For Whom the Dogs Bark

46F, 4.56 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:10, average heart rate 124 bpm.  No joint or tendon pain.  As I promiised myself, I'm scaling it back this week.  I was curious as to how I would feel after Saturday's run.  My legs were a little wooden to start but they felt fine after a mile or so.  I was glad that I had no trouble controlling my heart rate, but interestingly I felt quite tired at the end, as if I had run twice the distance.  It might be residual fatigue, but it might also be attributable to running in another gear, since my heart rate was measurably slower than usual for these easy runs.  I thought I was already in the lowest gear but maybe not.  That would be an interesting development.

Go Rockets (sorry guys).

48F, 4.55 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:11, average heart rate 125 bpm.  Almost identical to yesterday's run, except that my heart rate started going crazy at about mile 3.5.  It came back down quickly and behaved the rest of the run.  I think it was mechanical, but there is always something new.  No dogs, wild animals or rude bikers today.

48F, 4.68 miles in 1:00:00, average pace 12:49, average heart rate 124 bpm.  This has to be the best week of running weather ever, three straight days in the upper 40s with a full moon and no rain or even any clouds.  Too bad I'm in an easy week but I'm enjoying it anyway.  The only interesting thing is that today's distance was better than Monday or Tuesday.  Based on limited data, it seems that Tuesday is usually my best day, but I think yesterday I was still recovering from Saturday's run on Tuesday.

50F, 4.66 miles in 1:00:00, 12:52 average pace, 124 bpm average heart rate.  All systems feel fine.  Just another day in running paradise.  I think it is going to warm up in a couple of days, just in time for my long run on Saturday.  I bought six round trip tickets last night for my son's weddng in December.  Every race entry fee is looking precious these days.  I think 2010 will be mainly a training year.  It's free to open the front door and start running.

48F, 4.57 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:07, average heart rate 125 bpm.  I let my heart rate get away from me in the first quarter and couldn't control it well after that, so 15 seconds per mile slower than yesterday.  Still can't believe this fantastic weather, we don't get weather like this very often in Texas.

My son is taking an evolution class at BYU (from his uncle, who ran a 3:47 at St. George this year) and he sent me a 2004 article yesterday from Nature magazine, published by professors from Harvard and the University of Utah, about human physiological adaptation to long distance running.  A bit technical but fascinating.  All of a sudden I believe in evolution, which apparently supports my running habit;-)  Then he sent me this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ1PnR0IYy8) showing a persistence hunter in East Africa running a large kuzu to exhaustion then finishing him off with one spear stroke, an 8-hour hunt -- this one I can understand.  (By the way, he is wearing shoes, not barefoot, not sandals, but running shoes, Nike should be all over this one.)

11.00 miles in 2:00:01, average pace 10:55 per mile, no heart rate monitor today.  Temperature was 48F at beginning, 65F at the end.  Splits were:

10:51, 10:43, 11:16, 11:07, 10:48, 10:57, 10:50, 10:49, 11:07, 10:40, 10:48. 

I was trying to keep the pace to 11:00 today and I got it close enough.  Frankly, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, had no problem keeping the speed down.  My stride felt jerky and I never got into an easy rhythm.  I did it, though.  We are not machines, some days go better and some not as good.  This whole week has been a rest week, but after today I'm not sure I'm ready to go after it again.  I probably will anyway.

I decided to eat while running and that went OK.  Whenever I eat during a race it doesn't go too well, so maybe a little bit of practice will help.  I ate a handful of crackers at the 1:30 mark so that I was good and tired but still had a ways to go.  No issues, they tasted good in fact.

I ran down by the bayou on a paved trail.  Lots of people down there, hundreds actually.  Lots of dogs, but they were all acclimated to having people around so no problems.  Bikers behaved too.  It started to get hot towards the end, a three hour run would have been difficult today.

65F, 5.72 miles in 1:15:00, 13:06 average pace, 126 average heart rate.  My pace for the first mile was 14:17, owing to getting my heart rate under control, so the rest of the run was pretty much in my normal range.  I am off the easy week now, so I let my average heart rate go up a little bit, but still within the zone.

