For Whom the Dogs Bark

Splits were:  11:10, 11:57, 11:09, 10:47, 10:59, 12:09, 10:52, 12:41, 12:09, 11:40, 12:13, 11:57, 10:45, 10:37, 10:13, 9:30, 9:50, 9:58, 10:46, 3:42 (partial split, hit the wrong button on my Garmin and it cylced over), 10:00, 10:01, 10:47, 11:18, 11:37, 11:55, 17:49 (death march to the finish line).

This is not a noteworthy time, but I was very happy with this race.  It was the first time I got payback on my training.  I didn't have stomach issues until very late.  I had enough strength in my legs to run 4:30 or faster, but the heat gets me every time.  Something to work on, but encouraging at the same time.

First run since the St. George Marathon, and our first cool morning in Houston, only 56 degrees out.  Felt good to stretch things out a little bit.  Low heart rate (125-130), splits were, 14:08, 13:10, 13:;14, 12:53 and 6:36 (12:44 pace).  Right knee started bothering me a little at the end, I think its nuthin'.  Interesting that it took 4 miles for my heart to reach an efficient steady state.

My next marathon is the Texas Marathon in Houston on New Years Day.  Instead of doing 3 or 4 big workouts a week I am going to try to run every day but Sunday at a lower level, trying to build endurance and toughness in my joints.  I am hoping to avoid injury that way.  I was only able to train half the summer for St. George because of knee pain.  After it went away I was a new man and I trained like a maniac until a late taper.

Trying to run exactly 1 hour a day this week at low heart rate.  This morning was 4.75 miles, average heart rate 127, average pace 12:38 per mile.  Right knee pain came back right on cue at 4 miles.  Not much pain, just a little worrisome.  We'll see what happens there.

Part of the run was around a couple of small lakes, and there was a heron that would keep flying away every time I came close.  He would always fly ahead and wait for me to catch up instead of going the other way so I would leave him alone.  I noticed he had a very small head.  Bird brain.

Also found a nickel and stopped to pick it up.  Bird brain.

4.52 at average heart rate of 127, average pace 13:17.  At 7:30 in the morning, it is 73 out, 97% humidity, so summer is back.  By comparison, yesterday it was 62 and lower humidity, and I ran 4.75 miles at the same heart rate.  Heat is the big X factor hear in Houston.  It is scheduled to cool off in a couple of days, this is the last gasp of summer for this year.

4.35 miles in 1.00 hours, 13:49 average pace, 128 bpm average heart rate.  It is 77 outside and very muggy, so the distance was even less than yesterday and the heart rate higher.  It is trying to rain out there and the air is stagnant and feels like it is trapping you in a coccoon.  There might be a bit of a break tomorrow, then definitely cooler weather by Friday.  I'm a big advocate of embracing the heat and humidity, it is what it is, this is where I live and I don't have much patience for transplants from certain western climes (of which I am one) complaining about the long summers here.  Plus you can get some good training in that helps you in the last miles of certain races like, oh, I don't know, St. George maybe?  But I have done my hot weather time for this year, time for something new.

The good news is no knee issues.  I remembered last night that when the outside of the knee acts up at the same point in the run then goes away as soon as you quit, it is ITB.  I stretched the knee very gently last night and no issues today.  I have overstretched in the past but was careful this time.  In fact, as I think about it, in the year and a half I have been running I have pretty much over-ed everything at one point or another.

My St. George picture arrived yesterday, me and my son with our finishing medals.  Kind of expensive but very cool.

4.58 miles at 128 average bpm, 1.00 hours, 13:06 average pace, 79F.  At least there was a little more wind this morning, and it has shifted to the southwest, so the weather is trying to break, even though it is a little hotter even than yesterday.  All things considered I did better today.  I think my legs are starting to get with the new program.  The deal is I won't beat you up so bad, but we are out there every morning, guys.  Everybody on board? Quads? (yep) Glutes? (check) Hammys? (ok)  Achilles? (I'm the weak link) ITB? (huh, what was that?)  Not sure what I'm going to do about my long run, maybe I can sneak it in early and they won't notice.

4.72 miles, 129 bpm average heart rate, 1.00 hours, 65F.  The weather finally broke and I could tell an immediate difference in how fast I could go.  Every time my route swung around into the wind coming from the north I got a smile on my face.  It really isn't that cold, only 10 degrees less than yesterday, not really even cool, but I felt like I needed long sleeves.

My legs (I have named them Charley and Horse) balked at first but after a mile they got with the program.  I'll get them some oatmeal for breakfast.

8.84 miles in 2.00 hours, 13:35 average pace, 133 average heart rate, 57F, wind NE 7 mph (faster than me, that's for sure).  This was my "long" run.  For the first mile and a half, my Garmin was spitting out heart rates in the 160-175 range, even though I was going slow, so the average heart rate is skewed -- I think 128-129 is more accurate.  None of my splits, including the last partial one, was over 14:00, and no particular knee pain.  Looking for bright spots here.

This wasn't a particularly successful run this morning.  Should have been faster with these nice cool temperatures.  I ate a small steak last night and got a flu shot yesterday afternoon.  When I woke up I felt a little feverish and I wanted long sleeves, atypical for me, and my legs felt like logs, especially during the second hour.  I think they are still hung over from the party in St. George two weeks ago today, so no worries.  It was important to get out there, stretch out the distance a little.  Now I get a day off.  With all my training, maybe 2000 miles by now, I have never run more than 4 times in a week.  This week I ran 6.

4.52 miles in 1:05.  My average pace was 14:25  per mile and my average heart rate was 149 bpm because that is the lowest I was able to get it.  Most of the time it seemed like it was in the high 150s and low 160s, it even reached 172 at one point.  I am surprised that the average came out that low.  The ambient temperature is 47F, I slept well and I rested yesterday.  Should have been putting down low 12s, instead it was mid-14s, about 2-1/2 minutes per mile slower than I expected, and I was never able to get my heart rate down except by walking, which does my running no good so far as I can determine.  To call this run frustrating is not giving it its proper due -- it's not as if I am new to this type of training, I have been doing it for 8 months now but never with results that were anything close to what happened this morning.  I thought perhaps my Garmin was misreading because of the cold weather somehow, but I measured my pulse manually on my wrist at the end of the run and it was the same.  How do I feel?  I feel as if I never even went out the door, there was almost no effort involved.  Nothing to do but try again tomorrow.  I think I'll go slow again tomorrow then do a speed workout on Wednesday, no point in not trying something else.

