For Whom the Dogs Bark

66F, 78% humidity, wind N 3 mph.   Warming up quite nicely but it won't last, we are back down in the 50s starting tomorrow I think.  I looked up Hartford this morning and it was hotter and more humid than Houston.  Uh oh.  But their 10 day forecast is uniformly in the low 50s, so I think that was either a typo or some wierd, short-lived weather pattern.

I stayed up late working last night so got out late this morning.  I ran 7.11 miles in 1:14:26, 10:28 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Have been watching my right foot very closely this week, so no flat shoe runs for a while, but I think it will be OK.  I had back problems two years ago, herniated disc pushing against my sciatic nerve on the right side, and ended up with numbness in my right foot which still lingers.  So earlier this week out running, every 10th step or so it was like my foot was giving out underneath me, not necessarily painful but folding like a wet noodle.  My daughter reported that she had a very similar condition when she was pregnant, so I'm pretty sure that it is a nerve problem.  Not too hard to compensate for it at a slow pace but it made for some funny looking stride breaks when I got into the low 7s yesterday, wouldn't have even been able to run that fast a couple of days earlier.  I could still feel it this morning but it held my weight fine the whole run.  So fragile.

60F, 80% humidity, wind N 3 mph.  Beautiful Saturday morning, was thinking about all the St. George runners, hope all goes well with all of them.  Byron and Marci, my brother in law and sister in law from Woodland Hills, ran it.  They just called and said the heat was brutal.

I ran a local 5K this morning, a breast cancer fundraiser for which my firm is one of the sponsors.  There were 32,000 runners in all, a real zoo in downtown Houston.  Only 3,000+ were entered in the timed race, however, most wanted to just slog it or walk it.  I had 3 of my 5 kids entered, as well as my son-in-law and daughter-in-law, so it was a family event.  My wife stayed home with the granddaughters so they didn't have to get up.

I got down there a little early and got the last ones in our group registered.  I wanted to run about 6 ahead of the race but there wasn't time.  I ran 3 at about 9:30 pace to warm up, then entered the race corral from the front end, as I knew with that many runners a good time was hopeless unless I managed to get close to the front.  I placed myself a few rows back and that was about right.

After the gun went off I was bobbing and weaving a little but saw I was running a 6:45 pace, which explained why my legs felt heavy but at least I knew I was OK with the speed.  Mile splits were 7:07, 7:07, 7:17 and 1:02 (7:15).  The last mile was fairly significant uphill, including a steep down and up underpass, so compensating for that I ran an even pace throughout.  I ran at 187-188 bpm the entire last mile, felt like I gave it pretty much everything I had and finished in 22:33, close to a 2-minute improvement over my time on this same course (different race) in March.  I looked around and didn't see any other geezers so I thought I might have a chance of placing.  We stuck around for the awards ceremony, something I never do, and sure enough I won the 55+ division, which had 95 runners entered.  Overall I was 243 out of 3182 finishers in the timed race.  Got a nice crystal plaque that is going front and center in my office.

Last week of taper coming up.  This is the week I have the most trouble getting it right.  I am suspicious of tapers in general, but I must admit my legs are feeling stronger today.  This 5K time translates to about a 3:40 marathon, eerily close to what my time trial half marathon from 15 days ago graded out to as well.  I think there is a message here: Don't try anything dumb in Hartford.

Here is the obligatory post-race shot, sorry about the shaded eyes.

55F, 70% humidity, nice crisp morning for a slow jog.  Ran 5.0 at low heart rate and regular shoes, very early in the morning, then got on a plane and came to Portland for a couple of days' worth of meetings.  Plan to go running along the river in the morning, should be a lot of fun if there is enough light to see.  Very tired tonight from traveling and meeting, ate at a nice seafood place called Jakes.

Had a whole houseful of people over for the weekend, all my kids, friends and girlfriends, watched LDS conference on TV and had dinner for 18, very nice weekend, ended too quickly.