As I ran by my house after the first lap four deer came blasting out of my neighbor's yard.  He is one of these yard-of-the-month guys, so our new neighborhood visitors gravitate toward him, so far they have left my two plants alone.  This is the second time I have seen these deer in his yard.  I am not sure if he knows about them, he probably thinks my kids are eating the bark off his prize birches.  I can see a culture clash coming in our peaceful little neighborhood, three factions:  the deer, who think everything is just fine as is; the friends of the deer, who think deer are people too; and the Texans, who are ready to blast away.  I'd best not say which group I belong to, though given my current speed one might correctly guess it isn't the first.

60F, 5.88 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:46, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Good run this morning, have done better only a couple of times at low heart rate.

Most of the run was in the dark.  Running around the lake I heard some rattling and clanking out on the water.  It was a rower.  So now in addition to walkers, bikers, fellow joggers, untrained dogs, psycho deer and mad herons, I now have to watch out for rowers.  Can't see rowing before daylight, there aren't any street lights out on the lake, and you never know what might be lurking beneath you.  I hear it's great exercise, though.

57F, 6.02 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:27 per mile, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Best low heart rate pace so far, I think my previous best was 12:38 per mile at 127 bpm.

My son's fiance had a military death in her immediate family which we found out about last night, so these are sad times all of a sudden.  Not sure what it means for their plans this fall but that is of secondary concern at the moment.

48F, 5.89 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:45 per mile, average heart rate 126 bpm. I started out fine then my heart rate got away from me half a mile in when I wasn't paying attention. Fought it for two miles and finally started getting some times comparable to yesterday. Overall not as good but I still got in a workout in the expected range. More worrisome, my achilles and a couple of other tendons in my right foot were sore at the beginning of the run. It went away but I think I am actually more vulnerable in my right foot than in my knees. I am doing these low stress workouts so I won't get injured, I hope it works.

The highest heart rate I had today was 174. I was reading an article last night about the different ways to guess at your maximum heart rate and 174 is in the upper range for my age. Someday soon when I am confident of not hurting myself I'll see how high I can get it. It will probably be higher than that. I guess heart rate is one of the components of VO2 max, the other being stroke volume (aside from ability of muscles to accept the oxygen, but they say that is not usually the limiting factor), so all of a sudden I am thinking it might be good if I have a high heart rate since that might mean more upside. I should go somewhere and get all of these metrics officially established.

46F, 5.97 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:33, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Good time but it should have been better.  I struggled this morning keeping my heart rate down.  About 3.5 miles in it started to go crazy, climbing by 30 bpm in the space of 15 seconds.  I could get it back down immediately when I slowed a little bit, and toward the end I was doing some sections at 115 to 120 bpm, strange.  Tomorrow I plan to do a long run at a 10 minute pace but I'm a little concerned.  Maybe I'll take my heart rate monitor with me and slow down if it gets too far out of whack.

56F at start, 66F at end, 17.62 miles in 3:00:00, average pace 10:13, no heart rate monitor.  Splits as follows:

10:43, 9:57, 9:49, 9:43, 10:10, 9:54, 9:52, 9:54, 10:03, 10:13, 9:55, 9:56, 10:09, 10:00, 10:12*, 11:14, 11:17, 7:00 (11:20 pace)

The goal was to run 3 hours at a 10:00 pace, didn't happen.  I had difficulties from the start keeping the speed up.  I never got down to an overall 10:00 pace, though I got within 2 cumulative seconds once, but I never went negative.  If the temperature had been 10 degrees colder I might have made it, but the lesson from this run is that I am probably not going to be ready to run my January 1 marthon in the low 4s -- mid-4s is more likely, which is nevertheless a significant improvement over St. George, especially considering this marathon is here in Flatlandia.

* I ran 14.5 miles before I broke and started slowing, then after another mile I detoured into the golf course clubhouse for a bathroom break.  I turned off my clock for that one, then started it again and jogged the rest of the way.

