construction cranes everywhere, everything for rent, no landscaping, nothing seems finished.  Kind of a sterile feeling, actually.  After finishing work today I toured a museum.  Other than a few pottery shards, it appears that their history started about when I was born.  Makes me a relic too, I guess.

43F, 84%, W 8 mph.  LHR run, 8.40 miles in 1:20:34, 9:36 per mile, good pace for this type of run.  Felt cold after traveling in warmer places.

44F, 65%, N 17-24, wind chill 36F.  Trying to get a little sympathy on the wind chill but I know it is hopeless with all the Utah runners on this blog.  At least my son thought it was cold.  16F and then we could have a conversation.  I hate running in the dark when it is either raining or blowing; at least it was dry today.  But when I left my cul de sac and turned into the heavy north wind I immediately gave up on my long slow plans, just wanted to get this one over with.  Plan was to go 12 slow, but I needed to finish early anyway, so I ran a full half (I mean half of a full) at pretty close to marathon pace, at least for my current conditioning.

Splits were 9:19, 8:24, 7:53, 7:51, 7:42, 7:43 (161), 7:41, 7:49, 7:44, 7:53, 7:45, 7:46, 7:49 then burned in the stub split at a blistering 8:11 (172) pace.  Legs were trashed but I didn't feel too tired, exactly what I would expect after doing a lot of base work and no speed work.  Hopefully the legs will come back.  If they do maybe I can break 1:30 this year, basically a full minute per mile faster than today..  Today was 13.11 miles in 1:44:11, average pace 7:57 per mile.

28F, 86% and calm.  Cold but dressed warm.  10.10 LHR miles at 10:10 per mile, how often does that happen?  Glad I could run slow enough to pull it off.

65F, 88%, S 10 mph.  I didn't run Saturday because of the Olympic Trials, but it didn't make me any faster today.  20.07 LHR miles in 3:30:01, average 10:28 per mile, not a good run but any time you run 20 it is a success.  I am supposed to start training for Boston this week, but I think I will run slow for one more week.  I think I will have time this week and I want to get a long string of uninterrupted slow days.  Training has been so broken up with travel and the holidays that I feel like I need one more week.

However, I am afraid something is going on.  I was slightly under 10 for 6 miles then nothing after that.  Several late in the run were in the high 10s and would have been comfortably in the 11s if I hadn't cheated and let my heart rate go up a little.  I have done 20 at LHR before averaging under 10 at temperatures similar to this morning -- I really have no explanation for why I am suddenly getting slower.  One doesn't age that quickly.  One possibility is that I have actually lost conditioning running a lot of slow stuff, but it has never happened before.  I honestly thought I would be in the low 9s by the end of this base cycle, maybe better.  Another possibility is medical.  I am due for a physical but not sure how I would explain my situation to a doctor who is used to dealing with patients who are happy to be able to run 3 miles a week, if at all.  How is a medical professional going to think there is anything wrong with me?  He'll just think I'm crazy and his guess would probably be no better than mine.

The Trials on Saturday were a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Went down with Wade and Eric and met Joe who was in town to run a very fast marathon on Sunday.  Because of the configuration of the 3-loop course and the staggered start between men and women we were able to see the start and the finish and then walk down the course a ways and see a lot of racing by shuttling back and forth between the out-bound part and the in-bound part.  Because of a jog in the course we were actually able to see each lead group 3 times each lap.  It was other-worldly to be so close to the lead pack as they came around corners, you could see the sweat flying off of them.  I think the women have a good chance at a medal, not sure about the men.  Houston turned out big for it, but I can't believe everybody in town wasn't there.

70F, 94%, SSW 9-17 with light rain.  Got out very early with the intent to run 12 slow.  About 4.5 miles in I saw Wade, ran to catch up with him and ran 3 or 4 at his speed, which was mid-8s, then finished off at the same speed, heart rate generally 152-155 toward the end.  Overall 12.47 miles in 1:54:36, average 9:11 per mile (second time in a week, hate when that happens).

Can't get the weekend out of my head.  In addition to SlowJoe's cold, execution-style run, my age group was won at 2:34:57, somebody from Ross, California (Napa Valley) coming in to crash the party, very possibly a liberal.  Seriously, that time is 10 minutes faster than any other time I have ever heard about for my age group, including at Boston.  I looked him up and he has run only one other marathon that shows up in the last 10 years, CIM just over a month ago.

