For Whom the Dogs Bark

Utah Valley 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
139.6529.220.003.00171.87
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.462.000.000.006.46

75F, 85% humidity, wind SW 6 mph.  Very nice morning out.  I ran in flats, 6.46 miles, average pace 10:04.  Ran first 4 at low heart rate, 11:38, 10:39, 10:28 and 10:27, then ran two at MP (kind of), 8:46 (147 bpm) and 8:19 (158 bpm), then jogged it in at 10:24 pace.  Wore ice all the way in to work and my ankle feels fine so far.  Was surprised I could still run that fast at low heart rate with this much heat, I think it is the shoes more than anything.  The flat shoes almost force me to run up on my toes, which seems to make everything feel better.  My ankles feel some strain, but that is a training issue I think, not a permanent issue.  This run felt much better than yesterday's -- maybe because I ran 6 instead of 12? 

Still trying to decide about UVM.  If I thought I could get away with running it in flats I might just do it.  The latest idea is to arrive a few hours before the race.  Apparently some professional sports teams do that when they go in to Denver or SLC.  The theory as I understand it is that your lungs are shocked into taking in more oxygen.  I am a little skeptical, but a lot of experts say that is the best thing to do if you can't go in two weeks early.  There is a flight that gets in about 11:30 p.m. and I think the buses start running at about 3:30 a.m. if not earlier.   I'm not counting 8 hours in there anywhere.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

Treadmill 4% decline at 10 minutes per mile, ran 6 miles this evening.  Work is tough right now so the taper comes at a good time.

UVM wrote back and said they would let someone else pick up my packet, so I am back on.  I plan to fly in late Friday night next week in a crazy attempt to beat the altitude.  Still don't understand the theory that well, but apparently if you do your thing right away after arriving at altitude the effects aren't as bad.  I'll take a nap before the plane leaves and try to get an exit row seat so I can sleep a little on the plane.  I should be OK, but a BQ at this point is a long shot.  I just have to be a good sport, try hard and be happy.  As my grandma used to say, "take what you get and don't throw a fit."  Well, I'm pretty sure somebody's grandma said that.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

6 more treadmill miles at 10:00 pace, 4% decline, flat shoes again.  The flats didn't feel too good today, they are really putting my lower legs through a workout, I will need to be careful.  Another late night workwise, hopefully getting back on schedule by running in the morning.  I don't do as well running at night, just don't feel quite as good.  But have to do it when I can.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.490.000.003.006.49

72F, 94% humidity, wind W 6 mph, beautiful morning for running, felt good to get outside.  I ran 6.49 miles in 1:00:59, average overall pace 9:24 per mile, flat shoes.  Started with two low heart rate miles, 11:13, 10:18, then 6 x 800 at 5K pace minus a little bit:  3:35 (7:11), 3:43 (7:26), 3:38 (7:17), 3:36 (7:12), 3:37 (7:15), 3:38 (7:17).  400 cool down between intervals and then jogged it in.  Funny thing is I never saw my heart rate above 170 and it never averaged higher than 164 for any inteval, even though I felt pretty tired.  I was watching it on the last one and for a while I thought it was broken, the readout wouldn't move off of 150.  Finally started to move but I am suspicious I wasn't getting accurate readings, as I felt like I was working pretty hard.  Anyway, it felt good to air it out, even though I was feeling the humidity by the end.  I met another woman out there who I have seen from time to time.  She stopped me during a rest interval and wondered what the heck I was doing.  I meet more people running than doing anything else, it seems.  Pretty soon I'll have more friends than Burt. . . . nah . . . but Burt maybe you can come up with a nickname for her?