4.99 miles in 1:05, 13:01/mile, 59F, 127 bpm.  Not my best run ever, but back in the zone.  After yesterday's debacle, I started out extremely slow, about a 16-17 minute pace for the first half mile, never let my heart rate get away from me.  First mile was 14:02 and everything after that was in the high 12s.  In the past I could always get my heart rate back down once it crept beyond the target zone, but after yesterday I was no longer confident of that.  Deep into my run I let it get away a couple of times, but by then I could always bring it back down by slowing my cadence slightly.  Anyway, back on track.

Today's distance is an estimate, seeing as I punched the wrong button on my clock by accident.  The main objective was running at low heart rate for a specified period of time, which I did, 126 bpm for the length of the run, however long it was.  Temperature was 67F and there must be another system blowing in because the wind was pretty brisk.

My technical skills with electronics and computers are pretty pathetic.  Kind of like watching a clown trying to eat spaghetti or something.

4.97 miles in 1:05, 72F, wind S 8 mph, light rain, 100% humidity, average heart rate 128 bpm, average pace 13:05/mile.  Conditions a little less ideal than yesterday, but runnable.  Managed to keep my clock on the whole run today, so that was an accomplishment.

Also managed to keep my heart rate down again, except for one spot running behind the lake in the dark, a big snort in the trees just 20 feet to my left. Messed up my heart rate real good on that one.  I'm thinking a 10-point buck, but it was probably a rabbit.

4.90 miles in 51:13, 10:27 average pace, 47F, average heart rate 170 bpm.  It was another cold morning, just like Monday and 25 degrees cooler than yesterday.  Again, my heart rate was 162 before I got out of my cul de sac and it went as high as 204 during the run.  No way could that possibly be accurate, but it is now obvious to me that it is a cold weather issue that affects either my heart rate monitor or my heart.  I hope it is the former.  Anyway, I decided I might as well do my speed workout, so I jogged for 2 miles then two half-mile threshold runs, then a full mile threshold run, jogging a quarter in between.  I got my pace down to the high 7s a couple of times.  I can't believe that I have to run 8:30s for 26 miles to qualify for Boston.  That is far away for me.

My goal for my next marathon is 4:30 to 4:45, which means 10:30 to 11:00 splits.  If my legs don't rebel after today's run, I'll try to run for two and a half hours in the morning at an 11:00 pace.  It's been 3 weeks since St. George, so it should be OK to air it out a little.

It was nice to be out in the crisp cold air, glad to be alive, even if slow.

47F, cold clear morning, great running weather.  The goal this morning was to run for 2:30 hours at my target marathon pace (11:00) for my next race, the Texas Marathon in Kingwood, Texas on New Years Day.   I managed to do that, 13.86 miles at an average pace of 10:49, splits as follows:

11:45, 10:45, 10:49, 10:41, 10:48, 10:54, 10:31, 10:53, 10:48, 10:39, 10:53, 10:47, 10:51, 8:57 (10:24 pace)

I left my heart rate monitor at home.  I'll go back to slow running during the week, but I am hoping to gradually increase the time for my Saturday long runs, eventually getting up to 4 hours at marathon pace.  I started doing my long runs this way while preparing for St. George and it seemed to help a lot, at least for this stage of my training.  I felt like I would have had a hard time running a full marathon at the same pace, so I am not there yet, but after this morning it seems doable.  The difference running in cool weather is significant.  A few weeks ago I would have struggled in the heat to run this far at this pace.

The most important thing that happened this morning is I passed somebody.  They were a really tall guy and a really short woman who turned onto the sidewalk in front of me, I eased on by, smiled a little to myself but throttled the urge to pull out a Sharpie and offer my autograph.  They looked like they were just warming up, but I am counting it.  Several miles later at the turnaround, I noticed they were only a quarter behind, so I ended up bringing it in faster than I planned, probably too fast.  Much more important than enjoying my health, making new friends and avoiding injury.

67F, 5.18 miles in 1:10::05, average pace 13:32 per mile, average heart rate 127 bpm.  Once again, I am upping my running time a little.  If all goes well I will keep doing that until I get to 90 minutes 5 days in a row, plus Saturday.  Despite my flu shot two weeks ago, I have flu-like symptoms this morning and was on aspirin all night.  But I didn't think running would make it any worse and I was right.  About halfway through I started sweating just like at the end of the flu -- it would be interesting if it were possible to sweat out flu toxins by running.  Maybe that will become clear during the day today.  Other than the slower than normal pace, which could be attributed to the heat or the flu, the legs, Charley and Horse, performed admirably, with no pain or other indication that they remained under any particular strain from Saturday's run.  Got in just in time, though, a Texas-sized thunderstorm just started.  Cooler temps tomorrow undoubtedly.

53F, WNW wind @ 10 mph, average pace 13:06, average heart rate 127, total time 1:10:00.  A little better than yesterday, but I still have some flu left.  It rained all day yesterday and it is just now blowing out, although it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, not colder.  I don't like running in the wind, never have.  Good run anyway, though.

50F, no wind, 5.61 miles in 1:10:01, 126 bpm, 12:32 average pace.  It was supposed to be warm this morning but turned out to be perfect.  Also, no heart rate issues even though it was cold, which is different from the last three cold mornings.  I still have a few residual flu symptoms, but the run helped clear out my congestion, so I'm feeling pretty good about things.  I had one run back in May that was pretty close to this one, I actually slammed down a couple of mid-11s on that one, but I suspect I let my heart rate get up a little higher on that one, I wasn't as good at keeping it down then.  All in all I would rate this as my best low heart rate run.

With a mile to go my Garmin started going crazy, beeping like a car alarm that you can't turn off.  It had a message on it, but my eyesight isn't good enough to read it while running.  When I pushed the start/stop button at the end the beeping finally went away, but so did the message so I'll never know what it said.  I was running very early and there was no moon -- maybe it was a message from another medium.  That's my technical explanation, I'll be on the lookout for further information from unusual sources.

It was a weird one this morning.  The temperature was 79F, compared to 50 yesterday.  I started running and my Garmin wouldn't work except for the heart rate monitor.  Plus it was windy, swirling rain the whole time.  Plus my legs started to feel tired, this is almost three weeks now that I have run 6 days a week.  Even though I have kept exertion levels low, there is still a little fatigue setting in.  Anyway, I ran the same route as yesterday, probably a little slower, I felt the heat.  It is hard to run in a hot wind, because when you are running into it it slows you down, and when it is behind you there is no breeze at all and you heat up.  Either way you are screwed.

Enough whining.  I did it.  Was actually going to go a little more just to let my legs know I am in charge, but I had to make a financial transaction, as Burt would say.  My banker usually likes to see me every day and I was late, enough said.

55F, 1:00:00, average pace 12:44. I wasn't going to go out this morning because of a late night and because my legs felt heavy during yesterday's run, but I'm glad I did. The heart rate readout on my watch was out of whack again in the blustery wind, but I ran some different roads and everything felt good. Had to come in early to get on a call about our London office, which is a train wreck. I'm hoping the long run goes well tomorrow.