41F, 60%, NNE 6 mph, clear and dry.  A perfect morning.  Left very early and ran 20.07 miles in 2:52:53, average pace 8:37 per mile, average heart rate 151 bpm, and made it to a 9:00 meeting at a client's office.  This run was a only a little higher than my average pace in Richmond about 14 months ago, so I was curious to compare heart rates from that time period.  I found a training run from a couple of Saturdays before that marathon.  It was 26 miles, and my entry says "under 155 through 20 miles and under 160 until the last mile" -- average pace on that day was 9:36.  Today I didn't break 155 until I sped up to the low 8:20s in the last 5 miles; further, I never broke 161 and could have held close to that heart rate and pace for the remainder of the marathon if I had wanted to.  My shoes were heavier then, the weather about the same, training load a little heavier right now than it was then -- overall it is fair to say I was a minute faster today at a slightly lower heart rate.  All well and good, but I would be like to understand why my LHR pace back then was at least as fast as it is now, that is the mystery.  Everything else makes sense.   

One last factoid from the Trials:  The oldest man was 37 (the winner was 36 and the last place finisher was also 36).  The oldest woman was 50 and there were two of them, finishing 28th and 143rd.  15 women were over 40.  I can't explain the disparity but it is interesting.

55F, 88%, SSW 6 mph.  12.51 miles in 1:54:29, average 9:09 per mile.  At mile 9.11 I looked at my watch and my average pace was 9.11, along with a previous split of 9:11.  Had to pick it up after that.

69F, 93%, S 9 mph and cloudy.  Got up very early and ran 20, most of it in the dark.  Very warm this morning for this time of year.  Unfortunately my BodyGlide stopped working at the same time as the sun came up, not a good combination, but at least it helped me keep my hands high.  20.00 miles in 3:00:43, average 9:02 per mile, 146 bpm.  Tried to stay under 150 bpm the whole run, my theoretical aerobic threshold.  I could stay under 9 minute pace until the last 2 miles, when I had to slow down a little or release the heart rate.

PM:  Wade and I drove out to Huntsville State Park, site of the Rocky Raccoon 100 in two weeks, to practice running the trails in the dark, since we will be pacing Mr. Crockett in two weeks when he runs it.  We ran exactly 10 miles in 1:48:14, average pace 10:50 per mile.  At first it was comical trying to stay on the trail in the dark and avoid all the roots.  Plus I was pretty stiff from running earlier in the day, but within a mile we were moving fine.  I had a good light and led most of the way, but Wade was leading at mile 3.5 where we both stopped when a large animal started moving alongside the trail.  I ran into Wade but we were just staring and never saw anything.  Finally it growled and walked away.  We are calling it a bear.  So we are veteran trail runners now.  A couple of guys were just unloading their trunk when we got back.  They are in the race and were out for a night run, they were going to run all night, for 10 hours, but were only going 30 miles.

Hi, my name is flatlander and I am a mileage junkie.  I didn't intend for things to turn out like this, it just happened, but I can change.  I'm going to start getting ready for Boston next week.  This time I really mean it.

58F, 62%, N 7 mph and cloudy.  Really good morning to air it out a little bit.  Ran 6 wu at about 8:55 per mile, then 5 tempo miles, 7:15 (161), 7:03 (170), 7:07 (174), 7:08 (177) and 7:04 (179), average 7:08, then a very slow cd mile to finish it off.  I was hoping to do the tempo at 7:00 flat, but that was pretty optimistic, I haven't run anything sustained in the 7s since the Huntsville half, which was exactly 3 months ago today.  So I'm hoping this is just a matter of knocking the rust off.  The plan is to do about 3 hard days a week (combination of speed and stamina), all in a row, then use the rest of the week to recover and work on base miles.  I'm thinking that will teach me to run better when I'm tired, but still get the recovery I need to improve. 

54F, 66%, ENE 5 mph.  Another good running morning.  So today was wind sprints, just like high school.  Ran 6 miles at about an 8:50 pace then 15 x 200 as fast as I could go.  It wasn't very fast though -- mostly in the low 6s, a couple of high 5s and a couple of mid 6s.  Neural feedback was telling me I was taking long, fast, smooth strides -- so much for neural feedback.    Endorphins are starting to wear off now and I can feel my legs and my feet, hopefully I haven't damaged anything.  Went back to original speed to finish off the run, did leg weights at the rec center at 12.0 miles then ran home.  Altogether 12.30 miles in 1:45:20, average pace 8:33.  Maybe 1K repeats tomorrow, then back off for the rest of the week.

