For Whom the Dogs Bark

July 2010

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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
247.884.009.802.50264.18
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.100.000.000.0010.10

76F, 94% humidity, light rain.  Air very fresh with the rain, good running weather despite the temperatures.  This rain might be related to the hurricane that came in further south last night, but not sure.  Ran slow today, getting ready for some longer miles over the weekend.  10.1 miles in 1:55, regular shoes, about 11:25 per mile, no Garmin.  We are hoping to make it to Central Texas for the holiday weekend to visit my daughter and her family.  I am thinking with the humidity a little lower the run might go better, but the temperatures might be higher.  It will be an experiment.

MFM (my favorite mutt) did not make an appearance today.  Kind of disappointing, I was hoping to develop our friendship further.  I think his owner is alarmed and decided to keep him inside when I am running.  I am a very intimidating guy.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.230.000.000.006.23

76F, 97% humidity, light rain.  Very nice morning out there, although it is raining heavily now.  I don't think there will be many boats on the water this weekend, although I ran by a couple of guys loading up their water toys in the rain.  Still no Garmin (maybe today?), but according to the computer I ran 6.23 miles and according to my cell phone I did it in 54.5 minutes, so about 8:45 pace, flat shoes.  Honestly, I felt like I was running faster than that, and I guess I was if you throw out the first warmup mile.  Any way you slice it though, it was not low 8s.  The good news is I felt great, and it felt like my form is improving, my feet felt springy in the flat shoes, if that makes sense.  Didn't want to push it too hard anyway, hoping for a long run tomorrow out in Temple, where we are visiting my daughter for the holiday weekend.

In preparation for our visit, I have been requested to bring fireworks.  Apparently Temple is not part of the unregulated paradise that the rest of Texas is, only certain types of kiddie poppers are available there.  So I will be running the big stuff, arriving after sunset.  In addition, they want me to bring something called "red rubber mulch", which is unavailable in Temple but supposedly can be purchased at any Home Depot in Houston.  So I am gearing up mentally to walk in and ask for it with a straight face, but I am pretty sure that one is a hoax.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.200.000.000.0020.20

81F, 78% humidity, 87 heat index, wind ESE 12 mph.  This was a goodbye run instead of a hello run, meaning I put Mr. Sun to bed instead of getting him out of bed.  I woke up this morning at my usual time, 5:30, but I was sleeping on an air mattress in Temple, Texas, at my daughter's house.  The rain was coming down in sheets, there were no street lights, I had no Garmin and no map and I had stayed up past midnight, so I promised myself I would run tonight and rolled over and slept until 9:00.  This caused a number of comments since I brag too often about getting up early.

So after driving back to Houston it was time to keep my promise.  It has been raining so much that it wasn't as hot as it could have been, but still hotter than morning runs.  The light was somewhat the same as well, to the extent I blurted out a hearty "good morning" to one friendly but startled couple innocently walking their dog.  Would have been good if it was in another neighborhood, but it was my own.  I'm sure that one will get around.

The first couple of miles were painful with a shin splint that appeared out of nowhere, but no way was I going to post a 2 after missing 20 last Saturday.  So I ran through it and it disappeared.  Ended up doing all 20 in 3:48, which comes out to about a 10:50 pace.  Doesn't sound very fast but it was difficult.  Not quite as bad as I felt after the marathon three weeks ago which I ran about 1:40 per mile faster, but it was in the neighborhood.  The heat is brutal but I have to keep trying or I will lose 6 months.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.100.000.000.0010.10

75F, 96% humidity at start, 79F, 90% at end.  Beautiful clear morning, but it was an interesting weekend.  Friday night visiting my daughter and her family, we went out to a popular barbeque joint about 20 minutes out in the country from their house in Central Texas.  We were treated very well, it was all you could eat and we ate to our heart's content.  Then about 24 hours later we started giving it all back.  Food poisoning.  I have no idea how I did my long run on Saturday night, but by noon on Sunday I was pretty weak and as a result I didn't make it out for a run yesterday.

This morning I still felt dizzy and a little weak but thought I should try for a couple of miles at least.  So I put on my flat shoes and took off, and immediately felt better, like I was flushing the toxins out.  One thing about this weather, it is good for flushing.  So I ran the whole route in about 1:36 (hoping to get my new Garmin today), average pace about 9:20.  I sped up on mile 9 then had to slow down for the last mile because my feet in the thin-soled shoes didn't like the crushed granite jogging trail that I use for the last loop.

