For Whom the Dogs Bark

59F, 72%, N 3 mph.  Typing this for the second time, somehow I lost my entire first post.  I ran all my miles before the seminary run, planning to cut back this week, then one final push if things go well.  My right leg as a whole hasn't felt very good this afternoon, won't know if there is a problem until in the morning.  But no possibility of doing TM hill miles tonight.  Ran 3 at LHR (10:20, 9:46 and 9:46), one transition then 4 at GMP, 7:32 (155), 7:26 (159), 7:28 (163) and 7:33 (164).  This heart rate should have been a little lower given the cool weather, but at least it was lower than several runs recently in warmer temperatures.  Overall 8.19 miles in 1:09:51, average pace 8:32 per mile.  I think the real culprit was the new flat shoes that I ran in today.  They came in the mail and the sole is quite a bit thicker than the old ones, and the shoe feels heavier, only a little bit but a definite difference.  Here are the old and new right shoes:

So I think what I will do is train in the heavier ones and race in the others, that way I get kind of a handicap effect for training.  Really is amazing, though, how manufacturing standards are not that uniform at all in the Amazon jungle (not a website) where these are manufactured.

54F, 82%, NNW 10 mph.  Good running weather despite a pretty fresh wind.  Did the seminary run and ran about 5 from the church waiting for my daughter, brought her home and went out for 7 more.  Probably my last seminary run of the school year, back to regular training schedule until September.  Did all LHR work because my right leg had a hollow, raw pain in it yesterday afternoon and evening, top to bottom, felt like a rogue nerve but I have no expertise to diagnose it.  I apparently ran too hard after running hard on Saturday, was worried that I might have overdone it and set myself back.  I was pleased when I got out this morning and everything felt mostly normal.  But still I didn't press the issue, kept it slow.   I'll do some TM tonight if things hold together during the day.  12.05 miles in 1:59:09, average pace 9:46 per mile, flat shoes, felt relaxing to do these miles at a comfortable temperature.

PM: 4 miles hill work on TM, 5.5 to 6.0 mph.

45F (it's true), 83%, calm and clear.  No seminary run today, in fact I am off for the rest of the school year, the other parent is taking over.  So I exited the front door at 5:30 instead of 4:30, almost getting light already.  The plan was to do 8 and stop but couldn't keep it to that in good conscience, not in this weather, 45 freaking degrees.  I did 3 LHR miles, 10:05, 9:33 and 9:23; 1 transition, 8:16; 5 at GMP, 7:26 (156), 7:23 (161), 7:25 (164), 7:14 (167) and 7:26 (167); then 2 active cooldown, 8:35 (156) and 8:20 (152).  Even though my heart rate wasn't that much lower than for comparable fast miles recently, it stopped climbing; I felt fresh and could have gone further without my tongue hanging out at an awkward angle.  Also encouraging was my heart rate for the cooldown miles, which I took at my old marathon pace.  I looked up my notes on the Richmond Marathon.  Miles 10 and 11 came in at 8:41 (159) and 8:38 (168), both slightly slower than miles 10 and 11 this morning.  Of course I ran miles 1-9 faster today than I did at Richmond, so it is significant that my heart rate was much lower this morning, even though it was 10 degrees cooler on that day (humidity about the same).

One last comment about the nightmare 5K I ran 10 days ago.  I got an e-mail yesterday telling me I had won my age group and will be receiving a trophy in the mail (how about skipping the trophy and sending a gift certificate?).  Even though I ran 3.11 miles that day in 21:18 according to my own watch, not my goal but not bad, I ran what seemed a mile and a half extra to get to the finish line, so I was skeptical.  But I looked them up and here are the official results.  No kidding, I won my age group with a chip time of 30:14.  Not only that, they are declaring the winning time at 22:57.  For a 5K?  We may be a little slow here in Texas with our daily fights to ward off barbeque and TexMex, but I think these results show a different kind of slowness, the above-the-shoulder kind.  I don't see how they can declare a winner with a straight face.

