For Whom the Dogs Bark

Run For the Fun of It 10K

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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
148.8771.726.207.05233.84
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.120.000.000.0010.12

74F, 94% humidity, wind SSW 8 mph.  I should never have predicted the end of summer.  It is midnight now and raining hard, so there will be cooler weather tomorrow, night be wet though.  Ran 10.12 in 1:50:50, average pace 10:57 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Was fine running this one slow, but to be honest there wasn't any particular hangover from the weekend running.  I wish I knew what I did right on Saturday so I could duplicate it.  The truth, though, is that I didn't run it that fast, not that you're supposed to, that's what races are for.  Thinking of running a 10K this Saturday for some hard miles this week, my daughter and her friends are running one in Temple so I might go back out there.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.6310.500.000.0012.13

59F, 100% humidity, wind N 10 mph, blustery and rainy.  Pretty dang good running weather this morning.  Cooler and headed to cold in a few days.  Got out late after working late last night.  Strapped on my flats, ran about a mile and a half warmup then everything else marathon speed or faster.  Felt light on my feet, although I reached threshold level the last couple of miles, not so light then.  Ran a total of 11.13 miles in 1:31:33, average overall pace 8:13 per mile.  Average pace for the "speed" miles was 8:03, max 8:30, last 6 were 7:50, 7:47, 7:41, 7:24, 7:27, 7:37.  Started to get real lactate-y at the end.  This wasn't the run I intended to do when I started out, was going to do the routine of seeing how many MP miles I could run at 160 bpm or lower.  But my Garmin was not reading out my heart rate correctly.  It finally went down to 34 and stayed there.  Weird.  Halloween is over.  At that heart rate I was afraid if I stopped I would end up with those electric paddles on my chest.  I am trying to decide how fast to run the 10K on Saturday.  I think I can do a 7:30 pace, which means if I had any guts I would try for 7:15.

Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.140.000.000.0010.14

55F, 94% humidity, wind NNW 5 mph and rainy, not steadily but certainly coming down.  I must be losing fat because I get cold in this weather now.  Certainly good running weather, though.  I ran 10.14 miles in 1:47:29, average pace 10:37 per mile, regular shoes.  No idea what my heart rate was.  Finally figured out my chest strap has a battery in it, duh.  Kind of like a pacemaker.  I replaced the battery when I got home and everything is fine.

Well, my friend that I go to church with succombed to her cancer yesterday morning after a long battle with many ups and downs, so I will be spending some time with her husband the next few days.  She was optimistic to the end, even though she knew she would not recover this time.  She knew it was her time and was thankful for the extra years she had been given, she should have passed on three years ago.  She was a kind woman, simple faith, strong; she lived a full and honest life and had no regrets that I could tell.  She was angry when her cancer came back four years ago but quickly made her peace.  She said a month ago that she would soon be sitting at the feet of her savior.  I imagine she is already there, but I doubt he is letting her sit.

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.126.000.000.008.12

57F, 63% humidity, wind N 12 mph gusting to 23, clear.  The rain cleared out and it was invigorating out there, the low humidity and wind made it feel cooler than it actually was.  Ran 8.12 in 1:10:59, average overall pace 8:45, average for the MP miles was 8:21, range 8:04 to 8:35, heart rate 160 (brand new battery in my heart rate strap -- maybe not as good as new shoes but pretty cool anyway).   I was wearing regular shoes, so getting six consecutive sub-MP miles was a slight improvement in this training zone. 

Starting to cut back a little bit.  Pretty interesting article in a marathoning magazine I get about tapering.  He is holding to the gospel of cutting back as long as 4 weeks before a major race, citing study after study.  I haven't achieved much doing that, seems like I consistently run slower in marathons than my training indicates.  He might have identified one of my problems, though.  He says that long slow running during a taper actually damages muscle structure more than short fast sessions and that you can lose conditioning by not keeping up the intensity almost to race time.  Conversely, you can maintain conditioning (maybe not improve it) for up to 10 weeks if you stay intense and short.  Not sure why anybody would do that for 10 weeks, but it is an interesting thought.  Bottom line, I am not tapering a lot this time, and I am going to go ahead with the 10K on Saturday.  It isn't textbook distance and timing, but I want to see what happens.  I don't think there will be much negative come out of it unless I pull something.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.010.000.000.008.01

45F, 63% humidity, wind NW 3 mph, clear as a bell.  Extremely fine weather out there this morning, going down to 35 degrees by tomorrow.  It is already colder than when I ran even with the sun up.  Ran 8.01 at 10:20 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  I am proving to myself time and time again that regular shoes are about 20-25 seconds per mile slower than flats.

