For Whom the Dogs Bark

66F, 94% humidity, wind S 13-20 mph.  Almost summertime temperatures.  Ran 4.44 miles at low heart rate (regular shoes), then came back in to do the seminary run.

After dropping my daughter off, the car thermometer read-out headed south.  It went from 66 to 41 in about 10 minutes, first time I have seen anything like that.  By the time I got back in my neighborhood the wind was rocking my vehicle and there was lightning and thunder, so I wimped out and went to the clubhouse, waited around for the only treadmill that was working, settled for 1 mile on the elliptical.  Finally the treadmill opened up and I got two more miles on it at low heart rate, then my phone rang and my daughter's ride home had fallen through. Back to pick her up.

By this time the weather had calmed down, 42F, 100% humidity, wind NW 16-30, so I put on beanie and gloves, went back out and ran 3 more in the 8:30 to 9:00 range, frankly it felt better than the slow miles earlier.  Total miles on my Garmin were 7.40 in 1:13, 9:54 pace.  Adding 3 for the clubhouse miles, so a total of 10.40.  Then back to the house to take my daughter to the bus stop, too cold to have the little darling wait in the wind.  Let's see, I was out there in shorts, something wrong here.  At that point I called it a day.

My legs and feet hurt all day yesterday, got worse as the day wore on, I figured I had an injury.  The good news this morning is that all seems well.  We are bracing for some serious winter weather here in the next few days.  I know, I know, everybody else already has it.

19F, 62% humidity, wind NNW 12 mph, 7F wind chill, partly cloudy.  It was already 21F when I went to bed last night, so this could have been worse.  With lower than usual humidity it didn't turn out to be all that bad.  Certainly the cold was a distraction, and it was tough running against the wind, but perhaps two shirts and a pullover were a little much?  Had to shed the pullover after 2 miles.  I considered passing on this run because I was afraid that frost bite would ruin my complexion.  But I'm glad I went out there, and I'm happy to report that I look the same, for better or worse.  Wind chill-wise, this is the lowest temperature I remember for a couple of decades, and it will be similar tomorrow morning.

The objective was to get this over as soon as possible, so I "warmed up" as fast as I could, 9:13 and 8:13, then hit mid-7s plus a little for the rest of the run, 7:42, 7:34, 7:34, 7:28, 7:33, 7:30, 7:35 and 7:29.  I figured it was useless to try to get a heart rate reading, but as it turned out I was sweating enough I could have done it.  I am estimating 165-175 for the 8 hard ones, but not sure.  Total distance 10.07 in 1:18:37, average pace 7:48 and flat shoes.

Speaking of which, here they are:

This is my first pair of flat shoes and they are just about done after about 500 miles.  (Regular shoes still going strong after a couple of thousand miles.)  Most of the wear is on the outside ball, which is generally correct I think.  But the right foot has a hole in that spot and the left foot still has a little bit of tread.  I wonder if I am striking unevenly.  I don't have a coach, but it would be interesting if I could find somebody really good who could take my stride apart and put it together again.

27F, 16WC, 57% humidity, wind N12-20 mph.  Balmy.  Ran 10.22 miles in 1:47:18, average pace 10:30 per mile, regular shoes.  No heart rate data today.  Even though the wind chill was almost 10 degrees warmer than yesterday and the humidity was lower, that was the coldest I've been in a while.  Something about going slower I guess, but I had to after running hard yesterday.  I started to feel lethargic toward the end, possibly more from lack of sleep than the cold though.  Still bone dry, but snow predicted for tonight.  Wade said he'll run with me if there is snow in the morning.  If there is snow in the morning I may not run, last time I did that I practically got a concussion when I fell, probably did.  But I don't think there will be much if any.  Some of the Canadians in town are having a great time laughing at all the school closures, etc., but I tell them they don't want to be out on the road competing for freeway lanes with a bunch of rednecks with slick tires, they are better off at home.

26F/18WC/NW 8mph/85% at start, 25F/15WC/10mph/85% at end.  Colder than yesterday, but ran it hard:  9:42, 8:12, 7:53, 7:44, 7:43, 7:39, 7:44, 7:42, 7:34 and 7:38, 10.16 miles in 1:21:00, 7:58 per mile.  The cold isn't so bad running hard, at times it felt almost good, but not quite.