Event: 5K			Division: M 50-59
PL	No	Name	Age	Pace	Chip Time	Gun Time
1	766	Mark Thurber	56	9:41/M	30:14	30:16
2	770	Mark Traylor	50	10:53/M	33:57	34:27
3	548	Andre Childress	57	12:55/M	40:17	40:39
4	763	Mike Thomas	50	13:50/M	43:11	48:14
5	755	Rob Sullivan	56	15:37/M	48:44	49:20

OK, I'm done talking about it now.

48F, 94%, calm and clear.  Another picture perfect morning, just beautiful out there.  I was still a little sore from yesterday, my feet are getting used to the new shoes and they are a little heavier, but once I got going I felt good.  I ran 5.5 at LHR, average pace 9:27.  My left groin (the healthy one) started pulling during the LHR miles and I thought I would have to stop, but I changed my stride pattern a little bit and got it to go away.  Then transition for a half mile, then 5 at GMP, 7:45 (154), 7:28 (158), 7:23 (162), 7:23 (165) and 7:26 (166), then 1 cooldown and done.  Felt pretty tired at the end.  I was telling my younger son Austin about the nerve pain I have been getting in my right leg when I drive after running and he immediately diagnosed it as coming from my herniated disk from three years ago, which is exactly right when I think about it.  My back was starting to hurt a little bit today at about mile 10, so back to my lower back stretching exercises, I feel better now.  Overall I ran 12.05 miles in 1:43:28, average pace 8:35.  Good run today.

Purely for scientific purposes, I put my Jingas on Austin's food scale.  First picture is the heavier ones that just came in the mail and which now have about 35 miles on them, second is the ones I have been running in for most of the year, they have about 1100 miles on them (550 per shoe, but you know what I mean), and the third is a new pair which just arrived yesterday (I stockpile them when they go on sale for 30 Pounds Sterling), and which for some reason are the lighter version.  Weight is in ounces:

So race strategy is to run in the old light ones.  I have been told (and I keep telling myself) that these shoe styles are highly fashionable in Brazil.  Too bad I live in Texas, where you can get shot for wearing stuff like this.

54F, 90%, calm and clear, still holding on to the good weather.  Did the same thing as yesterday but a little faster.  5.5 warmup miles, average pace 9:25 which is my best LHR pace to date.  1/2 transition, then 5 at GMP:  7:28 (157), 7:24 (160), 7:23 (163), 7:22 (166) and 7:23 (169) (heart rate slightly higher than yesterday), then one cooldown.  Total 12.00 miles in 1:42:22, average pace 8:32 per mile. 

One of my many brothers ran a 5K last night.  He doesn't blog, but I told him to let me know as soon as he found out.  I have one of my own in the morning, so I gotta know, y'know.  This particular brother won state in cross-country in high school, but hasn't run much since and he trains like a lazy bum.  He is 10 years younger than me.  We like to keep in touch, we chat like sisters, so naturally we had a nice talk after he got done.  Here are our texts:

Him:  19:30

Me:  Crap

Him:  LOL

Game on. 

66F, 84%, SSE 5 mph.  Race day today, dawned bright and clear.  Actually a little cloudy but any time you get to run at 7:30 instead of 4:30 it qualifies as bright and clear.  I ran down to Wade's house and he brought his wife and daughter to the race.  My son and daughter-in-law (Clint and Becky) also ran, they live in the area and met us there.  The race is a fundraiser for ovarian cancer and is associated with the Texas Medical Center, so for once on a Houston 5K we weren't running out of downtown.  This course was also better than the downtown course.

We got there a little early, got our bibs, warmed up a little bit, met up with Clint and Becky and got lined up.  Last year there were only about 600 runners, at least twice that this year.  I could tell when warming up that my groin was going to be a problem.  Wade and I lined up toward the front.  I went out fast, probably a sub-6 pace for the first half mile, then my groin went tight and I pulled up.  Almost stopped, contemplated turning around, but kept going at a jog and the tightness subsided a little bit.  Wade said later he saw me pull up, then speed back up, but I never sped up to the original pace.  Not sure if I could have handled it anyway but would have been fun to find out.  First mile was 6:35, so that is why I think I was booking it at the beginning.  After that I was just trying to find a stride pattern and length that could keep me going.  The course didn't have any sharp turns so it was ideal that way.  Second mile 6:43, so I started out almost identically to my last 5K.  Third mile I held pace, 6:45, which is why I did better this time.  I was plenty beat but never made it into the puke zone because I couldn't accelerate.  I think a 20-minute 5K is approachable for me at this point, but probably wouldn't have made it today even with a healthy groin -- a little worrisome as to whether it will significantly affect UVM preparations.