Portland, OR.  48F, 88% humidity, wind N 3 mph.  Great running weather out here in the Northwest.  Got up raring to go, assembled my gear:  heart rate monitor, shorts, shirt, shoes, Garmin, but no socks!  They call this run the dress rehearsal and I wasn't quite dressed, so I put on my leftover "dress" socks from yesterday and I was on my way, thankfully it was still dark.  Left the hotel and ran along the river, 6.02 miles in 58:17, flat shoes.  Warmed up for 3 miles, 10:301 9:57, 10:00 all low heart rate, then near-marathon pace for 2 miles, 8:44, 8:47 then 1 mile cooldown at low heart rate, 10:05.  The marathon pace miles felt good, modest effort but sustainable I think.  We will see soon enough.

This is a pretty superior running city.  Very nice, long trail along the Willamette River, I left the hotel going north and eventually had to cross over to the east side heading back south where I reached the end of the trail at about 3 miles.  I didn't explore to the south on this side of the bank so I don't know how long it is total, but it was covered with runners.  Lots of old guys laying down 7s, good runners here.  I clerked here for one summer during law school but haven't been back since.  Easy to see why they love it here.

48F, 85% humidity, calm and clear.   Weather off the charts great this morning.  Ran 4.11 miles in 40:49, average pace 9:55 per mile, low heart rate and brand new flat shoes.  Splits were 9:58, 9:31, 10:14 and 10:00.  I was quite excited about my fast pace at low heart rate, then re-pulled my right groin muscle right after finishing mile 2, just as I was congraatulating myself on a 30-second PR.  I really shouldn't have to deal with a groin pull at low heart rate speeds but there it was.  I slowed down then gradually sped up to about a 10:00 pace.  It felt a little better but not great, it stopped hurting as soon as I stopped running.  I have ice on it now.  Obviously if I can't run fast I can't get a BQ in 2 days.  I think the cool weather left me not quite loosened up.  Crossing my fingers and toes and thinking of braiding my hair.  My sister is sending me some stretches, am in emergency mode here.

Not a typo, hard to know what to say, everything fell apart to the maximum degree possible, not really a good explanation.  I am very sorry to all who have shown an interest in my running, things didn’t just partially fail for this race, it was a big-time crash.

I can name 4 or 5 factors but nothing that would explain the greater than one-hour difference with my last marathon time.  Just got out my Garmin for the first time since the race and it is showing something interesting, 7:19 for the first mile I measured, which is about the second or third mile in.  Not sure if that is correct, I do recall seeing some early spot paces in the mid-5s, but that is not a possible speed for me.  The Garmin wasn’t working for the first while and I ended up turning if off and re-setting it.  With that caveat, here are some of the earlier splits and heart rates:

7:19 (168)  I think this is mile 2 or 3, but I really don’t believe the time.  My Garmin was just booting up.  If this is correct then I probably ran the first two or three miles at 10K pace, but I don’t think I did.  I practiced a lot of marathon paces in the last few weeks and I think I have a pretty good feel for the correct pace.  The heart rate would indicate a fast pace.  But it didn’t slow down for the later measured miles so I doubt this speed.

8:26 (165)  About right.

8:22 (166)

8:15 (168)

8:19 (169)  Right about here I passed my wife standing in front of the hotel and told her I felt great, my groin was working fine and never seemed like it was a factor, although I think it changed my gait somewhat because my right hip became sore during and after.

8:21 (167)

8:24 (169)

8:26 (167)

8:39 (168)  Stop to re-fill my water bottle

8:28 (170)

8:35 (169)

8:34 (170)

8:25 (169)

8:33 (173)

8:44 (173)  Beginning of the end

8:53 (172)

8:51 (169)

9:39 (163)

11:18 (155)

And spiraling on down from there.  After about mile 22 I was walking, ran a little bit in mile 23 and never ran again, walked all the way in, couldn’t even run down the finish chute.  At mile 22 I threw up all my liquids.  It was a nice effort, a five-er.  Felt much better but totally helpless.  I was weaving on the road a little.  An officer offered an ambulance or a ride to the finish.  Really, a DNF was the only logical thing to do at this point.  I wouldn’t feel any worse sitting here with a DNF than reporting on my third 5-hour plus marathon but I stubbornly walked it out, not sure then or now if there was much point to it.  Anyway, my sister flew out from Spokane for moral support, found me out on the course at about this point and walked me in, very kind of her to do that.  She is recovering well from injuries and surgery and should be logging some more BQs soon.

