For Whom the Dogs Bark

41F, 95%, N 7 mph and light rain.  Cold and rainy this morning.  Didn't affect the race, but made things mody uncomfortable before and after.  Next time I need to remember to bring dry shoes -- I had dry socks but you can't put them in wet shoes.  Almost nobody was there except runners and volunteers.  Riding a wave of confidence after the conclusion yesterday of my one-workout training cyle, followed by a generous 24-hour taper, I hopped in Wade's truck at 6:30 and we were off to the races.

This race is run by an aging hippie, Steve Boone, and his wife Paula, possibly the two nicest people on the planet.  They give out good stuff (real stuff, as Steve calls it), including the largest finishing medals in the industry.  And Steve run/walks all his races himself.  I have run this race 4 times as the marathon, but only ran the half today.  The course measures a little short according to my Garmin.  I have measured it short every year, and Steve's e-mail this year indicates he is up for "recertification", which probably means somebody got wind of the issue.  Not an issue if it is long, even if it is quite long, but if a certified course seems just a little short certain people get wound up.  The missing 1/10 mile today was worth 3 seconds per mile, no big deal.

The race started at 8:15 a.m. and within a couple of miles I knew it wasn't going to be a stellar day.  Goal was 7:30/mile, but actual splits were as follows:  8:16, 7:45, 7:59 (169), 7:49 (169), 7:58 (168), 7:44 (170), 7:41 (170), 7:32 (172), 7:57 (170), 7:59 (1680), 7:58 (168), 8:12 (168) and 8:04 (168).  Should have been able to finish at least at180 bpm, but nothing was happening with my legs.  Some of it is due to training through, but mostly I am not completely back in shape after losing training miles to the cold and flu I have had off and on since November.  I think the winning time was close to my PR, and I am pretty sure the second-place time was slower than it.  

Wade and I agreed on the way home that a bad day at the races is still a ton of fun, even in the rain.  

Raining, thunder and lightning and cold this morning, ran inside on TM at Planet Fitness.  10 miles, had to re-set the machine at one hour.  Started out at 10:00/mile, ended up at 6:50.  Overall averaged about 10 seconds per mile slower than I raced on Thursday, which was interesting.  The bottom of my left foot is bruised, at least that is what I hope it is, rather than a stress fracture.  Felt pretty bad all day, but getting a little better by Sunday afternoon.

32F (26 WC), 62%, N 6 mph.  A three-shirt morning.  LLHR run, met Wade for 3 or 4, he is also trying to recover from some knee and hip pain, but both of us are getting better.  Started out a low heart rate, Wade was running a bit faster so moved up to about 128-132 bpm, then back down for the final 4 miles.  Overall 11:30/mile, 122 bpm, but slow miles were in the upper 11s.  To be expected for this type of weather and clothing.  Foot seems a little better.

34F, 90%, calm.  Much nicer this morning, even though it was only 2 degrees warmer.  Lack of wind made the differencd.  Down to two shirts.  Ran another 8 at LLHR, 11:30/mile but lower heart rate than yesterday, 120 bpm.  Foot a little more tender today, probably should have stopped at 5.

40F, 95%, NW 1 mph.  Pretty good weather today.  Foot is still holding serve, so went 10 at LLHR, 11:12/mile, 120 bpm, quite a bit better than yesterday.  Ran middle miles with Wade, who is also doing much better.  We are supposed to get some very cold weather in, but it is unclear how far south the super cold air will come.  Heavy winds this afternoon, which almost always brings frigid temps.

29F (20 WC), 44%, N 9 mph.  Pretty cold, very cold for Housto, though humidity was low and that helped.  Still slow though, LLHR run, 10.0 miles at 11:56/mile, 121 bpm.  Ran half of it with Wade.

Had jury duty this morning, had to be downtown at 8:00 a.m. and it is raining, so no chance to run today.  Senator Ted Cruz was on the same panel as me.  It was a media circus and I photobombed him a couple of times, two rows back in this one:

http://abc13.com/politics/sen-ted-cruz-reports-for-jury-duty/468405/

The secret for not getting picked off of a jury panel is to wear your best suit and try to say  intelligent stuff.  At least I got the suit part down.  It worked, Ted and I both got off, though he told me he was looking forward to serving, which I think he has to say, but maybe he meant it.