As soon as I stopped I felt nauseous again, go figure.  I'm feeling tolerable right now and I have a lot to do today, so just pressing on.

One thing I saw Saturday night on my long run I forgot to mention, but I'll do it now.  It was a small thing but memorable to me.  Just at sunset I saw a bunch of people getting out of 2 or 3 vehicles and going into a house, carrying fireworks and side dishes.  No big deal, just another 4th of July party.  But then I noticed, from their accents and dress, that they were Indian Americans.  How cool is that?

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.120.000.000.0010.12

79F, 94% humidity, wind ESE 5 mph, nice hot running weather, no chance of catching a cold today.  Got my new Garmin in the mail and strapped it on this morning, ran 10.12 miles at low heart rate in flat shoes.  Average pace 11:04 per mile.  I had some low 10s early in the run but as the internal heat built up I gradually slowed down to mid-11s.  I checked the last low heart rate run I recorded on April 16 at 64F.  The first three miles were almost the same, 11:43, 10:19, 10:11, but my overall pace on that day was 10:25, about the same as my last lap, and I never slowed down much until the last two miles, even then by only a few seconds.  Today my last mile was about 11:40, so at the end of a 10-mile run the heat (only about 15 degrees higher) slows me down by about 1:15 per mile at low heart rate.  After 20 miles I think the effect is even more dramatic, though I have never tried to run that far at low heart rate.  More nerdy stuff, sorry.

One more technical note, if you buy a new Garmin you don't have to buy a new heart rate strap, the old one works just fine.  That might seem obvious, but I thought they might be synching individual monitors with individual machines.  It is a generic piece of equipment.  Probably useless information, though, I don't think you can buy them separately.

On a less technical note, I saw a snake.  Didn't investigate him too closely but I don't think it was a garter snake.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.070.000.000.0010.07

Forgot to check the weather, but it felt like low 70s, starting to rain by the time I finished, nice breeze most of the run.  I ran 10.07 in 1:34:14, regular shoes.  Average pace was 9:22 per mile.  After a 2-mile warmup at low heart rate I ran the rest at about 160 bpm, which translated into a low 8s pace to start, slowing down to high 9s at the end, about 1:45 per minute pace drift, which I attribute mostly to the heat.  The last two miles I moved up to 170-175 bpm and got the pace back into the mid to high 8s.  Overall pace for the last 8 miles was 8:55. 

My idea is to build endurance at marathon heart rate. Maybe running this hard two or three times a week will be fairly sustainable.  The major bust at UVM was not being able to sustain the heart rate late in the race, something I didn't really expect.  Some of that was altitude-related and stomach cramping, but in the end it all comes back to training.  In any event, in this heat there isn't any other way to measure progress that I can come up with.

Toward the end of my run I noticed the jail bus parked right in our neighborhood.  Usually they are out on the road somewhere picking up trash.  My first thought was to direct them to my house, as I have a couple of kids who could benefit from a couple of weeks working on that crew.  Then I got upset when I realized that a busload of budding felons was casing my neighborhood on tax dollars.  Time to write a letter.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.050.000.000.0010.05

76F, 98% humidity, wind S 1 mph, essentially calm.  Ran 10.05 in 1:48:35, average pace 10:48 minutes per mile, flat shoes and low heart rate.  So 16 seconds per mile faster than Tuesday, and after running pretty hard yesterday.  Had to be happy with this run, pace drift was not nearly as pronounced as Tuesday.  My lowest total average pace was 10:43 at about mile 5, so it only went up 5 seconds after that.  Maybe I am getting acclimated to these temperatures that we will have for three more months.  But whatever the reason I was happy to be able to run the whole distance at a decent pace and to have my legs feel good afterward.  The flat shoes experiment seems to be paying dividends, the best case scenario would be if they make me able to run harder with less risk of injury.  I can certainly feel the difference for the better in my knees, and my foot/ankle ligaments and tendons seem to have toughened up.  Calves are fine.  Hips are still getting used to them and the bottoms of my feet always take a pounding, especially when I land wrong on a rock.  They are definitely not good for off-roading.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.510.000.000.0017.51

