For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 06, 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, Sep 08, 2011

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
4.36	8.00	0.00	0.00	12.36

57F, 69%, N 4 mph. More sterling running weather. Was only going to do 4 fast today but when I got outside I realized I needed to take better advantage of this weather. I promised myself I wouldn't go faster than 7:30, glad I was able to accomplish that. Started out with 4 LHR, average 9:39 per mile, then 8 at GMP: 7:47 (149), 7:44 (154), 7:39 (156), 7:25 (161), 7:39 (163), 7:42 (164), 7:21 (169) and 7:22 (173), average 7:38 per mile. I think I have figured out the heart rate thing. Training in the heat lowers your overall heart rate for the same speed, because your body gets more efficient at cooling while sending blood to the legs at the same time, but it doesn't improve leg strength at a faster than normal pace -- that comes only through running faster (and maybe longer), which is hard to do in the heat. So when I start running in cooler weather I have plenty of heart rate reserve (173 out of 193 on a pretty fast last mile) but not enough leg strength to take advantage of it yet. So I am smugly sitting on my new theory until a different one comes along.

I smelled smoke this morning. One of the Texas wildfires is within 20 or 30 miles north of my house. The due north wind brought the smoke right into the neighborhood. We need a hurricane. Yep, I said it.

Comments

From SlowJoe on Thu, Sep 08, 2011 at 17:41:47 from 75.109.104.60

I am kind of a Pfitzinger disciple now, so you'll have to pardon me, but I thought you might like this article if you haven't seen it already:

http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/heartrate.shtml

If I could piggyback on your theory (and nerd out a little), I think we run kinda dehydrated in the summer; I don't think either one of us probably brought even close to the correct amount of fluids for a 2-3 hr run when we ran together awhile back. My thought is that your overall MHR is lower in the heat (perceived effort higher) and try as we might, we can never achieve max (or even normal) cold weather HRs. Then we get dehydrated and get an artificially higher HR, adding to the misery.

Nice job out there today, you nailed 3:20 MP. Hopefully you'll get nailed with a hurricane too!

From Dan on Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 10:41:21 from 208.54.35.157

Nice run Flat. The fires have no chance of going your way I hope. I am in FL now at dads, I will see what I can do about your requested hurricane.

From JG on Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 11:21:33 from 66.168.207.228

Great run Flat, good job taking advantage of the cooler temps. I don't have any scientific analysis to add, I just know I am always amazed at how much easier things get when it gets cooler! Those summer heat runs are always brutal and hard to read too much into the whole pace/effort thing, but they definitely pay off! Hard to believe St. George is only 3 weeks away, I bet you are starting to get excited! I will pray for rain & change of wind direction!

From I Just Run on Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 13:01:09 from 67.79.11.242

I was confused and felt completly inadequate about running after reading you and Joe's entries today. Maybe I'm not smart enought to be a runner or maybe I need to stick to my "I Just Run" theory :-)

What I can contribute is --- Good Run!

From Dave S on Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 16:10:08 from 4.253.99.23

Nice run! Looking good for St George. Hopefully we'll get some nice cool weather down there [at least in the morning].

From Burt on Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 03:02:40 from 72.223.91.148

Have you ever have those unexplainable high rate runs where it your pace isn't any different than normal. I have a theory that just might explain that. Next time it happens ask yourself if you had to go #2. I think the heart works double time to supply blood to the sphincter.

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