Stayed around for the awards, got a medal to give to my granddaughter.  First place in the 50-54 group was 17:45, the guy is 53 years old, something to shoot for.  I would have won the 40-44 group, age group awards are very hit and miss on these 5Ks.  But this one was very well organized and a lot of fun.  Plus they measured the course exactly right.  I will run it again next year if I can. 

75F, 83%, S 10-18, cloudy but won't rain.  The drought continues, but good running weather.  The goal this morning was to test out my right groin which was in pretty bad shape on Saturday after the race.  Went 9.02 miles all at LHR, 1:31:29, average pace 10:08 per mile.  I was a little surprised that my pace was so slow despite running low miles on Saturday, but probably a combination of heat and injury.  The groin was generally OK, definitely sore and not healed but better than Saturday.  I was ready to stop whenever I got the right neural signals, but it never happened.  The muscle gradually loosened up, to the point that by mile 5 it was almost unnoticeable so long as I stayed in the same rhythm.  Might try a little bit of speed tomorrow.  I think I will try 1K intervals at a little slower than GMP and see how that works.

I've been thinking all weekend about the 53-year old who ran a 17:45 5K, more than 3 minutes faster than me.  So far, every local race in the 5K to 10K range has the best runners in my age group coming in around 6:10 to 6:30 per mile.  Sometimes none of them show up and I win the age group.  Other times they all do and I come in 10th.  But with my 6:41 per mile on Saturday I was getting close to being competitive no matter who shows up.  But every time I think I must be approaching my limit I see another shining example in gray hair and it's back to the drawing board.  This guy ran 5:42 per mile and he was at least 185 pounds, a big guy, his time is definitely a standard I should be shooting for.  My genetics are good but not great and sooner or later they will catch up with me, but I am enjoying the ride while it lasts, so glad I decided to do this.  Plus, just found out I am in SGM with two sisters, two brothers and a brother in law!  What a day.

75F, 83%, SE 12-17 mph, cloudy and blustery but no rain.  Pretty good running weather.  Somewhat apprehensively I decided to do 1K intervals at GMP.  Slept in, spent a little extra time switching my watch over to metric and was out the door at 6.  Ran 10K at LHR, average pace 6:01 per km (9:40 per mile), was happy about that pace in the heat.  Then 1 km transition into the first interval and 1km active recovery between intervals.  Really enjoyed my faster interval times; after careful experimentation I have concluded that Ks are faster than Ms and I think we should switch.  Ran the GMP intervals at 4:44 (7:36)(154); 4:39 (7:29)(158); 4:40 (7:30)(160); 4:35 (7:25)(166); and 4:36 (7:28)(167).  Had trouble stretching out my stride on the first one or two intervals but then things loosened up somewhat and was relatively comfortable for the rest of the run.  But now that I have cooled off I am hurting some (mostly the achilles, surprisingly) and may have to stay slow for most of the week.  Plus I need more hill work on the TM, hard to know how to allocate precious resources with only this week and two more before my taper.  Overall 19.43 km (12.07 miles) at 8:57 per mile.

76F, 78%, SSE 13 gusting to 21, cloudy and rainy without the rain part.  Seemed like pretty good running weather though.  Ran Ks again.  16.10 km (10.00 miles) in 1:37:00, LHR, average pace 6:01/km, which is 9:42 per mile, OK for these conditions.  No fast miles today, everything was too iffy.  As a result I felt better during the day and managed to finally get on the treadmill tonight for some hill work, 4 miles at 5.5, 6.0, 6.0 and 6.5 mph; up, down, up, down.  Kind of a complicated workout.