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.250.000.000.0011.25

75F, 89% humidity at start, 81F, 81% at end.  Got a late start today because of work, but drove down to a trail called Terry Hershey to do something different.  I used to run it quite a bit then cut back because it is a 20-minute drive to get there.  The trail goes along Buffalo Bayou from the Sam Houston tollway west out to the Addicks Dam.  Buffalo Bayou is the main river in Houston.  The trail is busy, and it goes up and down, quite a bit, believe it or not.  We need the Army Corps of Engineers in here and get that fixed, can't have hills in Houston.  This is a taper week, and the plan was to run at long run pace, MP + 1 or 1.5 minutes per mile.  My lower legs were very sore from the speed workout yesterday, so it took a couple of miles to loosen up.  Then it was 9:00 and started to get hot.  There is actually an outdoor shower out there.  I stepped in shoes and all at about mile 9.  Didn't get any wetter, just changed salt water for fresh, but it helped cool off.  Then I remembered I had my phone in my pocket, quickly pulled it out and it still worked.  After I finished I felt like I had run 20 miles and have felt that way all day, but it was only 11.25, which I ran in 1:52:36, average pace 10:01 per mile.  Most of the miles were in the 9:30 to 9:45 range after the slow start, then crept back up toward the end.  It was a lot of work.  I tried not to hit the gas too hard but I was still plenty tired.  I hope I didn't overdo it.  In the past I have either tapered too much or not enough, it is hard to get it right.

Then we took our granddaughters to the zoo.  They just moved here from Utah and it is time to start toughening them up for the Texas summers.  They were a little shocked by the heat, but resilient and had a good time.  Lots of water, icees and food kept the heat beast at bay.  Embrace the heat.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.080.000.000.004.08

75F, 94% humidity, wind calm, partly cloudy and trying to rain.  Great, stifling running weather this morning.  Ran 4.08 at low heart rate, flat shoes, average pace 10:46 per mile.  I'm in serious taper mode now.  My ankles and calves were complaining all weekend about the up-and-down run on Saturday.  It wasn't much for the mountain runners on this blog, but after running the whole thing in flats I was really hearing it from my body.  In fact, it is difficult on my left ankle right now to walk up stairs, which is completely new.  It didn't affect my running this morning, though, other than a little initial stiffness.  If everything holds up this week I'll run the marathon in flats, which should make me faster.  I'll have my son waiting at Vivian Park, if he can get there, with regular shoes in case I have to change shoes just to finish.

My daughter and her husband returned from their post-graduation vacation late last night.  Happy reunion going on right now with their kids.  Everything is back to normal.  Soon they will leave for home and my wife will reclaim the house for herself.  They are lovely granddaughters, but grandma has worked hard this week.  I think she would do it again in a heartbeat, though.  Kind of like a marathon.  Right at the end you say never again, then in two days you are planning the next one.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.081.000.000.004.08

76F, 95% humidity.  Even hotter and muggier than yesterday -- bring it on.  Ran the same route as yesterday, low heart rate miles (11:26, 10:50 and 10:56) except for one marathon-pace mile (8:35, 153 bpm).  I ran in flat shoes again, looks like that should work out OK for this weekend, as my ankles and calves feel quite a bit better today.  Totally different question whether I can hold the pace for the whole race.  I am guessing not, but I won't know until I try, and I certainly intend to try.

Supposedly we are going to have a monster hurricane season this year.  Last year surface water temperatures in the Atlantic and Gulf were below normal and prevailing winds created quite a bit of shear on top of the storm systems, so nothing every got going very well.  This year surface temperatures are above normal and there is minimal wind shear.  On the other hand, these kinds of predictions have never been all that accurate in the past.  It has only been two years since the last one, so maybe we will catch a break.  Even if a big hurricane doesn't hit this area, chances are I could end up on a chain saw crew somewhere, cutting trees off of roofs.  In the medical profession they have a noble program called Doctors without Borders.  We call these humble chain saw crews Lawyers without Skills.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.080.000.000.003.08

78F, humidity 94%, wind calm.  Nice peaceful, stifling morning out there.  Ran 3.08 in 33:30, 10:53 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Speed was a little faster than yesterday but not by much.  This is the most attention I have paid to a taper for any race.  I hope it works.  If not I'll try something else next time.

