For Whom the Dogs Bark

Two one-hour sessions on the hotel TM.

Two more one-hour sessions on the TM.  The second one was tough.  I am in Taipei now but leaving for Dubai in a couple of hours.  If Dubai is safe (and I think it is), I am going to run outside.  Just can't stomach any more time on that machine, it drives me nuts.  I can run forever outside without iPod or company, but I would never get fit if that infernal machine was my only option.  TV doesn't help, I just can't stand to run in one spot.

That is all.

61F, 47%, SSE 3 mph in Dubai.  Finished at 73F.  My flight got cancelled yesterday, so didn't get in until 5:00 this morning, got to the hotel at 6, got unpacked and went running.  I felt great for the first 4 miles, then I didn't feel so good.  I was just exploring, it looks pretty safe around here.  I was trying to find a path along the beach but I never did.  Everything is private or under construction.  I was planning on 20, but when I tried to turn into a side road at 17.93 miles I got stopped for about the third time, the guy in the guard station made me detour along an area that was unrunnable at that stage.  I tried to run again once I got back onto a flat surface, but didn't feel good and was getting a salty face, so called it a day at 18.00 miles, 2:33:27, average pace 8:31 per mile.  I seem to have flu symptoms, too much traveling and not enough sleep.  But at least I got to run outside, not a perfect day but it beats the machine.

60F, low humidity and wind.  My internal clock is still screwed up, so I woke up shortly after midnight and worked until daylight.  Then went out for a quick run before going to meetings.  I had aspirations of doing a LHR run but it wasn't working with all of the biorhythm disruptions I have right now.  So I tried to not push it too hard but didn't worry too much about staying extremely slow.  Ran 10.66 miles in 1:37:56, average pace 9:11 per mile (I know I'm in the Middle East, but I see absolutely no connection).  I did let loose a little bit and took about 2-1/2 miles at MP, 7:36 and 7:22 plus a part of a mile until I got to a corner where I couldn't keep running.

Heading back to the U.S. in a couple of hours.  This is an interesting place, it's like the whole place has been built in the last 10 years.  A lot of the buildings are ridiculous, the architects were given the keys to the money vault and the accountants all went on vacation -- all kinds of outlandish buildings.  It's like a contest.  Construction cranes everywhere, everything for rent, no landscaping, nothing seems finished.  Kind of a sterile feeling, actually.  After finishing work today I toured a museum.  Other than a few pottery shards, it appears that their history started about when I was born.  Makes me a relic too, I guess.

43F, 84%, W 8 mph.  LHR run, 8.40 miles in 1:20:34, 9:36 per mile, good pace for this type of run.  Felt cold after traveling in warmer places.

44F, 65%, N 17-24, wind chill 36F.  Trying to get a little sympathy on the wind chill but I know it is hopeless with all the Utah runners on this blog.  At least my son thought it was cold.  16F and then we could have a conversation.  I hate running in the dark when it is either raining or blowing; at least it was dry today.  But when I left my cul de sac and turned into the heavy north wind I immediately gave up on my long slow plans, just wanted to get this one over with.  Plan was to go 12 slow, but I needed to finish early anyway, so I ran a full half (I mean half of a full) at pretty close to marathon pace, at least for my current conditioning.

Splits were 9:19, 8:24, 7:53, 7:51, 7:42, 7:43 (161), 7:41, 7:49, 7:44, 7:53, 7:45, 7:46, 7:49 then burned in the stub split at a blistering 8:11 (172) pace.  Legs were trashed but I didn't feel too tired, exactly what I would expect after doing a lot of base work and no speed work.  Hopefully the legs will come back.  If they do maybe I can break 1:30 this year, basically a full minute per mile faster than today..  Today was 13.11 miles in 1:44:11, average pace 7:57 per mile.

28F, 86% and calm.  Cold but dressed warm.  10.10 LHR miles at 10:10 per mile, how often does that happen?  Glad I could run slow enough to pull it off.

65F, 88%, S 10 mph.  I didn't run Saturday because of the Olympic Trials, but it didn't make me any faster today.  20.07 LHR miles in 3:30:01, average 10:28 per mile, not a good run but any time you run 20 it is a success.  I am supposed to start training for Boston this week, but I think I will run slow for one more week.  I think I will have time this week and I want to get a long string of uninterrupted slow days.  Training has been so broken up with travel and the holidays that I feel like I need one more week.

However, I am afraid something is going on.  I was slightly under 10 for 6 miles then nothing after that.  Several late in the run were in the high 10s and would have been comfortably in the 11s if I hadn't cheated and let my heart rate go up a little.  I have done 20 at LHR before averaging under 10 at temperatures similar to this morning -- I really have no explanation for why I am suddenly getting slower.  One doesn't age that quickly.  One possibility is that I have actually lost conditioning running a lot of slow stuff, but it has never happened before.  I honestly thought I would be in the low 9s by the end of this base cycle, maybe better.  Another possibility is medical.  I am due for a physical but not sure how I would explain my situation to a doctor who is used to dealing with patients who are happy to be able to run 3 miles a week, if at all.  How is a medical professional going to think there is anything wrong with me?  He'll just think I'm crazy and his guess would probably be no better than mine.

The Trials on Saturday were a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Went down with Wade and Eric and met Joe who was in town to run a very fast marathon on Sunday.  Because of the configuration of the 3-loop course and the staggered start between men and women we were able to see the start and the finish and then walk down the course a ways and see a lot of racing by shuttling back and forth between the out-bound part and the in-bound part.  Because of a jog in the course we were actually able to see each lead group 3 times each lap.  It was other-worldly to be so close to the lead pack as they came around corners, you could see the sweat flying off of them.  I think the women have a good chance at a medal, not sure about the men.  Houston turned out big for it, but I can't believe everybody in town wasn't there.

70F, 94%, SSW 9-17 with light rain.  Got out very early with the intent to run 12 slow.  About 4.5 miles in I saw Wade, ran to catch up with him and ran 3 or 4 at his speed, which was mid-8s, then finished off at the same speed, heart rate generally 152-155 toward the end.  Overall 12.47 miles in 1:54:36, average 9:11 per mile (second time in a week, hate when that happens).

Can't get the weekend out of my head.  In addition to SlowJoe's cold, execution-style run, my age group was won at 2:34:57, somebody from Ross, California (Napa Valley) coming in to crash the party, very possibly a liberal.  Seriously, that time is 10 minutes faster than any other time I have ever heard about for my age group, including at Boston.  I looked him up and he has run only one other marathon that shows up in the last 10 years, CIM just over a month ago.

41F, 60%, NNE 6 mph, clear and dry.  A perfect morning.  Left very early and ran 20.07 miles in 2:52:53, average pace 8:37 per mile, average heart rate 151 bpm, and made it to a 9:00 meeting at a client's office.  This run was a only a little higher than my average pace in Richmond about 14 months ago, so I was curious to compare heart rates from that time period.  I found a training run from a couple of Saturdays before that marathon.  It was 26 miles, and my entry says "under 155 through 20 miles and under 160 until the last mile" -- average pace on that day was 9:36.  Today I didn't break 155 until I sped up to the low 8:20s in the last 5 miles; further, I never broke 161 and could have held close to that heart rate and pace for the remainder of the marathon if I had wanted to.  My shoes were heavier then, the weather about the same, training load a little heavier right now than it was then -- overall it is fair to say I was a minute faster today at a slightly lower heart rate.  All well and good, but I would be like to understand why my LHR pace back then was at least as fast as it is now, that is the mystery.  Everything else makes sense.   