Post mortem:  The bad things that happened were:

(1)        Groin injury from two days ago.  I almost didn’t start but thought I could get away with it if I warmed up a little bit at the beginning.  After running about a mile at a very slow rate I tried a couple of gentle stride-outs and they hurt a lot.  I seriously considered bagging it, going back to the hotel and driving out to look at the fall colors.  Out of habit more than anything I fell in at the end of the pack and was even a little teary as I crossed the start mat but by the 10K mark I wasn’t feeling any problems in the groin, though it might have changed my stride a little because my hip hurt and it usually doesn’t do that.  Groin is definitely not feeling good today.

(2)        Temperature.  57F to start, 65F at end, according to an announcement I heard at the race.  Not outrageous but I wouldn’t have travelled to Hartford for an ending temperature of 65.  I can get that in Houston, which by the way was sporting a cool 48F on Saturday.

(3)        Course.  Not flat but rolling, at least as rolling as the top half of Ogden if not more, complete with a long overpass at mile 25, just like UVM, not that it mattered by then.  I remember very few completely flat miles, I guess there aren’t many flat marathon courses.

(4)        Heart rate.  At those speeds my heart rate should never have been so high.  I have heard the lore about ignoring your heart rate in a race because it automatically goes up from the excitement and stress.  Not sure what made it go up but a high heart rate is a high heart rate and I am picking this as the main culprit.  I can’t run 26 miles with a heart rate of 165 to 170, no matter the reason and no matter how good I feel.  15 but not 26.  I just ran a 9:30 mile two days ago with a heart rate of 128.  I should have been at 150 or lower for the first half, not sure how to correct that.

(5)        Lingering cold.  I felt OK during the race, but my normal post-race chills stayed with me throughout the day and suppressed my appetite, and I went to bed with a fever.  Possibly induced by the race but more likely already there.  My ears on the plane coming in were uncomfortable and for me that is an indication that I have a cold even if I don't have other symptoms.

The best explanation I have gotten came from my son.  He said the 5:11 is irrelevant.  The factors above each played their part in the crash, I didn’t have enough conditioning to overcome them all at once.  I didn’t pull back when I started to fail, so when I did crash it was in little pieces spread over several square miles. Once I crashed to this extent the rest of the race didn’t matter.

I promised myself out on the course that I would quit, that it isn't worth the effort to keep at this, but I'm already re-considering.  There is a marathon in Richmond, VA in 5 weeks where my brother lives, and another brother is going to run it.  Maybe a do-over?  If I do, somebody has to check out the course for me.  It has to be flat.

66F, 100% humidity, nice familiar running this morning.  Back to the routine a little bit.  Thought I should get out and stretch my legs.  Lots of sore muscles still but gradually getting better.  Ran 4.02 miles in 44:53, average pace 11:09, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Took my daughter to seminary, parked and ran a route from the church then brought her home.

There is an interesting article in Runners World about regular shoes vs. flat shoes.  It was fun to read it because it came to the same conclusions I have reached after running in both for about 10 months.  You are faster in flat shoes but you have to be careful because you are stretching and working new muscles and tendons.  It's like getting into shape, easy to get injured if you overdo it.  Worth it, though, in my opinion, because you are running with a more natural stride when all is said and done.  I will say my legs are pretty beat up from running Hartford in them.  I brought my new pair and my old pair and decided at the last minute to wear the old ones, on the theory that you don't do anything new on race day.  But the old ones are paper-thin on the balls of the feet and there is a 3-miles section on the out and back portion of the course (6 miles altogether) that is concrete with rocks sticking up, kind of a winter traction thing I suppose.  It was quite painful and distracting, though I am not counting it as something that ultimately affected my results.  But I am not talking anymore about results.  Anyway, I am in my new flats now and they feel better on the rough pavement.

Still thinking about Richmond.  It appears to be a rolling course with a hill at the end.  Sounds very familiar, my kind of course.