There were several new runners out this morning, all working hard in the heat.  I was not working hard and it was interesting to reflect how much progress I have made.  Even though I still run dog slow it has made such a difference for me.  In fact, I now get a lot of worried comments that I am losing too much weight.  I am about 170 now, down 30 pounds from two years ago.  Other than trying to be a little more careful about second servings and trying to cut back on red meat, I haven't really changed my diet, it just happens naturally with this much running.  I pulled out a photo of me running in high school to show my wife and kids.  Same height, 135 pounds.  I look perfectly healthy with my '70s locks flowing in the wind at 12 mph, and I was.  (Form wasn't too bad either, if I'm allowed to say that.)  Weight increases naturally with age, I suppose, but I think people's perception of a healthy weight is skewed by all of the overweightness out there.

UPDATE:  In response to popular demand (OK, maybe only one request, but it was from KP, so it is important), here is the photo:

Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.190.000.000.002.19

80F, 84% humidity.  Great weather for being on a taper.  Ran 2.19 miles in 22:33, average pace 10:17, flat shoes.  Ran a variety of speeds, trying to stay loose.  Felt the left hamstring pull a little bit after a couple of strideouts so I immediately backed off.  It feels OK and I don't expect any problems.  Long term, I have to find some way to get good form or otherwise adapt to faster speeds.  These little stretches and pulls every time I speed up a little bit have got to go.

With my crazy schedule this weekend, it would be nice if I could get about 8 hours of sleep tonight. 

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.000.000.000.001.00

78F, 94% humidity.  Nice morning out there, very quiet.  Woke up very early (grrr, but hoping to get a senior-type nap this afternoon) and ran a completely slow mile around my main loop in flats, no watch or heart rate monitor.  Ate a healthy breakfast and I'm ready to go.

Well, this is it.  I don't have a good feel for what will happen, but I feel in my bones that a BQ is a long shot.  Just not enough non-injury time to build up my cruising speed enough.  But I really don't know anything.  For every plus there is a minus and vice versa.

Hope to meet a lot of folks this weekend, good luck to all of you, there should be a lot of fast times out there tomorrow.

Comments(5)
Race: Utah Valley Marathon (26.22 Miles) 04:04:12, Place in age division: 20
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.220.000.0026.22

This was an interesting day.  No BQ but I thought that might be the case.  Bottom line, I got a nine and a half minute PR, not what I hoped but not a bad day at the office.

As planned, I got on an airplane late last night and managed to snag an exit row seat, the one with no seat in front -- redneck first class -- spent the whole flight exercising my legs.  I can vouch for the storm system we experienced today.  It rocked the plane pretty good, more than I have experienced in a while, but once we got under the clouds the landing at SLC was pretty routine.  Some days it seems unnatural to bounce around in a pressurized aluminum tube 5 miles above the ground at a high rate of speed, with a union guy driving.

We arrived so early that I ended up waiting for my ride, precious sleep minutes slipping away.  I needn’t have worried since I didn’t sleep that well anyway.  Got to bed at 1:00 this morning and woke up, on my own, at 3:00.  The joys of senior status.  Went out to take a walk to loosen up.  The Y was glistening in the rain, peeking out between rain clouds and reflecting the city lights, not sure if anybody else saw that.  Then I met up with my sister (she used to be a blogger here) at the bus stop and we got on a 4:15 bus to the starting line.  Big mistake.  The bus got lost (let’s see, where has this happened before, oh yeah, Ogden 2009).  When it finally pulled up there were about 50 PoPs by the unloading zone that didn’t have unreasonable lines, but it was 20 minutes to race time and we got directed to the starting line, where there were “more PoP with no waiting”.  Wrong.  There were about 10 PoPs for sure, but each one had a substantial line that stretched into the starting corral. We shrugged and waited, then it got interesting.  About 30 minutes after the race started we were still in line, when they announced that they were pulling up the starting mat, apparently to let some traffic through, but would be putting it back down in 5 minutes.  No problem.  Then not too long after they put it back down they announced they were taking it back up for good in 30 seconds and if you wanted a time you had to cross the mat.  I had just emerged after attending to my chores and didn’t have my warmups off.  Plus my drop bag was tied shut and I couldn’t get it open because of cold fingers from the rain that had started falling.  I had no choice but to cross the mat before finishing my preparations.  The way I figure it, the running gods owe me 2:02.  I take Visa and American Express.

