For Whom the Dogs Bark

28F, 91% humidity, calm and clear.  A really great morning for running.  12.15 miles in 1:57:48, average pace 9:42 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.  I had a 9:39 pace at the 10-mile mark, better than my previous low heart rate best on October 29 (9:53), although the temperature on that day was 51F.  This may be one of the coldest days I will run in this winter unless I am somewhere other than Houston, it doesn't get into the 20s very often here.  As long as it is dry I can run pretty cold without any problems, although I have no interest in finding any lower limit, I'll rely on the Idaho bloggers to tell me what the lower limits are.  I am wondering if there is much difference between running at 50F and 30F.  Most people say you don't get slower until the thermometer breaks 60, but I am starting to wonder.  It doesn't get cold enough here often enough to tell.

35F, 80% humidity, calm.  Great to have 30+ again after our extended 24-hour winter, nice balmy weather to be out and about in.  Ran 10.07 miles in 1:22:57, average pace 8:14 per mile, flat shoes.  Ran two warmup miles, then 6 at goal MP, then 2 trying to get to a 10K pace, didn't make it except for the last quarter.  Splits were 10:04 (125), 9:15 (134), 8:02 (148), 8:02 (152), 7:55 (156), 7:54 (158), 8:07 (159) 8:00 (160), 7:33 (165) and 7:24 (169).  Was able to run 6 MP miles and keep my heart rate at or below 160, felt like I might could do more.  Funny thing, though, I was very fatigued even though I had a relatively low heart rate, and definitely could not have run a marathon at this pace, maybe related to lack of sleep?  Work has been a bear the last couple of days.  When I wasn't paying attention my heart rate would go down instead of up, opposite of what usually happens.  Legs feel fine this afternoon.

45F, 97% humidity, calm and clear.  Best running weather ever this week, except Tuesday.  Wade has golfing plans in the morning, taking a mutual friend to one of the better courses in town as a reward for getting past his throat cancer.  So today we decided to go longish and slow.  I ran to his house and picked him up, then we did his neighborhood and mine, all low heart rate.  Turns out his heart rate is higher than mine on the low end, mine is higher on the high end, not sure what it means.  13.33 miles in 2:12:59, average pace 9:59 per mile, flat shoes.  The last mile was under 10, first time I have been able to run this far LHR and stay under 10 minutes throughout, felt like I could go further with the same result.  Wade was marveling about how good he felt.  About 3 miles in, still dark, I was bragging that I didn't care, I knew this route so well I could run it blind.  Just then I tripped on a lip in the concrete and went down hard.  Scraped up my whole right side, hand, elbow and knee, some of it looks pretty ugly.  Those running gods, they can hear you.

59F, 92% humidity, wind SSW 6 mph, warm and moist, perfect running weather.  Warmed up to 62 by the end of the run.  The goal was to run first half at MP + 1, then 8 at MP, then 2 at 10K pace with last quarter at 5K pace.  Missed the 10K pace but got everything else.  I ran the first 10 at 8:50 per mile (heart rate stayed under 150), then moved to goal MP for 8 miles and managed to keep everything at 8:00 or below:  7:56, 8:00, 7:50, 7:53, 7:40, 7:49, 7:47 and 7:59.  Then I "sped up", all the way to 7:41 and 7:36, the last one aided by a 7:00 pace on the last quarter.  Those last two miles should have been 7:15 and 7:00 based on recent 10K times. 

No heart rate issues, didn't hit 170 until the last 2, and didn't hit 175 until the last quarter, my legs were just tired, in particular my left hip flexor which started to hurt at about mile 8 and never resolved itself completely.  I cooled off for 2.17 hoping my hip would loosen up but it didn't really help much.  I'm OK I think.  Total distance 22.17 in 3:09:10, overall average pace for the run was 8:32, ran in flat shoes.  I ran every day but one this week in flat shoes, I seem to be getting used to them.  Average pace for first 10 was 8:50, second 10 7:47, and overall pace for 20 was 8:19. 

I checked my heart rate on the 8 mile segment against an 8-mile MP run I did on November 29.  For the first 4, my heart rate today was higher, since I was just coming off of 10 slower miles, but it didn't climb as fast.  By mile 18 my heart rate was 168, 5 bpm lower than mile 8 of the 11/29 run.  The temperature was about 7 degrees warmer then, so that might explain some of it, but I'm hoping some of the difference is because I'm getting better. 