One last factoid from the Trials:  The oldest man was 37 (the winner was 36 and the last place finisher was also 36).  The oldest woman was 50 and there were two of them, finishing 28th and 143rd.  15 women were over 40.  I can't explain the disparity but it is interesting.

55F, 88%, SSW 6 mph.  12.51 miles in 1:54:29, average 9:09 per mile.  At mile 9.11 I looked at my watch and my average pace was 9.11, along with a previous split of 9:11.  Had to pick it up after that.

69F, 93%, S 9 mph and cloudy.  Got up very early and ran 20, most of it in the dark.  Very warm this morning for this time of year.  Unfortunately my BodyGlide stopped working at the same time as the sun came up, not a good combination, but at least it helped me keep my hands high.  20.00 miles in 3:00:43, average 9:02 per mile, 146 bpm.  Tried to stay under 150 bpm the whole run, my theoretical aerobic threshold.  I could stay under 9 minute pace until the last 2 miles, when I had to slow down a little or release the heart rate.

PM:  Wade and I drove out to Huntsville State Park, site of the Rocky Raccoon 100 in two weeks, to practice running the trails in the dark, since we will be pacing Mr. Crockett in two weeks when he runs it.  We ran exactly 10 miles in 1:48:14, average pace 10:50 per mile.  At first it was comical trying to stay on the trail in the dark and avoid all the roots.  Plus I was pretty stiff from running earlier in the day, but within a mile we were moving fine.  I had a good light and led most of the way, but Wade was leading at mile 3.5 where we both stopped when a large animal started moving alongside the trail.  I ran into Wade but we were just staring and never saw anything.  Finally it growled and walked away.  We are calling it a bear.  So we are veteran trail runners now.  A couple of guys were just unloading their trunk when we got back.  They are in the race and were out for a night run, they were going to run all night, for 10 hours, but were only going 30 miles.

Hi, my name is flatlander and I am a mileage junkie.  I didn't intend for things to turn out like this, it just happened, but I can change.  I'm going to start getting ready for Boston next week.  This time I really mean it.

58F, 62%, N 7 mph and cloudy.  Really good morning to air it out a little bit.  Ran 6 wu at about 8:55 per mile, then 5 tempo miles, 7:15 (161), 7:03 (170), 7:07 (174), 7:08 (177) and 7:04 (179), average 7:08, then a very slow cd mile to finish it off.  I was hoping to do the tempo at 7:00 flat, but that was pretty optimistic, I haven't run anything sustained in the 7s since the Huntsville half, which was exactly 3 months ago today.  So I'm hoping this is just a matter of knocking the rust off.  The plan is to do about 3 hard days a week (combination of speed and stamina), all in a row, then use the rest of the week to recover and work on base miles.  I'm thinking that will teach me to run better when I'm tired, but still get the recovery I need to improve. 

54F, 66%, ENE 5 mph.  Another good running morning.  So today was wind sprints, just like high school.  Ran 6 miles at about an 8:50 pace then 15 x 200 as fast as I could go.  It wasn't very fast though -- mostly in the low 6s, a couple of high 5s and a couple of mid 6s.  Neural feedback was telling me I was taking long, fast, smooth strides -- so much for neural feedback.    Endorphins are starting to wear off now and I can feel my legs and my feet, hopefully I haven't damaged anything.  Went back to original speed to finish off the run, did leg weights at the rec center at 12.0 miles then ran home.  Altogether 12.30 miles in 1:45:20, average pace 8:33.  Maybe 1K repeats tomorrow, then back off for the rest of the week.

Went out the door early and the wind was 41 mph, looked at the computer and it had a tornado warning on it, so I bailed.  Went to the clubhouse and ran 6.0 on the TM.  This was based on heart rate and length of the run, not mechanical feedback on the clubhouse TM, which was inaccurate.  I planned to do 6 more TM miles later in the day but got busy around noon and my legs were hurting late, so I bailed again.

50F, 90%, W 9 mph and cloudy.  Very nice running weather this morning, just on the cusp between short sleeves and long sleeves, which is ideal for me.  Left early and ran 5 at 8:45 pace, then did what was supposed to be yesterday's workout, 7 x 1000 at threshold pace with recovery jog to even out each mile:  4:26 (7:06 mile pace)(160 bpm), 4:27 (7:09)(161), 4:19 (6:49)(166), 4:07 (6:39)(170), 4:10 (6:41)(172), 4:05(6:32)(172) and 4:09 (6:42)(174), average 6:48 per mile.  (The metric numbers are a little off because my watch is set to miles rather than kilometers, I was trying to manually hit the lap button at .62 miles but it was off by as much as 2 seconds).  According to a McMillan printout I have, a 7:30 average marathon pace is equivalent to tempo intervals in the 6:44 to 6:58 range, and 1000 meter cruise intervals in the 4:09 to 4:14 range, so I managed to hit that about right.  It was hard but not impossible, which means I might be in the range for a 7:30 marathon pace.  It was interesting that if I went ahead and ran faster than I thought I could sustain, I was able to pretty much sustain it through the end of the interval anyway.  So I ran faster than I thought I could, which at least is better than the other way around.  I would eventually like to hit 3:44 for 1K intervals (6 minute mile pace), but that appears to be a distant goal at this point.

Went to the clubhouse and did leg weights then jogged home.  Altogether 12.17 miles in 1:41:59, average pace 8:23 per mile.

39F, 100%, calm and clear.  Started out bundled up a little bit but soon lost everything but the long sleeves, really didn't seem that cold with no wind blowing.  Got out very early and ran 20.07 miles in 3:00:32, average pace 9:00 per mile, average heart rate 141, although it went up in the last 4 miles as high as 147.  Fairly difficult run following yesterday's workout, legs started to get pretty stiff in the last third.  I was trying to keep the overall pace right at 9:00 -- I'll play tomorrow by ear, but I'm trying to do as much as possible this week because of travel again next week.

Highlight of the run was passing a parked teenager's car with writing on the windows celebrating her 18th birthday:  "Finaly Leagle".  Just in time for the election, couldn't be happier for her.

50F, 99%, NNW 5 mph and clear.  Normally I would have really enjoyed a run like this, but too many hard runs this week.  Was all I could do to drag my sorry Jingas out the door.  Left at 4:30 and ran a few miles in the neighborhood, then ran down and caught up with Wade.  We ran another 9 or 10 together and then I ran home.  Legs felt heavy the whole time, definitely found my limit this week.  All appears to be OK though.  15.54 miles in 2:27:19, 9:29 per mile.