75F, 93%, E 7 mph, very muggy this morning.  LHR miles were 9:48 per mile, slower than yesterday.  Had to hurry and get done, but didn't mind because I'm a little leery about piling on too many miles right now anyway.  Ran about 5.9 LHR, then sped up into 2 x 1K, paces were 7:38 and 7:39, groin got tight and had to pull back and restart the second one, but got through it feeling pretty good.  So total of 8.22 this morning in 1:17:12, average pace 9:23 per mile, then did two TM miles, hill work, tonight.  I'm a little worried about finishing my training program for UVM on time, should be running harder this week and next but trying to pay attention to what my legs are telling me, right now they are speaking in a foreign language.  We got rain today, very happy about that, and the air is cooler outside tonight.

59F, 100%, calm and foggy.  It wasn't really that foggy out there, but that's what the weather report said.  Very nice running weather, obviously.  Ran 9.5K warmup, average pace 9:31 per mile, then 3 x 1K at GMP, 7:29 (156), 7:20 (161) and 7:17 (161), (paces converted to miles), 1K cooldown in between.  Groin has settled down a lot, but still felt too sore to do TM tonight.

59F (70F at end), 50%, NNW 11-18 mph.  Another picture perfect running morning, looks like we will have a couple more of these next week before normal temperatures return.  Went to bed at 9 and set the alarm for 5 but woke up at 4:30, seems I don't need 8 hours any more.  I drove down to the Y and met Wade and the group.  I told Wade I needed to go 8:30 to 9:00 for the 12 miles they were doing, and the whole group responded.  Everybody was feeling good in the dry cool air and running fast.  This is a group that usually does 9:30 pace, today everybody ran together and as a group they averaged 8:40.  I had to peel off for a restroom break, caught up part of the distance but not all.  I am putting my average at 8:35 for the first 12.3.  Wade was keeping time because I was conserving battery life on my Garmin.  They all went to breakfast and I headed back out for the fast miles.  I warmed up for about a half mile then took off.  The course out was into the wind and slightly uphill, so was happy to hit everything in the 7:30s, nothing faster than 7:33 though.  Coming back I was around 7:25 the whole way, 7:15 (182) on the last mile, average 7:31 for the 8.  In some ways it was easier, but without the wind in my face it was hot and it was close to 9:00 by this time anyway.  I had my EFS flask with me to practice taking on calories and electrolytes.  Gave me slight nausea, especially coming back in the heat.  I am used to running hungry and it is more comfortable that way, but I need a little bit in order to make it through the marathon distance, so I have to practice it.  I stopped as soon as I hit 8, the fast miles are not a rounding error.  I knew it was right on the button because my 1-hour clock went off just before I stopped.

This was a big run for me, never seem to hit it but I got it today.  Those last two miles I am putting in the bank, I will need to make a withdrawal at UVM.  Hopefully the teller lines at the Bank of the Mountain Running Gods are not too long that morning.  In two weeks if all goes well I hope to do this run again as a 10/10 instead of 12/8 before the UVM taper, and maybe try to get a little more speed on the last two.  My legs are trashed but my groin gave me no problems today, during the run or afterward, and my achilles is no worse than usual.  So all is well.

64F, 61%, calm with clouds moving in.  One of the few cool running days left until the fall.  Was trying to decide whether to do a tempo run or 1K intervals, then remembered that last week I didn't do too well running fast on Monday after running hard on Saturday.  So even though I felt fine yesterday and this morning I pulled back and used up the cool morning doing a long LHR run.  I needed one anyway and it looks like I get one more cool morning tomorrow.  Started out slow and stiff and gradually sped up, got several splits in the low 9:30s miles 7 through 10, overall 12.00 miles in 1:57:11, average pace 9:46 per mile, all LHR, good pace for a Monday after.  Got that familiar deep fatigue feeling the last two miles, which signals a good LHR workout. Training for SGM is going to depend on what happens at UVM, but I am thinking that after SGM I will do exclusivly slow running for about 12 weeks before starting my training for Boston.  I probably won't run a January marathon next year, so nothing between SGM and Boston.  Would love to get my LHR pace down to the mid-8s, not sure if that is doable or not but it would be a big step if I could make it happen.  How is that for long-term planning? 

PM 4 TM miles, hill training.