All in all, I am happy with this run.  Not ready to run a 3:30 marathon yet, but I have two more weeks before I taper -- a little more conditioning, a little cooler, a short hard taper and some good nutrition during the race (thank you, Elaine) -- who knows, I might make a respectable assault if I am having a decent day.  Running is fun right now.

35F, 78% humidity, wind NE 1 mph.  Clear and cold, almost too cold but pretty good running weather.  I ran in regular shoes without a heart rate monitor.  Two warmup miles then 10 at goal MP.  Very difficult run, partly because of the heavier shoes and partly because I ran hard on Saturday.  Almost bagged it a couple of times and maybe should have.  I finally got it, though, but more difficult than it should have been.  This goal MP might be a bit too much for me at this point.  For MP miles I got 8:10, 8:08, 7:55, 7:45, 8:03, 7:49, 7:58, 8:01, 8:05, 7:55, basically all over the place but manage an average of 7:59.  Overall 12.22 miles in 1:44:24, average pace 8:22 per mile.  I have some right calf pain, that one is new, we'll see how it does today.  I could feel my heart rate monitor wrapped around my chest for the whole run, even though it was sitting in my closet.  Not sure whether to see a cardiologist or a psychiatrist for that one.

30F, 90% humidity, calm.  Very pretty morning, even colder than yesterday but for some reason didn't feel as cold.  Got up late after working late, ran 6, took my daughter to school then went out for 8 more, all slow pace in flat shoes.  No serious residual effects from running too hard yesterday, so probably a little lucky there.  I ran 14.06 miles in 2:20:33, exactly 10:00 per mile.  The first 6 were at 9:48, couldn't get as much speed the second time out but my monitor was acting up by then.  Probably related to the cold weather, but that might have been part of my inability to dial in to the right speed/heart rate combination.  Bottom line, I felt fine and this was the right run to do today. 

44F, 94% humidity, wind NE 12 mph, gusting to 18.  Very refreshing morning to run.  Went 10.03 miles in 1:21:13, overall pace 8:06 per mile, flat shoes.  2 warmup, then ran 6 MP miles at average pace of 7:50, then tried to run 2 more at 10K pace, couldn't make it.  They came in at 7:29 and 7:23 -- I think my true 10K pace is in the 7:05 - 7:10 range right now.  I seem to be having a difficult time getting my heart rate high at the end of a run where I have been running hard at a sustained pace.  Legs don't want to go fast at the end of a run like that, but according to my heart rate I'm not really all that tired.  On this run I never broke 171, which is only 88% of the max I recorded on the Thanksgiving Day race.  On the other hand, it was great that my heart rate stayed mostly below 160 for the 6 MP miles, that is an improvement.  I just need to get better at finishing the runs off, I think it is mental but still working this one out.

This entry is on Thursday night, no running today due to work pressures, up most of the night then back to work early this morning, going home now to sleep, so today is going to be a clean miss.  Back at it in the morning. 

40F, 100% humidity, calm and foggy, then clear.  Absolutely beautiful running weather out there.  I did a repeat of Saturday's run on a smaller scale, slow then fast then all out.  Finally made 10K pace the last 2 miles after missing it on Wednesday, albeit the slow end of the band.  I ran 14:09 miles in 2:08:36, average overall pace of 9:08 per mile.  A little too cold at the start for my heart rate monitor to work, but I ran the first 8 miles in the 10:00 to 10:30 range so I'm sure I kept it in the fat-burning zone.  As soon as I sped up to marathon pace I worked up enough sweat to kick the monitor back into gear.  I stayed under 160 bpm for 4 miles, average pace 7:56.  Then ran the last two at 7:13 and 7:07 before a short jog-in.  That was hard.  Good run, legs felt pretty fresh after taking an involuntary day off yesterday.  Tomorrow is going to be 15-20 degrees warmer, should be a very different long run.