On the other hand, Wade and I had a great time.  We are signed up for two half marathons (Baytown in February and Woodlands in March) and the Kingwood Marathon next New Years Day (in addition to Boston for me), and we'll undoubtedly do more.  But we spent most of the run talking about how fast we used to be.  Should have heard us bragging in the dark.

39F, 98%, calm and clear.  Gorgeous morning out, but I had a run that I was a little afraid of.  Wanted to go 8 miles at 7:00.  Warmed up 4 miles at about a 9:10 pace then took off.  I managed to hold it for 6 miles at sub-7 and probably could have averaged 7 flat for 2 more with the cushion I had but could no longer hold the pace so I gave up.  Still a good run though.  Fast splits were 6:57 (164), 7:00 (171), 6:50 (175), 6:55 (177), 6:56 (179) and 7:00 (179), average 6:56, 12 seconds faster and 1 mile longer than last week.

Traveling all week, probably not much but a couple of hotel treadmill sessions for the remainder of the week.

10 miles on hotel TM at 9:00 pace.

Mr. Crockett stayed with us last night and left early this morning to go to the start of the RR 100.  He is still hurting but will play it by ear.

A.M., went out for first run after returning home, hoping to get in 10 but had to give up at 4.58 miles when a heavy thunderstorm broke out, truncating the run early.  Overall about 9:00 pace.

P.M., went out to Huntsville ready to pace Crockett.  Met Wade there, the plan was to take turns.  We ran through the night with Crockett, sometimes all three together, sometimes one or the other of us.  I left at 5:00 a.m. to get to a 7:00 church meeting and Wade finished the race with him.  I'll let him give the report, but suffice it to say we got in lots of good conversation and got to see a level of perserverance that we probably won't encounter again in our running lives.  Total of 24.18 miles pacing.

Could barely walk when I woke up this morning.  Crockett trashed my legs in the mud on Saturday night.  Finally got on the treadmill in the p.m. and ran 6 at about 8:50 pace.

48F, 87%, E 1 mph.  Ideal running weather today, which I felt like I have earned, thank you.  Ran 5 at 8:50 pace then did the seminary run.  Warmed up for another mile then ran 20 x 200 wind sprints w/ 200 recovery, but a little slower this time, averaged about 6:30 pace, so I guess they weren't really wind sprints.  But with my stiff legs right now it certainly felt like it.  Did heavy leg weights at the end and jogged home.  Altogether 12.05 miles in 1:46:31, average pace 8:50 per mile.  Hoping to get in a few more miles later today to make up for yesterday's delinquency.

47F, 90%, NNW 5 mph.  Good running weather.  Out the door at 4 a.m. and got in 11 miles before the seminary run.  Did 2 wu, speeding up to 9:00 per mile, then ran 8 x 1000, between 6:40 and 7:05 pace, averaged about 6:53.  7:12 (161), 6:46 (168), 6:47 (170), 6:40 (171), 6:50 (171), bathroom break, then 7:06 (166), 6:46 (170) and 7:04 (170).  Overall 11.00 miles in 1:31:37, average 8:20 per mile.  Slower than 2 weeks ago, wasn't really feeling it today, legs were still weak from wind sprints and weights yesterday.  Was planning to run 10 repeats, but I started to feel pretty distressed when I started out on #9 so I jogged out the mile and called it a day, except for some rolling etc. back at the house.  I need some rest, but that is the purpose of doing two or three hard days in a row.  I'll go easy tomorrow and Friday before Saturday's race, which will count as my tempo run for the week (it's a half marathon, so that counts).

PM:  6 on TM at 9:00 pace. 

43F, 82%, NNE 6 mph.  Out early again to run before catching a flight.  Maybe get in some TM tonight.  6.23 miles in 56:23, average 9:03 per mile.  Never felt good, very stiff and sore, hopefully better by Saturday.

38F, 82%, N 20 mph, wind chill in the 20s, probably the coldest morning so far this year, but at least it was dry.  Today we ran the Baytown Jailbreak Half Marathon, which benefits the local police department there.  I decided to invest a little bit in a mini-taper for this race when I saw it was going to be cool and dry, though I hadn't counted on the wind.  I ran only 6 on Thursday and none yesterday, so not a good week mileage-wise.

I picked up Wade and Linda a little after 5:00 and we drove to Baytown, about an hour from Northwest Houston where we live.  We couldn't believe the wind we were going to face on the second half of the course.  On the way we started talking about goal splits, at which point I remembered that my Garmin was safely stashed on top of my cabinet at the house.  Wade is probably ready to drop me as a running buddy, seems like I am always up to something, getting lost in 5Ks, tripping over roots, multiple detours to the bushes and now no watch.  You would think I could just show up and run without making a spectacle of myself.  It didn't actually matter too much today, because I didn't know how fast to run it anyway.  One of the goals of this race was to figure some of that out.  Thinking back on my tempo runs, my tendency is to slack off toward the end of each mile until I get my split readout, at which point I pick it back up.  So if I could stay conscious of running at an even, hard effort I figured I could do OK.

We got to the start a little early and picked up our packets, but first I made a well-timed trip to the facilities, of course.  Then we scurried back to the car, which was parked a couple of blocks away.  Should have heard us complaining and wondering what we were doing out there, it was flat out cold.  We got back out a few minutes before the start, made our irrevocable decisions as to the amount of clothing each of us would haul for 13.1 miles, and made our way to the start line in time for the prayer and the national anthem.  They warned us that the start would be non-traditional.  All of a sudden this guy in a striped suit comes running out and a gun goes off without any announcement.  Some people started running and others stood around, including me of course.  But eventually we all got the idea. 

Went out at a quick pace and stayed within a couple of hundred yards of the leaders for two miles, but they gradually pulled away.  Low 6s per mile won this last year (it is a small race with a pretty slow field), so I knew I needed to stay close to the front for a while at least if I was going to get a good time.  I ended up running with the first place woman (and eventual winner) most of the way to the turnaround, she seemed to know what she was doing and I thought it would be a good idea to stick with her.  She had very heavy footsteps even though she was small, and my Jingas were tap-tapping away, quite a combination.  I left her at the top of the bridge, she came in 2 or 3 minutes behind me.

The turnaround is a tall bridge that spans the Houston Ship Channel, 177 feet above road level.  It is about 3/4 of a mile climb to the top, quite steep for the last quarter mile, I could feel the burn.  Then we turned around into the wind.  Wade was coming up when I was going down and he yelled "47:17" as he passed.  I didn't know whether that was his time or mine, but later in a more lucid moment I finally figured out that it was both of our times.  After up-loading his run he sent me an e-mail saying that it was at the 6.8 mile point for me on the way down, which meant that I had a 6:57 average to that point, which included climbing the bridge but not yet going all the way down it, and a 7:20 average the rest of the way, meaning I lost 23 seconds per mile going into the wind.  Wade lost only 14, but either way this could be interesting for both of us on a flat course with no wind.  Sub-7s looks remotely possible, though not likely.  We are running the Woodlands half in a few weeks so it will be an interesting comparison.