The "coach" of our Saturday running group just posted results from three races that members of the group have run in the last two weeks:  The Nike Marathon in San Francisco (women only), a local half and a local10 mile run.  The fastest marathon pace was 9:35, half 8:31 and 10 mile 7:51, 53 runners altogether.  After Hartford, it appears that I am right in the mix with this crowd.  We eat too much Tex-Mex and BBQ down here.  I think it's time to fire the coach.

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Race: Run For the Fun of It 10K (6.15 Miles) 00:44:08, Place overall: 10, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.060.006.200.008.26

35F, 63% humdity in Temple, Texas, clear as a bell.  Probably the best running weather ever.  I drove up last night after work, about a 3-hour drive from downtown Houston.  When I arrived my daughter had 12 3-year olds over for a final blowout celebration of my granddaughter's birthday, which was actually on Monday.  It was a Beauty and the Beast theme.  I thought it looked more like bedlam.  Good thing I am the grandpa and not the pa, I've done the pa part already.  Conked out on the couch at a reasonable hour and got up at a pretty leisurely 6:00 this morning. 

Found out I had forgotten my pullover, managed to borrow one from my son-in-law, then we headed to the race.  My daughter ran too, along with several of her friends.  One of them is fast, she ran cross-country for UVU 5 or 6 years ago although her 5K is 3 minutes slower now.  I wondered if I could beat her but kept my mouth shut.

I warmed up for two miles, wearing gloves, pullover and beanie.  By the time I finished I didn't need the pullover and after the race started I realized I didn't have my gloves on.  Thank goodness for the beanie.  All the Utah runners would have gotten a good laugh at us.  We were bundled up like it was a trip to Alaska and chattering away about the temperatures.  Really, it was perfect to run a race in, no moisture and no wind.

Unfortunately, the race started up a hill for a half mile, then turned around and came back down to the starting line.  This race was sponsored by the City of Temple so I assume nobody got fired for coming up with this bright idea for a first mile in a 10K.  When I saw it I told my daughter that I had never run a 10K but I was pretty sure this wasn't going to be my day.  The hill is steeper than Veyo in the SGM.  The good thing is it was on fresh legs.  When I got to the bottom I had my first mile in at 7:27 (172 bpm) despite the hill and I knew I had a shot at making my 7:15 goal pace. 

Second mile was 7:10 (174), flat and good surface.  Didn't know if I was being too aggressive with my heart rate or not, but I knew I could hold 170 for 10K distance so thought I might be OK at 175.  Was certainly feeling good.  UVU girl was about 150 yards ahead, she is good on downhills and opened up a pretty good gap on me coming down "Veyo".

Mile 3 7:12 (174), everything hanging together pretty good.  Made up about half the gap on UVU girl.

Mile 4 7:23 (177), another hill out at the end of the course.  Passed UVU near the end of this mile and I started to pick up speed, figured I could do anything for 2 more miles.

Mile 5 7:05 (181), after the 7:23 on Mile 4 I made myself run faster, concentrated on form and on the second place woman, managed to pass her at the end of this mile.  I wouldn't say I was OK but I have hurt worse.  No significant lactate buildup in my legs.

Mile 6 6:55 (185), pretty much red-lining it here.  I had a shot at catching a guy but said "nah, I'm tired".  I would have tried harder if I had known he was 47 years old.

Mile 6.15 (0.58, 6:33 pace)  I think the course was a little short, I measured it at 6.15 and somebody else said they got 6.19, so it probably wasn't full 10K, but pretty close.  Overall pace, assuming 6.15 miles, was 7:10 (7:06 for a full 10K), made my goal, and beat my pace from last month's 5K by a small but significant margin.

I finished 10th out of 80 runners, pretty good day.  (Also finished first in my age division, but let's just say it wasn't overly competitive.  Second place was 27 minutes slower and there wasn't a third place.)  First place overall was 35:xx, not bad but not an overly impressive field.  My daughter got 26th, 8:13 pace.  She has gotten faster in the last few months, even though she doesn't have much time to train with two very small children and her husband being a first-year resident.  As my wife said, "You daughter is more impressive than you."  Thanks dear, I already knew that. 