57F, 100% humidity, wind calm.  Ran dark and early, then well into the daylight, to the point that it was starting to warm up a little, but heat was never much of a factor.  Went 25.22 miles in 4:23:26, average pace 10:27 per mile, regular shoes, which felt heavy after running all week in flats.  Despite the unusually slow pace, can't describe this run as anything but difficult.  The fatigue was bone-deep by the time I finished.  I ran it hungry, and there is definitely a fat-burning speed at which you can run forever to the extent your legs can hold up, but it is not a comfortable feeling for me, at least yet.  My legs were the limiting factor this morning, especially the left leg front top, don't know what it is called but it is the muscle you use to lift your leg when you are putting on shoes or taking off socks.  Coincidentally, you also use it to lift your leg when you run, and it has been bothering me off and on all week.  I almost quit early this morning but it subsided for a while so I kept going.

I ran from my house down to the Y, about 7 miles, found a miraculously open bathroom and had just enough time to catch the 5:50 group out of the gate.  Because of my leg I intended to peel off about halfway back on the return and go back home, leaving me with about 15 for the day.  But no, I kept going.  We started talking about teenagers, runners love black humor I guess.  The funnier the jokes, the slower we went.  Didn't want to miss any of it so I ran all the way back to the Y with the group, 10 for them, which left me about 8 to get home via a longer but safer route, now that traffic was out.

Then I was on my own to get home.  I toyed with going a full marathon but decided that wouldn't be a mature decision, and we all know I am a very mature, just check out my age group sometime.  So because of my maturity I decided to stop one mile short, which left me running around my cul de sac a couple of times like a donkey to get exactly 25.22.

Just talked to my daughter.  She ran a 5K in Temple this morning and won her age group, she is almost as fast as me already and improving very quickly, won't be long before she breaks 20 minutes, which is a serious 5K time.  Also, my granddaughter completed her first 1K.  She had to be carried a few steps, but then saw Santa and wanted to make sure he saw her running, so she passed him, gave him a high five and powered it in.  I'm certain she won her age group too.

28F, 63% humidity and calm.  Weather forecast was 25F, disappointed with that 28.  Not a good run, went 14.11 in 2:30:11, average pace 10:39 per mile, regular shoes and long pants.  Left leg is hurting in the same spot, top/front, no worse or better than Saturday, but I am starting to worry.  Also not happy to be so slow, not sure why, even in heavy shoes this run should have been about 20 seconds per mile faster.  Maybe it is the colder than normal weather moving me out of my sweet spot, or maybe my leg is slowing me down.  How I feel in the morning will be important.

34F, 89% humidity, calm and clear.  There is a star in the southeast that has been there for a month now, so bright it continues to shine as the sun comes up, very beautiful.  I assume it is Saturn, probably too big to be a star.  This weather seemed more compatible for running than yesterday.  I did 10.04 miles in 1:23:37, average pace 8:20, flat shoes.  Warmed up for 2 (10:00 and 9:18), then 8 at goal marathon pace, average pace 7:59 as follows:  7:57 (149), 7:58 (152), 7:57 (154), 8:00 (156), 7:53 (157), 8:08 (158), 8:05 (157) and 7:58 (159).  The hip flexor was OK until the last 3 miles, had to consciously power up in order to get my pace back below 8.  It really slows me down.  Overall though it was better than yesterday despite the higher speeds, so for now the situation looks to be manageable.  I think having lighter shoes helped as well, I was certainly glad to see my heart rate climb so slowly, I think that is a good sign, but probably not good enough to get me through a whole marathon.  My plan for the rest of the week is to do two more runs like this one tomorrow on Thursday, go slow on Friday, then plan Saturday according to how I am feeling.

57F, 90% humidity, wind SSW 2 mph.  Felt nice out there, not too warm or too cold.  I ran 12.09 miles in 1:39:58, average pace 8:16 per mile, flat shoes.  Warmed up 2 then ran 10 at GMP, average pace 7:54 per mile.  Heart rate was about 3 or 4 bpm higher today, possibly due to a slightly faster pace, possibly because of warmer temperatures.  Left hip flexor improved slightly again today, much appreciated.  The run was very doable, but still don't have confidence in the full marathon distance at this pace.  During the race I will probably try to follow my heart (rate) from the last one, and whatever the speed is, it is.