73F, 97% humidity to start, 82F/85% to end.  Got up dark and early to run with a group at the YMCA located about 8 miles from my home.  I ran 2 miles to my friend's house, drove then started running at 5:30.  He is a little faster than me, but having trouble going long distances in the heat, so he was happy to go a slower speed with me.  We settled on 10 minute miles and kept that up most of the time, running what was supposed to be a 14 mile course with the group but it was only 13.5.  Toward the end the pace picked up quite a bit, down to low 9s.  When we finished we drove back to his house and I ran the last 2 miles home, stiff and slow at first but finally speeding up to low 9s.  I was toying with running home from the Y, but due to the speeding up at the end of the group run I had a heart rate over 170 and knew in the full sunlight it would be a deathmarch, so I took the ride.  Overall pace for 17.51 miles was 9:55, including some slow warmup miles, total time 2:53:52, regular shoes.  I think before the summer is over I will be able to do 20 at a low 9 pace, mid to low 8s would be a fantasy goal.  Today was about a minute per mile faster than last week and I wasn't as tired.  I feel like I am finally getting acclimated.  The other two summers since I started running I had injuries that kept me in the house during the summer, so this is the first time I have been out in the soup week after week.

I am pretty happy with this run.  Took some salt tablets and a little bit of Gatorade without any adverse effects, so branching out from warm water here.  Amazing how fast the time goes by when there is somebody to talk to.  Plus I met some people in the area who are serious about running marathons, one guy I was running with has done 50. 

Not sure I will go out there every week, some Saturdays the program just doesn't fit with what I need to do, but I will probably join the group, they charge dues for Gatorade and such, but not much.  Do running groups in Utah charge dues?  It makes sense but I hadn't really heard of it.  Here in Texas we always organize, it seems.  At the Alamo we weren't organized and we learned our lesson. 

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.220.000.000.0011.22

77F, 93% humidity.  Out the door at 5:30 for a slow recovery run, clear day with a slow breeze coming from somewhere.  Beautiful out.  11.22 miles in 2:01:02, average pace 10:47, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Only 1 second per mile faster than Friday, but at 10 miles my overall pace was 10:44, which indicates a couple of things:  (1) It is good to be running longer distances when going slow, because there is a lot of pace drift in this heat on the back end of these runs, where I lost 3 seconds/mile overall pace in the last 1.2 miles, indicating there is considerable improvement to be had there; and  (2) 4 seconds per mile faster than Friday at the 10 mile mark, so today was actually a statistical improvement over Friday, which was 10:48 per mile at the 10 mile mark.  That's about all I know for a Monday morning.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.300.002.800.0010.10

79F, 89% humidity, wind SSW 8 mph.  Great morning for running, but don't like the wind coming from that direction.  It feels dry and scratchy, which I know is a funny-sounding complaint.  I am a finely tuned instrument and the least little thing throws me off.  If I ever got deployed to the desert like SlowJoe (or Burt) I would be a mess.

Ran 10.10 in 1:38:17, average pace 9:44 per mile in regular shoes.  It was mostly low heart rate but I threw in some 10K pacing.  The plan was to do 2 x 3200 at 7:30 pace.  First one I almost finished, 7:25 (165 bpm), 7:25 (179 bpm), but the second split was only .8 miles, couldn't hold it the full two, heart rate was climbing rapidly and hit 184 about the time I quit.  I could have pushed through but I am in the live-to-fight-another-day mode so I backed off.  I did run one more fast mile a little later, 7:35 (176 bpm), then jogged slowly until the last mile which I ran at low 9s then down to low 8s, getting my heart rate back up to 175.  So I didn't quite get there but I learned a lot and made progress.  Mid-7s is an ambitious but good speed for me.  It feels more relaxed now, not a killer injury-inducing sprint like a few months ago.  If I could stabilize my heart rate in the 170-175 range at that speed I felt like I could go indefinitely.  Ultimate goal is a 10K at 7:00 pace, but that might be a little much for this summer.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.130.000.000.0011.13

78F, 91% humidity, wind S 5 mph.  Great morning to run.  Did the run in the next neighborhood down, trying to give my neighbors a break.  11.13 miles in 2:04:41, average pace 11:12, flat shoes and low heart rate.  Not as fast as Monday, but I was running more to the low end of the heart rate zone.  Even so I felt very tired after this run, possibly a hangover from yesterday, but I may have to back off at least one day this week.  One interesting thing is that at this slightly slower speed there was almost no pace drift at the end of the run, which makes sense I guess.