62F, 70% humidity.  Pretty much ideal running conditions.  Legs felt a lot better today.  I actually have a bruise from the groin injury which traces the culprit muscle, but it is subsiding today and I didn't feel much effect from it.  Same drill as yesterday.  I ran 4.07 miles in 42:34, average pace 10:27 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  The faster pace today shows I am recovering from the marathon.  I probably won't do anything other than low heart rate this week, then start picking things up on Saturday if all is going well.

I filled in my profile last night with all of my races, including 5Ks and halfs.  In terms of my first two marathons, Saturday wasn't that bad at all.  At least I didn't finish last in my age group like I did at Ogden.  I finished in the bottom 20% though, quite a change from the 5K the week before when I finished first, both groups about the same size.

64F, 57% humidity, Wind N 6 mph.  Pretty much a perfect, bone-dry day out there.  Dropped my daughter off at seminary and ran 5.02 miles in 52:05, average pace 10:22 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Felt good, probably time to start ramping things up a little more, but so far keeping my promise not to push anything this week.  Going out for 10 on Saturday with Wade.

My client sent me an interesting article from this morning's Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550133914934718.html?KEYWORDS=helliker

It is about qualifying times for the Boston Marathon and the ongoing controversy over women's times vs. men's times.  Despite the cast of the article, I am not sure if it is really much of a controversy.  I don't care about it and I don't know of any men who do.  I think it is interesting, however, that the race might fill up really fast this year, will be fun to watch the process now that I am out of the mix.  They have to do something about that, though, even a lottery is better than a 2-hour cattle call or whatever it turns out to be on the morning of October 18.  I have heard rumors that they are going to lower qualifying times, but so far it appears to be just rumors.

47F, 92% humidity, wind N 1 mph, clear.  Really great running weather.  Ran a mile in the neighborhood then took my daughter to seminary and ran 5 more from there before bringing her home.  6.09 miles in 59:58, average pace 9:51, low heart rate and flat shoes, no splits over 10:00.  Still feeling good.  This is the first time I have done a low heart rate run in the 9s, which was once a fantasy goal for me.  Gee, with conditioning like that you would think I must have run a good marathon or something.

Speaking of the marathon (we won't call it by name), I whined to my brother-in-law in Omaha, a cardiologist and a 3:00 marathoner.  Actually was curious to see what he would say about the heart rate issue.  Here is what he wrote back:

50F, 94% humidity, calm, clear and dark.  Ran with the group at the Y this morning, very nice weather at 6:10 a.m. but nearly stepped in a couple of pot holes because it was pitch black with no moonlight and almost no street lighting.  I'll be glad when the clock switches.  Ran 10.01 miles in 1:27:15, average pace 8:43 per mile, regular shoes.  Didn't intend to run that fast, but I am childish and I just had to stay with the guys up front.  At one point they were running 8:10s, but slowed down to 9:10s toward the end.  So without planning it I ended up getting some marathon pace miles and an interesting comparison to last week's actual marathon.  Here are some comparative paces and heart rates for a few splits: 

Split	Today (50F)	Hartford (51F*)
Mile 3	8:07 (163 bpm)	8:24 (169 bpm)
Mile 4	8:14 (167)	8:26 (167)
Mile 5	8:38 (165)	8:39 (168)
Mile 6	8:45 (163)	8:28 (170)
Mile 7	8:42 (162)	8:35 (169)
Average:	8:29 (164 bpm)	8:30 (168-169 bpm)
* They announced 57F at the start, but the Weather Channel website says 51F, big discrepancy.

So today my heart rate for a similar speed (and presumably similar temperatures) was about 5 bpm slower in regular shoes (I wore flat shoes for the marathon), which isn't as dramatic as I would have guessed but it could be significant over the marathon distance, assuming that whatever raised my heart rate in Hartford isn't a factor in Richmond.  But no matter the reason, it is probably still too high.  The whole game for the next few weeks is going to be to try to cram my heart rate down.  If I could run MP at 160 I should be fine.  (Saying it differently, perhaps 160 bpm is my MP, I just need to learn to run BQ pace at 160.)  I think I will run a lot in the upcoming weeks in this zone and see what happens.  It is clear that I have greatly benefited from low heart rate running -- my legs are stronger, more resilient, and faster recovering.  And until Hartford every marathon was a PR.  But I also need to improve at higher heart rates.