The snow never materialized, of course, but instead we had ice.  There was enough moisture in the air that it put a layer of ice over everything, particularly bridges.  I left for work early and got there late because all the freeways were closed.  Over 800 wrecks in Houston today.  Roads were dry by this afternoon, but it was a good thing they cancelled school today, would have been a mess out there.  I don't care where it is, clear ice on the roads is dangerous.

20F, 89% humidity, calm and clear.  It was sterling weather out there this morning, by the time we finished the sun was up -- clear, cold and calm.  With no wind the cold wasn't really noticeable.  Met the group at the Y.  They were doing their shakeout run one week out from the Houston marathon.  Forgot my Garmin (yes, it's true), but according to Wade's watch we ran 8.44 miles at about a 9:00 pace, regular shoes.  Easy run, but decided not to go out again for another loop, too much to do today.

41F, 71% humidity, wind NW 9 mph.  Those are the numbers on the computer for Cyrpess, but actual wind was at least 15 if not 20 mph.  It was a real problem every time I turned into it.  Otherwise it was really great running weather out there, actually had to take off my gloves after awhile.  Ran 2 warmup miles, 9:39 and 8:41, then back to GMP for 10:  7:35 (168), 7:35 (170), 7:33 (171), 7:20 (172), 7:23 (178), 7:22 (174), 7:34 (174), 7:35 (176), 7:36 (178) and 7:35 (181), flat shoes.  Overall pace 7:49, average pace for GMP miles 7:31, so pretty much on the money.  I had real problems maintaining pace the last 4 miles, it was like my legs stiffened up or something.  I wasn't particularly tired, and I felt like I pumped up the effort considerably on the last two miles and they still came in high.  I'll have to work on figuring that one out, I'm probably not limber enough.  Time for Pilates (right).  On the other hand, the relatively high heart rate never bothered me, I guess I was feeling good from not having run hard for a few days.

We have two new familes on our cul de sac.  So our neighbor invited everybody over for a pre-Super Bowl party yesterday.  Proceeding counterclockwise, the first house is English (him) and French (her), then Irish (him) and Mexican (her), then Mormon (us), then the host, Jill and Todd (the only normal house), then finally the last house is Peruvians who didn't show, but we know who they are.  But we were all united in our love for the Packers (BnS, are you still out there?), because the Steelers did some really rude things to the old Houston Oilers' Super Bowl ambitions about 30 years ago and we haven't forgotten.  We had to explain a couple of things to the English/French couple, starting with why the ball wasn't round, but before long they got with the program.  It was well worth the effort, though, because she brought over a really superior apple tart.

29F, 77% humidity, wind ENE 5 mph.  Stellar morning.  Out the door early, ran 4 before the seminary run, then took care of some work duties and ran 8 more in the bright sunshine.  It was nice out there.  Ran slower than normal after going hard yesterday:  12.24 miles in 2:07:17, average pace 10:24 per mile, flat shoes and LHR.  We have another weather system coming in, but so far I am unimpressed.  What impresses me is the number of sub-30 days we have had this year.  Must be 10 or 15 by now and we should have a couple more this week.  Some winters here it never freezes.  Either way, though, I have yet to see it get so cold you can't run, although last Wednesday was close.  Pretty much, we get to run year-round here, although a lot of locals take the summer off.

My legs hurt more today than they did after running hard yesterday.  Part of it must be delayed onset, and part of it is going out again after cooling down completely.  But the bottom line is that slow is not the same as easy.

Impossible day, did 6 easy on the TM at the house late at night, 10-minute pace.

22º, 11ºWC, wind NW 12 mph, humidity 70%.  Second coldest morning this winter for us.  But it was dry.  I didn't get to bed until 1:30 last night due to work issues, but my sweet wife offered to do the seminary run for me this morning, so I slept in until 7:30 and woke up refreshed.