I was in 6th place coming off the bridge when some scuzz-bucket passed me, complaining about the wind.  I hung with him for a while until the aid station at mile 8.  He stopped for a drink and I left him there.  He hung around for the rest of the race but once I hit mile 11 I knew I had enough to bear down a little bit and maintain my place.  I beat him pulling away.  The guy in front of me, though, was uncatchable.  A little disappointing because he had gray hair.  He got 5th place overall and first masters, 54 years old.

There was no clock at the finish line.  I desperately tried to find out from somebody what the gun time was, finally somebody said 1:32.  I was a little skeptical but went with it (loud and clear to anybody who would listen) until actual times were posted.  Actual time was 1:33:47, average pace 7:09 per mile, 3-minute PR for this distance.  Wade had an optimistic goal of 1:42 and he got 1:41.  When he finished it seemed really funny to us how cold it was.  Everything seems funny after you don't have to run anymore.  Linda beat her Huntsville time by 12 minutes, 2:09, so everybody was happy.

With the exception of the masters winner, who wasn't listed in the individual age group categories, I beat all the age groups from 30 on up.  There were 4 guys in the 26-30 group who were faster than us.  1:20 won it, so not a fast race, but about right for my abilities.  About 200 entrants I think.  We plan to go back next year if we can.  Got a cool, large age group plaque which they let me pick up early, then had to hurry back to Houston because Linda just published a children's book and had to show up for a book-signing obligation.  Fun times in Houston today.

45F, 71%, E 9 mph.  Got out early and ran 8.7 before the seminary run, including 18 sprints, each about 150 meters.  I didn't try to time them, the Garmin isn't accurate enough to get a good measurement anyway.  When I got back from the seminary run I went another 6.5 at long-run pace.  I was going to do weights but my legs were feeling beat up and I didn't think that weights would do me much good at that point.  Overall 15.24 miles in 2:15:27, average 8:53 per mile.  My left foot is hurting on the inside behind my toes.  Not panicking or anything, but it was certainly noticeable on the second part of the run, and it didn't go away after getting warmed up.  This happens sometimes when I do a lot of speed work, of which Saturday and this morning would both qualify.  Hopefully that's all it is.

Two more good things about the setup they had for the race on Saturday.  The course measured exactly right according to Wade's Garmin, don't see that very often.  Second, the course had guidance at every turn, somebody to stop traffic and point the way, impossible to get lost or run over.  Almost more volunteers than racers, and almost enough to forgive the long climb up the Fred Hartman bridge:

61F, 100%, E 5 mph.

2.5 miles without Garmin or HR monitor.  I took yesterday off to rest my left foot.  It was still sore when I got up but loosened up quite a bit during the day.  Took a long walk to a restaurant for lunch which helped considerably.  This morning the injury was still 60% there when I started, but was down to 10% by the time I finished, which was encouraging.  If today goes well I will do 5 tomorrow and if that goes well I'll try 10 on Friday and see where I am.  Finished up with a pretty good weight session, legs and a little bit of core.  Still glowing and gloating about my half on Saturday -- I'm about ready to retire.

57F, 100% and calm.  Tons of rain yesterday, it was foggy outside under the streetlamps, like a bad vampire movie.  I ran 5.01 miles in 42:34, 8:30 average pace.  Pushed the pace just a little to test theleft foot, which felt fine.  If that holds I'll do 10 tomorrow.

55F, 88%, NE 6 mph.  Good running weather.  Ran a little less than 6, 8:29 pace, then seminary trip, then finished up.  Stopped exactly at 10 and walked to the clubhouse for weights and walked home.  Left foot seemed like it was complaining a little but it doesn't feel too bad today.  I finally figured out that once you stop and go back out again, my body is complaining for a reason.  It is not good to run fast when you are stiff and sore, and my old joints seem to freeze up within a few seconds of stopping.  I think most of my injuries happen on re-starts, I've just been lucky in the last two years to not have any bad ones.  In any event, I probably ran Part I a little faster than I should have.  Overall, 10.00 miles in 1:26:35, average 8:39 per mile.  Planning to go long tomorrow with Wade, but it will be a game time decision.

60F, 100%, violent thunderstorms.  Got up at 4:00 ready for 20, by the time I got to the door a ferocious thunderstorm was underway, thunder shaking the house, retreated to bed.  We are really good at thunderstorms here in Houston.  Tried again at 7:30, got a little over 4 miles, lightning and thunder again, so I gave up. 4.36 miles in 38:59, 8:56 per mile.  Call it a recovery day, but not much to recover from this week.

47F, 95%, ENE 4 mph.  Good running weather this morning.  I intended to do 5 fast, hopefully at about a 6:40 pace, but couldn't hold it.  Warmed up 3 miles at 9:00 average then 3 at 5K pace:  6:46 (172), 6:46 (178) and 6:54 (180).  Was going to run 6 more but my left foot was starting to complain so I quit early, trying to be mature.  My mileage is bad but that's how it goes.  Total 8.23 miles in 1:08:39, average pace 8:20 per mile.  One good thing, I could feel more speed in my legs than usual, I think the weights are helping a little bit.  Just need to sustain it, so I am OK with today now that I think about it, so long as my foot holds up.

54F, 100%, N 5 mph.  Really good running weather today.  My right achilles and my left foot were hurting to some extent when I left, mostly stiffness though.  I committed to stop if they got worse but they improved during the warmup and the pain didn't return until after I was done.  I warmed up 3 miles (9:59, 8:40, 8:20) then did intervals:  3 x 2 minutes, 3 sets, with 2 x 5 minutes in between the 2-minute sets, mostly in the 6:50 to 7:00 range.  Each cooldown was 2 minutes.  This is a pretty challenging workout.  If I did it 10 seconds faster I would be seeing ghosts in my side vision.  I'll probably try it just a little faster next week to see what happens, but I had all I could handle today.  The splits were as follows:  2:03 (7:00)(156 bpm); 2:00 (6:59)(159); 2:02(6:59)(162); 5:02 (6:59)(167); 4:00 (6:56)(166)(my math skills started to deteriorate and I only ran 4 minutes); 2:00 (6:52)(168); 2:02 (6:55)(168); 2:01 (6:46)(168); 5:00 (7:01)(173); 5:09 (6:57)(177); 2:02 (6:42)(174)(this one was fast for some reason; didn't feel any different and the heart rate for the split doesn't show extra speed -- maybe the Garmin was off); 2:03 (7:04)(174)(oops); and 2:09 (6:56)(173).  1 mile cooldown  Overall 12.03 miles in 1:38:50, average pace 8:13 per mile, HR max 182 bpm.  I liked this workout, which I made up myself (grin).  It is a good alternative to running 1K splits, although I like those too.  Both of them make me seem faster than I really am.  Strange that my 2-minute intervals were not much faster than the 5-minute splits.  I probably need to be more disciplined to run the shorter ones faster, but frankly I am not dying to run fast right now -- stuff starts to happen to my tendons and joints when I go too fast.