There is an interesting article in RW about the Hanson brothers out of Chicago.  They advocate running lots of MP miles and eschewing the long run.  The guy who wrote the article got a 10-year PR on a program that had no runs longer than 16 miles.  I found it interesting because I had arrived at a similar conclusion (as to the MP miles) in my own amateur way.  But I also like low heart rate running.  I try to either run fast or slow and avoid doing too much in-between stuff, although I still do more than I should.  I think what we perceive as a "slow" pace is too fast, in the sense that it exceeds the fat-burning effort and we end up just burning carbs at a slower speed, which is possibly a little less effective than staying down in the fat-burning zone or moving up to a high-heart rate zone.  My guess is that is why some people, such as the Hansons, are questioning the value of long runs, which are usually run at an in-between pace.  But there are a lot of theories and it is fun to experiment.

62F, 90% humidity, wind SSW 10 mph.  Breezy and mild, very nice out there, the extra heat didn't seem to bother me, although it may have elevated my heart rate a little.  Basically the same run as yesterday, a little faster.  Warmed up 2 then 10.00 miles at GMP, total of 12.02 in 1:37:46, average pace 8:08 per mile for the whole run, 7:47 per mile for the fast miles, which were as follows:  7:56 (151), 7:59 (154), 7:44 (158), 7:48 (160), 7:45 (164), 7:35 (166), 7:48 (166), 7:50 (166), 7:48 (168), 7:39 (171).  So quite a bit more heart rate action going on than yesterday, even though the runs look identical.  Part of the difference is still higher temperatures (back down to 41F tomorrow morning thankfully), some fatigue I guess, but I am guessing most of it is the faster pace.  7 seconds per mile faster than yesterday, doesn't sound like much, but I must be right at the cusp where going any faster puts me into a 10K/5K level of effort even though I'm not actually running those speeds.  No hip flexor issues during the run, I may have avoided that train wreck altogether.  Interesting that three straight days in flat shoes running hard seems to have cured it.  I went to flat shoes originally because I thought they would help me stay healthier, the extra speed was just a bonus.  Maybe the original purpose is finally coming through.  Time permitting I am going slow in the morning in regular shoes, will be interesting to see if my hip starts to hurt again..

49F, 69% humidity, wind NE 3 mph.  Briskier out there today.  Ran 9.94 in 1:41:52, average pace 10:15 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  This run was 24 seconds per mile better than Monday, when the temperature was 24F.  Then I ran out of time because I had to pick up my daughter from seminary.  It seemed like a short run but still pretty tired today.  A sudden business trip has come up, leaving tomorrow night and returning on a red-eye Wednesday morning, so running might be iffy for a couple of days, we'll see what the hotel situation is like.  I have been ragged busy for the last several days.  After tomorrow I start my taper for New Years Day.

46F, 55% humidity, wind NNE 7 mph.  It was supposed to be 41F this morning but was happy to see it a little warmer, left my gloves at home and ran pretty much in perfect temperatures, together with low humidity.  Ran the first 9 at 8:55 pace (GMP + 1) then ran 12 at GMP and 1 cooldown.  GMP miles were 8:17 (150), 8:03 (155), 7:56 (160), 7:50 (165), 7:59 (165), 8:05 (165), 7:54 (165), 8:03 (162), 8:15 (156), 7:57 (164), 7:29 (170) and 7:18 (176), maximum heart rate 182, average 7:56 for the 12.  Overall 22.07 miles, average 8:27 per mile, almost exactly the pace I ran at Richmond.  Flat shoes.  This was a hard run, stopped at mile 17 for water and took a phone call in mile 18.  Was happy to stop both times but it was hard getting back up to speed, my legs freeze up almost immediately when I stop.

My youngest daughter turns 14 today and she had a houseful of friends spending the night.  They got to bed at 3:30, but I didn't hear a thing.  They were up already when I got back and came down and joined me for breakfast.  They asked me how far I ran and had a look of incomprehension when I told them.  It was like explaining calculus to my granddaughter.

This is it for this training cycle.  Off to Argentina tonight, I plan to run there on Monday and Tuesday and I will miss Wednesday's run traveling back.  They have mid-summer temperatures going, not sure what the humidity is like.  There is a chance I may have to skip my New Years Day marathon because of a year-end business trip, but that is OK if it happens, the economy is back!

