For Whom the Dogs Bark

Splits were:  11:10, 11:57, 11:09, 10:47, 10:59, 12:09, 10:52, 12:41, 12:09, 11:40, 12:13, 11:57, 10:45, 10:37, 10:13, 9:30, 9:50, 9:58, 10:46, 3:42 (partial split, hit the wrong button on my Garmin and it cylced over), 10:00, 10:01, 10:47, 11:18, 11:37, 11:55, 17:49 (death march to the finish line).

This is not a noteworthy time, but I was very happy with this race.  It was the first time I got payback on my training.  I didn't have stomach issues until very late.  I had enough strength in my legs to run 4:30 or faster, but the heat gets me every time.  Something to work on, but encouraging at the same time.

First run since the St. George Marathon, and our first cool morning in Houston, only 56 degrees out.  Felt good to stretch things out a little bit.  Low heart rate (125-130), splits were, 14:08, 13:10, 13:;14, 12:53 and 6:36 (12:44 pace).  Right knee started bothering me a little at the end, I think its nuthin'.  Interesting that it took 4 miles for my heart to reach an efficient steady state.

My next marathon is the Texas Marathon in Houston on New Years Day.  Instead of doing 3 or 4 big workouts a week I am going to try to run every day but Sunday at a lower level, trying to build endurance and toughness in my joints.  I am hoping to avoid injury that way.  I was only able to train half the summer for St. George because of knee pain.  After it went away I was a new man and I trained like a maniac until a late taper.

Trying to run exactly 1 hour a day this week at low heart rate.  This morning was 4.75 miles, average heart rate 127, average pace 12:38 per mile.  Right knee pain came back right on cue at 4 miles.  Not much pain, just a little worrisome.  We'll see what happens there.

Part of the run was around a couple of small lakes, and there was a heron that would keep flying away every time I came close.  He would always fly ahead and wait for me to catch up instead of going the other way so I would leave him alone.  I noticed he had a very small head.  Bird brain.

Also found a nickel and stopped to pick it up.  Bird brain.

4.52 at average heart rate of 127, average pace 13:17.  At 7:30 in the morning, it is 73 out, 97% humidity, so summer is back.  By comparison, yesterday it was 62 and lower humidity, and I ran 4.75 miles at the same heart rate.  Heat is the big X factor hear in Houston.  It is scheduled to cool off in a couple of days, this is the last gasp of summer for this year.

4.35 miles in 1.00 hours, 13:49 average pace, 128 bpm average heart rate.  It is 77 outside and very muggy, so the distance was even less than yesterday and the heart rate higher.  It is trying to rain out there and the air is stagnant and feels like it is trapping you in a coccoon.  There might be a bit of a break tomorrow, then definitely cooler weather by Friday.  I'm a big advocate of embracing the heat and humidity, it is what it is, this is where I live and I don't have much patience for transplants from certain western climes (of which I am one) complaining about the long summers here.  Plus you can get some good training in that helps you in the last miles of certain races like, oh, I don't know, St. George maybe?  But I have done my hot weather time for this year, time for something new.

The good news is no knee issues.  I remembered last night that when the outside of the knee acts up at the same point in the run then goes away as soon as you quit, it is ITB.  I stretched the knee very gently last night and no issues today.  I have overstretched in the past but was careful this time.  In fact, as I think about it, in the year and a half I have been running I have pretty much over-ed everything at one point or another.

My St. George picture arrived yesterday, me and my son with our finishing medals.  Kind of expensive but very cool.

4.58 miles at 128 average bpm, 1.00 hours, 13:06 average pace, 79F.  At least there was a little more wind this morning, and it has shifted to the southwest, so the weather is trying to break, even though it is a little hotter even than yesterday.  All things considered I did better today.  I think my legs are starting to get with the new program.  The deal is I won't beat you up so bad, but we are out there every morning, guys.  Everybody on board? Quads? (yep) Glutes? (check) Hammys? (ok)  Achilles? (I'm the weak link) ITB? (huh, what was that?)  Not sure what I'm going to do about my long run, maybe I can sneak it in early and they won't notice.

4.72 miles, 129 bpm average heart rate, 1.00 hours, 65F.  The weather finally broke and I could tell an immediate difference in how fast I could go.  Every time my route swung around into the wind coming from the north I got a smile on my face.  It really isn't that cold, only 10 degrees less than yesterday, not really even cool, but I felt like I needed long sleeves.

My legs (I have named them Charley and Horse) balked at first but after a mile they got with the program.  I'll get them some oatmeal for breakfast.

8.84 miles in 2.00 hours, 13:35 average pace, 133 average heart rate, 57F, wind NE 7 mph (faster than me, that's for sure).  This was my "long" run.  For the first mile and a half, my Garmin was spitting out heart rates in the 160-175 range, even though I was going slow, so the average heart rate is skewed -- I think 128-129 is more accurate.  None of my splits, including the last partial one, was over 14:00, and no particular knee pain.  Looking for bright spots here.