Here we are, dorky beanie balanced out by beautiful daughter:

 

Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.244.000.000.006.24

42F, 92% humidity, calm and clear.  Almost sunup when I ran, beautiful morning.  Took my daughter to seminary and ran 6.24 miles from the church, 55:39, average pace 8:55 per mile, regular shoes.  Two warmup miles then accelerated to marathon pace, then ran the last one at MP -1, 7:28.

Had some groin tightness from Saturday's frolic so I didn't run super hard this morning, tried to be patient and not push until things loosened up.  Not sure if I ever got entirely warmed up in this very cool weather, but everything seems fine.  Also had a tropical wave pass through my GI tract over the weekend, probably bad sushi on Saturday night.  So much for the party, but I seemed to be recovered fairly well this morning, I don't think it will affect training this week or the race on Saturday.

I am in awe of some of the races run over the weekend by FRB bloggers.  Just some really excellent runners on this blog.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.280.000.000.007.28

49F, 97% humidity, calm and clear, great weather again.  Ran 7.28 miles in 1:11:47, average pace 9:52 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  Pretty good run, might run hard one more time tomorrow but not very far.  Forecast for Richmond on Saturday is 37/63 and dry.  Should be a pretty good day if that holds.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.016.000.000.008.01

61F, 100% humidity, wind E 3 mph.  Very nice, mild morning out there.  I was a little bit anxious about running medium hard this close to Saturday, but I went ahead and did it, would rather be slightly tired than have green legs for the race.  Warmed up for a couple of miles, gradually speeding up, then ran 6 at marathon pace:  8:16 (148), 8:17 (152), 8:26 (153), 8:30 (154), 8:24 (155) and 8:35 (155).  Total time 1:10:08, average pace 8:46 (8:25 for MP miles), flat shoes.

The plan for Saturday is do the first 15 under 160 bpm, the next 5 under 165 bpm and then in theory have a shot at a qualifier by running the last 10K at 170-175 bpm.  There are two things which have to go right -- first, those heart rates have to yield MP; and second, I have to be able to hold on to those heart rates even when I'm tired.  I haven't conclusively proven either one yet, but ultimately I should be able to get more consistent results race to race if I know how much heart rate I can sustain.  I know that 150 is easy, based on my practice marathon two Saturdays ago.  Maybe 160 is too easy, maybe too hard.  I know that 170 is too hard, I found that out at Hartford, and I am pretty sure 165 is too hard based on the way I felt after a couple of harder runs in the second half of October.

After today's run you wouldn't think I could hold marathon pace through 15 at 160 bpm, but I am planning on it being 20 degrees cooler in Richmond, at least at the beginning.  I wish the race didn't start at 8:00 though, way too late.  Bottom line, it might be very close.  I'll take tomorrow off, run 2 - 4 Friday morning, get on the plane and see what happens.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.500.000.000.003.50

Easy, no watch or HR monitor.

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Race: Richmond SunTrust Marathon (26.22 Miles) 03:41:43, Place overall: 736, Place in age division: 14
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.220.000.0026.22

35F, 85% humidity, wind N 5-10 mph.  Great morning for running.  Ran 26.22 (Garmin measured long, 26.35) in 3:41:43, average pace 8:25 per mile, flat shoes and closely monitored heart rate, BQ by 12 seconds per mile based on Garmin measurement.  Called my wife first, of course, and I think she is more relieved than anything, like a dark cloud has been lifted from over our family.  I have only been running for 2-1/2 years, but it seems like it took a long time to reach this milestone -- wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t made it into one.

I didn’t really have high expectations for the race.  After Hartford and based on my training times I knew that a qualifier might not be in the cards; so the goal was to run based on the heart rate strategy I have been developing the last few weeks, not a typical strategy I know.  I did that to some extent but modified it on the fly.  If I hadn’t been flexible I wouldn’t have qualified.

I flew to Richmond yesterday afternoon, met my sister Cheryl from Omaha and made contact with other family members.  There were three siblings running (me, Cheryl, and Daryl from Utah), one cousin from Chicago, plus a local nephew running the half.  Another sister came in from Spokane with her recently returned missionary, a brother from Phoenix, plus I have a brother who lives here with my parents, they are tending to my ailing mother.  So six out of ten siblings, lots of company, should have picked this marathon in the first place, but then I wouldn’t have learned everything I learned at Hartford.