During the run today I started talking to one woman who was willing to listen to my sad marathon stories.  She is from England, and told me that the ultimate flat course is found in Edinburgh, Scotland, gentle downhill for 6 miles then flat as a pancake, i.e., flat as Houston.  She ran it once and couldn't say enough good about it, except it got unseasonably warm.  I think she still ran a PR.  It's in May and usually not hot.  It might be time to save up some coins, brush up on my brogue and hop on my first Virgin Air flight.

Well, this concludes my recovery week.  Back to regular running next week if I'm feeling good.

61F, 97% humidity, partly cloudy and calm.  Very nice morning out there, I miss the humidity and there was plenty this morning for everybody.  Ran 10.10 miles in 1:29:20, average pace 8:51 per mile, flat shoes.  Warmed up for 3 miles then ran 7 at 160 bpm, fastest 8:12, slowest 8:50, average 8:33, but a big spread for a 7-mile run.  At low heart rates my spread for this distance would be more like 10 or 15 seconds once I found a rhythm.  I am assuming I can run a marathon at 160 bpm, so the goal is to get faster at that heart rate.  This morning's pace for the 7 miles looks like "yup, there it is, 4 seconds under", but the problem is that the last 3 miles were 8:49, 8:47 and 8:50, which means I currently don't have the conditioning to run 8:37 splits for a full marathon, notwithstanding the calculators and equivalent time tables out there which are indicating I should be able to run 8:25 splits for the marathon distance based on my 5K and half times.  They lie, all of them.  On the other hand, it may be that I just haven't run enough at these higher heart rates to be able to sustain an even, prolonged effort, so hoping to run at 160 bpm for the next 3 weeks to the extent my legs can withstand the faster paces.  Then I plan a one-week taper for Richmond and see what happens.

61F, 94% humidity, calm.  Another beautiful running morning.  Ran 11.70 in 2:06, average pace 10:48 per mile, regular shoes and low heart rate.  Was hoping the pace would be a little faster but I was fatigued.  Never felt that good and at the end of the run I was totally wrung out, kind of a bone deep tiredness, actually surprised my pace wasn't even slower.  I may have lost some aerobic conditioning because of the faster miles I have been running lately, a month ago this run would have been no big deal.  Kind of hard to fit everything in that needs to get done, something always gets neglected.

Passed by my favorite Dog behind the Fence this morning, this time he had his little buddy out there.  They were yapping away, baritone and soprano, as I approached from the east.  I let them carry on for a while then growled low under my breath, audible only to dog ears.  There was a stunned silence for about one and a half heartbeats, then all heck broke loose, beside themselves with anger and excitement that I had talked back, in their own language, wish I knew what I said.  I ran back by from the west about 10 minutes later and they had either been pulled back from the front line by their owner or had suffered coronaries.  As entertainment goes, I thought it was a respectable Ipod alternative.

61F, 100% humidity and calm.  My kind of day.  I ran 11.45 miles in 1:38:33, average pace 8:36 per mile, flat shoes.  This was a repeat of Monday's workout but with better results.  The plan for Richmond in 3-1/2 weeks is to do as many miles as I can at 160 bpm.  I warmed up a couple of miles, accelerating into the MP miles.  Fastest was 7:57 and the slowest 8:38 so it went pretty well.  Average pace for the fast miles was 8:18 and only the last one was over the 8:37 BQ target pace.  If I can get to the point where I can stay under 160 up until mile 18 or 20 I can probably stumble the rest of the way in.  Still a 30-second spread between fastest and slowest but overall about 12 seconds faster than Monday, not sure how that happened but not complaining. 

My brother-in-law sent me this NY Times article about the level of effort required to be a successful runner:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/nutrition/19best.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Obviously I'm not working hard enough!

62F, 100% humidity, calm and clear.  I think the weather has been very nearly identical every day this week.  Ran 10.11 in 1:46:54, 10:34 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  It was a good run, heart rate stayed pretty steady throughout.  And my legs felt better than they have since the marathon.  I think the cobwebs have finally been cleared out.  No injuries, so everything is great right now.  I went out an hour late because I stayed up late last night and also had to finish getting some work out this morning, but it was still a reasonable temperature.