This wasn't a particularly successful run this morning.  Should have been faster with these nice cool temperatures.  I ate a small steak last night and got a flu shot yesterday afternoon.  When I woke up I felt a little feverish and I wanted long sleeves, atypical for me, and my legs felt like logs, especially during the second hour.  I think they are still hung over from the party in St. George two weeks ago today, so no worries.  It was important to get out there, stretch out the distance a little.  Now I get a day off.  With all my training, maybe 2000 miles by now, I have never run more than 4 times in a week.  This week I ran 6.

4.52 miles in 1:05.  My average pace was 14:25  per mile and my average heart rate was 149 bpm because that is the lowest I was able to get it.  Most of the time it seemed like it was in the high 150s and low 160s, it even reached 172 at one point.  I am surprised that the average came out that low.  The ambient temperature is 47F, I slept well and I rested yesterday.  Should have been putting down low 12s, instead it was mid-14s, about 2-1/2 minutes per mile slower than I expected, and I was never able to get my heart rate down except by walking, which does my running no good so far as I can determine.  To call this run frustrating is not giving it its proper due -- it's not as if I am new to this type of training, I have been doing it for 8 months now but never with results that were anything close to what happened this morning.  I thought perhaps my Garmin was misreading because of the cold weather somehow, but I measured my pulse manually on my wrist at the end of the run and it was the same.  How do I feel?  I feel as if I never even went out the door, there was almost no effort involved.  Nothing to do but try again tomorrow.  I think I'll go slow again tomorrow then do a speed workout on Wednesday, no point in not trying something else.

4.99 miles in 1:05, 13:01/mile, 59F, 127 bpm.  Not my best run ever, but back in the zone.  After yesterday's debacle, I started out extremely slow, about a 16-17 minute pace for the first half mile, never let my heart rate get away from me.  First mile was 14:02 and everything after that was in the high 12s.  In the past I could always get my heart rate back down once it crept beyond the target zone, but after yesterday I was no longer confident of that.  Deep into my run I let it get away a couple of times, but by then I could always bring it back down by slowing my cadence slightly.  Anyway, back on track.

Today's distance is an estimate, seeing as I punched the wrong button on my clock by accident.  The main objective was running at low heart rate for a specified period of time, which I did, 126 bpm for the length of the run, however long it was.  Temperature was 67F and there must be another system blowing in because the wind was pretty brisk.

My technical skills with electronics and computers are pretty pathetic.  Kind of like watching a clown trying to eat spaghetti or something.

4.97 miles in 1:05, 72F, wind S 8 mph, light rain, 100% humidity, average heart rate 128 bpm, average pace 13:05/mile.  Conditions a little less ideal than yesterday, but runnable.  Managed to keep my clock on the whole run today, so that was an accomplishment.

Also managed to keep my heart rate down again, except for one spot running behind the lake in the dark, a big snort in the trees just 20 feet to my left. Messed up my heart rate real good on that one.  I'm thinking a 10-point buck, but it was probably a rabbit.

4.90 miles in 51:13, 10:27 average pace, 47F, average heart rate 170 bpm.  It was another cold morning, just like Monday and 25 degrees cooler than yesterday.  Again, my heart rate was 162 before I got out of my cul de sac and it went as high as 204 during the run.  No way could that possibly be accurate, but it is now obvious to me that it is a cold weather issue that affects either my heart rate monitor or my heart.  I hope it is the former.  Anyway, I decided I might as well do my speed workout, so I jogged for 2 miles then two half-mile threshold runs, then a full mile threshold run, jogging a quarter in between.  I got my pace down to the high 7s a couple of times.  I can't believe that I have to run 8:30s for 26 miles to qualify for Boston.  That is far away for me.

My goal for my next marathon is 4:30 to 4:45, which means 10:30 to 11:00 splits.  If my legs don't rebel after today's run, I'll try to run for two and a half hours in the morning at an 11:00 pace.  It's been 3 weeks since St. George, so it should be OK to air it out a little.

It was nice to be out in the crisp cold air, glad to be alive, even if slow.

47F, cold clear morning, great running weather.  The goal this morning was to run for 2:30 hours at my target marathon pace (11:00) for my next race, the Texas Marathon in Kingwood, Texas on New Years Day.   I managed to do that, 13.86 miles at an average pace of 10:49, splits as follows:

11:45, 10:45, 10:49, 10:41, 10:48, 10:54, 10:31, 10:53, 10:48, 10:39, 10:53, 10:47, 10:51, 8:57 (10:24 pace)

I left my heart rate monitor at home.  I'll go back to slow running during the week, but I am hoping to gradually increase the time for my Saturday long runs, eventually getting up to 4 hours at marathon pace.  I started doing my long runs this way while preparing for St. George and it seemed to help a lot, at least for this stage of my training.  I felt like I would have had a hard time running a full marathon at the same pace, so I am not there yet, but after this morning it seems doable.  The difference running in cool weather is significant.  A few weeks ago I would have struggled in the heat to run this far at this pace.