67F, 95%, SW 14-22.  Ran very early and finished before the seminary run, trying to minimize the split runs as I tend to get injured when I go back out the second time.  10.87 miles in 1:37:34, average 8:57 per mile.  My lower abdominal muscles are very, very sore.  I went out the door yesterday morning, ran to the end of my cul de sac and crept back into the house and curled up in a ball.  I was genuinely concerned about tearing a muscle if I hadn't already.  Felt somewhat better today, but not sure when all of this happened.  My left foot injury may have changed my form and might be causing a cascading effect.  My daughter thinks it is from running fast earlier in the week.  It is true that my core suffers when I run fast, so maybe that is it.

57F, 45%, N 19-29 mph.  Blustery, dry morning.  Got out late becasue we went to the symphony last night.  Despite the heavy wind, I ran better than yesterday.  10.17 miles in 1:29:26, average pace 8:48, heart rate about 143-144 average for the run.  Yesterday's heart rate was about 147 for an 8:57 pace, so I ran faster today at a lower heart rate.  Maybe the difference was the temperature, but my ab muscles felt better as well.  Seems like it is something every week, but at least it never lasts -- not yet.  I quit a little early to avoid cannibalizing tomorrow's run, hoping for a fast-finish long run.  We are going to Temple to see the grandkids.  We'll probably say hi to my daughter and son-in-law as well; she is finding a loop for me, in addition to delivering grandchild number 3 (boy #1) in June.

The symphony featured Beethoven's Fifth.  I have never actually been to a live performance of this symphony, it was memorable.  I told my wife afterward that I don't think any other musician compares to him.  The program led off with a very nice Brahams overture, and I would consider Brahams a top-five classical composer.  But it's like crayons compared to Beethoven.  I think he would have been a good runner -- he had no life and he loved misery.

29F, 75%, calm and clear.  Ran in Temple this morning, visiting my daughter and her family.  I slept in a little because there was no rush to beat the heat, and there isn't a good place to run here that is well-lit.  So I drove to Lyon Park (where I ran a 10K about a year and a half ago) and started running a little after daylight.  There are a couple of unavoidable hills but they aren't too bad.  Was worried about running in the country and meeting too many canine varieties, but they were all behind fences, miraculously -- they wanted a piece of me, though, the dog chorus was deafening.  The goal was to do a fast finish long run (12 + 6 + 2) but I didn't quite nail it.  Warmed up for 0.57 off the long-run clock.  I thought I could do 8:15, then 7:15, then 6:50 for the last two.  I ran 12 miles at 8:13, but when I dropped it to 7:15 it was quite a shock, felt more like a 10K speed.  I held on for 5 miles out of a planned 8:  7:19 (167), 7:14 (172), 7:18 (174), 7:12 (179) and 7:05 (181).  Did a short cool-down but didn't really have enough strength left to finish off 20 at any speed, and didn't see a point to it.  Not too bad of a run, but less than I thought I could do.  So excluding the wu and cd, total of 17 miles in 2:14:49, average 7:56 per mile.  Maybe I'll get it next time, I have two more of these before my next race.  Walking around today like I ran a marathon.

59F, 95%, ENE 5 mph.  9.07 miles in 1:21:15, 8:57 per mile, easy recovery miles.

61F, 100%, ESE 6 mph.  Getting hotter every day, but scheduled for cool weather this weekend.  Hope it materializes.  Not a particularly good run today.  Warmed up 2 then tried to run a tempo at 7:00 but didn't last long.  6:55 (165), 6:58 (173) and 7:01 (177).  Went back down to a 9-minute pace to finish off.  I am hurting in a lot of places, but mostly the problem has been joint stiffness too early in the fast runs.  It would feel great if I could push my aerobic limits on fast runs, but too many other things are going on right now.  Hopefully it will all correct itself.  So anyway I pulled back and finished off the miles for the morning but didn't try to go hard.  11.02 miles in 1:32:41, average 8:24 per mile.  This Saturday's race should be indicative for marathon pacing.  It should tell me if my good race a couple of weeks ago was an anomoly or a trend -- it has been very useful to have these half marathons scheduled like this.  Still, it is hard to tell how much to push getting ready for Boston, don't know whether I am doing too much or too little. 

68F, 98%, S 1mph.  Abs and left foot were both hurting, so I quit after 5 miles, going slow wasn't helping.  Considered taking the rest of the week off.  5.14 miles in 48:01, 9:20 per mile.

70F, 94%, S 6 mph.  I wasn't going to run this morning, but I woke up very early and didn't feel too bad.  Wasn't anything else to do so I went through my robot routine and was out the door in 17 minutes.  To my surprise I felt pretty good, kept pace up with a lot less effort than yesterday.  Quit early because I have a race in two days which all of a sudden I am planning on again, and I am hoping to do some hill work on the treadmill.  I went to the gym at noon and all the treadmills were full, so I did a little big of leg work on the weights and came back to the office.  Hopefully I can get a hill session in tonight.  5.13 miles in 45:15, 8:50 per mile.

70F, 93%, SSW 6 mph.  Ran 5 more, which is kind of halfway between tapering and not tapering.  Either the best of both worlds or the worst.  5.00 miles, right at my doorstep.  42:45, 8:33 per mile.  Foot and abs feel so-so, put ice on the foot and that made a big difference, so apparently the pain comes from inflammation.  Tomorrow might be a disaster.  I don't feel properly trained with all of the interruptions and lingering injuries in the last two weeks, and it is currently forecast at 57F for race time with a 15 mph north wind.  All week they have been holding to a 44F forecast, then it turns out they meant Saturday night, after the cold front comes.  We get to race while the front is moving in.  Still warm, but at least it's windy.  If 57F holds that won't be too bad, but I am skeptical, it always takes longer for the weather to change than they predict.  There is a chili cook-off at the church tonight -- might as well go and finish the job.

57F, 47%, N 11-21 mph.  Pretty good race, could have been worse under the circumstances, course was a little longer than my last half, so I am putting the non-standard distance I measured solely for comparison purposes.  Met Allie (a.k.a. allie) very briefly after she finished a very good marathon then had to hurry home as Wade and Linda had responsibilities (unlike me).  Linda got a 4-minute PR, Wade missed his PR by a couple of minutes.  Weather not a big factor.

Met Wade and Linda at 5:30 and headed to The Woodlands.  It was 62F at 5:30 but the cold front was moving in and it was already down to 58F by the time the race started at 6:55, possibly colder than that at the end.  Other than Linda’s big PR, and other than meeting allie, the highlight of the morning was standing in the PoP line.  (Don't go anywhere.)  There was a guy about 5 spots ahead of us in line who had the elite look, no body fat, ripped abs, fast shoes, compression socks -- and no shirt.  By this time it was colder, with a stiff breeze, and you could see skin quivering underneath his goose bumps.  Linda commented to me that he must be very fast.  But something seemed off, and I reminded her that Naked Man hadn’t run yet.  There were a couple of women in line between us and him and he was talking to them like old acquaintances.  That notion was dispelled when his turn came and he disappeared into the open slot.  One of the women turned to the other and said, “I think he is a non-door closer”.  Then it was her friend’s turn because she suddenly saw one with a “green open” indicator on the door.  She hurried up and opened it, froze, then started screaming.  Her friend had nailed it.  It made Linda’s morning, she was so relaxed she went out and ran a 4-minute PR.  When she finished, the first thing she said was “I passed Naked Man in mile 5”.  She is now a runner for life.