So off we went.  My sister decided to run with me.  My goal was 3:45, and she said if I broke 4 hours she would happily take the PR that gave her.  She has been having health problems that affect her running and seemed happy to stick with the old guy.  I ended up losing her early on at a water stop and worried about her the rest of the race, but she ended up finishing only a couple of minutes behind me and is fine.

Goal pace was 8:37 per mile.  I had earlier decided no matter what happened I would stick with it through the half then reevaluate whether I could carry it through.  It was basically a long shot strategy.  Splits were as follows (Garmin measuring a little short today):

Mile 1:  10:39 (no heart rate reading), this one meant I was 2:02 in the hole right off the bat, but the effect was probably more because the early steep downhill splits were all faster than goal pace.

Miles 2 through 6:  8:20 (173), 8:15 (163), 8:28 (168), 8:31 (166), 8:29 (168).  Right here it started raining in earnest, but I didn’t mind, except that I lost my sister in here.  My socks got a little soggy but they are good socks and I never had blister issues.  I wore my flats and they felt fast in these early miles.  Right here I got to goal pace plus 55 cumulative seconds and was optimistic I might be able to beat the running gods if I didn’t get too greedy too soon.

Miles 7 and 8:  9:06 (173), 9:10 (173), I had been warned, but these three hills along the reservoir were as difficult as anything at St. George.  I think the average elevation over the length of that course is almost 2,000 feet lower than UVM.  I decided that the prudent thing to do was keep my heart rate going up the hills at no more than 175.  It got up to 178 at one point but generally I was disciplined and calmly ate the extra seconds in a very mature manner.

Miles 9 through 13:  8:10 (168), 8:25 (170), 8:52 (173), 8:22 (168), 8:36 (168), these intermediate miles to the half marathon point went pretty well, despite another hill or two thrown in.  My son planned to meet me at Vivian Park with my regular shoes in case the flats were bothering me.  I didn’t find him there, but all of a sudden a car coming down the road from behind honked at me and it was him.  The cars behind him didn’t like this scenario and laid on their horns.  He pulled over into a median, only to have me tell him I had decided not to change shoes.  I was generally maintaining pace at a reasonable heart rate and I thought the flat shoes were still helping me.  Then he received a visit from an officer, which turned out to be friendly but bottom line was “don’t park here”.  So he went on his way and I did the same.  But he showed up several spots on the course, took me to the bus stop this morning and did the airport thing, so I much appreciate my son this weekend.

Miles 14 through 18:  8:45 (167), 8:54 (173), 8:24 (164), 8:36 (158), 8:43 (156), still was within two minutes of goal pace and more importantly my heart rate was behaving very nicely.  I have run 10K at a 175 heart rate and I thought if I could be under that at 20 miles I would have a chance.  This turned out to be wrong.

Miles 19 through 21:  9:05 (158), 9:16 (161), 9:15 (155),  My heart rate was never a problem but my stomach and legs, old friends, decided to make an appearance at this inopportune point.  I started to cramp up badly in my stomach and had to break stride repeatedly to avoid getting cramps in my legs, whom you will recall I have named Charley and Horse.  Haven’t yet thought of a good name for my stomach, taking suggestions.  (Just talked to Huans32, who has some great ideas from the tri side of things about how to manage leg cramps and stomach issues, great talking to him, he is very helpful and knows a lot.)  At this point I knew a BQ was not going to happen and it was just the same old death march to the finish line.  I thought about how I could make the best of the situation and decided to try to run at an uncomfortable but sustainable pace for the duration.  At about mile 20 I was very happy to see my brother who lives in Orem and is recovering from a hip injury but will be running marathons by this fall, faster than me.  It was a pleasant surprise and gave me some good mental energy.

Miles 22 through 24:  9:58 (158), 10:48 (153), 10:51 (148), starting to fade but sticking to my plan.  These were difficult miles, but somewhere in here someone yelled my name.  It must have been a blogger whom I haven’t met; whoever you were, thank you very much for the shoutout, it was a big boost, and please excuse me for not stopping to chat.  Believe me, I would have loved nothing more than stopping for a nice chat. 