The most important thing that happened this morning is I passed somebody.  They were a really tall guy and a really short woman who turned onto the sidewalk in front of me, I eased on by, smiled a little to myself but throttled the urge to pull out a Sharpie and offer my autograph.  They looked like they were just warming up, but I am counting it.  Several miles later at the turnaround, I noticed they were only a quarter behind, so I ended up bringing it in faster than I planned, probably too fast.  Much more important than enjoying my health, making new friends and avoiding injury.

67F, 5.18 miles in 1:10::05, average pace 13:32 per mile, average heart rate 127 bpm.  Once again, I am upping my running time a little.  If all goes well I will keep doing that until I get to 90 minutes 5 days in a row, plus Saturday.  Despite my flu shot two weeks ago, I have flu-like symptoms this morning and was on aspirin all night.  But I didn't think running would make it any worse and I was right.  About halfway through I started sweating just like at the end of the flu -- it would be interesting if it were possible to sweat out flu toxins by running.  Maybe that will become clear during the day today.  Other than the slower than normal pace, which could be attributed to the heat or the flu, the legs, Charley and Horse, performed admirably, with no pain or other indication that they remained under any particular strain from Saturday's run.  Got in just in time, though, a Texas-sized thunderstorm just started.  Cooler temps tomorrow undoubtedly.

53F, WNW wind @ 10 mph, average pace 13:06, average heart rate 127, total time 1:10:00.  A little better than yesterday, but I still have some flu left.  It rained all day yesterday and it is just now blowing out, although it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, not colder.  I don't like running in the wind, never have.  Good run anyway, though.

50F, no wind, 5.61 miles in 1:10:01, 126 bpm, 12:32 average pace.  It was supposed to be warm this morning but turned out to be perfect.  Also, no heart rate issues even though it was cold, which is different from the last three cold mornings.  I still have a few residual flu symptoms, but the run helped clear out my congestion, so I'm feeling pretty good about things.  I had one run back in May that was pretty close to this one, I actually slammed down a couple of mid-11s on that one, but I suspect I let my heart rate get up a little higher on that one, I wasn't as good at keeping it down then.  All in all I would rate this as my best low heart rate run.

With a mile to go my Garmin started going crazy, beeping like a car alarm that you can't turn off.  It had a message on it, but my eyesight isn't good enough to read it while running.  When I pushed the start/stop button at the end the beeping finally went away, but so did the message so I'll never know what it said.  I was running very early and there was no moon -- maybe it was a message from another medium.  That's my technical explanation, I'll be on the lookout for further information from unusual sources.

It was a weird one this morning.  The temperature was 79F, compared to 50 yesterday.  I started running and my Garmin wouldn't work except for the heart rate monitor.  Plus it was windy, swirling rain the whole time.  Plus my legs started to feel tired, this is almost three weeks now that I have run 6 days a week.  Even though I have kept exertion levels low, there is still a little fatigue setting in.  Anyway, I ran the same route as yesterday, probably a little slower, I felt the heat.  It is hard to run in a hot wind, because when you are running into it it slows you down, and when it is behind you there is no breeze at all and you heat up.  Either way you are screwed.

Enough whining.  I did it.  Was actually going to go a little more just to let my legs know I am in charge, but I had to make a financial transaction, as Burt would say.  My banker usually likes to see me every day and I was late, enough said.

55F, 1:00:00, average pace 12:44. I wasn't going to go out this morning because of a late night and because my legs felt heavy during yesterday's run, but I'm glad I did. The heart rate readout on my watch was out of whack again in the blustery wind, but I ran some different roads and everything felt good. Had to come in early to get on a call about our London office, which is a train wreck. I'm hoping the long run goes well tomorrow.

43F at start, 49F at end, 17.00 miles in 3:00:01, average pace 10:35 (goal pace was 11:00), no heart rate monitor, splits as follows:

11:15, 11:03, 10:40, 10:48, 10:51, 11:10 (pull rock out of shoe), 11:25 (Juan*), 10:41, 10:35, 10:27, 10:30, 10:23, 10:22, 10:17, 9:52, 9:59, 9:40.

During the last third of the run I was trying to decide whether to stay at 3 hours or push through to 17 miles, but my speed kept picking up and I ended up doing both.  My legs felt heavy the whole time but never got worse, so I pushed through.  I am probably overtrained a little bit right now, but I'll back off next week, take my heart rate down to 125 bpm and only run an hour each day, then only two hours on Saturday at a true 11:00 pace.  That should get me back into equilibrium.  No knee problems despite the extra speed today.  Knock on wood, that issue seems to be a thing of the past.

Also, I passed another runner today.  That makes two this year.

*This is a term used by my politically incorrect older son to describe outdoor sanitary facilities at constructions sites, owing to the predominant ethnicity of crews in our area.