So this morning I ran pretty even splits:  7:04, 7:01, 6:58 (175), 7:08 (176), 7:12 (176), 7:14 (175), 7:09 (174), 7:15 (174), 7:11 (174), 6:56 (175), 7:06 (178), 7:12 (177), 7:02 (177) and 6:38 (180) for the stub split -- 1:33:50, which is 3 seconds slower than my last one 3 weeks ago.  But the course measured long today, so my actual pace as measured was 3 seconds faster, not much but something, and more importantly it is the second time I have done it so I know it’s real.  Overall 60th place (top 2%) and 1st in age division.  I found myself running with a guy who probably slowed me down to some extent.  He ran in the passing lane and he would eventually slow down to the point I would pass him, which would wake him up and he would pass me within a quarter mile like clockwork.  Kind of like driving on the freeway.  Finally at mile 10 I tired of the game and hammered out a 6:56 which broke him, he finished a minute behind me.  He is the best excuse I have today for running slower than planned.  I set up the weather, my left foot and my sore abs as the bogeymen, but they were all non-factors -- sometimes you have to dig a little deeper but there’s always one out there if you are persistent.

Six weeks to Boston.  I have enough speed for current purposes, but definitely felt an endurance limitation this morning.  At mile 9 I told myself that Boston would be my last marathon, then I changed my mind after mile 10.  I am considering piling on a bunch of long runs, they seem to help the most.  But I have some more travel coming up and then some vacation, not sure how it will all play out.  It has been difficult to manage a consistent training schedule this year, but my wife is opposed to me quitting my job.

44F, 97%, calm and clear.  Beautiful running weather, and no seminary run this month.  I am traveling to Taipei tomorrow, so trying to get some miles in.  Wanted to go 20 but turned around early and came in at 15.71, trying to be a little more careful about my foot than I have in past weeks.  Average pace 9:00.  It got kind of hard to hit those 9s after about 8 or 9 miles, lots of aches and pains left over from Saturday.  Not too worried, though, I think I am going to be fine unless I do something dumb, which is certainly possible.

10 on TM in Taipei, 9:00 pace, at midnight after checking in.  Body clock non-existent.

10 more at 9:00 pace on TM in Taipei before catching cab to airport.

62F, 68%, E 13 mph.  Intended to do a fast finish long run, but I have acquired a respectable sore throat with everything going on this week.  Did the first half of it though:  10.13 miles at 8:15 per mile.  Legs felt strong.  Duh, I haven't done anything this week.  This has been a great taper week, but the Boston Athletic Association said they wouldn't move up their date for me.  They seemed quite inflexible, something about a planeload of Kenyans coming in on non-refundable tickets.  I could have come up with something better than that.

Headed on a spring break road trip with wife and daughter, to North Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C., should be fun.  I think there will be enough time to run.

Knoxville, Tennessee.  Well, it has been quite a road trip, haven't been that sick in at least 10 years, maybe 20.  I had every imaginable flu symptom and I had them good.  At least it got me out of another trip to Taiwan this weekend -- maybe that is where I picked up this bug, people are telling me I sound kind of like a bird now.  I went on drugs a couple of nights just to get some sleep.  I still have Nyquil in my system, that stuff is nasty.  Not sure if medicated sleep is that good for you but it got me through the night.  Then all day traipsing around looking at the sights in D.C., it has been quite a week.  Posted my first 0 this week, to go with my first 100 a few weeks ago, symmetry is a wonderful thing.  Yeah, I am running Boston in a few weeks.  Training is in shambles.  I'll go out on Monday morning if I continue to improve and try to assess the damage.  I might be available to pace the 5-hour group at Boston.

73F, 84%, SSE 12 mph (gusting to 18 mph).  Hot and windy out there.  Tried 5 slow miles and was feeling it pretty good in my lungs and joints.  Legs were strong, amazingly my lower abs still hurt after not running for 9 days.  Heart rate started out OK but the drift was steep.  Could definitely still feel the flu, will try again later today if I am feeling OK.  5.05 miles in 44:50, 8:53 per mile.

72F, 93%, SSW 13-25 mph.  Hot and windy, perfect running weather.  My Garmin was out of juice, so I ran without it.  Had to quit early because a thunderstorm was starting up.  By the time I drove to a dentist appointment a half hour later it was raining 2 or 3 inches an hour, very heavy.  Felt slightly better than yesterday.  Abs were a little less painful, but can definitely feel the leftover flu, it will be a while before it is gone.

58F, 85%, WNW 7 mph, light rain.  Cooling down a little from yesterday, which was welcome.  Ran 11.07 miles in 1:37:37, average 8:49 per mile.  Still have the flu, heart rate was at 160 by the time I finished, too high for this speed.  Legs felt decent, but heavy by the end.  Abs are still sore.  Just playing it by ear on Boston -- really don't want to go to all the trouble of getting up there and dealing with all the expenses and logistics just to do a training run.  I read yesterday that if you don't run at all for a week it takes two weeks to get it back.  Possibly even slower for me since everything is easy-paced right now.  Nothing to do but wait and see.

56F. 77%, S 3 mph.  Very good weather today, got out a little late and so I was still out when the sun up, which was nice, haven't seen the sun in a while.  Abs and flu are slowly improving.  I didn't really want to go out today because I knew it would hurt, but it wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, and even less than two days ago.  Heart rate for mile 12 (8:52, 155 bpm) was close to mile 10 yesterday (8:50, 156 bpm).  Still too high, but getting a little stronger.  Overall 12.13 miles in 1:48:31, 8:57 per mile.

53F, 100%, NNW 3 mph.  Didn't feel good this morning, woke up with sore abs, so decided to only go 6 and check my reaction throughout the day.  The 6 went fine, obviously my legs and cardio are much better now that I am a week away from the flu, only a little bit of it is left in my system.  But my gut hurt pretty much throughout the run, although it didn't get worse and it wasn't a sharp pain.  6.07 miles in 51:53, 8:31 per mile, then stretched and rolled.  Right now I don't feel like I can run fast, though interestingly it didn't hurt to run almost 30 seconds faster today than yesterday.  I am going to make an honest try at a hard long run tomorrow.  If it doesn't go well I will probably not do Boston this year, really don't want to go there unprepared.