53F, 77%, ENE 6 mph.  Crisp and cool weather, felt great, probably the last one.  Ran 6.5 LHR miles at 9.33 per mile, 1/2 mile transition then 5 at GMP:  7:27 (155), 7:31 (158), 7:24 (162), 7:33 (163) and 7:25 (164).  This pace actually felt somewhat sustainable this morning, big assist from the weather acknowledged.  I need to see if I can do 26.2K at this pace within the next week or so, that is another barometer that people talk about.  Total 12.25 miles in 1:45:44, average pace 8:38 per mile.

Woke up this morning with a big bruise, about 8 inches by 3 inces, mid-thigh on the inside, right leg.  No tenderness, just ugly.  My so-called groin pull is actually in the muscle that attaches to the inside of the knee and curves around to the front of my leg at the top.  No idea what it is called or what I did to aggravate it (I dunno, maybe I shouldn't have run a 5K PR on it?), but it hasn't bothered me since about Wednesday or Thursday, no idea why the bruise didn't show up earlier.  Probably a good thing I have no clue.

PM:  2 miles hill work on TM.

67F, 86%, SE 5 mph.  Nice running weather, honestly didn't feel that warm.  Did my regular LHR run:  6.5 miles starting at 10:08 as low as 9:13, average 9:29 per mile.  This is close to a PR for me and not sure why that would be -- yesterday (9:33 per mile) was 3 days from my last fast miles and cool weather.  Today I should have had some residual fatigue from yesterday's fast miles, plus quite a bit warmer.  There is always something unexplainable when it comes to running.  Then I went into a 1/2 mile transition, legs felt surprisingly heavy despite the good LHR miles.  The fast part:  5x1000, jogging out the mile after each repeat.  Mile-equivalent paces (for IJR's benefit) were 7:05 (159), 6:52 (165), 7:02 (165), 6:58 (168) and 6:55 (171), max HR 177.  Overall run was 12.12 miles in 1:47:04, average pace 8:50 per mile.  I like these 1K repeats.  They feel like they are doing the job without killing my legs.

The bruise on my inner thigh has shrunk considerably today.  I have learned that the muscle is called sartorius, a long thin muscle that attaches to the knee and to the hip. (Compliments of my son, who is taking the last exam of his first year of medical school this morning.  He also ran the first marathon in our family.)

73F, 84%, SE 7 mph.  Getting hot and muggy and no relief in sight, beautiful running weather though.  This run felt hard from the beginning.  LHR miles were 9:38, not bad but not as good as yesterday.  Did 5 miles at GMP and those were increasingly difficult:  7:38 (156), 7:37 (161), 7:27 (166), 7:29 (171) and 7:10 (179), max HR 182 bpm.  The fatigue is building up, but that is OK for this point in the process.  No sign of injury, so not worried, just hope there is a payoff.  No TM miles at night, too tired.

79F, 83%, SSE 14 to 24 mph.  Can't honestly say this is the best running weather I have seen this year.  Hot deserty wind when I went out the front door, knew it was going to be a slog-it-out run.  Decided to do only LHR, 10.29 in 1:42:49, average pace 10:00 per mile.  Legs totally dead, interesting though that I was staying on pace throughout the run, no appreciable heart rate drift.  Undecided about what to do tomorrow, hoping to go fast but playing it by ear, feeling OK right now.

72F, 84%, E 5mph.  Weather is a little bit relaxed from yesterday.   We left the house at 6:30 this morning for a family trip to Temple (granddaughter's first dance recital), so had to get out the door at 4:00 to do this run.  I warmed up for 1.25 then picked out a loop which I thought was pretty close to two miles and did it 7 times.  My Garmin was out this morning, so I ran according to my cell phone, started the fast miles right as the minute changed, ran completely by feel and finished the 7th loop right as the minutes changed again.  Subtracting 35 seconds for two drink stops (yes, I counted off the seconds), total running time was 1:37:25, or 7:41 per mile. 

I was confused all day about how far I had run, and what my pace was.  According to a Google Earth application I pulled up on the computer before we left for Temple, the loop was 1.97 miles, I won't even write down how fast that is except to say I had a pretty high opinion of my running speed all day.  When we finally got home late Saturday night I had the Garmin working again, so took it out and ran the loop.  1.81 miles, a very different distance.  Based on how I felt when running, the 7:41 pace is about right, however, so I think that is the right number.  Bottom line, 7:30 per mile for UVM is still a very optimistic goal.  I will get a little bump from (i) the downhill course (less so because of altitude), (ii) cooler temperatures, (iii) taper and (iv) slightly lighter shoes.  On the other hand, I have to run more than twice the distance I ran this morning, and I will be running on minimal sleep due to flight schedules.