The cold didn't seem so bad in the daylight.  I warmed up for 4 miles, 9:08, 8:20, 8:17 and 8:13.  Then launched into 10 x 400 (400 rest interval) as fast as my legs could do it.  I got faster as my legs loosened up.  Mile-equivalent paces for the quarters were 6:57, 6:49, 6:28, 6:43, 6:28, 6:24, 6:23, 6:14, 6:09 and 6:17.  Then a 1-mile cool-down.  I was happier with the last five than the first five.  I got more speed by trying to push off harder so as to get longer strides.  That seemed to smooth things out and helped me to pick up the pace.  Was actually nauseous when I finished but managed to eat a nutritious breakfast on schedule.  Overall run was 10.09 miles in 1:23: 45, average pace 8:18, flat shoes, ditched my heart rate strap after 2 miles, didn't really need it today anyway and there was no hope of getting a read-out in these temperatures.

Found a new pizza dive yesterday, best I have had in my 30 years in Houston.  Serving the best pizza in Houston is not a high standard, but it's always good to get a PR.

23ºF, 93% humidity, wind N 1 mph, clear and calm.  A bit chilly but great weather.  Ran 3.5, did the seminary run then finished the run mostly in the daylight.  Sun is starting to come up earlier, too bad it all goes to pot when we switch to DST in a month (March 13 to be exact).  Ran 14.01 miles in 2:21:41, average pace 10:07 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  I couldn't really monitor my heart rate because I didn't sweat.  Interesting experiment would be to see how many slow miles you could run in these temperatures without needing a drink of water.

I really need to do more of these slow miles, ideally this many every day or even a few more while temperatures stay low.  They do me a lot of good over the long term and they are easy on the joints, but they eat a big chunk out of my day.  Some days it isn't possible, but maybe I can get in a bunch of them tomorrow.

29º F, 91% humidity, calm and clear.  Terrific weather, maybe a tad cool but decided against long pants and glad I did.  This was the 5th morning in a row under 30º F, which hasn't happened for many years.  Ran to Wade's house and did the loop down to the Y and back, about 16 miles, then did another loop in his neighborhood before calling it a day.  All at easy pace.  21.00 miles in 3:35:59, average pace 10:17 per mile, flat shoes.  I didn't have a heart rate monitor but am hoping the speed was slow enough to stay below my LHR threshold.  Wade was in the high 130s but mine could have been higher or lower.  Heel is bothering me some today, may have to take a week off from flat shoes.  They are great for most purposes but my right heel and Achilles let me know if I wear them too much.

43º, 100% humidity, calm and foggy.  But the stars were out, very nice running weather.  It was almost like spring was in the air, very heavy and full of woodsy smells.  Pretty good running weather, wore short sleeves and regular hat.  It's going to be warm like thsi for at least a week, maybe it never will return to the 20s like last week.  I checked my old blog entries and it looks like a total of 14 days below 30º F so far this year, pretty much a record for these parts.  Must be some sort of a running accomlishment?  Most years it is 2 or 3 days all winter, some years it doesn't even come close to that.

I ran 10.21 miles in 1:44:08, average pace 10:12 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  The heart rate monitor went out after about 5 miles so I just held the same pace, probably let my heart rate drift up too much but it still isn't warm enough for me to sweat at low effort, so no accurate read-out.  I would have thought it would be better at these tempertures, hopefully I don't have mechanical issues with the Garmin. 

Absolutely no issues with my Achilles and heel today, but I think I am going to stay in regular shoes for the week.  When I wear them too much I start to get a little bit knee pain and other aches and pains, but I think it's OK for one week.

52º, 100% humidity, wind SSE 3 mph.  Short-sleeve weather this morning.  Ran 10.12 miles in 1:43:58, average pace 10:17, LHR and regular shoes.  HR monitor was working this morning, so I ran a true LHR run, whereas yesterday I was guessing.  Really not a bad pace for heavy shoes, but the back of my knee hurts more today than it did yesterday.  Funny how different shoes make different parts hurt.  After much agony and indecision, I have finally come to the conclusion that it is time to purchase a new pair of regular-weight shoes.  The old ones have about 2,500 miles on them, as best as I can estimate.  Maybe I can find some that will be easy on my knees.  That is the main benefit I get from flat shoes, so it would be good to have a back-up pair for weeks like this one when it is time to give my heel a rest from the flat shoes.  Clear as mud?