55F, 100%, calm and 50-foot fog.  Could barely see out there, which was good, because it was ugly.  Simply couldn't hold a marathon pace.  Started out at a 7:30 pace and got so tired I pulled up after about 1K, then picked it up again on miles 2 and 3, where I hit 7:30 and 7:29, but mile 4 was 7:42 and my heart rate hit 166 and was climbing.  Overall 4.06 miles in 31:37, 7:47 per mile.  After running two halves at 7:09 and 7:06 pace, I know that today's speeds are not close to my potential.  Amazing how much havoc a few bad weeks of running creates.  I will not be ready for Boston and it takes too much time and money to go there just to go.  I know others don't feel that way about Boston, and I certainly look forward to the time I can go there prepared to run my best, but for me it isn't important just to be there.  Realistically, I would run about 3:35 to 3:40 and that isn't good enough.  It's hard enough to get a good marathon time at peak fitness; I have no desire to run one unprepared.  I might be able to find a good marathon somewhere this summer -- suggestions welcome, nothing hot and nothing at altitude!  But mainly I need to keep training and chipping away at the granite mountain.

60F, 96%, clear and calm.  Beautiful weather in Houston right now, unfortunately still not running too well.  12.17 miles in 1:45:48, 8:42 per mile, 150 bpm.  Very tired by the end of the day.

Forgot to record the weather data, but it felt about the same as yesterday.  I went to bed very early last night, then woke up at 3 a.m.  Finally went back to sleep at 4:30 and slept until 6, so I got out late.  Felt lethargic for most of the run.  I decided to back off on the pace a little bit, 13.47 miles in 2:05:45, 9:20 per mile, 144 bpm.  Heart rate would have been lower except that in mile 10 I passed a woman who was going pretty slow.  She decided she didn't like that and started drafting off of me (not kidding).  No words exchanged.  I finally gave up on my plan to keep heart rate under 150 no matter my speed, went to 160 for about a mile, turned around to look and she was out of sight.  I had to do something.

About then a loose pit bull came prancing out (I was running through a redneck zone) and wouldn't go away.  He wasn't overtly aggressive but I didn't trust him.  Finally got rid of him by crossing a busy street -- when he tried to follow there was the sound of brakes screeching.  He scurried back to his neighborhood, but I was pretty upset that somebody would just let a dog like that wander around, right when elementary school kids are catching their buses.

Can't believe how long it is taking to get over this flu.  I skipped my flu shot this year, even though they are free at work, I won't do that again.  When I got home I announced to my wife that I am old.  She said "duh", which isn't even a word from our generation.

60F, 100%, calm and clear.  Felt better today.  Also turned 57 today, nothing I could do about it.  Ran 15.07 miles, trying to keep heart rate lower.  2:18:45, 9:13 per mile, 146 bpm. 

68F, 97%, ESE 4 mph.  Getting quite a bit warmer, I don't think we will see sub-60 too many more times until late in October.  Ran 10.18 miles, trying to keep heart rate around 140.  1:35:44, 9:24 per mile, 139 bpm.  Just trying to get as many miles in as possible right now without over-running my conditioning.

69F, 95%, calm and cloudy.  Warming right up, left the mittens in the house today.  Was planning on doing 15 but it worked out differently.  I felt good after running slow yesterday, so found myself naturally speeding up.  All of a sudden I was in the low 8s and I semi-accelerated into a near-marathon pace.  I was doing well enough after mile 7 that I thought if I could hold the remainder all the way to mile 15 in the 7:30 to 7:40 range, I might re-think Boston.  (I had gone through my mail just before going out, and BAA had sent me a corrected bib for a better corral, based on my SGM time rather than my qualifying time, so I had Boston on the brain.)  But by the time I got to 10 I was done and I realized I had made the right decision.  Still, it was fun to run fast after slogging all week.  Splits were 9:06 (136), 8:07 (150), 8:02 (156), 7:54 (161), 7:58 (164), 7:42 (163), 7:35 (167), 7:41 (171), 7:50 (171, 7:42 (172).  10.01 miles in 1:19:39, 7:57 per mile, 160 bpm.

66F, 100%, calm and cloudy.  Got out the door at 5:00, then met Wade in his neighborhood at 6:00.  We ran a while and met my daughter back at our house at 7:00.  She is almost 6 months pregnant.  Wade and I had been hitting about 9:45 per mile up until then, but my daughter got us going, we were in the low 9s by the time she peeled off after 4+ miles.  Ran another mile with Wade, at which point I had 16.5, said good-bye and slogged out the remaining 3.5 in my neighborhood.  I was fighting this run mentally all the way to dropping Wade off, it has been way too long since I ran 20 miles.  At one point my cumulative pace was 9:41 -- I don't run much at this speed and it was playing with my head.  Also started bleeding despite using BodyGlide, so I was holding my shirt away from my chest for 6 miles -- that was an unusual sight.  But for the last 5K I picked it up naturally, wasn't really pushing anything, and felt better mentally.  But not completely acclimated to the heat yet, it will take a couple of weeks, maybe longer.  20.07 miles in 3:10:27, 9:29 per mile.  Forgot to look at the temperature when I got back but it was getting pretty warm, ran the last 5 miles on a couple of sips of water and felt a little nauseous when I got back.  Lower gut was also hurting from running fast yesterday, but hopefully it will be OK by Monday.

73F, 94%, SE 6 mph.  7.10 miles in 1:02:55, 8:52/mile, 146 bpm.

73F, 96%, SSE 8 mph. 10.07 miles in 1:28:34, 8:48/mile, 147 bpm.  Feeling sorry for myself that my heart rate keeps going up, then remembered that it is hot, it's supposed to go up.

70F, 100%, SE 5 mph.  10.05 miles in 1:21:51, 8:09 per mile.  First 5 at 8:25 per mile then 5 x 1K:  7:25 (163), 7:20 (164), 7:23 (167), 7:15 (168) and 7:33 (170), finishing out each mile at an aggressive recovery pace, 8:30 to 8:45.  Finished in a driving rainstorm, along with some other runners and walkers.  We had a good time out there. 

66F, 100%, WSW 5 mph.  10.05 miles in 1:28:19, 8:47/mile, 144 bpm.  A little bit cooler and immediate HR improvement resulted.  I think I am finally over the flu.  Lots of aches and pains this morning after running harder yesterday.  It will definitely take a while to get my body used to higher mileage again.  Another encounter with a dog, the old open-the-garage-door-gee-I-don't-know-what-happened trick.  About 3 pounds but I'm counting it.

62F, 76%, ENE 7 mph and clear.  Saw the full moon this morning right before it set, realized this is the first time I have seen it this cycle.  It has been a wet spring.  The object was to keep my heart rate low for as long as I could and still maintain a 9:00 pace.  It worked pretty well in the cooler temperatures.  13.11 miles in 1:56:45, 8:54/mile, 141 bpm.  A rabbit ran out in front of me this morning.  For a minute I thought he was chasing me, but he was just too dumb to get out of the way.  No recorded change in my heart rate, but this incident nevertheless puts me pretty low on the food chain.  You just can't let rabbits affect you in the slightest.  Some may recall that Jimmy Carter most likely lost the 1980 election over an incident involving a swimming rabbit and a boat oar.

61F, 98%, ENE 1 mph at start (5:00 a.m.), 64F, 88% E 5 mph at end, clear and full moon, very pretty out there.  Animal of the day was a squirrel, ain't sayin' nuthin' more.