59F, 69%, SSW 7 mph.  Wonderful running weather today.  Unfortunately this noteworthy weather is occurring in Anaheim, CA, here for a wind power conference.  Got up very late because of the 2-hour time difference, but it was just getting light, so perfect timing.  Ran 5 at LHR, average about 9:40 per mile, then did 5 x 1K at tempo, finishing off each mile with a jog:  7:21 (159), 7:14 (160), 6:59 (167), 7:03 (166) and 6:48 (174).  Basically ran the streets, a 5-mile loop around Disneyland.  Mostly flat, but some hills around the I-5 overpass, same kind of hills we have in Houston.  Lots of conventioneers out running, all of them slow just like in Texas, felt right at home.  Overall 10.07 miles in 1:30:57, average pace 9:02 per mile.  I am scheduled to fly out Wednesday morning, but there is a 5K race associated with the wind conference that morning, and I am enough of a junkie I might change my flight to run it, even though it has a $50 entry fee.  Hopefully good sense will prevail, but it never has before.

54F, 70%, SW 2 mph.  Could get used to this.  Ran similar route as yesterday with a few variations.  LHR miles were at a slower pace, trying to get the stiffness out of my legs, then ran 5 GMP miles:  7:47 (151), 7:40 (155), 7:33 (160), 7:15 (165) and 7:30 (167).  Need to memorize this pace, legs don't know it well enough yet, which isn't good.  Overall 10.34 miles in 1:32:17, average pace 8:56 per mile.

I surprised myself by deciding not to run the 5K.  Changing flights turned out to be somewhat of a hassle with everybody trying to get out of Dodge tomorrow morning, would have had to pay extra and decided enough is enough.  I'll get to race soon enough.

No running this morning due to early flight.  Got 4 TM miles at night, hill work.

73F, 94%, calm.  Apparently 90% humidity is some sort of a threshold for me, have done pretty well with higher morning temperatures so far this spring, including at least one day at 79F, but this humidity was an eye-opener.  Maybe it was divine punishment for the cool temperatures in California this week.  I made the run, but heart rates were very high.  LHR miles came in only about 10 flat, and MP miles were 7:35 (156), 7:20) 165), 7:33 (168), 7:20 (174) and 7:32 (176), basically felt almost like a 10K, although the legs feel OK today.  Total 10.12 miles in 1:28:34, average 8:45 per mile.  In any event, it's good to be home for a couple of weeks, slept well last night.

64F, 77% and calm at start, 73F, 83%, E 5 mph to finish, must have been a brief cold front come through last night, it was definitely warming up quickly during the run.  It felt hot out there, but the temperature didn't lie, I ran better than yesterday, even though yesterday was off of a day of rest.  Did 4.75 LHR miles at about 9:44 per mile, transitioned for a quarter into 5 x 1K (rest intervals finishing off each mile, very convenient).  Mile-equivalent pacing for each 1000 was:  7:16 (157), 7:10 (161), 7:03 (165), 7:03 (169) and 7:06 (171).  It was hard but it felt good.

Wade and I are going to run a 5K in the morning that I found out in The Woodlands, a large planned community to the north of Houston up I-45.  I wasn't dying to do another short race right now, but I have done one a couple of weeks ahead of most of my last few marathons and it seems to work pretty well.  The real reason, though, was the entry fee:  US$1.00 and no tax.  I am way too cheap to pass that one up.  Best of all, no t-shirts and no pre-race speeches.  Just line up and run like you know what.

80F, SSE 9 mph, 87%, sunny at 8:00 a.m.  Wade and I with his daughter Heather traveled to The Woodlands this morning for a 5K.  This was a lovely little race, perfectly executed by a local running store.  They run it twice a month year round.  It is kind of like finding a small out-of-the-way restaurant that nobody else knows about.  We weren't sure what to expect, but the online directions to the starting area at Barbara Bush Elementary School were good and we ended up pulling in 45 minutes ahead of time to a nearly empty parking lot.  Gradually people arrived to the point that when everybody was collected we had 100 runners. 