43F at start, 49F at end, 17.00 miles in 3:00:01, average pace 10:35 (goal pace was 11:00), no heart rate monitor, splits as follows:

11:15, 11:03, 10:40, 10:48, 10:51, 11:10 (pull rock out of shoe), 11:25 (Juan*), 10:41, 10:35, 10:27, 10:30, 10:23, 10:22, 10:17, 9:52, 9:59, 9:40.

During the last third of the run I was trying to decide whether to stay at 3 hours or push through to 17 miles, but my speed kept picking up and I ended up doing both.  My legs felt heavy the whole time but never got worse, so I pushed through.  I am probably overtrained a little bit right now, but I'll back off next week, take my heart rate down to 125 bpm and only run an hour each day, then only two hours on Saturday at a true 11:00 pace.  That should get me back into equilibrium.  No knee problems despite the extra speed today.  Knock on wood, that issue seems to be a thing of the past.

Also, I passed another runner today.  That makes two this year.

*This is a term used by my politically incorrect older son to describe outdoor sanitary facilities at constructions sites, owing to the predominant ethnicity of crews in our area.

46F, 4.56 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:10, average heart rate 124 bpm.  No joint or tendon pain.  As I promiised myself, I'm scaling it back this week.  I was curious as to how I would feel after Saturday's run.  My legs were a little wooden to start but they felt fine after a mile or so.  I was glad that I had no trouble controlling my heart rate, but interestingly I felt quite tired at the end, as if I had run twice the distance.  It might be residual fatigue, but it might also be attributable to running in another gear, since my heart rate was measurably slower than usual for these easy runs.  I thought I was already in the lowest gear but maybe not.  That would be an interesting development.

Go Rockets (sorry guys).

48F, 4.55 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:11, average heart rate 125 bpm.  Almost identical to yesterday's run, except that my heart rate started going crazy at about mile 3.5.  It came back down quickly and behaved the rest of the run.  I think it was mechanical, but there is always something new.  No dogs, wild animals or rude bikers today.

48F, 4.68 miles in 1:00:00, average pace 12:49, average heart rate 124 bpm.  This has to be the best week of running weather ever, three straight days in the upper 40s with a full moon and no rain or even any clouds.  Too bad I'm in an easy week but I'm enjoying it anyway.  The only interesting thing is that today's distance was better than Monday or Tuesday.  Based on limited data, it seems that Tuesday is usually my best day, but I think yesterday I was still recovering from Saturday's run on Tuesday.

50F, 4.66 miles in 1:00:00, 12:52 average pace, 124 bpm average heart rate.  All systems feel fine.  Just another day in running paradise.  I think it is going to warm up in a couple of days, just in time for my long run on Saturday.  I bought six round trip tickets last night for my son's weddng in December.  Every race entry fee is looking precious these days.  I think 2010 will be mainly a training year.  It's free to open the front door and start running.

48F, 4.57 miles in 1:00:01, average pace 13:07, average heart rate 125 bpm.  I let my heart rate get away from me in the first quarter and couldn't control it well after that, so 15 seconds per mile slower than yesterday.  Still can't believe this fantastic weather, we don't get weather like this very often in Texas.

My son is taking an evolution class at BYU (from his uncle, who ran a 3:47 at St. George this year) and he sent me a 2004 article yesterday from Nature magazine, published by professors from Harvard and the University of Utah, about human physiological adaptation to long distance running.  A bit technical but fascinating.  All of a sudden I believe in evolution, which apparently supports my running habit;-)  Then he sent me this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ1PnR0IYy8) showing a persistence hunter in East Africa running a large kuzu to exhaustion then finishing him off with one spear stroke, an 8-hour hunt -- this one I can understand.  (By the way, he is wearing shoes, not barefoot, not sandals, but running shoes, Nike should be all over this one.)

11.00 miles in 2:00:01, average pace 10:55 per mile, no heart rate monitor today.  Temperature was 48F at beginning, 65F at the end.  Splits were:

10:51, 10:43, 11:16, 11:07, 10:48, 10:57, 10:50, 10:49, 11:07, 10:40, 10:48. 

I was trying to keep the pace to 11:00 today and I got it close enough.  Frankly, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, had no problem keeping the speed down.  My stride felt jerky and I never got into an easy rhythm.  I did it, though.  We are not machines, some days go better and some not as good.  This whole week has been a rest week, but after today I'm not sure I'm ready to go after it again.  I probably will anyway.

I decided to eat while running and that went OK.  Whenever I eat during a race it doesn't go too well, so maybe a little bit of practice will help.  I ate a handful of crackers at the 1:30 mark so that I was good and tired but still had a ways to go.  No issues, they tasted good in fact.

I ran down by the bayou on a paved trail.  Lots of people down there, hundreds actually.  Lots of dogs, but they were all acclimated to having people around so no problems.  Bikers behaved too.  It started to get hot towards the end, a three hour run would have been difficult today.

65F, 5.72 miles in 1:15:00, 13:06 average pace, 126 average heart rate.  My pace for the first mile was 14:17, owing to getting my heart rate under control, so the rest of the run was pretty much in my normal range.  I am off the easy week now, so I let my average heart rate go up a little bit, but still within the zone.

As I ran by my house after the first lap four deer came blasting out of my neighbor's yard.  He is one of these yard-of-the-month guys, so our new neighborhood visitors gravitate toward him, so far they have left my two plants alone.  This is the second time I have seen these deer in his yard.  I am not sure if he knows about them, he probably thinks my kids are eating the bark off his prize birches.  I can see a culture clash coming in our peaceful little neighborhood, three factions:  the deer, who think everything is just fine as is; the friends of the deer, who think deer are people too; and the Texans, who are ready to blast away.  I'd best not say which group I belong to, though given my current speed one might correctly guess it isn't the first.

60F, 5.88 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:46, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Good run this morning, have done better only a couple of times at low heart rate.

Most of the run was in the dark.  Running around the lake I heard some rattling and clanking out on the water.  It was a rower.  So now in addition to walkers, bikers, fellow joggers, untrained dogs, psycho deer and mad herons, I now have to watch out for rowers.  Can't see rowing before daylight, there aren't any street lights out on the lake, and you never know what might be lurking beneath you.  I hear it's great exercise, though.

57F, 6.02 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:27 per mile, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Best low heart rate pace so far, I think my previous best was 12:38 per mile at 127 bpm.

My son's fiance had a military death in her immediate family which we found out about last night, so these are sad times all of a sudden.  Not sure what it means for their plans this fall but that is of secondary concern at the moment.