Miles 25 through 26.22  11:05 (147), 12:48 (140), 11:30 pace on last 0.22.  The overpass at 900 South, at mile 25.5, is cruel beyond measure.  Somebody needs to pay for this one.  I take Visa and American Express.  I walked up it and my split for mile 26 shows it.  All race long I saw a log of guys in Pleasant Grove VFD shirts.  They seemed a happy bunch.  They were running a very respectable pace and I was impressed by the high level of participation.  But at the top of the overpass I saw a lone fireman stopped at the rail and gazing over the side.  I knew a suicide was not in the cards, since runners at this point of the marathon are such a happy lot.  Suddenly he emptied his stomach on the railroad tracks in a very impressive fashion (orange Gatorade if I am not mistaken), then quickly started running again before repeating the procedure.  He got better results the first time.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or join him at the rail.

Official time from the friendly guy in the trailer:  4:04:12.  It felt great when they announced my name at the finish, even though I quickly discovered they were announcing everybody's name!  I get cranky when somebody says that everybody is a winner, because we all do a lot of dumb things that should not be confused with winning strategies.  But running a marathon cleanses body, mind and soul; so even to a cranky guy like me, today everybody was a winner and deserved to have their name announced, from the fastest Kenyan to those six-hour guys I saw as we drove away long after I finished -- I was once a member of their club and I worked just as hard on that day.

Comments(15)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

No running today.  Heading to NYC on vacation with the family in the morning, trying to decide whether to run while I am there.  I probably will, just because of Central Park, but not very much.  I think I will follow the traditional advice and take a week off for the most part.  In the past I have gotten away with starting back at it pretty quickly,.  I came out of this marathon in good shape but very sore and I am guessing things could go south in a hurry if I start back too quickly.  Somebody's blog today says the UVM course has 1000' of elevation gain in it.  The course profile doesn't hint at that, but it explains a lot about how things went on Saturday -- I felt OK about my time before I knew that, and I am even more OK with it now.  The course is apparently tougher than Ogden, which absolutely killed me a year ago.  I almost registered for ING Hartford today.  It is the Saturday after St. George (which I missed), but still timed well to allow Boston registration before it fills up, assuming I qualify.  Plus it is my kind of race, flat and sea level.  Doesn't look like it is filling up just yet so I will wait a little bit but I think that is going to be my fall race.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

Beautiful morning today in NYC, left the hotel at about 6:30 and ran up to Central Park, around inside (just gorgeous) and back in about 80 minutes.  I didn't have a working Garmin until 20-25 minutes in, so not sure of the exact distance, but I was doing mid to low 9s once I started to get a reading, so I am calling it 8 miles.  I ran in flats, average heart rate about 150.  First miles since the marathon.  I had a little bit of hip pain to start my new training cycle, I think it might have resulted from walking so much yesterday.  We must have walked 5 miles and I am not used to that.  Believe it or not, it is a different kind of fitness than running.  None of my old aches and pains, though, it appears that my ankle/knee/groin issues are ancient history.

I can't believe I lived here for three years and never ran in Central Park.  Maybe because I wasn't a runner then?   Made me think of a law school classmate who was spotted frequently running in Riverside Park while smoking a cigarette and carrying a Miller Lite for hydration.  He was one of the higher performers in our class, so I'm sure he had a point, just that none of us knew what it was.  I'm guessing he would claim he was substituting nicotine for caffeine and alcohol for ibuprofen.  There is a runner out there for every theory.

There is a beautiful reservoir at the top of the park that has a crushed granite jogging path around it.  It must have rained last night because the path was covered with puddles to the point you couldn't get through without tiptoe-ing, which all the locals were doing.  But not me.  I trucked right through and splashed as many old ladies, poodles and investment bankers as I could find.  My daughter was embarrassed when I bragged about it, which only made me even happier about this run.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

65F, 74% humidity, wind S 5 mph.  Gorgeous morning again in NYC, going home this afternoon.  The Garmin wouldn't pull in a satellite reading.  It asked me if I was inside and I accidentally pushed yes, whereupon it gave up.  But I ran 1:27:47 at low heart rate, which is around 11 minutes per mile in Houston, so I am calling it 8 miles again, flat shoes.  A little bit of a thorn in paradise, my left hip is still hurting, but only when I run, about level 4 I would say, maybe a little less.  I think it is related to all the hills I have been running lately, it didn't show up until my first recovery run after the marathon.  Not sure if it will amount to anything, probably not.