The marathon didn’t start until 8:00, so we got up at our leisure and walked two blocks to the starting line, about 10 minutes before the race started.  No PoP for us today.  The Kenyans were staying at our hotel, those guys are small.  Slipped in right between Corral 1 and Corral 2 and that turned out to be just about right, no jostling for running room in the first two miles.  Due to the cold I didn’t have a heart rate readout for the first two miles until I worked up a little bit of a sweat.  I ran by feel and was happy to see the first mile come in at 8:36.  The pace felt easy and effortless.  I tried to stay extra relaxed in the early miles so my legs could warm up properly.

Splits and heart rates:

1-5:  8:36, 8:22, 8:31 (158), 8:20 (159), 8:33 (159).  I knew my heart rate was higher than I planned, higher than during training at these speeds, but I felt very light on my feet and decided to stay with it.  I took EFS (an electrolyte and calorie supplement) at the end of every five miles through mile 15.  I did it on a practice marathon two weeks ago and didn’t have any trouble, so I stayed with it.  Nothing else but water.

6-10:  8:46 (160), 8:18 (156), 8:45 (160), 8:20 (160), 8:41 (159).  This is probably the section where I got my BQ.  Despite some hills and despite an early high heart rate, it held steady through here.  I felt good and didn’t think I was pressing the issue.  The EFS caused a little bit of nausea the second time, but I took extra water soon after and was fine.

11-15:  8:38 (168), 8:29 (163), 8:23 (164), 8:15 (165), 8:09 (166).  Heart rate starting to climb -- even on the flat sections it was about 5 bpm higher than I was planning at this point.  But I was starting to see possibilities for a qualifier because I still felt good.  The half came in at 1:52:21, about a minute under target pace.  Not much EFS left, but I downed it on the big bridge across the James River.  Not enough left to cause any queasiness.  Everybody talked about what a heartbreaker this bridge is because it is uphill and against the prevailing north wind.  I didn’t have any trouble, though, other than still being worried about my heart rate.

16-20:  8:33 (168), 8:37 (170), 8:33 (170), 8:15 (170), 8:30 (172).  Some more climbing in these sections, but still felt OK, though I was definitely in the later stages.  On the other hand, speed was still there, everything was clicking, just working a little harder to make it happen.  Not any significant hills after 20, so I had a decision point.

21-26.2:  8:14 (174), 7:53 (176), 8:08 (177), 8:07 (175), 8:42 (174), 8:25 (173) and 2:42 for 0.35 miles (Garmin measured .13 long), 7:40 pace and 172 bpm, steep downhill into the finish line.    I had always wanted to actually race the last 10K and I had enough left to do that today.  At decision time I decided to go for it, and it was the heart of the race experience.

At mile 22 I passed Cheryl and Daryl, both  quite a bit faster than me but having bad days, mainly because they tried to hang with our cousin in the first half but didn’t have enough training to sustain it.  They ran a 1:42 first half, 10 minutes faster than me.  I tapped them on the shoulder as I passed and they were surprised and elated despite their own miseries because they knew the BQ saga was almost over.  Cheryl ran 3:47:52 and Daryl ran 3:51:12, so they weren’t far behind me despite their agonies.  My cousin Ronald ran 3:22:27, so we were all 3s today.

My other sister from Spokane (former blogger on FRB) met me with about 2 or 3 miles to go and ran me in, like she did at Hartford.  She was trying to get me to go faster, told me I could do anything for half a mile.  I said “No I can’t”.  I was really feeling those last miles but only missed BQ pace on one of them.  She is the one who has been bugging me about getting fuel during a race, so I’m never going to hear the end of it now.  I’m stuck with EFS until I die.

Then all of a sudden the race was over.  Second half was 1:49:22, so a 3-minute positive split, no stopping or slowing down the entire race.  21-minute PR.  By far the fastest I have run, of course, but more importantly I had a strategy that worked today.  It felt good to execute a race plan and have it mostly work, then be able to modify it when I needed to.  Lots of calf cramping afterwards, time to check into compression socks. 

I was emotional at the end.  It has been a difficult week workwise, and my church friend’s funeral was on Monday, so I thought a lot about Dian during the race.  She is free of cancer at last, and when I felt like I was floating I thought she must be floating too.  And when I was no longer floating I knew it was nothing compared to what she did.