70F.  I went out the door at 5:30 a.m. for my normal a.m. run, did one mile at low heart rate and then the rain came pouring down.  I hurried inside just as Austin was pulling out for seminary, so I quickly explained that I wasn't a wimp, I just didn't want to be struck by lightning, which is a good possibility for someone like me.  He was like sure, Dad, and drove off laughing.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), there was no lightning, which I will say is unusual for a storm of this magnitude, especially when the starting temperature is 70.  I think it dropped 10 degrees just during the run and the wind was ferocious.

So I ran from my downtown office at lunch.  I recently joined a club downtown so I could have more flexibility.  It is a good time to join with the economy in the toilet.  I got a whole year for $250, I basically pay for it twice by not entering the Ogden Marathon in May.  So anyway I figured everything out and found the trail along the bayou.  A total of 6.00 miles in 1:01:07, average pace 10:11, average heart rate 157 bpm, 60F.  I intended to do it at low heart rate but the wind was still strong and the trail had more up and down than I thought possible in this town, so that plan went out the window real quick and I just ran.  I'll figure out the rest later, the important thing was to get my run in.

Legs are still sore from Saturday but I'll be fine.

41F, 6.21 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 12:53, average heart rate 128 bpm. I went to one of those Brazilian meat palaces last night with some clients and ate quite a bit, even though I tried to keep the quantity down and ate lots of salad. Very good restaurant, very slow morning. My legs are still unwinding from the weekend and yesterday, so it's OK. Interesting, though, how the quantity and type of food at dinner affects running performance the next morning.

Also, in what is becoming a trend, I interrupted my run again, this time a bio break to visit the Juan. A Juan, as opposed to a PoP, has no hand sanitizer in it. I thought I was early enough to avoid competition, but all of a sudden truck drove up and some guy started banging on the door. Juan wanted to use the Juan.

38F, 6.15 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 13:01, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Frustrating run because I love these running conditions, but at this ambient temperature my heart rate was all over the map.  Max 158 and min 105, even late in the run.  It never would stabilize, I am surprised that the average rate came in so close to normal.  Nothing to do but keep running.  I am happy that my legs, knees and feet are staying in good shape, no ill effects from Saturday's and Monday's faster runs.

My Rockets screwed up late against the Suns last night, so I'm guessing a couple of AZ siblings are gloating, not to mention Burt.  I'm taking no calls this morning.  I love this Rockets team, they have no talent but they show up every night and even when they don't win they are almost always in the game late.

48F, warmed up for two miles, about 11:00 pace then ran 10 x 400 with 400 jogging intervals, then jogged in for the last mile or two, about the same pace.  I left my heart rate monitor at home today, but I'll take it on the next one of these, it would have been interesting to see what is happening on the upper end of the spectrum.  Average pace for the whole run was 10:10 per mile, total distance 7.87, total running time 1:20:00.  These are most of my splits, although I'm not the greatest at figuring out the buttons on my Garmin:

2:16, 2:04, 1:57, 1:57, 1:54, 1:50, 1:54, 1:49 (7:09 pace).

That's only eight splits, so where did the others go?  No telling, I had a 1:47 in there I thought, and  I swear I counted ten splits altogether.  It felt good to stretch it out a little bit, and I actually hit my lactate threshold on one of the quarters, something I haven't felt since I was a teenager.  I wonder if it is still possible to run a 5-minute mile (slapping myself awake now).  I hope I don't pay dearly for this morning's frolic. 

61F, 6.37 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 12:34, average heart rate 127.  This was one of those days when there are all kinds of reasons to not go out -- short on sleep, bad weather, work pressures, but then when you run it anyway you are glad you did.  I ran this one in howling wind and horizontal rain.  Despite the mild temperature, it was actually cold with the wind and the rain.  Also, it is garbage day and everybody's cans were blowing over.  Empty milk jugs were rolling down the street (sad to report, mostly whole milk labels).  I had no competition on the roads this morning.  Amazingly enough, my legs felt pretty good despite yesterday's run.  Looks like the rain will clear out, the clouds will stay and it should cool down by about 10 degrees for tomorrow's long run.