One of my kids is bringing home a friend who won't eat anything served at our house.  No fruits, vegetables, casseroles, pasta or dairy.  No meat except fast food burgers or chicken nuggets, not even steak.  She giggles and calls herself a "picky eater".  Basically if it isn't on the menu at McDonalds she won't eat it.  Sad thing is, she is probably closer to normal than me.  No runner would consider subsisting on a junk food diet, but we are the minority.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.180.003.000.006.18

73F, 100% humidity, wind calm.  Very pretty morning and not too hot, but the humidity was even higher than usual.  The plan was to back off a little bit, as I didn't feel fully recovered when I went to bed last night.  Felt better when I got up but decided to go shorter anyway.  I ran 3 miles at gradually increasing pace and heart rate, 10:52 (125), 8:50 (147), 8:26 (157), then took it to 170 bpm and tried to keep it there.  Next three splits were 7:52 (168), 8:17 (171) and 8:28 (173), so a lot of pace drift at a fairly even level of effort.  Mile six was about the same speed as mile three, but it was quite a bit harder.  Total run was 6.18 miles in 51:44, average pace 8:51.  Lots of upside for this type of workout.  But I did feel better post-workout today, meaning I should be able to do this run or something similar quite often.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.200.000.000.0012.20

Forgot to check the weather, but it felt about the same, clear and little breeze.  I ran 12.2 miles in 1:55:48, average pace 9:30 per mile, regular shoes.  Ran quite a few miles in the 150-160 heart rate zone until finally breaking through to the mid-160s toward the end.  Started to feel a little woozy in the heat so I called it a day.  I need to be able to sustain 170 at the end of a long run for several miles, as in the final 10K.  Once I can do that my times will start to improve more quickly, I think.  I can do it at the front of a run for 10K, not sure why it is different later on, since heart rate is the best indicator of level of effort, but it is different.  You can get tired without your heart rate going up.  Just conditioning I guess.  The goal is to maintain a 9:30 average for 20, then move down to a faster speed.  Baby steps, but at least all systems are working fine and I maintained an even pace.

As a St. George loser (that sounds wrong), I signed up for the Hartford ING marathon on October 9.  It looks like a good race, have heard good things about it.  Flat and sea level, dude.  Who knows, maybe faster than SGM?  That will be my last shot at a qualifying time for Boston 2011.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.010.000.000.0020.01

77F, 95% humidity, clear and dark.  I had a commitment at 8:00 a.m. so I went out the door at 4:00 to do this run, basically the run I missed yesterday.  The goal was to run 20 miles at 9:30 per mile, which is fast enough for me in this heat.  I ran 20.01 miles in 3:09:03, average pace 9:27 per mile.  Some of the splits and heart rates:  Mile 4:  9:31 (147); mile 8:  9:36 (153); mile 12:  9:30 (159); mile 16:  9:19 (167); and mile 20:  9:17 (175).  So my heart rate drifted steadily but not so much that I couldn't make the run.  I didn't hit 170 until about mile 18, but more importantly I didn't break 150 until about mile 6.  That is when I knew I had a chance to pull it off, although I am not sure why I was running better today than yesterday; I would have guessed that running two of these in a row would compromise the second one but it didn't happen.  I almost decided to jog it in after I got a 9:40 for mile 18 since I had banked about 70 seconds of cushion, but managed to pull through and get the pace back down.  I need to be tougher.  This is the first long run I have nailed in a while, it felt good. 

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.230.000.000.0012.23

75F, 95% humidity, getting ready to rain but temperature felt good.  Got out the door early and ran 12.23 miles in 2:13:59, average pace 10:57 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Felt good for a recovery run.  I held a steady pace at a steady bpm for the most part.  Headed to work a half hour after finishing and it was a downpour all the way in.  I was wet anyway because it is hot, but not sure I wanted to get soaked this morning.

Today feels relaxed compared to the weekend.  It was wall to wall mixture of family stuff, work and church from Friday night until Sunday night.  Started with a call from China late Friday night that turned into a 3-day drill to get a document done, most difficult thing was getting everybody on the same page across three cultures.  On top of that was all the normal family and church schedule.  Not to mention a long run.  Happy when I finished everything.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