48F, 5.89 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:45 per mile, average heart rate 126 bpm. I started out fine then my heart rate got away from me half a mile in when I wasn't paying attention. Fought it for two miles and finally started getting some times comparable to yesterday. Overall not as good but I still got in a workout in the expected range. More worrisome, my achilles and a couple of other tendons in my right foot were sore at the beginning of the run. It went away but I think I am actually more vulnerable in my right foot than in my knees. I am doing these low stress workouts so I won't get injured, I hope it works.

The highest heart rate I had today was 174. I was reading an article last night about the different ways to guess at your maximum heart rate and 174 is in the upper range for my age. Someday soon when I am confident of not hurting myself I'll see how high I can get it. It will probably be higher than that. I guess heart rate is one of the components of VO2 max, the other being stroke volume (aside from ability of muscles to accept the oxygen, but they say that is not usually the limiting factor), so all of a sudden I am thinking it might be good if I have a high heart rate since that might mean more upside. I should go somewhere and get all of these metrics officially established.

46F, 5.97 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:33, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Good time but it should have been better.  I struggled this morning keeping my heart rate down.  About 3.5 miles in it started to go crazy, climbing by 30 bpm in the space of 15 seconds.  I could get it back down immediately when I slowed a little bit, and toward the end I was doing some sections at 115 to 120 bpm, strange.  Tomorrow I plan to do a long run at a 10 minute pace but I'm a little concerned.  Maybe I'll take my heart rate monitor with me and slow down if it gets too far out of whack.

56F at start, 66F at end, 17.62 miles in 3:00:00, average pace 10:13, no heart rate monitor.  Splits as follows:

10:43, 9:57, 9:49, 9:43, 10:10, 9:54, 9:52, 9:54, 10:03, 10:13, 9:55, 9:56, 10:09, 10:00, 10:12*, 11:14, 11:17, 7:00 (11:20 pace)

The goal was to run 3 hours at a 10:00 pace, didn't happen.  I had difficulties from the start keeping the speed up.  I never got down to an overall 10:00 pace, though I got within 2 cumulative seconds once, but I never went negative.  If the temperature had been 10 degrees colder I might have made it, but the lesson from this run is that I am probably not going to be ready to run my January 1 marthon in the low 4s -- mid-4s is more likely, which is nevertheless a significant improvement over St. George, especially considering this marathon is here in Flatlandia.

* I ran 14.5 miles before I broke and started slowing, then after another mile I detoured into the golf course clubhouse for a bathroom break.  I turned off my clock for that one, then started it again and jogged the rest of the way.

70F.  I went out the door at 5:30 a.m. for my normal a.m. run, did one mile at low heart rate and then the rain came pouring down.  I hurried inside just as Austin was pulling out for seminary, so I quickly explained that I wasn't a wimp, I just didn't want to be struck by lightning, which is a good possibility for someone like me.  He was like sure, Dad, and drove off laughing.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), there was no lightning, which I will say is unusual for a storm of this magnitude, especially when the starting temperature is 70.  I think it dropped 10 degrees just during the run and the wind was ferocious.

So I ran from my downtown office at lunch.  I recently joined a club downtown so I could have more flexibility.  It is a good time to join with the economy in the toilet.  I got a whole year for $250, I basically pay for it twice by not entering the Ogden Marathon in May.  So anyway I figured everything out and found the trail along the bayou.  A total of 6.00 miles in 1:01:07, average pace 10:11, average heart rate 157 bpm, 60F.  I intended to do it at low heart rate but the wind was still strong and the trail had more up and down than I thought possible in this town, so that plan went out the window real quick and I just ran.  I'll figure out the rest later, the important thing was to get my run in.

Legs are still sore from Saturday but I'll be fine.

41F, 6.21 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 12:53, average heart rate 128 bpm. I went to one of those Brazilian meat palaces last night with some clients and ate quite a bit, even though I tried to keep the quantity down and ate lots of salad. Very good restaurant, very slow morning. My legs are still unwinding from the weekend and yesterday, so it's OK. Interesting, though, how the quantity and type of food at dinner affects running performance the next morning.

Also, in what is becoming a trend, I interrupted my run again, this time a bio break to visit the Juan. A Juan, as opposed to a PoP, has no hand sanitizer in it. I thought I was early enough to avoid competition, but all of a sudden truck drove up and some guy started banging on the door. Juan wanted to use the Juan.

38F, 6.15 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 13:01, average heart rate 126 bpm.  Frustrating run because I love these running conditions, but at this ambient temperature my heart rate was all over the map.  Max 158 and min 105, even late in the run.  It never would stabilize, I am surprised that the average rate came in so close to normal.  Nothing to do but keep running.  I am happy that my legs, knees and feet are staying in good shape, no ill effects from Saturday's and Monday's faster runs.

My Rockets screwed up late against the Suns last night, so I'm guessing a couple of AZ siblings are gloating, not to mention Burt.  I'm taking no calls this morning.  I love this Rockets team, they have no talent but they show up every night and even when they don't win they are almost always in the game late.

48F, warmed up for two miles, about 11:00 pace then ran 10 x 400 with 400 jogging intervals, then jogged in for the last mile or two, about the same pace.  I left my heart rate monitor at home today, but I'll take it on the next one of these, it would have been interesting to see what is happening on the upper end of the spectrum.  Average pace for the whole run was 10:10 per mile, total distance 7.87, total running time 1:20:00.  These are most of my splits, although I'm not the greatest at figuring out the buttons on my Garmin:

2:16, 2:04, 1:57, 1:57, 1:54, 1:50, 1:54, 1:49 (7:09 pace).

That's only eight splits, so where did the others go?  No telling, I had a 1:47 in there I thought, and  I swear I counted ten splits altogether.  It felt good to stretch it out a little bit, and I actually hit my lactate threshold on one of the quarters, something I haven't felt since I was a teenager.  I wonder if it is still possible to run a 5-minute mile (slapping myself awake now).  I hope I don't pay dearly for this morning's frolic. 

61F, 6.37 miles in 1:20:00, average pace 12:34, average heart rate 127.  This was one of those days when there are all kinds of reasons to not go out -- short on sleep, bad weather, work pressures, but then when you run it anyway you are glad you did.  I ran this one in howling wind and horizontal rain.  Despite the mild temperature, it was actually cold with the wind and the rain.  Also, it is garbage day and everybody's cans were blowing over.  Empty milk jugs were rolling down the street (sad to report, mostly whole milk labels).  I had no competition on the roads this morning.  Amazingly enough, my legs felt pretty good despite yesterday's run.  Looks like the rain will clear out, the clouds will stay and it should cool down by about 10 degrees for tomorrow's long run.