75F, clear and calm.  Ran this morning in Buenos Aires, left the hotel at 5:30 which was 2:30 by my body clock, but it was OK.  I found my way down to the dock area and managed to find one long esplanade about a mile and a half long where I could get some speed going.  It took about 30 minutes for the Garmin to get used to being in a new place, so I don't have any good data, but some of my splits were in the low 8s, the rest were fairly slow picking my way, waiting for stoplights, etc.  A dog found me.  He was waiting like he knew I was going to be there, must have picked it up off some network they have.  We negotiated a treaty.  I got lost trying to find the hotel, almost late for my meeting.  Kind of an interesting situation because I don't speak a word of Spanish.

I brought all my running stuff except for the most essential thing, my hat.  I think this is the first run I have ever done without a hat, but nobody knew it.  Our deal took me all the way through the night on Monday night, so no running on Tuesday.

65F, drizzly and foggy.  The plane came in from Argentina at 6:30 this morning, made it back to the house and went straight out for a run, 8.01 miles in 1:01:36, average pace 7:42 per mile, flat shoes.  Ran one warmup mile (9:10) then launched right into it, five at GMP, 7:50 (157), 7:43 (162), 7:44 (163), 7:37 (164), 7:38 (166), then accelerated to a 10K pace for the last two, 7:02 (175) and 6:54 (183).  That last mile was hard, even though I ran around a 6:30 mile a few weeks ago.  Maybe I am slowing down, but it was quite warm so I'm blaming that.

This afternoon I drove to San Marcos and we all had dinner at a steakhouse where my daughter was the waitress.  (Let's just say she got an OK tip.)  Then I drove home and stayed up working until 2:00, got a little bit of sleep and was up again.  I am measuring total sleep this week in single digits, hopefully this slows down soon.

55F.  Woke up at 6:30 and had to be on a call by 8, so only had time for a few miles.  Good thing I am tapering this week, my schedule is a mess.  Was going to run it all easy, then decided to run the last two at GMP.  I had to go totally by feel, because I ran my Garmin down yesterday.  Taking it off the charger this morning it wouldn't go on.  I got online just now and found out you have to press "mode" and "reset" together, then turn it on, as simple as that, so I am set for tomorrow but again I don't have any data for this morning.  At this point I can run GMP without the Garmin and finish a marathon pretty close to my goal because I know how it feels, but I need the Garmin to monitor my heart rate.  I am not good enough to pace myself correctly for a full marathon.  I would go either too slow or too fast.

Because of forgetting to turn my Garmin off, it measured my pace all the way to my daughter's restaurant and back, exactly 222 miles.  I had a lot of sub-one minute miles in there.  I think automobiles are better transportation than legs.

49F, 66% humidity, wind E 11 mph, cloudy and blustery.  This turned out to be perfect running weather.  My daughter and her family are in town so she ran with me today.  Our speeds are very similar now, although she is still a little leery (unnecessarily) of some of my faster miles.  We agreed to go my GMP as long as she could hang with me and I promised not to take it too fast.  After two warmup miles (10:37 and 9:58), we took off.  I told her very confidently on the first mile that we were only going about an 8:15 pace, I'm a pro and I know these things, but we would get warmed up and make it up on the later splits.  Well, I was pretty close, 7:36.  She was pretty ticked, but glad to slow down a little.  Rest of the splits were 8:03, 8:01, 8:07 (146), 8:05 (147), then I told her to go as fast as she wanted for the last mile and she did 7:29 (157), overall pace 7:54, so this was quite an improvement for her.  For me it was also a good run.  I didn't get a true heart rate reading until the last 3 miles, but it was low, which is good news -- I would have been able to do my marathon at goal pace this morning, it felt sustainable.  0.3 cooldown, overall 8.30 miles in 1:10:47, 8:32 per mile.  Gotta go, time to start my Christmas shopping.

39F, 55% humidity wind N 13-22 mph, 31 wind chill, on the way down to 27F tonight.  Ran late this afternoon with my daughter, insisted on a slow run.  We went 8.52 miles in 1:22:30, average pace 9:41 per mile, regular shoes and no heart rate monitor.  The sun went down toward the end of the run and it got cold, plus I never got going that well because I was heavy with Christmas dinner.  But for Christmas this was an OK run.  One more week of tapering.