Last night we had some pretty good Thai food and I ordered it hot.  So this morning I started out toward Central Park and about 45 minutes in I found myself earnestly searching for facilities.  When I finally found them they were padlocked shut.  Not sure why they bother to have them, but there are many mysteries when it comes to New York City government.  Now they have an environmental disaster on their hands and I have crossed one carbo loading alternative off my list.

We have had a good time here in the big city, capped it off with a harbor cruise last night.  Here are some photos my youngest daughter took.  They are good quality for a cell phone, but as a computer klutz I can't get all the pixels migrated over to the blog, but you get the idea I think.

Some cliches never get old.  Liberty and justice for all, right in front of the World Trade Center site.  For many years, 50,000 people per day came through nearby Ellis Island, screening success rate 98%.  A group of French folks were just in front of us, happily clicking away in a very un-Frenchlike manner, because of course this statue was a gift from them.

A new building is heading to the sky just to the north of the World Trade Center site, taller than the old.  For now it is about 30 stories tall and behind the black building just over the woman's head.  The site itself will be turned into a memorial.  Scheduled completion in 2-1/2 years.

Happy weekend to all.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.020.000.000.008.02

74F, 97% humidity, wind SW 2 mph, clear.  Beautiful morning back in Texas.  I ran 8.02 miles in 1:13:46, average pace 9:12, flat shoes.  Hip issues at a 3 or 4.  I ran the first couple of miles at lower heart rate then gradually sped up until I got to the 165-170 bpm range.  If I had run further I would have been there anyway running 10+ minutes per mile in the humid heat.  I have changed my mind about altitude.  I now think heat is worse, because I ran slower today compared to UVM pace at similar heart rates and the same shoes.  Some of it might be recovery issues, but it is now 9 days since the marathon so I don't think that played a major role.  Splits were 10:23 (127), 9:25 (141), 9:21 (146), 9:12 (152), 8:51 (160), 8:46 (166), 8:44 (170), 8:53 (172).  Comparatively, miles 2-6 in the marathon were 8:20 (173), 8:15 (163), 8:28 (168), 8:31 (166), 8:29 (168), and miles 9-13 were 8:10 (168), 8:25 (170), 8:52 (173), 8:22 (168), 8:36 (168).  These splits included some of the major downhill miles at UVM before I started to tire significantly, so it appears, for me at least, that altitude, low temperature and downhill (UVM conditions) are about 20-30 seconds per mile faster than sea level, heat and flat (today's conditions). 

My guess is that no altitude, low temperature and flat (fall marathon at sea level) would be considerably faster than a race like UVM.  If that is true, then it means heat is a huge factor (turning the fastest conditions into the slowest) and downhill a smaller factor.  The other thing I learned is that I have a lot of work to do in the 160-175 range, just below where my legs start to get tired.  There may be some easy pickings there if my legs can sustain those speeds enough to get in some serious miles.

I realized that this is a nerdy entry, but I am posting it anyway because I need to keep the info somewhere!

Comments(9)
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8.000.000.000.008.00

81F, 80% humidity.  Ran 8 miles slow this morning in flat shoes.  The Garmin wouldn't stay on, I think it was a battery thing but the battery warning never flashed.  So I just ran slow and checked my heartbeat every 20 minutes or so.  Despite that, it crept up to 142 by the end, which doesn't really qualify as low heart rate, but it is almost impossible to keep it down in this heat.  Overall I ran about an 11-minute pace.  Hip had some issues halfway through but I was able to control it by concentrating on form.  I think I will try regular shoes tomorrow and see if they make a difference.  I am doing so well with my feet and ankles that I hate to go back, but maybe a day or two will help.  The whole object of the flat shoes is to eventually arrive at a point where I have less injury, and I can feel myself headed in that direction.  For now at least I feel much better than I have felt in a while.