 

Comments(14)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.313.000.000.005.31

43F, 100% humidity, calm and foggy.  Can't complain about the weather right now, this is the best time of the year for running in Houston, or doing anything else outside.  Back into a routine this morning after taking three rest days following Saturday's race.  Ran 5.31 miles in 46:45, average pace 8:48 per mile, regular shoes.  Warmed up two miles then ran 3 at my new MP goal, 7:59, 7:45 and 7:50, then jogged in.  Felt good to put 8:37 behind me.  My next marathon is on New Years Day, might be too ambitious to get to this pace by then, but it is time to move on.  Plus I don't know when my next race will be after that one, toying around with a few ideas but I am thinking it will be at least April or May before I do another one, and after that summer will be back. 

My legs had almost no race residue in them this morning, so I will probably ramp up pretty fast if I continue to feel good.  The family is planning a big Turkey Trot in a week, 5 miles, need to think about what I can do at that distance.

Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.170.000.000.008.17

47F, 71% humidity, wind NNW 6 mph, clear and blustery.  Very nice running weather, if you are going fast.  Today was a slow day so I stayed pretty cold.  I was colder than Saturday when starting temperatures were 35F.  I ran 8.17 miles in 1:27:13, average pace 10:41 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Had a hard time keeping a heart rate read-out with the wind, it was about 5 miles in before I started to get a steady read, so I ran mostly by feel but I had it about right.  After the new year I may go back to a lot of long slow running for 2 or 3 months.

I ran into 4 or 5 friends last night who had heard about my BQ.  They all think I am either going to quit now or I should.  I understand the point, but I won't quit until family support wears thin or until I stop improving.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.174.000.000.006.17

38F, 97% humidity, calm and foggy, kind of eerie out there before the sun came up.  I warmed up for two miles then ran 4 at goal pace, 8:07, 7:49, 7:57, 8:02, heart rate about 165, regular shoes.  I'm short on sleep and time, legs felt heavy, so I called it a day, don't want to push too hard this week anyway.  Pigged out on TexMex last night but slept well anyway, first time since the race.  I was not happy to hear the alarm, but I'll get caught up soon.

Happy weekend all.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.130.000.000.0016.13

48F, 100% humidity, calm and foggy.  Very nice running morning, got out the door at 4:45 and ran down to the Y, met up with Wade and ran some miles with the Saturday group, then Wade and I broke off, I dropped him off at his house and ran home.  Total 16.13 miles in 2:33:40, average pace 9:31 per mile, regular shoes.  The last two miles my legs felt like they were about to fall off.  I usually have quite a bit left in my legs, it's my stomach that limits how fast I can run, but today I was still tired from a week ago.  It is now Saturday night and I feel like I ran 20 at a 9:00 pace, not terrible but certainly some residue.  Ready for a day off tomorrow.

Wade and I are talking a big game these days.  There is a 50K in Huntsville State Park on December 11.  We are thinking it would be a good training run, certainly wouldn't want to race that distance right now.  Maybe sanity will return in the morning.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.254.000.002.0010.25

63F, 100% humidity, wind SSE 5 mph.  Lots of warm humid air coming in from the Gulf this morning, kind of nice out there.  I warmed up two miles, then ran one at MP, 8:11, followed by a fast mile at 6:34.  I was hoping to do two but one was all I could manage.  In better conditions I might have managed one and a half or even two but five at that speed on Thanksgiving morning is going to be out of the question.  Fun to dial in on some new paces though.  Ran a cooldown mile then back to MP plus a little for three miles, 8:23, 8:13, 8:07, then another fast one, but this time only 6:57 even though I felt like I was working harder than the first one, cooldown 1.25 miles.  Maximum heart rate 189.  Overall I ran 10.25 miles in 1:29:07, average pace 8:42 per mile, flat shoes.  Legs feel OK so far this morning.

Wade and I decided not to do the 50K on December 11 in Huntsville.  We are congratulating ourselves on how mature we are.  Both of our wives are completely supportive of our adventures, and both of them completely don't understand any of it.  With a holiday party at my house the night of December 11 it was looking a little dicey shall we say, so I pulled the plug and Wade is OK with that.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.550.000.000.0010.55

71F, 96% humidity, wind S 4 mph.  Nice and muggy run out there today.  On the other hand, my son saw this weather alert issued by BYU today:

"The National Weather Service is warning of a winter storm today that “will far surpass anything that we've seen, probably for the last several years.” The combination of snow, extreme cold, and possibly damaging winds will make travel extremely hazardous. The storm will begin in the north and move south, hitting Salt Lake City later this afternoon. Please watch the weather reports and be prudent in your travels."