51F at beginning, 53F at end, 21.00 miles in 3:28:04, average pace 9:55 per mile.  This was the goal run I had for last week but didn't make it, so I stubbornly added a half hour to the run and went for it again.  It was about 10 degrees cooler and that helped, but I think my training helped too.  This run puts me on target for a 4:20 to 4:30 marathon on New Years Day.  A good day would be faster than that, but a bad day would be slower.  Either way I should beat my St. George time unless heat is a factor, which is always a possibility around here.

When I anxiously peered out the window at 5:00 a.m. it was raining and gusty.  That doesn't usually bother me for a shorter run but it gave me pause this morning.  I knew my feet would be wet and my shirt heavy by the time I got done.  I have a weak mind, what can I say.  But I made it out the door and everything went pretty well after I got going.  It never rained too hard, but my feet were wet and my shirt was heavy by the time I got done.  My splits were:

10:20, 9:25, 9:46, 9:53, 9:59, 9:42, 9:53, 10:00, 9:45, 9:52, 9:53, 9:56, 9:51, 10:00, 9:47, 10:00, 9:56, 10:00, 9:58, 10:03, 10:05.

I learned a lot on this run.  I got my hydration and electrolytes working pretty well so I could concentrate on my other systems.  By the time I got 2/3 of the way in I was struggling with every mile, but I learned that I could push through when I don't have stomach issues. 

45F, 6.71 miles in 1:30:01, average pace 13:25, average heart rate 126.  This looks like a pretty marginal run but it actually wasn't that bad.  I started out very slow, 14:31 the first mile and 14:12 the second.  But my speed improved every mile as my body and heart started to get into a rhythm, and my last partial split was at a 12:28 pace.  Coming off a hard run Saturday at near-marathon effort, this was an OK run, I felt better at the end than when I started.

I was driving into the neighborhood yesterday and saw two pit bulls hanging around the fountain by the entrance, no collar and scraggly, they could have finished 1, 2 in an ugly dog contest.  Pretty ticked at whichever redneck let his dogs out.  Anyway, this morning I ran with some bear spray I took on a backpacking trip in Wyoming a couple of years ago.  It was like hunting quail with an elephant gun. 

63F, 7.08 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:43, low heart rate.

There is a guy in this neighborhood who runs like a machine every morning.  He is about 5 or 6 years older than me, I think.  He runs with perfect posture, the same course every morning, short precise strides, shaved head held high.  I don't think he is trying to get ready for anything because he runs exactly the same every day, looks like about 8-1/2 to 9-minute miles, I'm guessing he goes about 4 miles a day but I can't be sure.  It might be more or less.  That is not a bad alternative to what I am doing, but I'd rather struggle than look good.  As my wife said one morning after happening to see me as she drove past, "you don't look very good out there."  Maybe in 5 or 6 years I'll join up with the gentlemen runners, but first I have to find out what my limits are.

38F at start, 36F at end, 7.25 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:25 per mile, average heart rate 133 bpm.

This heart rate stuff makes me boring and I have sworn off blogging much about it, but this morning's run was particularly interesting/frustrating in that context.  My heart went off like a rocket by the time I got out of the cul de sac, going as high as 181 in the first mile or two, even though I was not breathing hard or feeling any fatigue.  Then it gradually came down and hovered in the 110 range for a while, then even less, dropping to 93 at one point, which is less than a brisk walking pace for me.  Never once did I speed up significantly, or slow down at all.  My first mile was 13:11 and my last partial split was at an 11:44 pace.  I actually ran most of these miles in the 115-120 bpm range, and the overall pace was faster than yesterday.  Maybe something about cold weather makes my heart want to protect me until my body heat starts to build up.  (OK, I know it's not really cold, but down here in the thick humid sea air, 38F actually feels pretty cold.)  Either that or the machine can't get a good reading when I'm not sweating much.  Either that or I'm about to have a heart attack.  I might go see my brother-in-law and get it checked out, purely for scientific reasons of course.