90 minutes on elliptical, frontwards and backwards.  That wasn't the plan, but I fell off the wagon this morning.  I set my alarm last night but didn't turn it on.  By the time I woke up it was too late to do a run before a dentist appointment.  By the time the appointment was over it was too hot and sunny for a run, given my delicate disposition.  So I took a nap.  Then got up and went to the rec center for penance on the elliptical.  After an hour and a half I decided I had punished myself enough and I quit, then took my wife to a new restaurant that turned out to be pretty good.  We will go back.  So all in all not a bad day, even though I missed a key speed workout.  I'll do it tomorrow and figure things out from there.  I'm going to go watch the Astros lose again now.  Predictability is underrated.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.650.004.000.0010.65

79F, 92% humidity, wind NE 2 mph, clear.  Very nice morning for running.  Went 10.65 miles in 1:43:32, average pace 9:43 per mile, regular shoes.  Ran three miles warmup at about 10:45 per mile, then 2X3200 with 2 miles jogging between, then another 1.65 cooldown.  The splits for the 4 threshold miles (2 sets of 2) were 7:27 (162) and 7:23 (174), then 7:44 (169) and 7:37 (180), average 7:33 compared to a goal of 7:30.  So it seems like I almost made it but my second set was way slower, just no more gas in the tank, so I am not yet declaring victory.  Heart rate hit 184 at the end of the last mile, so it was more VO2 max than threshold level.  That is OK, but it shows that I don't quite have this speed under control yet.  One of these days I will go to a track and figure out what my max heart rate is.  Seems ridiculous that I still don't know.  I think it is 190 but I am not sure.  I wonder if it is possible to raise one's maximum heart rate.  I have read that the max goes down as you get more fit, but that doesn't really make sense to me.  Another good thing is that my legs feel fine, actually better than the noodles I was walking around on after getting off the elliptical machine last night.  This was a good run for me, pushed through some significant fatigue.  I may lower my wimp factor from 10 to 9, unless I get major objections, at which point I will scurry back into my cave.

The advertisement on my "Add Entry" page this morning says "Start a Soda/Snack Vending Business".  This is a running blog, right?

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.110.000.000.0013.11

79F, 94% humidity, part cloudy and part rainy.  Nice weather out there, didn't drink as much water with the cloud cover and rain.  Ran 13.11 in 2:23:36, average pace 10:57 per mile, flat shoes.  This was a recovery run, low heart rate (131) all the way, I just chugged through it at the same speed for the whole distance.  Got back to my house at 12.7 miles, then decided to do a little extra to make it exactly a half.  Other than that nothing of note.  Got a little bit of rain during the run, but it was more like the sky was sweating, it gets like that here sometimes.  The lightning from the rain never got close, but it did keep me close to the house.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.670.000.002.5010.17

79F, 97% humidity, wind ENE 3 mph though I never felt a hint of a breeze.  Good morning for running anyway, no storms today.  Warmed up for three miles then ran 10x400 with 400 recovery in between.  I ran the intervals overall in the high 6s, mile pace for each 400 split was 7:16, 6:50, 6:38, 6:35, 7:02, 6:50, 6:57, 6:53, 7:07 and 6:59, average 6:55.  Highest heart rate 187.  Pace for the warmup, recovery and cooldown miles was mid to high 10s.  Overall, 10.17 miles in 1:40:12, 9:51 per mile, regular shoes.  This run took the starch out of my legs, but it felt good anyway.  Nothing like speedwork to produce that endorphin glow for the rest of the day.  Everybody at work thinks I'm smiling because it's Friday.

I'm going to run with the neighborhood group again in the morning.  They are going 4 miles.  What's up with that?  Unless they are running it at 10K speed?  There is apparently a summer running memo circulating that I never saw.  I'm going to have to be creative to get a regular run in.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.764.000.000.0018.76

73F, 94% humidity at start, 83F, 92% at end.  Pretty good running weather, at least until the sun came up.  18.76 miles in 3:13:25, average pace 10:19.  This was a weird run.  I left the house and ran to the Y, a little over 7 miles.  I had no water stations so I was going to take a backpack and a handheld.  Fixed it up and put it in the fridge overnight, but when I put the pack on this morning it felt heavy, so I left it and just took the handheld.  Seemed like a good idea at the time, and that arrangement worked fine on the way to Y.  I ran this part at about 10:30 to 11:00 pace.  There must have been 150 runners milling around when I got to the Y, getting instructions, doing warmups, etc.  Turns out there was a 2-mile group and a 4-mile group.  When I asked somebody he said the 4-milers were "back there", as if they were an elite group or something.  Finally they came up and we started at about 7:15 in the morning, already pretty late.  A man and a woman were running out ahead, so I sped up, eventually caught them toward the end then just tucked in behind, didn't want to make a spectacle out of myself as the newbie.  I ran it hard for me, low 8s and high 7s, about MP minus 30 seconds overall, but speeding up throughout, heart rate up to 181 at the end.    I could have taken it slow like the rest of the run, but that wouldn't have been interesting -- I am sure there are several runners in this group with faster marathon times than me, but I can't figure out why experienced runners would do a 4-mile run on Saturday morning and take it slow on top of that, unless there are special circumstances.