51F at beginning, 53F at end, 21.00 miles in 3:28:04, average pace 9:55 per mile.  This was the goal run I had for last week but didn't make it, so I stubbornly added a half hour to the run and went for it again.  It was about 10 degrees cooler and that helped, but I think my training helped too.  This run puts me on target for a 4:20 to 4:30 marathon on New Years Day.  A good day would be faster than that, but a bad day would be slower.  Either way I should beat my St. George time unless heat is a factor, which is always a possibility around here.

When I anxiously peered out the window at 5:00 a.m. it was raining and gusty.  That doesn't usually bother me for a shorter run but it gave me pause this morning.  I knew my feet would be wet and my shirt heavy by the time I got done.  I have a weak mind, what can I say.  But I made it out the door and everything went pretty well after I got going.  It never rained too hard, but my feet were wet and my shirt was heavy by the time I got done.  My splits were:

10:20, 9:25, 9:46, 9:53, 9:59, 9:42, 9:53, 10:00, 9:45, 9:52, 9:53, 9:56, 9:51, 10:00, 9:47, 10:00, 9:56, 10:00, 9:58, 10:03, 10:05.

I learned a lot on this run.  I got my hydration and electrolytes working pretty well so I could concentrate on my other systems.  By the time I got 2/3 of the way in I was struggling with every mile, but I learned that I could push through when I don't have stomach issues. 

45F, 6.71 miles in 1:30:01, average pace 13:25, average heart rate 126.  This looks like a pretty marginal run but it actually wasn't that bad.  I started out very slow, 14:31 the first mile and 14:12 the second.  But my speed improved every mile as my body and heart started to get into a rhythm, and my last partial split was at a 12:28 pace.  Coming off a hard run Saturday at near-marathon effort, this was an OK run, I felt better at the end than when I started.

I was driving into the neighborhood yesterday and saw two pit bulls hanging around the fountain by the entrance, no collar and scraggly, they could have finished 1, 2 in an ugly dog contest.  Pretty ticked at whichever redneck let his dogs out.  Anyway, this morning I ran with some bear spray I took on a backpacking trip in Wyoming a couple of years ago.  It was like hunting quail with an elephant gun. 

63F, 7.08 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:43, low heart rate.

There is a guy in this neighborhood who runs like a machine every morning.  He is about 5 or 6 years older than me, I think.  He runs with perfect posture, the same course every morning, short precise strides, shaved head held high.  I don't think he is trying to get ready for anything because he runs exactly the same every day, looks like about 8-1/2 to 9-minute miles, I'm guessing he goes about 4 miles a day but I can't be sure.  It might be more or less.  That is not a bad alternative to what I am doing, but I'd rather struggle than look good.  As my wife said one morning after happening to see me as she drove past, "you don't look very good out there."  Maybe in 5 or 6 years I'll join up with the gentlemen runners, but first I have to find out what my limits are.

38F at start, 36F at end, 7.25 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:25 per mile, average heart rate 133 bpm.

This heart rate stuff makes me boring and I have sworn off blogging much about it, but this morning's run was particularly interesting/frustrating in that context.  My heart went off like a rocket by the time I got out of the cul de sac, going as high as 181 in the first mile or two, even though I was not breathing hard or feeling any fatigue.  Then it gradually came down and hovered in the 110 range for a while, then even less, dropping to 93 at one point, which is less than a brisk walking pace for me.  Never once did I speed up significantly, or slow down at all.  My first mile was 13:11 and my last partial split was at an 11:44 pace.  I actually ran most of these miles in the 115-120 bpm range, and the overall pace was faster than yesterday.  Maybe something about cold weather makes my heart want to protect me until my body heat starts to build up.  (OK, I know it's not really cold, but down here in the thick humid sea air, 38F actually feels pretty cold.)  Either that or the machine can't get a good reading when I'm not sweating much.  Either that or I'm about to have a heart attack.  I might go see my brother-in-law and get it checked out, purely for scientific reasons of course.

I ran the Sugar Land Turkey Trot this morning with two of my kids, a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. I didn't want to run too hard -- last year I injured my Achilles running too fast in a 4-mile turkey trot -- but I couldn't pass up the chance to get a couple of my kids out there. I warmed up for two miles then went looking for my kids. They were already lined up, almost in the front. I suggested we should move to the back given our projected paces and they said only a few people are going to do 6 minute miles and we are behind them. Turned out they were right, I passed at least as many people as passed me, probably more. I had to remind myself that these kinds of races draw a lot of beginner runners, non-serious runners and non-runners. I thought the 5-mile distance would discourage most of the non-runners but plenty of them found the start line. I have never raced this distance so I didn't know what to expect. I decided to go out between 8:00 and 8:30, which turned out to be about right. I averaged about 8:16 per mile, splits were 8:23, 8:26. 8:25, 8:08 and 8:10. The last couple of miles were somewhat difficult, as I tried to pick up the pace and we turned into a stronger than expected wind. Based on today's time, I would say a 50-minute 10K would be a pretty good projection for me right now. I could have run a little faster but not a lot. There was a bagpipe player right at the finish line. (Do they all play the same tune?) I noticed that wind and kilts are not a good mixture. After I finished I went back to look for my kids. I found my daughter a few minutes back and ran with her for a bit. She said my son was behind her, so I left her to look for him. I ran back and back, over a mile and a half, past the walkers and strollers until I found what looked like the last lady, walking by herself at least a quarter mile behind anybody else. Seeing all those runners back there confirmed that I had lined up correctly. I knew my son wasn't that slow, so I turned around and ran back to the finish line, where he and the rest of an unhappy family were waiting. Turns out he had passed my daughter without her knowing it and finished only a minute or so behind me. This is a kid who never runs. Disgusting, but better for him to do well than the alternative. Anyway, it gave me a chance to cool down very slowly and maybe get in more miles than I had planned. I don't know how I did, it seemed that I finished in about the first third of the pack, but every body was in a hurry to leave so we left. I'll have to wait until times are posted to verify anything, the times in this post are my own.

38F, 7.23 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:27, low heart rate.  I felt pretty good the whole time and my pace was steady, but legs were tired at the end.  I was ready to stop.

I didn't get a time for my race yesterday, I guess my chip wasn't working.  Bummer.  My kids' chips worked fine at least. 

My father-in-law ran a turkey run in Orem yesterday.  There were four men in his age division.  They gave him the fifth-place ribbon.