I ran the Sugar Land Turkey Trot this morning with two of my kids, a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. I didn't want to run too hard -- last year I injured my Achilles running too fast in a 4-mile turkey trot -- but I couldn't pass up the chance to get a couple of my kids out there. I warmed up for two miles then went looking for my kids. They were already lined up, almost in the front. I suggested we should move to the back given our projected paces and they said only a few people are going to do 6 minute miles and we are behind them. Turned out they were right, I passed at least as many people as passed me, probably more. I had to remind myself that these kinds of races draw a lot of beginner runners, non-serious runners and non-runners. I thought the 5-mile distance would discourage most of the non-runners but plenty of them found the start line. I have never raced this distance so I didn't know what to expect. I decided to go out between 8:00 and 8:30, which turned out to be about right. I averaged about 8:16 per mile, splits were 8:23, 8:26. 8:25, 8:08 and 8:10. The last couple of miles were somewhat difficult, as I tried to pick up the pace and we turned into a stronger than expected wind. Based on today's time, I would say a 50-minute 10K would be a pretty good projection for me right now. I could have run a little faster but not a lot. There was a bagpipe player right at the finish line. (Do they all play the same tune?) I noticed that wind and kilts are not a good mixture. After I finished I went back to look for my kids. I found my daughter a few minutes back and ran with her for a bit. She said my son was behind her, so I left her to look for him. I ran back and back, over a mile and a half, past the walkers and strollers until I found what looked like the last lady, walking by herself at least a quarter mile behind anybody else. Seeing all those runners back there confirmed that I had lined up correctly. I knew my son wasn't that slow, so I turned around and ran back to the finish line, where he and the rest of an unhappy family were waiting. Turns out he had passed my daughter without her knowing it and finished only a minute or so behind me. This is a kid who never runs. Disgusting, but better for him to do well than the alternative. Anyway, it gave me a chance to cool down very slowly and maybe get in more miles than I had planned. I don't know how I did, it seemed that I finished in about the first third of the pack, but every body was in a hurry to leave so we left. I'll have to wait until times are posted to verify anything, the times in this post are my own.

38F, 7.23 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:27, low heart rate.  I felt pretty good the whole time and my pace was steady, but legs were tired at the end.  I was ready to stop.

I didn't get a time for my race yesterday, I guess my chip wasn't working.  Bummer.  My kids' chips worked fine at least. 

My father-in-law ran a turkey run in Orem yesterday.  There were four men in his age division.  They gave him the fifth-place ribbon.

46F at beginning, 60F at end, 25.13 miles in 4:30:00, average pace 10:45 per mile.  The object today was to be on my feet for the projected time for my next marathon, without actually running at marathon pace.  I figured an 11 minute per mile pace would do the trick, which would put me at about 24-1/2 miles, give or take.  Since my pace was a little faster than I planned, I came within 12 minutes (4:42) of running a whole marathon in a time that would have been 16 or 17 minutes faster than St. George, so obviously I am making progress.  My time in the actual race will depend more on the temperature than anything, I am guessing, so it is way to early to celebrate.  I have been through this training fire drill enough times already to know that race day results can vary a lot, either way, from predictions based on training results.  (Not that I am a veteran, but I have run three of them so I have learned a little bit.)  I will probably be somewhere between 4:10 and 4:45 on race day, but that is a pretty wide range.  I'm off to take my daughter to breakfast, happy weekend all y'all.

51F at beginning, 48F at end, rain with 20 mph N winds, 6.01 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:29, average heart rate 127 bpm.  With apologies to all the northerners, it was dang cold out there.  Normally on  Mondays I would be slower than this, but since I didn't run the long run very fast on Saturday I seemed to have recovered more quickly, there was very little of Saturday's run left in my legs this morning.  The previous Saturday I ran an hour shorter but 50 seconds per mile faster, and last Monday's run was almost a minute per mile slower than today.  Can't extrapolate too much from that but it is interesting to think about.  Anyway, this is an easy week.

I had to stop for about a minute while some lame lady's unleashed dog threatened an attack.  She was yelling at the dog to no avail, but I think she was angrier at me for living in the neighborhood than at her flesh-seeking canine.  All muscle groups appear to be intact.