54º, 94% humidity, calm and foggy.  I really like these conditions to run in.  Since my knee was bothering me from running slow in normal-lift shoes, I put my flats back on and decided to do a speed day.  Trying to discipline myself to only one speed day a week right now.  The goal was to do 6 @ 7:15 and I made that.  Warmed up for two miles, accelerating into the fast miles:  9:57 and 8:23.  Then 7:00 (166), 7:09 (174), 7:04 (178), 7:08 (181), 7:15 (182) and 7:10 (184).  From the way my heart rate was climbing rapidly, you can tell I was just hanging on at the end and it felt like it.  Average pace 7:08 for the 6, which is an unofficial 10K PR for me, not quite 10K but close enough.  Overall run was 10.03 miles in 1:22:18, average pace 8:12 per mile.  If I could do 8 and then 10 at this speed in the next two weeks I might have a shot at running the half at 7:15 speed in 3-1/2 weeks.  I think running intervals last week was helpful.  The pace didn't seem quite so frantic this morning.

Our local church is doing a "pioneer trek" in March, and one of my assignments is to collect stories from accounts by the original Mormon handcart pioneers.  I have been reading quite a bit in the last couple of days and it is truly amazing what they went through.  Most families lost a few people in the snow, some were almost entirely wiped out.  It was the last river rossing of the Platte River in eastern Wyoming that really did them in.  The bad part of the trek only lasted a few weeks in late October and early November, but it was fatal for a lot of people.  These homespun accounts will stop your heart, it is a sobering read.  I was thinking about it on the run this morning but not in a way you would guess.  Mainly I was thinking about how little it had to do with running.

63º, 90% humidity, wind SSE 5 mph.  Wind was heavier than that during the run, but otherwise nice running weather, as warm this week as it was cold last week.  Today was back to the LHR salt mine after frolicking in the low 7s yesterday.  Got out late after working late last night.  Ran 10.00 miles exactly, in 1:44:31, average pace 10:27 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Right knee is aching again today after muscles cooled down, but it will disappear overnight and I will do it again tomorrow.  I don't think it is a big deal.  I'm still happy about yesterday's run, to the point that it doesn't bother me that today was slow.  For some reason LHR runs work for me even though it is hard to detect any improvement on a week to week basis.

Granddaughters are in town, and Mrs. Flatlander has a full program in progress.  Just trying to stay out of the way.

64F, 93% humidity, wind SSW 5 mph.  Good running weather.  Short sleep, had to get to work, so ran faster today, 10.02 miles in 1:21:30, average pace 8:08 per mile and regular shoes:  8:54 (137); 8:08 (152); 7:54 (159); 7:56 (162); 7:56 (163); 8:06 (164); 8:06 (165); 8:12 (166), 8:13 (167) and 8:00 (171).  Corrected for heavier shoes, this was an OK run heart-rate wise.  In order to make a marathon work it is ideal to get through 10 miles under 160, so I wouldn't have run a 3:30 marathon this morning in these shoes.

59F, 100% humidity, wind ENE 3 mph, heavy fog.  Even though it was cooler than yesterday it was the type of running weather that tests your resolve.  So wet out there the fog was generating a mist of rain.  Was soaking wet within a couple of miles and unfortunately forgot to treate with Glide, creating a Burt-like episode on the front of my white shirt.

I ran from my front door down to the Y, about 6.5, then ran another 13.5 with Wade and the rest of the group.  Pace down to the Y was about 9:30, then about 9:00 for the rest of the run.  Wade ran his last mile at 7:30, leaving me in the dust.  He has definitely got his mojo back, but says he won't run any more marathons.  I'm working on him.  He is running the half with me on March 12, but only plans to do 8:00 per mile.  I think he is selling himself way short.

20.02 miles in 3:05:38, average pace 9:16 per mile.  I ran around the parking lot a couple of times at the end of the run to get to 20.  Someday I'll grow up.

65F, 86% humidity, wind S 12 mph.  Nice spring morning out there.  My Garmin went dark about 20 steps into the run so I finished entirely by feel.  Ran for 2:06 and figured a 10:30 pace in regular shoes.  I got the Garmin to go on once for just long enough to get a heart rate readout, at about mile 6, 133, a little high for this type of run.  So I slowed down a little, but that is the only data point I got, other than the clock on my cell phone.  Plus I know the distances in my neighborhood pretty well, so it kind of worked.  I don't know how Pheidippedes did it without a GPS watch.