46F at beginning, 60F at end, 25.13 miles in 4:30:00, average pace 10:45 per mile.  The object today was to be on my feet for the projected time for my next marathon, without actually running at marathon pace.  I figured an 11 minute per mile pace would do the trick, which would put me at about 24-1/2 miles, give or take.  Since my pace was a little faster than I planned, I came within 12 minutes (4:42) of running a whole marathon in a time that would have been 16 or 17 minutes faster than St. George, so obviously I am making progress.  My time in the actual race will depend more on the temperature than anything, I am guessing, so it is way to early to celebrate.  I have been through this training fire drill enough times already to know that race day results can vary a lot, either way, from predictions based on training results.  (Not that I am a veteran, but I have run three of them so I have learned a little bit.)  I will probably be somewhere between 4:10 and 4:45 on race day, but that is a pretty wide range.  I'm off to take my daughter to breakfast, happy weekend all y'all.

51F at beginning, 48F at end, rain with 20 mph N winds, 6.01 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 12:29, average heart rate 127 bpm.  With apologies to all the northerners, it was dang cold out there.  Normally on  Mondays I would be slower than this, but since I didn't run the long run very fast on Saturday I seemed to have recovered more quickly, there was very little of Saturday's run left in my legs this morning.  The previous Saturday I ran an hour shorter but 50 seconds per mile faster, and last Monday's run was almost a minute per mile slower than today.  Can't extrapolate too much from that but it is interesting to think about.  Anyway, this is an easy week.

I had to stop for about a minute while some lame lady's unleashed dog threatened an attack.  She was yelling at the dog to no avail, but I think she was angrier at me for living in the neighborhood than at her flesh-seeking canine.  All muscle groups appear to be intact.

48F, 6.16 miles in 1:15:07, average pace 12:12 minutes per mile at low heart rate.  Back in May I ran 6 miles at a 12:14 pace and haven't come close to that again until this morning, so I am making progress I guess.  It is sobering, however, to remember that that good run in May was right before the personal disaster otherwise known as the Ogden Mararthon.

45F, 7.28 miles in 1:15:03, average pace 10:18 at various heart rates, 2 mile warmup, 10K pace for four miles then jogging in, as follows: 12:59 (120), 12:06 (128), 9:19 (151), 8:36 (159), 8:33 (165), 8:07 (175), 11:54 (145), 3:29 (12:21 pace) (137). The object was to try to get in some miles at faster than my projected marathon pace, I think I'll do that about 3 or 4 more times in the next two weeks before I start tapering. It is amazing how difficult these faster miles are even though they aren't very fast for most runners. I made it through, but I think my climbing heart rate was a good indication that I have less than ideal conditioning at higher speeds, which means there is probably some low-hanging fruit out there if I do a lot more of these. They are tough though.

One of our associate lawyers told me this morning that he had seen the video of me being "interviewed" by my son-in-law after the St. George marathon. He is a running skeptic and thinks that my condition after the marathon mirrored symptoms of hypothermic shock. Interesting to think about, but not too flattering as I think about it.

36F, clear and no wind, 92% humidity.  6.31 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 11:53 at low heart rate.  My legs were very fatigued last night and my achilles was starting to bother me, so I went to bed an hour early and slept well all the way through.  It all came together this morning, first time I have run at low heart rate under 12:00.

They are actually predicting snow here tomorrow morning, up to an inch.  It only snows once every 5-10 years.  But I'll believe it when I see it, as our weather forecasts are unreliable here.  We are at the intersection of the continental west to east weather flows and whatever weather the gulf is bringing in that day.  Some days our weather comes from the northwest, other days from the southeast.  If I run in the snow will that make me a real blogger?

39F, 32F wind chill, wind NNE at 10-15 mph, 6.27 miles in 1:15:00, average pace 11:57/mile, low heart rate.

Well, no snow yet, but I can smell it in the wind.  The moon is riding high, fast-moving clouds this morning.  I think I will do it from my home computer today and it is not because I am a wuss.  There are about 75 languages spoken in Houston homes, almost all of them originating from countries between the 23rd parallels.  Other than the occasional Utahn or Michiganer, there is almost nobody in town who knows how to drive in snow.  The first flake will cause spinning Suburbans, school cancellations and weathercasters who sound like they are calling a football game.  Floods?  No problem.  Hurricanes?  Been there.  But when ice and snow arrive we allow ourselves a little excitement.

23F at beginning, 30F at end, no wind, 18.20 miles in 3:00:00, average pace 9:54 per mile, no heart rate monitor.

This is an off week so it wasn't supposed to be an all-out long run, but it was plenty hard anyway.  I think I could have finished a marathon at this speed but it would have been close.  I participated in a family fast yesterday and as a result (I think) my legs went dead in the second third of the run.  By the last 4 or 5 miles I either got used to it or they revived because it wasn't quite so bad.  Maybe I induced an artificial bonk or something, but it was an interesting physiological experiment.  I'll have to think about this one some more.

It snowed all day yesterday, heavily at times, but the temperature stayed in the mid-30s throughout, so nothing ever stuck in this part of town, although it did in other parts.  Then it became clear and cold last night.  This could very well be our coldest morning of the winter here in Houston.  I'm a real runner now.

55F and light rain, 7.73 miles in 1:40:00, average pace 12:56 per mile, low heart rate.

Well, we have a typical winter gulf coast system in now.  The weekend excitement brought by our brief encounter with Midwest winter weather patterns is long gone.  My legs are still hung over, though, couldn't get a fast pace going, at least not in the target heart rate zone.  So much for my easy week last week.

My big accomplishment on Saturday had nothing to do with running.  I put out the Christmas lights, roof, yard, tree and all, everything but reindeer on the roof.  Zero to ignition all in one day.  Even the wife was a bit impressed.  She didn't say anything, but I just know it.  Problem is they won't go on today.  The rain shorted them out somewhere.  I hate that.

71F w/ light rain and wind NE 10 mph, 7.11 miles in 1:27:27, average pace 12:18 per mile, low heart rate.

I had to stay up late last night attending to a family crisis -- we decorated the Christmas tree.  So I slept in and ran at noon today.  Couldn't go the full distance due to work commitments which was just as well, as I still feel a little off this week.   Also distracted because my son-in-law is driving to Houston from SLC.  He is detouring through Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and El Paso in order to avoid the big storm.  Even with that, he had snow on I-15 most of the way to Cedar City, and hydro-planed once in the slush for about 200 feet.  He is Canadian and experienced at this kind of driving, so it must be pretty bad.

50F, wind NNW 21 mph, 8.07 miles in 1:23:00, 2 miles warmup then 4 x 1 mile with 1/2 mile cooldowns, then jog it in.  Mile splits were 8:22, 7:47, mystery lap, and 8:03.  The second lap felt smooth, like I could go faster, the others I was fighting the wind but still did OK based on the last time I did this.  I think I have to be able to run a 7-minute mile to have any shot at a 3:45 marathon (about 8:35 pace) sometime down the road.  Probably more like a 42:00 10K.  Otherwise the needed speed just won't be there.