Comments(7)
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10.000.000.000.0010.00

Didn't run yesterday morning because of work pressures, thought I might run last night but decided late that my hip needed a day off anyway.

The weather was 79F, 83% humidity at start, calm.  Started out as a beautiful morning, don't really mind the moist air, at least for the first few miles.  I ran 10 very easy miles at low heart rate, regular shoes.  The Garmin is still acting up, it kept turning off, even though I charged it two days ago.  I think it is leaking charge even turned off, so I'll leave it on the charger and see if it works better tomorrow.  If not, time for a new one.  I wish they were more reliable, as I am not aware of any good substitutes.  For what I paid for that thing it should last more than a year and a half.

Oh yes, the run.  Early miles, to the extent I could get momentary readings when I turned the Garmin back on, were about 11:00 pace, drifting gradually up to 12:30 at the end, a slower pace and a wider drift than I get on cooler days.  Part of that is the shoes, part the heat, part "operator error".  The air at the beginning was completely calm and "sweating", just tiny drops falling even though there were no low clouds.  Finally some clouds came in and I finished in a downpour with some wind, which felt considerably better, although I am sure my wife won't be happy when she sees the wet kitchen floor I left at the house this morning.  Tried to dry it off but there are still some incriminating spots I am afraid.  Hopefully I'll still be a runner tomorrow.

I wanted to test out my hip wearing regular shoes, which seemed to work pretty well.  My hip didn't even make an appearance until mile 3, and behaved pretty well after that.  I really think the irritation is from quite a bit of hill work the last month.  I ran a hilly trail the week before the marathon, then the marathon, then last week in Central Park.  It doesn't take a lot, just a little bit of up and down is enough to trigger it.  Now that I am flat again I think it will gradually improve.  I'll probably do flat shoes tomorrow and see if everything still holds together as well as it did today.  Flat roads, flat shoes, flat chest, I think I see a pattern here.

Comments(5)
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10.600.000.000.0010.60

75F, 97% humidity, calm and clear.  The storms blew out last night, leaving the air pretty fresh and nice, but very warm.  I ran 10.6 in about 1:45:00, flat shoes.  No hip issues of any note, so feeling pretty good about this run.  My Garmin stayed on for three miles, which I ran at low heart rate, then it switched off and stayed completely dead.  Getting out the manual today to see if I can figure out anything.  Possibly a battery issue but I doubt it.  I think the bottom line is it went kaput, to use a technical term.

After my watch went dark I kept the same speed for a while, until about mile six.  Then a runner passed me with her husband riding alongside on a bicycle.  I let her go for awhile but she wasn't running all that much faster and I had been toying with speeding up anyway because my hip was feeling fine.  So I kicked it in to about a 10K pace with about 5K to go, after she was quite a ways ahead.  At least I think that was my speed, that was certainly the effort level.  I am guessing low 8s or high 7s but I am not sure.  The lady made a turn and I never saw her again.  But I worked very hard without water and held the pace all the way to the end.  I reached pretty close to my limit on this run, to the point I wasn't hungry afterward.  I didn't throw up, but I definitely didn't want to risk runing any harder in the heat.

If my hip stays OK today I'll probably go long in the morning, it is time.

Comments(1)
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16.000.000.000.0016.00

74F, 97% humidity at start, 80F, 85% at end, wind calm.  A very nice morning with a couple of hours of full moon before daylight.  Just at moonset I glanced over at the red setting moon and noticed it wasn't full anymore.  What the heck?  I knew a full moon doesn't change into a half moon  just like that, it takes a week, and half moons don't set at sunrise, they set at midnight or noon, depending on whether they are waxing or waning.  I knew it was either the apocalypse or I was seeing a lunar eclipse (earth's shadow on the moon), which is considerably more rare, for some reason, than a solar eclipse (moon blocking the sun), and to have it right at moonset with an enlarged red moon in the sky must be rare indeed.  So quite a bonus by getting up early this morning.