38F, 75%, NNE 7, raining off and on.  This is what you get this time of year.  Had to be done by 8:00, so I started at 4:25 a.m. and finished in plenty of time.  20 miles in 2:57:38, 8:53/mile, 148 bpm average, 154 max.  Ran 5 or 6 in the middle with Wade, which was nice.  He showed up at about mile 9, and when he was gone it was mile 14, like nothing had happened.

One objective today was to not speed up too much in the second half, try to save my legs for training next week.  I stopped looking at my splits and heart rate after Wade left and I slowed down quite nicely.  Last mile was 9:07.

43F, 100%, NW 5 mph.  Rained some more last night, but good running weather this morning.  Another LLHR run, 10.0 in 1:56:34, 11:41/mile, not too bad for a Monday after a weekend long run.  Pretty happy with my feet right now, still sore but recovering, and I am starting to lose a little bit of weight again.  Have to travel at the end of this week but hopefully I can get my running in before then.

44F, 89%, N 8 mph, gusting to 15, rain.  Wasn't any rain scheduled, but the running gods control the weather as an ancillary activity and they don't have laptops.  I walked outside to set my watch, saw the rain and decided to go to the gym.  But I was scheduled to meet Wade and I couldn't raise him on his phone so I went out anyway, figuring the worst that could happen is death.  Rain finally stopped at mile 8, but my long-sleeved cotton shirt was soaked, to the point it wouldn't even hang straight off of my shoulders.  I started out at low heart rate but immediately met up with Wade and he was already running sub-9s so I moved up to his speed.  First mile was 9:53, then 4 with Wade, 8:25 progressively down to 8:02, then sped up again for the final 5:  8:02 (163), 7:34 (167), 7:40 (172), 7:39 (174) and 7:34 (179).  Altogether 10 in 1:21:20, 8:08/mile, 158 bpm, max 181.

43F, 73%, NNE 10 mph.  Much better weather today.  Ran 10 at LLHR, 1:56:11, 11:37/mile, 121 bpm.  Surprised it went pretty well after running fairly hard yesterday.

40F, 87%, NW 2 mph and light rain.  It's good they get rid of the suspense by making you say your miles first thing.  Ran 'em at LLHR (shocker), got 11:19/mile today, 120 bpm.  Maybe I'll try something different tomorrow.  Maybe not.

30F, 100% and calm.  Started out 34F but during the run it felt like it was getting colder and windshields were starting to frost up.  Re-checked it when I got back, right at dawn and it was a lot colder.  Even while running the cold was settling into my old bones.  Ran my usual, 10 at LLHR, 11:20/mile, 120 bpm.  Thought it might go faster today but my heartbeat stayed higher to keep me warm, I think.  What was interesting, though, is that miles 7-10 (compared to yesterday), went like this:  11:11 (10:51), 11:20 (11:20), 11:05 (11:12) and 10:55 (11:23).  Yesterday was a modest tail-off, pretty much like I see every run like this.  I can't explain today, have never had mile 10 as the fastest mile and not sure why it happened -- no difference in heart rate.

Also, when I got home I noticed that my long-sleeved tech shirt with race logo all over it was on backwards.  This is why I run in the dark.

Long run tomorrow then tomorrow night off to Dubai/Abu Dhabi for a week.  At best I will get in 4 days of running over there, maybe not even that.  

41F, 82%, SSE 1 mph.  Good morning for a run.  I am getting on a plane this afternoon for a blue water flight.  My wife strongly suggested I run only 10, so as not to repeat the back injury that happened the last time I boarded a long flight after running long.  I assured her that I was in good enough shape and wouldn't run faster than 9:00.

