For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 02, 2024

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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

Sat, Dec 12, 2009

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	22.14	0.00	0.00	22.14

51F and misting, this weather was perfect. 22.14 miles in 3:30:00, average pace 9:29 per mile, no heart rate monitor. My goal was to run 9:30 per mile, so I made it just barely. I went for it right out of the gate. My first mile was 9:22 and my last was 9:31, fastest split was 9:08 and slowest was 9:42. Unlike some other long runs, this wasn't a steady acceleration to the end of the run. I was struggling a lot to make 9:30 the last few miles but my overall average was there, about a 4:08 marathon pace. I don't think I could have run the extra 4 miles needed for a marathon today, though. I was done, done, done by the time I quit. I finished about a mile from my house and sat down on a rock. After 10 minutes of no improvement, I felt like laying down but I knew somebody would call an ambulance if I did that. I always run with a cell phone, so I woke up my 16-year old son from his Saturday morning slumber. No one else was home, so he agreed to pick my butt off the pavement and I made it home. Yesterday morning he skipped seminary, failed to take out the trash and drove the best car to school. I was going to give him a piece of my mind but decided to exercise some restraint. Didn't realize the payoff would come so quickly.

So where does this run leave me? No clear answer as to a goal marathon pace, but I still learned a lot. I think with a proper taper I could get 4 more 9:30 miles out of these legs, but I was definitely running in risky territory today. On the other hand, nothing ventured, right? Have to take risks to improve, and I'll know when the day arrives what to do.

Comments

From lightitup on Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 14:38:39 from 166.205.130.188

Holey Schmoley that was soooo much faster.

I hope that's your last killer run for a few weeks. Great job.

From jasro on Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 15:42:00 from 64.255.180.181

Wow!! Way to go!!!!! Maybe you should go for the all out taper to see what you can do.

From flatlander on Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 19:58:21 from 76.31.26.153

E, thanks, it was fast for me but fast is relative on this blog.

Jasro, thanks, I'm certainly thinking about it. My legs feel better this evening, but honestly they could probably use a break.

From Mack on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 18:20:02 from 71.111.182.118

Nice job!! You are putting in some serious high weekly mileage. Are you following a set program? When is your marathon? By the way, I can very much relate to the dealing with the teenager thing.

From flatlander on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 08:34:35 from 70.216.151.185

Mack, it's kind of a backwards program. I run mostly slow during the week and hard on Saturdays. It helped me break 5 hours at St. George and seems to be helping me continue to improve since then, at least for the time being. My next marathon is on New Years Day, a local one that only has about 300 runners. It is Boston-certified, but I won't be contending for a BQ.

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