Got my Christmas lights back on yesterday, then they went back out.  Time to come up with Plan C.

34F, 25F wind chill, 9.57 miles in 1:28:47, average pace 9:17 per mile, average heart rate 147.  I started out slow intending to do a slow run after running mile repeats yesterday, but couldn't keep my heart rate down in the cold and the wind, so I gave up after a half mile and decided if I couldn't run easy I would run hard.  My splits and heart rates were: 10:50 (174), 9:19 (190), 9:16 (161), 9:12 (141), 9:04 (140), 9:16 (123), 9:00 (137), 9:02 (132), 8:52 (130) and 4:59 (8:46 pace, 136 bpm).  Heart rate was all over the place especially early, swinging from a high of 207 down to 113.  Interesting that it stabilized in the last half, even more interesting that it was so low, I was working a lot harder than that, in fact this was really a half-marathon speed for me.  Probably issues with my machine.  I should wear two monitors and see if I get the same readings, but that would be a little too geeky, even for me, plus I am too cheap to go buy another gadget. 

Got my Christmas lights back on again last night and they stayed on.  So far Plan C is working.  All is well in Houston.

43F, wind from NNE at 10 mph, 9.30 miles in 1:54:20, average pace 12:18 per mile, low heart rate.  Easy run after running hard yesterday.  I am toying with the idea of not tapering for my upcoming marathon on New Years Day.  It is not the race where I am going to qualify for Boston and I prefer not to interrupt my running rhythm.  On the other hand my old legs probably need a rest.  I am in my eighth or ninth consecutive week of running 6 days on and 1 off.  So far Charley and Horse are not complaining that much but it might be good to back off a little bit.

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.

53F and light rain, a little bit of wind.  7.20 miles in 1:32:26, 12:50 minutes per mile, low heart rate.  It felt like I was getting Saturday out of my system, so I wasn't too worried about the slow pace.  It is what it is.

I am going to Omaha today.  They were below zero last week or pretty close to it, but in the 20s this week for lows, so it should be pretty runnable.  Something different anyway, but I'm not going there just to run ;)

Set the alarm in Omaha this morning and checked the temperature.  -2F.  This is hard core cold and I don't know the area well enough to even try anything in the ice out there.  I brought stuff for running at 20 degrees, not minus 2 degrees.

Quick change of plans and I did 5 on the treadmill at a 5 mph pace.  For some reason it seems faster than actually running it, you can tell I don't know much about treadmills.  Had to ask my sister how to turn it on.  It had a switch under the front of the belt.  How was I supposed to know that?

This week is the start of my taper, so I don't feel too bad about the easier workout, it accomplished its purpose.

I haven't blogged in several days due to my son's wedding this week, but I have run every day.  The next few entries will get me caught up.  I did an afternoon run today.  Getting back from Omaha late and attending to other last-minute duties before leaving for SLC made it impossible to get out this morning.  I left work early, changed at the downtown club and drove out to Memorial park which is the primary running area in Houston.  It is always loaded with runners.  There is a three-mile loop there.

I warmed up for two miles then did 10x400, fastest pace 6:40 and slowest pace 7:48, progressively slower throughout, then cool down pace to the end.  To me that means I was pushing myself.  Legs felt pretty ripe at the end.  Average pace for the entire run was 10:07.

Hurried home and rushed to the airport.

21F in Provo, Utah.  Ran 4.84 easy miles, average pace 10:23 per mile.  Ran from my hotel on 2230 North up to 9th East, then down to 600 North, across to University then back to the hotel.  It was a lot nicer running down than up.  Most of the sidewalks were cleared off but not all of them -- I found out that I can run on ice OK.  Got back to the hotel just in time to get showered and up to the Provo temple for my future daughter-in-law's first trip there.  She is a delightful young lady.  I think my son is pretty terrific too, so this is a very happy time for our family and hers.

19F in Provo, Utah.  Ran 8.34 easy miles at an average pace of 10:09 per mile.  I left my hotel room not knowing beforehand where I should go, and then saw a trail by the river.  Got on it and immediately saw the signs -- it is the Provo River Parkway Trail, I think I have seen several references to it on this blog.  My hotel is on 2230 North and that seemed to be the northern end of the trail.  I took it downstream past I-15 and then some, seemed like I was almost to Utah Lake but I had to turn around and hurry back.  This is a great running trail available to the Utah Valley bloggers.  I only saw one other runner, though.  He zipped by me and said something.  I think it was "hello", but it was hard to tell with the Doppler effect. 

18F in Salt Lake City.

My son got married here yesterday on Temple Square, wonderful day, topped off with a trip to a Brazilian meat palace in Trolley Square, can't remember the name but we had some nice wind-down time with the two familes, without the honeymooning couple.  Too much meat, though, not sure what I was expecting.

So this morning I hit the streets at 6:00.  I wasn't quite sure what the conditions would be but I decided to do a tour of SLC.  This was a really cheap tour because it was on foot, in the dark and no tour guide.  I didn't notice a lot of competition.

I started out at the end of Foothill, at I-80, out the door from our daughter's apartment and headed north, which was mostly downhill.  Kind of difficult footing at times because all of the sidewalks aren't clear.  About a mile and a half up Foothill I saw a group of women running on the other side of the street.  They gradually pulled ahead and turned in front of me heading up Sunnyside.  I continued along Foothill until it turned into 500 South, more downhill, past Rice Eccles (go Cougars!), past Trolley Square to State Street, then up State Street to North Temple.  I had designs on running up to the Capitol but it was too steep and I didn't want to walk, so I turned around about 2/3 of the way up, back down to N. Temple and out a few more blocks until I had about 7.5 miles in before turning around.  Back through the avenues, including a trip up to a small house on M Street that I lived in as a kid when my dad was a graduate student (very steep road, I don't remember it being that steep), past the cemetery and on through the avenues up to the University of Utah.  I ran all the way through campus, past a building with some large ground-level windows.  I noticed in the reflection that my form is a little better.  I finally caught Foothill and took it back home.  Not fast at all, average pace about 11 minutes per mile, but OK for a taper week.  Ran some final errands, caught the plane and made it home to Houston before midnight.

I enjoyed my time in Utah this week.  I enjoyed my son's successful marriage, getting to know his in-laws, catching up with the few relatives I still have in Utah and getting in some runs in a different setting.

35F, sunny and calm.  Back in Houston now.  I decided I needed one more hard run before the marathon.  Not a hero run, I just thought I could get some useful data points by seeing how hard I could go for 8 or 10 miles.  I toyed with trying to run 10 miles at an 8:00 pace, I settled for 8 miles at an 8:33 pace, which is plenty for me right now.  I warmed up for 2, then ran the following splits:  8:30, 8:34, 8:34, 8:32, 8:34, 8:37, 8:36, 8:26.  These splits are almost exactly a BQ pace for me, unfortunately you have to run 26 of them to do that.  Progress nevertheless.  I am thinking that I will try to run the first half of the marathon at a 9:30 pace and see if I can pick it up from there.  I was pretty spent after running 8:30s for that long.  From here on out only easy runs.