Trying to decide what to do this weekend, whether to go relatively short and hard (15-20) or longer and easier.  I can see merit in both, but I am leaning toward long and slow.  Right now my legs just want to run and I don't want to disappoint them.

64F, 96% humidity, calm and partly cloudy.  A little bit warmer but very nice weather, clouds in the east, clear in the west so the moon could show.  Woke up early and was out the door by 5:10, ran 2 miles warmup, 10:29 and 9:19, then hit the gas pedal, working up to 160 bpm after about 3 miles and held it at that for 7 more.  Got 10 miles at marathon pace, 2 better than Wednesday.  Fastest mile was 7:47, slowest was the 10th, right at 8:37.  Wasn't feeling it at first but by the end I was feeling pretty strong.  Amazing scientific discovery, the slower I went the stronger I felt!  Average pace for the 10 was 8:14, about 4 seconds faster than Wednesday.  Overall pace including warmup was 8:29 per mile, total running time 1:44:47, flat shoes.  As good as this run was, it isn't good enough.  I think I have to be able to do about 15 at or below MP and 160 bpm in order to have a good chance at qualifying.  The good thing is my legs are liking this speed so far so I'll keep doing it.

A mini crisis yesterday.  I checked my entry at the Richmond Marathon and saw to my horror that they had entered my age as 54 -- can't believe they wanted me to run against those spry and supple 50-year olds.  I fired off an e-mail demanding an immediate correction.  They politely corrected it to 55, so now I am back at the young end of my age group, plus I can still order off the senior breakfast menu at the Richmond IHOP.  Pretty sick sport we have when it makes you mad to be mistaken for someone younger.  But now I'm wondering if there are cheater geezers our there.  I think we need to institute controls.  In order to haul off your very handsome age group certificate you have to not only present a valid urine sample but show them your drivers license.

70F, 93% humidity wind ESE 3 mph to start, 77F, 64% humidity, wind SSE 11-17 mph at end, almost mid-summer running conditions.  Ran 23.46 miles in 3:54:26, average pace 10:00, regular shoes.  Pretty much maintained the same pace throughout, but I was fighting my head the whole time.  My left foot hurt all day yesterday from something I did to it on yesterday's run.  Then my hip started hurting early in the run today.  Plus I wasn't running fast just slogging it out, it was hot, I had things to do, I had run hard all week, so a combination of things.  I almost came in early several times but ended up making my goal.  I need to run more of these longer runs but they get to me mentally.  I really don't like the way I feel after mile 18 or so, just not fun, no wonder marathons are so difficult to finish.  I got a late start this morning due to some family celebrations last night, but early enought to still run the first couple of hours in the dark.  When the sun came up it was nice for a while then drained my strength for the last 45 minutes or so.  I was dragging at the end, but my slowest split was 10:34 (other than the first warmup mile).  Fastest was 9:36.  Right about mile 23 I tripped and went down, first time that has happened in a while, but my feet were dragging and my toe caught on the perfectly flat pavement.  I was all by myself, pretty messy but unharmed except for a sprained left pinky.  Funny thing, I felt better when I got up and started running again, like it knocked the cobwebs out.  Pretty embarrasssing, though.  I met a friend at mile 19.5 and we ran together for about a mile and a half.  That was a big help.

No running today, left ankle bothered me a little more over the weekend than it should have.  I ran some long hard (for me) miles last week and probably overextended it a little bit.  I ran a little bit in my bare feet this morning just to test out the ankle.  It feels better running than walking, not sure what that means.  But I am reasonably confident it will be OK.  Trying to be mature this time and take care of things ahead of time, maybe lose only 1 day instead of 5.

76F, 85% humidity, wind SSW 11-21 mph.  Really strange, lovely morning out there.  Mid-summer temps and spring winds.  Low for Friday is predicted at 45F, so we are having our typical wild swings in temperatures here, unlike last week which was steady eddie, same temperature every day.  Funny thing is, no rain predicted for the entire week.

I ran 10.15 miles in 1:51:28, average pace 10:59 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  I really slowed down at the end in the heat, not a good run but was glad to get it in.  Left foot didn't bother me much during the run, and it felt better when I got up than it did yesterday, so hopefully I am on the downhill side of that one.  Won't know for sure until later today when my joints aren't warm anymore.