59F, 63% humidity, wind NNE 6 mph.  First look at my Blackberry this morning showed 70F.  After a moment of panic I realized that was last night's readout, and was much relieved when I got the true temperature, which is only a little bit warmer than ideal.  The intent today was to do 8 at 7:15, which is goal half marathon pace for my race in 2-1/2 weeks.  I got it but it was hard.  Warmed up for 2 miles, 9:48 and 8:22 and accelerated into the fast ones:  7:12 (161), 7:04 (170), 7:02 (173), 7:08 (175), 7:14 (176), 7:23 (176) (that one woke me up), 7:12 (178) and 7:02 (181), average pace about 7:10, good result but I could not have run 13 at this pace today.  2 cooldown.  12.02 total in 1:36:26, 8:01 average pace.  In my mental fog at mile 9 I started wondering how many dogs have barked at me in my running life.  I decided at least one per mile, I must be on the wall of honor down at the K9-VFW.

67F, 87% humidity, wind SE 6 mph.  Not a good morning for running, there I said it.  At least it wasn't cold.  Ran 10.19 miles in 1:48:43, average pace 10:40 per mile, LHR and regular-weight shoes.  Heat started getting to me towards the end, I was soaked to the skin by the time I finished.  Lots of pain left in my legs from yesterday's run, some of it in new spots.  I got two bad cramps in my right hamstring yesterday morning and it was still hurting today, to the point it altered my stride for the first few miles.  Despite the negative factors that kept my LHR speed slow this morning (heat, heavy shoes, hung over legs), I think the bottom line is it is slower overall right now.  I have continued to improve on the high end for the first couple of months this year, but my guess is that unless I get the low end back I will eventually run out of capacity to get more speed.  That isn't a traditional way to think about conditioning, but it makes sense to me.  Right now I seem to be unwilling to forget about races and just do LHR runs for 8-12 weeks, which is really what it takes.  If I don't have a race coming up in the next few weeks I start to get impatient.

54F, 72% humidity, wind N 7 mph.  Didn't run yesterday, work was impossible, up late and up early.  Ran 10.22 miles in 1:44:45, 10:15 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  26 second per mile improvement over Wednesday.

58F, 87% humidity, wind S 10 mph.  Unlike yesterday, it was getting warmer as I ran today rather than cooler.  The program was to run an entire long run at low heart rate.  Started out OK, a little slower than yesterday, hitting mid-10s for the first 8 or 9 miles, not as good as yesterday but OK.  Then it went south.  I was in the low 12s by the time I finished, kind of interesting and disheartening at the same time.  I now know for sure that I need to do a lot more running in this range.  It is hard to do long runs at low heart rate unless I do them alone though.  I am starting to think that long runs are like regular runs, they should be either fast or slow to get the most benefit.  I was really beat up by the time I finished, which again shows that I am working a different system than usual.  Ran 20.12 miles in 3:41, average pace 11:02 per mile.

I am traveling starting Tuesday morning and will be jet lagged, so running is going to be a mess this week.  Don't know what the situation will be as far as temperatures, time or a place to run, and I won't be back until Sunday night.  Probably time for an easier week anyway.  Bummer is that I might also be traveling the following weekend, when I have a half scheduled in Beaumont.  So life is intruding a little.

64F, 87% humidity, wind S 10 mph, trying to rain.  Very nice morning for running, I think I said it already but the spring smells that come out this time of the year are a nice change from winter.  It will be colder tomorrow but not that cold.  Got out the door intending to do my big fast run for the week since I am traveling tomorrow and discovered that my Garmin's battery had died again.  Second time in a week.  My son uses it and I think he is putting it back on the cradle without turning it off.  Not complaining though, I am glad to see him running. 

I am calling it 10.22 miles because I ran exactly the same thing as Friday.  Ran it at about a 10:30 pace (according to the clock on my cell phone) in flat shoes, so I am pretty sure I kept my heart rate in the target range.  Another indication is that my legs and Achilles felt good at the end.  Hopefully I can get the fast run in tomorrow before I leave for the airport at 7:00 a.m.  It will be an early start but shouldn't matter because sleep patterns will be screwed up anyway.