As I mentioned yesterday, the entry fee for this thing is "one dolla please".  I paid for all three of us and told them to keep the change.  We wondered how they could do timing at that price, forget the shirts, and when we got there we could see that there would be no electronic chips or bib numbers.  They did it by handing out popsicle sticks with numbers on them as you crossed the finish line.  A recorder would write down the time for each stick as it was passed out and then "if you want your name on the internet" you gave them the name that goes with your popsicle stick (apparently you can give them any name you want), and presto, official race results. 

I had a feeling this would be a faster than normal crowd for these parts and it was confirmed when I saw one particular ankle tattoo:  RTRTR, hard core guy.  Another noteworthy entrant appeared to be about 70 years old, taller than me and about 135 pounds max.  His shorts were distressingly short.  I told Wade and Heather that if I ever show up to a race dressed like that they had my permission to stage an intervention.  I hoped like heck he was not faster than me.

Texas is hotter than Hades and this one lived up to our reputation.  My splits were 6:33, 6:43, 6:55 and 6:59 for the stub, not what I would call negative splits.  The distance was spot on, ten thumbs up to these guys.  We ran around the parking lot twice then followed a path through the trees.   Alarmingly I got stuck behind some runners to start, but once we got out of the parking lot it was easier to pass people, and the course stayed on a fairly wide paved trail the whole way.  I passed the old guy in the Daisy Dukes at about 0.5 miles, so after that I was playing with house money.  There was a group of runners ahead of me that were running together, they must have run 6 flat on the first mile, but despite me slowing down I still passed all but one of them in the second mile.  A couple of them came back and passed me in the last half mile.  Sure enough, one of them made a wrong turn right before the finish line and I followed him, kind of a tradition for me.  But it got corrected within 4 or 5 seconds, so no major damage.  Highest heart rate was 186, but I felt like I maxed it out.  No nausea though, so maybe I have a reserve that I didn't find this morning.

I asked the race official what the winning time was and she said 17:45.  She also said the same guy runs this course about a minute faster in cooler weather.  So even though I missed my PR by 5 seconds, I'm blaming this race and every other slow run this summer on the weather.  This fall I will find a different excuse.  There were about 100 runners, so my 7th place finish was not quite as good as my 27th place finish a few weeks ago, but these are faster runners and all things considered I ran a better race.  Fun times in The Woodlands, we are definitely going to do this one again.

PM:  We celebrated my son's 18th birthday tonight, came home on a full stomach and ran 4 TM miles, hill work.  That was fun.

79F, 82%, SSE 10-21 mph.  Suprisingly nice weather out there despite the temperature and wind.  I am now two weeks out, so won't be running anything more than 8 for the duration.  Warmed up two miles then took 6 at GMP:  7:41 (152), 7:26 (160), 7:23 (162), 7:32 (168), 7:20 (174) and 7:12 (179).  Overall 8.13 miles in 1:05:45, average pace 8:05, max heart rate 182.  Despite the junky heart rates, I feel good and am looking forward to running a respectable race at UVM.

Afterward I sat down outside to dry off.  It is actually quite nice at these temperatures just at sunrise, so long as no running is involved.  I saw a guy fishing and several different kinds of birds.  A great blue heron fishing along the edge of the lake and 6 or 8 red-wing blackbirds just being busy, couldn't tell that they were accomplishing anything.  These two are old friends from my days as a kid in Bear Lake Valley.  The red-wings have just recently shown up in my neighborhood, very cool.  Also saw mockingbirds eating bugs in the grass and arguing in the trees, two different kinds of swallows darting around like point guards, grackles (yuck) and a circling vulture who had an eye on me.  Three different kinds of airplanes, but I guess I can't count those.  Gotta love the long holiday weekends.

77F, 84%, SSE 7 mph.  Not bad weather out there, especially for a slow day, but we need rain.  Ran 8.00 miles in 1:18:57, average pace 9:52, LHR.  The taper continues.

PM 4 TM miles hill work.