So I ran at 8:39/mile instead, overall time 2:53:09.  Started at 4:38 a.m. and ran 5 or 6 in the middle with Wade.  Overall heart rate was 148 bpm, same as last week.  Comparing last 5 miles this week and last week [in brackets]:  16: 8:41 (153) [8:57 (151)]; 17: 8:36 (153) [8:55 (152)]; 18: 8:41 (154) [8:57 (153)]; 19: 8:34 (155) [8:56 (154)]; and mile 20: 8:38 (156) [9:08 (154)].  A lot of numbers that say my body is recovering from all the abuse and getting back to normal.  This run felt easy.

10 jet-lagged miles on the treadmill at the hotel.  9-minute pace.  The rest of the week was successful but not in the sense of running, didn't get any further miles in with everything going on. 

Went to the gym and did weights afterward.  2x10 donkey kicks on each leg (130), 3x10 squats (105).  Trying to get in a good cycle of weights getting ready for the Newton Hills.  I was up to 175/145 pounds when I quit doing them late last summer.

38F, 89%, WNW 5 mph.  Got in last night from Dubai, went to bed and woke up at 2.  I have no body clock right now.  Finally went out the door at 4:04 and ran 10 before meeting Wade for about 6.  Then 8 more on my own.  24.0 in 3:34:04, 8:55/mile, 155 bpm average, 165 max.  Fading quite a bit at the end, the buzzards were circling this morning.  The last 5 were 9:06 (160), 9:09 (161), 9:08 (161), 9:18 (160) and 9:19 (159), about 30 seconds slower and 5 bpm higher than miles 16-20 a week ago.  The lesson is never race after riding an airplane.  Also, don't get out of shape.  Also, get some sleep.

42F, 73% and calm.  The weather website early this morning said 51F so I went out in short sleeves, hat and bare hands.  I knew right away that the website was wrong but gutted it out.  LLHR, 10.0 miles in 1:59:10, 11:55/mile, 121 bpm.  Met Wade for about 5 of it.  Started out in upper 12s but felt better after a couple of warmup miles.  Pretty much recovered from Saturday -- I had a bug going through my gut was the main problem, felt much better this morning even though I am still jet-lagged.

49F, 73%, WSW 7 mph.  My heart rate monitor wasn't working this morning, so I did the LLHR run by feel.  I could actually feel myself slowing down towards the end, don't know if I was imagining it or not.  Ran it at 11:49 pace, which seems about right, though it might have been too fast since doing weights yesterday.

45F, 94%, ESE 1.  Another LLHR run without a HRM, so guessing at the proper speed.  Did the run at 11:52/mile.  My legs got so sore last night from lifting on Monday that I could barely walk to bed.  But they were good enough to run on when I got up and seemed to loosen up quite a bit during the run.  Didn't have any more trouble with them throughout the day.

59F, 96%, SSW 7 mph, heavy fog.  I think that wind readout is wrong -- I am very close to being ready to install my own weather station and I will have accurate measurements.  Got to bed very late last night, so a late start, but same run, 10 at LLHR, this time 11:30/mile.  It felt the same as the last two days, but hard to tell without the HRM.  Trying to fix it, I found a website that said to hold the battery on the strap in its slot backwards for 10 seconds, then wait 30 seconds, put it in frontwards, close it up and try it again.  It worked, but nobody seems to know why.  If I was Einstein that would bother me.  It doesn't bother me.

50F, 61%, NNE 9 mph.  Blustery out, which slowed me down some, but got out for another 10 LLHR miles, this time at 11:28/mile, 120 bpm.  Glad to have the HRM back in order.  Comparing today to yesterday, I think I ran yesterday at about the right speed, not having the HRM.  Running these kinds of miles really helps me embrace Saturday long runs.

Did weights, 2 x 10 kicks at 130, 3 x 10 squats at 105.  Recovered much better than on Monday.  Got in 3 sessions this week.

44F, 72%, ENE 7 mph, colder than expected this morning.  First step at 4:05, ran 20.14 miles in 2:57:38, 8:49/mile, 151 bpm average, 161 max.  Ran 8.5 on my own, then 9 with Wade, then 2.5 more to get back home.  Got a little tired in the middle but finished strong without undue difficulty.  Better run than last week.