For Whom the Dogs Bark

April 28, 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

Thu, Nov 04, 2010

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
2.12	6.00	0.00	0.00	8.12

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

From Smooth on Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 23:31:51 from 63.228.197.20

Good stuff on tapering! I would have a hard time tapering for 4 weeks! Seems like 3 weeks works nicely w/ a gradual decrease in mileage (up to 60% race week). I definitely would keep the intensity up. It keeps things sharp, reminding the body that it's not *on vacation* when your mileage drops. A 5K or 10K race the weekend before is a great confidence builder as well! GOOD LUCK w/ your 10K on Sat.

From KP on Fri, Nov 05, 2010 at 00:15:30 from 173.16.13.61

invigorating; nice word.

one of my local running icons (runs anything from a 2:30 marathon to a 16:00 100) is all about the 4 week taper.

i'm always impressed with your high mileage. nice work!

From SlowJoe on Fri, Nov 05, 2010 at 02:17:46 from 195.39.154.10

Nice run and good info, as always. I figured you also cut back on intensity in a taper, but I hadn't really looked into it. Now I know!

From flatlander on Fri, Nov 05, 2010 at 10:13:43 from 75.214.172.43

Thanks Smooth. I think I have been tapering too much, at least as far as intensity goes. I have noticed that I seem to run my best times, even for long hard runs, just as I am reaching the peak of a training cycle. One of these races I am going to try hitting my low mileage two weeks out then "accelerate" into the marathon. At least it would be something different!

Thanks KP, nice to see you up and at it again. Hope you are gradually feeling better.

Joe, yeah, who knew? I think everybody is different, though. They interviewed about 5 different elite runners on the subject and they had more things they did differently than the same.

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