Went out the door early and the wind was 41 mph, looked at the computer and it had a tornado warning on it, so I bailed.  Went to the clubhouse and ran 6.0 on the TM.  This was based on heart rate and length of the run, not mechanical feedback on the clubhouse TM, which was inaccurate.  I planned to do 6 more TM miles later in the day but got busy around noon and my legs were hurting late, so I bailed again.

50F, 90%, W 9 mph and cloudy.  Very nice running weather this morning, just on the cusp between short sleeves and long sleeves, which is ideal for me.  Left early and ran 5 at 8:45 pace, then did what was supposed to be yesterday's workout, 7 x 1000 at threshold pace with recovery jog to even out each mile:  4:26 (7:06 mile pace)(160 bpm), 4:27 (7:09)(161), 4:19 (6:49)(166), 4:07 (6:39)(170), 4:10 (6:41)(172), 4:05(6:32)(172) and 4:09 (6:42)(174), average 6:48 per mile.  (The metric numbers are a little off because my watch is set to miles rather than kilometers, I was trying to manually hit the lap button at .62 miles but it was off by as much as 2 seconds).  According to a McMillan printout I have, a 7:30 average marathon pace is equivalent to tempo intervals in the 6:44 to 6:58 range, and 1000 meter cruise intervals in the 4:09 to 4:14 range, so I managed to hit that about right.  It was hard but not impossible, which means I might be in the range for a 7:30 marathon pace.  It was interesting that if I went ahead and ran faster than I thought I could sustain, I was able to pretty much sustain it through the end of the interval anyway.  So I ran faster than I thought I could, which at least is better than the other way around.  I would eventually like to hit 3:44 for 1K intervals (6 minute mile pace), but that appears to be a distant goal at this point.

Went to the clubhouse and did leg weights then jogged home.  Altogether 12.17 miles in 1:41:59, average pace 8:23 per mile.

39F, 100%, calm and clear.  Started out bundled up a little bit but soon lost everything but the long sleeves, really didn't seem that cold with no wind blowing.  Got out very early and ran 20.07 miles in 3:00:32, average pace 9:00 per mile, average heart rate 141, although it went up in the last 4 miles as high as 147.  Fairly difficult run following yesterday's workout, legs started to get pretty stiff in the last third.  I was trying to keep the overall pace right at 9:00 -- I'll play tomorrow by ear, but I'm trying to do as much as possible this week because of travel again next week.

Highlight of the run was passing a parked teenager's car with writing on the windows celebrating her 18th birthday:  "Finaly Leagle".  Just in time for the election, couldn't be happier for her.

50F, 99%, NNW 5 mph and clear.  Normally I would have really enjoyed a run like this, but too many hard runs this week.  Was all I could do to drag my sorry Jingas out the door.  Left at 4:30 and ran a few miles in the neighborhood, then ran down and caught up with Wade.  We ran another 9 or 10 together and then I ran home.  Legs felt heavy the whole time, definitely found my limit this week.  All appears to be OK though.  15.54 miles in 2:27:19, 9:29 per mile.

On the other hand, Wade and I had a great time.  We are signed up for two half marathons (Baytown in February and Woodlands in March) and the Kingwood Marathon next New Years Day (in addition to Boston for me), and we'll undoubtedly do more.  But we spent most of the run talking about how fast we used to be.  Should have heard us bragging in the dark.

39F, 98%, calm and clear.  Gorgeous morning out, but I had a run that I was a little afraid of.  Wanted to go 8 miles at 7:00.  Warmed up 4 miles at about a 9:10 pace then took off.  I managed to hold it for 6 miles at sub-7 and probably could have averaged 7 flat for 2 more with the cushion I had but could no longer hold the pace so I gave up.  Still a good run though.  Fast splits were 6:57 (164), 7:00 (171), 6:50 (175), 6:55 (177), 6:56 (179) and 7:00 (179), average 6:56, 12 seconds faster and 1 mile longer than last week.

Traveling all week, probably not much but a couple of hotel treadmill sessions for the remainder of the week.