For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 06, 2024

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

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.

Click to donate

to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Sat, Sep 17, 2011

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
1.15	19.00	0.00	0.00	20.15

73F, 93%, ESE 3 mph. Time to taper. Ran my third hard 19-miler. First one was 4 weeks ago, when I had to stop at 16 miles and got 8:22 overall, 163 average heart rate. Temperature then was 80F/80%. But it helped me set a goal of 19 at 8 flat, in two easy steps, on the theory that if I could get that pace in hot humid conditions I could do 20 or 30 seconds better if it is drier and cooler in St. George. So two weeks ago was step 1, goal of 8:10 and I got 8:08, conditions were 77F/71%, 160 average heart rate, probably a little too easy. After yesterday's run I was pretty sure I could hit 8:00 today and it worked out well. I got 7:56 in high humidity conditions, average heart rate 162, so 26 seconds per mile better than 4 weeks ago at basically the same heart rate. Temperature was a little lower than the other two runs but I think the higher humidity balanced it out.

Today was a dress rehearsal. I did my carb-loading two days ago, using CarboPro as a nutritional supplement. On the advice of the wise Derhammer, I got up at 2 a.m. and drank another 12 ounces of the stuff. For a minute I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep but the next thing I knew my 5 a.m. alarm went off and I was out the door at 5:30 with 7 solid hours of sleep under my belt. I used EFS for the run, which I will do for St. George. I switched from vanilla to wild berry, but frankly it wasn't much better.

Warmed up for 1.15 miles with the watch off, set down two water bottles and I was off for 6 laps of about 5K each. My heart rate climbed quickly for the first 5 miles then held steady at 160 for the next 4 or 5. Then it climbed quickly again and I was pretty much hanging on. I had nausea setting in from the heat the last quarter of the run. I wouldn't have been able to finish a marathon at this speed, but I did average 7:50 for my last 6 miles, including 7:45 and 7:45 to finish it off. Overall 19.0 miles in 2:30:51, average pace 7:56 per mile, maxHR 182.

Good luck to everybody running a real race today.

Comments

From Stephen on Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 21:00:39 from 174.52.133.66

Nice dress rehearsal. I think you are in for the run of your life in two weeks.

From I Just Run on Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 22:27:40 from 166.205.14.141

This run is the confidence you need to know you can achieve your goal at SG. It's got to feel good...!

From seeaprilrun on Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 22:30:14 from 205.172.12.229

Great long run, sub-8 at that. Sounds like you will easily manage faster in cooler, dryer, air with some downhill.

From Mack on Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 01:39:29 from 50.39.193.169

Cant wait to read your st george report. You are going to feel so strong and fast in that dry cool air.

From SlowJoe on Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 10:53:50 from 75.109.104.60

Congrats on the great run in not-so-great Houston humidity. To quote Close Encounters of the Third Kind, "this means something!"

Have a nice taper.

From derhammer on Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 11:28:04 from 70.113.125.159

Nice job, Flat. I agree, the heat yesterday was not any fun, for sure. Looks like we will get some cool mornings again by the end of the week. Glad that the Carbo Pro worked out.

From JG on Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 15:51:25 from 71.59.27.33

Awesome long run Flat! Things look good for Boston too, slots remain so registration will reopen to all registrants, Monday ... I am not sure, but I think that means that all who already submitted will get approved as soon as times are confirmed.

I am excited to see how you do at St. George, looks very promising! :)

From Dan on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 18:42:55 from 24.209.83.20

Seriously good run and workout. You are looking good! I'm gonna have to try this carb load some day!

From flatlander on Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 12:25:43 from 198.207.244.102

Stephen, I'll be running for my life all right.

IJR, it certainly feels good, but not counting on anything.

April, thanks, it will be interesting to see if St. George is faster than UVM.

Mack, that's what I keep telling myself.

SJ, I was actually glad the weather hadn't broken yet, so I could get an apples to apples cross check.

DH, definitely can't take that many carbs the day before the race, but a 2-day cushion seemed OK. I'm going to HEB to find some more high-glycemic regular food so I don't have to drink so much Carbo Pro. I think about 4 servings of Carbo Pro should be about right.

JG, I got in!

Dan, Thanks, I'm always looking for an angle, but this one seems pretty good.

Add Your Comment.

Keep it family-safe. No vulgar or profane language. To discourage anonymous comments of cowardly nature, your IP address will be logged and posted next to your comment.
Do not respond to another person's comment out of context. If he made the original comment on another page/blog entry, go to that entry and respond there.
If all you want to do is contact the blogger and your comment is not connected with this entry and has no relevance to others, send a private message instead.

Debt Reduction Calculator

Featured Announcements

Most Recent Entries:

New Kids on the Blog
(need a welcome):

Lone Faithfuls
(need a comment):