27F, 86% humidity, wind E 3 mph.  This heavy air makes the cold bone deep, but I put on layers and it was pretty comfortable after a while.  Ran 2 miles warmup, then 6 at GMP, just slightly below 8:00 pace overall, most miles were within 2 or 3 seconds of that, but it was a little harder than it should have been.  Overall I ran 8.08 miles in 1:07:15, average pace 8:20 per mile, flat shoes and no heart rate monitor.  I'll put it back on tomorrow, but didn't even want to try today at these temperatures. 

Of course, since there is a race this week, I seem to be coming down with a cold.  Yesterday in church my granddaughter was feeding me Cheerios, one after the other, stuffing them all the way in.  I assumed that I have more antibodies than she does, but I might be wrong.  Woke up this morning with a slightly stuffy nose, and my ears pop on the elevator at work.  I am popping Airbornes, but I think I waited too long.

47F, 89% humidity, wind E 7 mph.  Very nice running weather.  Warmed up 2 miles then ran 5 at GMP minus 30 seconds:  7:47 (154), 7:23 (159), 7:21 (163), 7:30 (166) and 7:28 (166).  Average pace for threshold miles was 7:30, the goal is to make MP miles seem more manageable this weekend -- I think my heart rate stayed pretty much under control.  Overall I ran 7.09 miles in 58:19, average 8:13 per mile, flat shoes.  I was done by 5:45 and into work by 7:00, things are really busy.  Good news is I don't think my cold is getting any worse.  With any luck it will be gone by Saturday.  Saturday's weather forecast is 61/34, which is perfect if it holds.  Problem is there are a couple of warm days between now and then, and warm fronts tend to stall over Houston.

I will plan to run 6 miles tomorrow (2 @ GMP), take Thursday off, finish with 3 or 4 warmup miles on Friday, then yet another marathon on Saturday morning to start the new year.  This is basically the taper strategy I used last time with good results, so trying it again and hoping for good weather.

62F, 78% humidity, wind SSE 8 mph.  Warm and slightly muggy out there, but not summer-warm.  Kind of nice actually.  I ran 2 slow miles, 2 GMP miles (8:01 (148) and 7:51 (152, maximum heart rate 155)), then 2 more slow miles.  Total run was 6.04 miles in 55:34, average pace 9:12 per mile.  Happy that my heart rate stayed low for two miles at least.  Got some sort of low-grade bug moving through my system and a couple of people at my house are out for the count with a high-grade bug, so everything is up in the air for this weekend.  Weather forecast is holding, though.  Tomorrow is 76/63, which would be a disaster.  Friday is 72/44, not ideal but acceptable; and Saturday is 61/33, which would be pretty much perfect.  The warm weather is here right on schedule, so maybe it will leave on schedule, like a well-mannered guest.

67F, 93% humidity, wind SSE 6 mph.  Nice weather for a short soft run, really bad harbinger for tomorrow's race.  I ran 4.09 miles in 40:51, average pace 9:58 per mile, low heart rate and flat shoes.

Oh yeah, there is a race tomorrow.  Here is the deal:  I woke up yesterday morning with a very raw throat and it isn't much different today -- almost feels like strep.  Plus I have that constant hungry feeling I get when this happens, so I know it is the real deal.  I have run two other marathons with flu-like symptoms, my first and my sixth, and they were both, shall we say, less than ideal.  The logical thing would be to pull out or switch to the half but I'll probably end up running it as planned, I am kind of stubborn that way.  I felt fine for this morning's easy run but woozy afterward.  Plus, just as I feared, the cold front is way late.  Current low for tomorrow morning is now set at 45F, but I am guessing 50F, quite a difference from the 33F that was forecast only two days ago.  If it is 50F at the start, it will be 65F or higher by the end.  Almost worse would be if the cold front is moving in during the race, because winds up to 20mph are expected, which could make shambles out of any PR effort.  Whine, whine, whine, I'll just go run it.

Today's miles were my last of the year, pretty good year considering quite a bit of downtime in the first half.  I got three marathon PRs this year.  I also started running shorter races and found out I score higher age-group wise in shorter races than in the marathon.  I dropped my best low heart rate pace from 11:27 to 9:41.  I lost another 15 pounds.  And I have met so many fun and high-quality people on this blog that I just shake my head in amazement when I think about it.  Most importantly, I had lots of good times running with family and friends in training and in races, and I have watched several people in my life take up running.  This change in lifestyle has been very good to me, even if I never get another PR, which is not the plan.