This sounds like a dangerous situation for kids trying to get home for Thanksgiving.  No whining here about November muggy.  I ran 10.55 miles, half by myself at low heart rate and the second half with my daughter at a faster pace in the low 9s.  Total time 1:46:19, average pace 10:05 per mile, regular shoes.  She is in from Temple for the holiday.  Running with her in my neighborhood, I can tell by the look on people's faces that my stock has gone way up.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.090.000.000.0010.09

73F, 93% humidity, wind SE 10 mph.  Warm and moist morning, ran 10.09 in 1:42:27, average pace 10:09 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  OK run under the circumstances.

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Race: GE Run Thru the Woods (5.05 Miles) 00:36:28, Place in age division: 6
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.000.000.005.056.05

77F, 86% humidity, wind S 15 mph.  A beautiful morning to be out and about, perhaps it could have been a little bit cooler for the race!  We decided to do our turkey trot in a planned community north of Houston called The Woodlands.  They have lots of trails out there and lots of runners.  Woodlands High School regularly wins or places high in the state cross-country meet.  I looked up my age group times from last year and saw that the winner ran 6:22 per mile, out of my reach even on a good day.  Now I know where all the fast age groupers in Houston live.  Obviously I had won my age group in the Komen 5K too easily last month.

I drove out early, intending to warm up for four or five miles, but ended up running around getting everybody's envelopes and attending to GI details. (Note to self, don't do mexican the night before a race -- it was worth it though.)  I did manage to run one mile very slowly, but with these temperatures I wasn't too worried about not getting warmed up.  The race started about 15 minutes late because of some medical emergency out on the course from an earlier race, not a good omen.

I tried to line up about 150 runners back but got behind a bunch of slow runners anyway.  A lot of elbows flying in the first quarter mile before I finally broke free.  Despite the bob and weave, the first mile was 7:02, anyway, followed by a 6:56 that included a climb over an overpass, but I knew I couldn't sustain it.  Splits after that were in the 7:20s, really felt the heat.  Had to climb the same overpass coming back in, pretty tough, plus the course was longer than 5 miles.  The Garmin measured the first 4 miles short, then the last one was 1.1, so I don't trust the course length, I'm calling it by the Garmin, 5.05 miles.  Splits and heart rate were 7:02 (169), 6:56 (180), 7:25 (182), 7:27 (183), 7:20 (186), 0:21 (6:52 pace) (193).  (I felt like I worked hard, final heart rate was 4 beats per minute higher than I have ever seen it, and that was an average for the final sprint, I still don't know for sure what my max is but this has to be pretty close, I was over 190 for the last half mile or so.)  Overall 36:28, average pace 7:14 per mile.  6/70 in age group, leaving some unfinished business for next year -- don't know my overall place yet.  I ran the 10K 3 weeks ago at 7:11 per mile (Garmin) at 35F, so this was a better time after adjusting for the 42 degree difference in temperature.

I ran with my mother in law, father in law, two daughters, one son and a daughter in law.  We had a great time.  My daughter finished 10th out of about 140 in her age group, so she got a higher relative placement than me.  My mother-in-law finished third in a small age group, hardware territory, she will get a plaque in the mail.  The race is very well organized and friendly, and they served lots of food afterwards, including a pancake breakfast that was excellent.  This is definitely the race to do if you are ever in Houston over Thanksgiving.

Here are the happy runners, managed to get a picture in before everybody headed indoors for badly needed showers.  We let my granddaughter Kate in the picture because (i) she insisted and (ii) she ran a whole lap at the track earlier this week.  She was playing with dolls on the grass with her friend while their mothers worked out.  Then without any encouragement she laid her doll down and decided to get in on the action.  She ran a full quarter hard without slowing down, just put her head down and went for it.  Unfortunately it wasn't timed but we are pretty sure it was an age group record.  We are ecstatic to pass the torch to the next generation, the rest of us are getting tired.  :

Left to right:  Kate, Jennifer, Walt, Helen, me, Clint and Becky.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Comments(16)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
21.310.000.000.0021.31

44F, 76% humidity, wind N 9 gusting to 18, rain and temperature dropping.  Conditions could hardly be more changed from 24 hours ago.  I woke up at 2:30 this morning hardly able to contain my excitement.  Tossed and turned for two and a half more hours and finally got up at 5:00 and headed out for my first Black Friday adventure.  It was dangerous out there, everybody driving with blank, exhausted stares but highly competitive trying to be first in line at their favorite store.  Bad combination.  But I won.  First in line (open category, not age group, didn't even get chicked, nuthin' but net), in the door at 6:00, got all my stuff and was home by 6:30.  Let's just say I am not a deliberate shopper.  I should have filed this as a race report.