I really enjoy this time of the year, getting ready for holiday get-togethers and enjoying cooler weather.  It's our reward for making it through the summer.  This morning was obviously an aberration, helps us appreciate the cooler temperatures that we have had already and the ones still coming.

76F, 91% humidity, wind SSW 5 mph, another very comfortable morning to run -- for half a mile.  Must be losing my heat/humidity mojo already, this one hammered me.  I ran 10.11 miles in 1:38:58, average pace 9:47 per mile, regular shoes.  Planned to run low heart rate for the whole thing to keep my left foot condition from regressing, but at about mile 4.5 I was already hitting an 11-minute pace in increasingly soggy shoes, so I decided to fight back.  I took off at marathon pace for 3.5 miles, 8:30 (first half mile), 8:27, 8:27 and 8:11, then jogged it in.  My heart rate skyrocketed, 178 at the end, much different day than the 10 MP miles I got last Friday at 160 bpm or below.  I guess it's the heat and the heavy shoes, hard to believe it makes that much difference, felt like I was carrying an anvil.  I'll find out soon enough, because the low is projected for Friday morning at 41F, basically swinging from mid-summer average to January/February average in two days.  Good news is my left foot seems fine.

71F, 21% humidity, wind N 14-22.  Wind coming from the north blew out all the humidity, don't ever recall seeing the it this low in Houston.  Thought it was a typo but when I got back it said 15%.  Nevertheless, it should have been a lot cooler by now, I am thinking tomorrow's 40F forecast is going to be more like 50, and Saturday even warmer.  Hey, at least we don't have snow.

I got a late start after getting home at midnight from work, so it was almost light when I left the house.  Ran 10.12 miles in 1:31:06, average pace 9:00, regular shoes.  After warming up a couple of miles I held marathon pace at 160 bpm for about 4 miles then it went over and I bagged the idea, just ran harder.  Average for the fast miles was about 8:36, range 8:13 to 8:56.  I decided to kick in the last mile and it came in at 8:30.  Some kick, legs felt lactate-y.

51F, 37% humidity, wind NNE 4 mph.  I lie not.  Wasn't quite the 40F that was forecast but still a 20 degree drop from yesterday, cannot describe how good it felt this morning.  I slept in and went for the flat shoes, a day early, strapped them on and away I went.  First mile 10:56, trying to start easy to avoid pulling something, which I am prone to do with colder temperatures.  Soon sped up, though, and everything else was in the 9s except for the last one, 10:02.  Overall I ran 10.15 miles in 1:40:21, low heart rate, average pace 9:53.  I really don't expect to see many more lows over 60F.  My hands were frozen solid by the time I finished, they felt better after a long, hot shower.  I know y'all are laughing at me down here, but please allow me some time to grow a winter beard and let my blood thicken, it's been a long summer and I am officially declaring it over as of this morning.

39F, 85% humidity, calm and early.  Got minimal sleep, left the house at 4:45 and ran a few miles in my neighborhood then ran to Wade's and picked him up.  We ran down to the Y then back to his house.  He had to get home early.  I kept going and never got overly tired in these magical running temperatures.  Was planning on 25 at 10 pace just to build endurance but the pace never slowed down so I started pushing it a little bit.  Got plenty tired but not exhausted, then did the immature thing and ran an extra 1.22 at marathon pace just to say I ran a marathon.  Total time 4:11:59 (better than my New Years Day marathon), average pace 9:36 per mile, regular shoes.  Heart rate was under 150 through 20 and under 160 until the last mile, so this was a good run.  I love the concept of negative splits.  That is what I always used to do when I was a teenager, starting at the back of the pack and moving up.  It feels good to finish a run faster than I started it.  Also took a flask of something called EFS.  It has 400 calories of various concoctions, tastes a little bit like a vanilla milkshake with chalk mixed in.  But I tolerated it, trying to be better at getting nutrition on long runs.  Took it at 5, 10 and 15, might have made a difference just not sure.  It warmed up to 55F by the end of the run, still plenty cool but I could feel a difference.  Off to Temple to visit the grandkids, happy weekend all.