And early it was.  Out the door at 4:30 intending to run 20 miles, but only made 16.  I got a big blister on my left foot just at the base of the big toe.  In all my running I have never gotten a blister, a hot spot once in a while but this is the first one.  I am chalking it up to high sweat levels and minimal shoes.  Both hips were yelling at me as well, so I called it a day.  They feel OK now.  I ran my miles mostly in the 9:45 range, must say I was surprised at how difficult that was.  I considered pushing through but decided it is still too soon after the marathon, live to fight another day.  Would have done better in regular shoes today undoubtedly.

Here is a photo taken by a guy in Richmond, Texas, which is southwest Houston.  This is how it looked here.  I think the further west the more of the eclipse you got to see.

Happy weekend, all.

Comments(4)
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6.200.000.000.006.20

76F, 94% humidity, clear and calm.  Beautiful morning for running.  About Saturday afternoon, 6 or 7 hours after my long run, my right foot, top outside, became painful and difficult to walk on.  That continued all the way through last night at bedtime.  I was praying pretty hard for some relief, I really didn't want to take on another injury.  I think it happened from changing my stride due to the blister I got on the same foot.  I was afraid of a stress fracture, though I have never had one so far as I know.  It was still sore this morning, but I strapped on regular shoes and after a hundred yards it was gone for good.  I don't usually mix running and spiritual matters (other than occasionally shaking my fist at the running gods), because running is a sport for all kinds of people, religious, agnostic, indifferent and anti.  But this one was a blessing, I am sure of it, and I am grateful.  My left hip made an appearance at mile 3.5, but I know that one, I just stretched out and slowed down my stride, tried to maintain proper form, and it went away.  Not something to ignore, but controllable.

So I ran about 6.2 miles in 59 minutes, average pace about 9:30, including some high 10s and high 8s, as best I can tell.  The Garmin is still kaput.  I thought I had it nailed as a moisture issue, but it isn't that, something else.  I'll probably need to get a new one.  It is kind of fun to run a few days without it, but long term I need that machine. 

Looking forward to a good running week.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.100.000.000.0010.10

75F, 95% humidity, wind NE 5 mph.  A pretty morning for running, clear but lightning in the clouds on the horizon.  Ran 10.1 in about 1:35, regular shoes, no Garmin, about a 9:30 pace.  My legs felt heavy but otherwise I was able to push through and finish the run.  Left hip acted up at mile 7 but I slowed down then sped back up and it was fine, like re-booting a computer.  Hip is still OK this afternoon.  I have learned that I have to wait until later in the day to assess the effects of a run.  Until then the endorphins are still hanging around, making you feel better than you really are.

Can't re-boot the Garmin though.  I finally gave up and ordered a new one today.  Got it on Amazon.com for a pretty reasonable price, less than half what I paid 18 months ago.  Love the way electronics always go down in price.  I think it should work that way for everything except my hourly rate.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.100.000.000.0010.10

78F, 88% humidity, wind ESE 9 mph with gusting.  Getting ready to rain today, but a nice cloudy morning.  I ran exactly the same route as yesterday, 10.1 miles in regular shoes, 1:32, averaging about 9:07 minutes per mile, so I ran it faster.  My new Garmin will arrive Friday or Monday, as best I can tell.  Left hip issues are still there but I don't think it will bother me for too much longer, it feels like it is healing unless I do something stupid, which is entirely possible.

At about mile 5.5 I passed a familiar yard that has a dog behind a wooden fence, invisible but he always greets me aggressively.  About 30 pounds, guessing from his baritone bark.  Earlier I had tried getting a reaction out of some neighborhood ducks, but they ignored me.  I decided to give it one more try with the dog.  I gave him an animated growl in my best bass voice as I shuffled by, not loud enough for the owner to hear.  Ladies and gentlemen, the results were spectacular.  The holiday weekend is still a couple of days away, but the fireworks coming out of that yard bordered on illegal, even for Texas.  I maintained an innocent, bored look on my face and trotted on down the street.  Looks like I have a new friend.  He'll probably get a piece of my ankle someday, but it was worth it.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
139.6529.220.003.00171.87
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