Oh yeah, long run is today instead of tomorrow, wasn't nearly as excited about that.  In fact you could say I had a bad attitude.  I bundled up and put on a rain jacket which felt great for half a mile then turned into my own private sauna.  Back to the house after a mile to shed the jacket, cold and wet was going to be the way to go.  Ran another lap and met my father in law but he had no interest in my plans for the morning, so I was on my own.  I hoped to run 20, half at 9:00 pace and half at 8:00 pace.  Not even close.  If you believe that you improve most on a bad day, then I must have had a great run today.  Finished up about five miles in the neighborhood then headed down to the Y and back.  Bathroom was locked at the Y.  That is the second time in a week that has happened, you would think they don't like runners.  I held the 9:00 pace for a while but it started to slip and I never got it back.  My legs were sore from yesterday and stayed that way.  It was just a gut-it-out run.  Finally finished 21.31 miles in 3:23:10, average pace 9:32 per mile wearing regular, soaked shoes.  Hit a lot of puddles today.  The rain finally quit the last half hour and my fingers thawed out in the last mile or two.  My legs are still sore though.  That is all.

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.430.000.000.0011.43

55F, minimal wind, clear and dry.  We had the assignment to clean the church at 8:00, so waited until afterward to take advantage of the cool weather for a late morning run.  11.43 miles in 1:37:57, average pace 9:18 per mile, regular shoes, no heart rate monitor.  I ran this one with my daughter, one last run before she returned to Temple with the grandkids, she has been here all week.  She only wanted to go 10 but hung with me for the rest of the run and did fine -- started out very slow to humor me then stayed with me the whole way.  Since I normally do long runs on Saturdays and take Sundays off, I don't get to test out the training theory of running a medium run the day after a long run so as to force using different muscles.  I guess that's the theory anyway.  I was surprised at how well this run went, much better than yesterday.  Was nice to run in the broad daylight and not worry about the heat.

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.168.000.000.0010.16

67F, 93% humidity, wind S 3 mph, moving to SE 8 mph, cloudy and threatening but no rain.  Crazy warm this morning, but pleasant in its own twisted way.  Felt relatively good after my day off so I ran pretty hard.  10.16 miles in 1:24:01, average pace 8:16 per mile, flat shoes.  Warmed up 2 low heart rate miles, 10:30 (122) and 9:31 (131), then ran 8 a little faster than goal marathon pace, 12 seconds per mile slower than projected goal half marathon pace although I don't think I could have sustained it for a half marathon this morning anyway.  Splits were 8:02 (148), 7:54 (156), 7:34 (162), 7:43 (163), 7:51 (166), 7:52 (167), 7:48 (171) and 7:40 (173), then a short cool-down. Average pace for the fast miles was 7:48.  This run was harder than it should have been, but I am blaming it on the weather.  In any event it will be a good baseline comparison as I try to do a lot of these miles over the next month getting ready for New Years Day, to the extent my legs can withstand the faster pace.  That strategy worked for Richmond so I will stick with it for now.

 

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.190.000.000.0010.19

49F, 36% humidity, wind NNW 21 mph gusting to 28 mph.  New personal wind speed record, very invigorating out there.  I got up way early to get some work done, so it was 7:30 before I got out the door.  When I got up it was 57F and a light breeze, then it rained, then it started blowing, then I ran.  Was debating whether to wear a long-sleeved shirt and was glad I did, with this weather blowing in I was a genuine FRB blogger out there this morning.  I intended to run 8 slow because I was short on time but before I knew it the wind was blowing me down the road, and I couldn't let up coming back.  Ran 10.19 miles in 1:27:23, average pace 8:35 per mile in regular shoes (no heart rate monitor), so MP + 30, faster than I thought I would feel like running for a recovery session.  I had aches and pains all over last night but woke up fine and still feel fine this afternoon.  Not a whole lot of value for me running this pace, I get more benefit going either faster or slower, but it was fine for today.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
148.8771.726.207.05233.84
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