After the run there was a lecture by the local running store, stuff like "here is a shoe, here is a gu".  There are some good runners in this group, but this morning was beginners-ville, which was OK, just not what I need.  So I refilled my hand-held and started back in the bright sun about 9:00 or 9:30.  I quickly ran out of water about halfway home.  Exploring a neighborhood looking for solutions I met a woman I go to church with who was happy to fill me up, but she acted like she was looking at a ghost.  Must have looked pretty bad.  She did not invite me in, which was smart on her part.  I thanked her for saving me from certain death and proceeded on.  A couple of miles further I found some lawn sprinklers and took a shower -- had to repeat the shower part when I got home, though.  Finally finished about 10:30 or so and was totally drug out, took an hour just to get re-hydrated.  But it was an interesting morning, although I'm not going to do any more group runs that start at 7:15, at least until the weather cools off.

 

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.040.000.000.007.04

73F, 89% humidity, cloudy and calm.  Great morning for running, but trouble with my ankle.  I ran 7.04 miles in 1:04:09, average pace 9:07 per mile, flat shoes.  Everything was going great, feeling strong and planning on 12 miles, running in the 8:20 to 8:30 range after a couple of warmup miles.  Then I felt sharp pains in my right foot, on the outside below the ankle.  I pulled up and walked in and iced it.  By the time I left for work it stiffened and I limped badly all day.  It is better this morning (Tuesday morning) but it is definitely going to be a low mileage week, mostly on my friend the elliptical torture device.  Usually in the cold light of the morning after I can identify what I did wrong, why I was working up to a problem.  This one came out of nowhere, honestly can't say what I was doing wrong or how I could have prevented it.  That is frustrating, but I planned on an easy week anyway so will make do.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.000.000.000.003.00

Did 30 minutes on elliptical this morning.  I limped badly on Monday with the ankle/heel injury, limped around again yesterday but with longer steps, and felt pretty good this morning.  The elliptical hurt for a few minutes but I got warmed up the injury receded to mere background noise.  Could have gone longer but there was no need, the object today was to just get going again.  After showering and walking around, it looks like most of my limp is gone, so still on track to run again starting about Saturday.  As I continue to run I notice that I recover from hard runs faster.  I wonder if the same is true of injuries.  If I can get back to running this week, this injury will have been nothing more than a small glitch.  Just speculation though, trying not to count my chickens quite yet.

Instead of running yesterday I ate.  Started out with a large breakfast of eggs, rice, toast with butter and jam and orange juice, then a massive lunch at the best Thai restaurant in Houston (it is recruiting season at our law firm) where I ate way too much hot food, followed by a recruiting dinner at a steak house.  At dinner I was smart enough to order salmon (yep, I was one of those guys who orders fish at a steak house), but with the salad, sides and dessert it must have added up to 2000 calories.  My GI tract rebelled, but I'm back to normal now.  I think I gained two pounds yesterday.

Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

One hour on the elliptical this morning, half frontwards and half backwards.  Ankle feeling better again today, but improvement is not as dramatic as yesterday.  I still think I will be ready to run again by Saturday.  I have about given up on reading to pass the time, too awkward trying to wrestle a newspaper while bouncing around on a machine.  I'm going to try my iPod tomorrow.  I don't like to run with it but it might be good for the gym.  I figured out today that the reason I don't like the gym it is because it is mindless, and in my opinion running is not mindless.  I wonder if there is anybody other than a recovering runner who goes to the gym every day for aerobic exercise.  Walkers and runners can tend to be pretty regular, but I do not see the same people every day at the gym, it is always somebody different.

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

90 minutes on elliptical.  I tried running to the clubhouse (1/3 mile), but unfortunately my foot is still not up to it, which means my long run tomorrow will be short at best, possibly nada.  I feel fine walking around, but it just isn't there yet.  Bummer.  Tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the year and I was really looking forward to that.  Not really.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
247.884.009.802.50264.18
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