55F, calm and dry.  It is almost balmy this morning.  Perfect day for a long run.  Ran 10.06 miles in 2:02:50, average pace 12:12, low heart rate.  This equals my best pace at low heart rate, and it is a longer distance and the day after running hard, so I am pretty happy about this run.  Need to keep my eye on the ball, though, need to keep my miles down this week so my legs can recover.  Interesting, though, I have fewer nagging aches and pains than I have had in a long time.  Knee pain is non-existent, and the tendon insertion point in my right heel has been fine since the middle of last week.  I am grateful for that.

66F, warm and windy with intermittent rain.  Man, I have run in a lot of different weather lately.  I am trying to cut down my miles, so this morning I started out slowly and picked it up a little bit each mile, until I was almost to my 10K pace at the end.  Splits were 11:27, 10:29, 9:22, 9:08, 8:33 and 1:29 (11:10 pace).   The 9:22 pace felt very sustainable, which is a good sign.

Yesterday toward the end of my run I heard an ambulance which sounded like it was right in the neighborhood, driving around looking for an address.  Then all of a sudden there it was, parked in front of somebody's house as I ran past, empty but lights still flashing.  I assume a heart attack, since early morning is the most common time to have one.  I haven't heard anything since, though.  What a Christmas downer for that family if that is what it was.  Even if it isn't a heart attack, an ambulance in front of your house cannot be a good thing, whatever the reason.  Whatever risks we take on by running for extended lengths of time at high exertion levels, they are small compared to the risk of not running at all.

51F, wind W 8 mph, 5.11 miles in 1:00:18, average pace 11:49/mile, low heart rate.  I felt very fatigued last night, especially my legs, even though I hadn't run hard yesterday.  But I got a rare 8 hours of sleep and when I ran my first mile in 12:22 I knew it would go well.  My best mile was 11:30, a low heart rate record for me.  The overall pace is also a record by 23 seconds per mile.  Now off to the stores.

Yesterday I was at the end of a long checkout line in a sporting goods store when somebody opened a register right next to me, looked at me and said "no waiting".  I was right there.  Then a lady about my age (i.e., indeterminate age) started kicking up a fuss, saying she was ahead of me in the old line.  I'm like what the heck, doesn't she know holiday shopping is a competitive sport?  Then I realized of course she knew.  She thought since I was a man I wouldn't know.  Smirking here in Houston.

31F, wind NNW 7 mph, wind chill 24F, 5.12 miles in 53:55, average pace 10:32/mile, warmed up two miles then did 5 x 400 at maximum effort, splits were 1:48 (7:10), 1:45 (7:00), 1:47 (7:08), 1:44 (6:57), 1:47 (7:02), then jogged it in.  Legs felt very tired today, stayed up late getting Christmas ready and was hurrying to finish the run before everybody woke up.

It was a good day today, merry Christmas everybody.

33F, no wind, 10.09 miles in 1:35:22, average pace 9:27 per mile.  I decided to do my last "long" run at a potential marathon pace and it felt comfortable.  Only 10 miles, but that seemed far enough to get a good feel, at least compared to the last time I ran at this speed, which was more difficult.  I'll shoot for this pace on Friday through the first 20 and then decide what to do for the last quarter.  We  now have cool weather forecast all the way through to the day of the marathon.  It is still too early to rely on forecasts much, but it would be very good if the starting temperature were in the 30s.  It takes longer to get going but the payoff is on the back end.  Both Ogden and St. George had finishing temperatures in the mid-60s, too high for my delicate constitution.

31F, calm and dry.  4.84 miles in about 58 minutes, a 12 minute pace.  Can't beat this weather for running.  My Garmin was dead when I picked it up this morning, so I had to measure this route the old fashioned way, Gmap-pedometer.com.  It reminded me of how I did my runs before I had a GPS device.  Truthfully, this Google Earth application does the job just fine, the only differences are no immediate feedback on speed and no heart rate monitoring. 

This week I am going to run 5, 4, 3 and 2.  Today was the 5.  Tomorrow I will run one hard mile, everything else slow until the marathon on Friday.

35F, calm and cloudy. 4.00 miles  Two easy:  11:49 (122 bpm) and 11:14 (129 bpm); one hard:  8:01 (155 bpm); and one cool down:  11:40 (136 bpm).  After the marathon I am going to do some more runs like these.  I feel like I need to improve my mile time quite a bit in order to continue to improve, and it is interesting to watch my heart rate at different speeds during the same run.

43F, rainy, wind NNW at 9 mph.  Ran 3.04 easy miles, average pace 11:20, low heart rate.  The third mile was a low heart rate best of 11:07.  It is interesting that even the easy runs are more efficient when my legs are not fatigued.  Hopefully for the upcoming race that means I will get an improvement over my training times.

My son and daughter-in-law's Texas open house is this Saturday evening, at our house.  I have spent the last two days stripping and re-finishing the entryway.  It was hard work with all the bending and kneeling.  It didn't do any good to argue that I'm an athlete now so we should hire somebody to do it.  Cross-training, I guess.

47F, calm but foggy.  Ran a couple of easy miles, didn't time it.  I feel fine.

Forecast for tomorrow morning is 38F at race time, going up to 49F at noon and clear, so pretty much ideal. 

I still have not decided on a pace for tomorrow.  The two choices are 9:30 and 9:10.  On December 12, almost 3 weeks ago, I ran 22 miles at a 9:30 pace.  I was strung out at the end, but it was the finish of a hard 64-mile week.  I ran a similar pace last Saturday for a 10-mile run and felt better than I did on the front end of the 22-mile run.  So I think 9:30 is very doable unless I am miscalculating somewhere.  With the benefit of a reasonable taper it gives me a high probability of finishing strong, something that hasn't happened yet on a marathon.  Lots of family and friends will be there, and no one would fault me for a 50-minute PR.  Plus I don't plan to enter another marathon until the fall, so it would be nice to have a solid effort tomorrow. 

The other approach is to go for it and try to run at a 9:10 pace, which would put me right at 4:00.  This approach is no different than what I have been doing almost every Saturday this fall, which is to push myself regularly.  It has been a little scary staring out into the darkness early in the morning knowing the task ahead, but the rewards of running at unknown speeds, including the occasional failure, have provided me with enough courage to keep up what has been a successful fall training season.  Not sure the race itself is a good place to risk failure, though, so there you have it.