Ran 20.24 miles in 2:59:19, average 8:51 per mile, last two 8:45 and 8:25, average heart rate 146, but hitting 162 at the end.  Lower abs are still sore, especially on the right side, probably a tear in there somewhere, it doesn't seem to be improving much.  I had plenty of strength, just hurt a lot.  This was a hard run, but 20 is a good day no matter the details.

Wade is running a mudder today.  I would rather do 20 on the pavement than 6 in the mud any day.  So he had no support from me.  I think he secretly wants to be a SEAL.

64F, 95%, WNW 5 mph. 10.19 miles in 1:30:29, 8:52/mile 143 bpm.

62F, 99%, calm. 10.06 miles in 1:25:13, 8:28/mile, 146 bpm.

No running, up until 3:00 with a roomful of clients in Guam (me stateside).  Put a stake through my running plans for the week.

62F, 99% and calm.  Legs very fresh after a day off, even though not much sleep since I am still up at night with my clients in Guam.  Ran 10.16 miles in 1:20:01, 7:53/mile, 158 bpm.  Speed kept getting naturally faster until I hit 7:27 in mile 6, so I decided to hold that pace to the end.  Last 4 (including mile 6) were 7:27 (164), 7:23 (169), 7:28 (172) and 7:40 (175).  Obviously I started to tire toward the end, but it was fun feeling the surge for a brief moment.

66F, 94%, ESE 5 mph.  10.04 miles in 1:28:37, 8:50/mile, 142 bpm.  Third night in a row with little sleep, but felt better once I got going.  Let's were sluggish at first after yesterday's run, but warmed up well.

74F, 84%, SSE 11-18 mph to start (6:10 a.m.); 76F, 79%, SSE 14-23 to end (9:05 a.m.) partly cloudy.  This was a difficult run.  Got a late start because I was trying to catch up on sleep a little bit.  I planned to this run at 9 flat but legs naturally sped up, down into the low 8s at one point, then because of the way the course was laid out I went for an 8-mile segment with no water and ended up getting into trouble with the heat/humidity/sunlight.  I turned around to go home at 15 because I was feeling dizzy, but really didn't want to log a 15 today, especially after everything else that has taken away from running this week.  At that point I was averaging 8:38, so I slowed back down to a 9:00 pace then sped up a little bit through the end.  Ran the twists and turns so I had 20 right at my front door, didn't want to run a step extra.  Overall 20.00 miles in 2:54:20, average 8:43/mile, 158 bpm, 173 bpm maximum.  Heart rate climbed throughout.  Normally I am ravenous when finishing a 20, but today I didn't want anything.  Managed to drink a glass of chocolate milk and that was it.  Feel almost like I just ran a marathon.  I have 3 hard 20-milers coming up, this wasn't supposed to be one of them.  But the important thing was putting in the effort and letting the chips fall where they may.  For me that approach has usually turned out fine, so I am not worrying.

Walked out the door at a quarter to four, lightning so I scurried back in.  Back out at 6 and same story.  Went to the gym at noon and all the treadmills were full.  By the time I got my clothes back on they were available again, that's how it goes.  So I stopped at my son's gym on the way home and ran on the treadmill there for 2 hours at 6.7 miles per hour (8:57 per mile).  Not sure of the exact distance because I had to keep stopping for one reason or another and it would always re-set.  Also, one stretch where I actually got 60 minutes in it stopped and I had to re-set again.  Not fun, I've got to get sound off the TVs into my ears on these treadmills, not really something that I can figure out on my own at my age.  Congratulations to all the Boston finishers today, that is an experience to tell the grandkids, but I must admit I'm happy I won't be telling it to mine.

62F, 90%, N 6 mph.  7.04 miles in 1:01:57, 8:48 per mile, 143 bpm.

56F, 96%, calm.  10.10 miles in 1:18:22, 7:46 per mile, 156 bpm average.  Ran 5 easy then 5 MP:  7:28 (162), 7:18 (166), 7:24 (167), 7:21 (170) and 7:14 (169).  We have very nice weather all of a sudden.

53F, 99%, SSE 1 mph and clear.  10.08 miles in 1:27:12, 8:39 per mile, 140 bpm (152 max).

63F, 90%, calm and partly cloudy.  I'm traveling out of town this weekend and it's my first Saturday for a "fast finish" long run, of which I plan to do 3 before my next marathon.  Except I am going to do them a little different this time around, back to my retro style before I read too many running books:  Run like *&^^^% and hold it for 20, on the theory that if you can do it for 20 you can do it for 26, and you're on your own for the last 0.2.  So the goal today was 8:00 per mile, which isn't really my A goal but it is a respectable pace.  I made it, only two or three splits were over 8, overall I ran 20 miles in 2:38:13 for an average pace of 7:55 per mile.  I also had an untimed 0.15 mile warmup, which is just enough to get the sludge in my joints circulating a little bit.  The best thing about the run was my heart rate, average 158 and max 170, which is below marathon range.  I never averaged higher than 168, and didn't break 165 until mile 19.  The worst thing was playing "you first, no me first", with a car as I was running out of a side street.  The driver was my wife, who was finishing the seminary run for me.  I got a bit of a lecture on that one.  I took water at mile 3.5, 10 and 13.6, didn't do EFS or other calories or electrolytes,  need to buy some and practice taking it.  Next time I will try for 7:45, but we will see.  Even though the cardio was there, the old legs were pretty sore for the last 10 this morning.

40F, 50%, N 5 mph and clear.  Ran in Round Valley, Arizona this morning, which is my hometown, elevation 7,000 feet thank you.  Here for a funeral.  Left the motel in Springerville and headed east on the Soccorro, NM highway, then turned south toward Alpine, all the way to the rodeo grounds.  It was generally uphill all the way to the rodeo grounds, and I felt the familiar high altitude burn in my lungs.  I used to feel it all the time in high school here, no wonder I quit running for so many years.  I didn't want to push the pace but it was still difficult.  Suprisingly though I maintained about 9:00 flat going up then sped up from there, wasn't sure what would happen after the hard 20 yesterday.  From the rodeo grounds I turned west into Eagar, one more hill but generally downhill, ran to the center of town, then turned north all the way back into Springerville, also downhill.  When I got to the stop light in Springerville (still only 1 light after all these years) I turned left toward St. Johns and got another 1.5 in before meeting my daughter and my brother who lives in Sierra Vista.  We ran back out toward St. Johns and got another 3 miles, had a good time talking about various stuff.  11.5 total, not a bad day for a semi-tropical coastal runner.

My sister and I have decided to run Grandma's marathon in Duluth, MN on June 16.  She needs a BQ, so we can run Boston together in 2013.  She will be 40 on race day and only has to get a 3:45 to qualify, but she wants a 3:25 so she can register on Monday.  She should get it pretty easily unless she doesn't get her training in.

63F, 41%, NE 8 mph and clear.  Pretty good weather, haven't seen 41% humidity in a long time, if ever, didn't know it was possible for here.  Made the 63F seem pretty cool.  Ran 8.5 before the seminary run, then another 5.5 while waiting for seminary kids so I could drive them to school.  14.00 miles in 2:01:44, 8:42/mile, 144 bpm.  Then after work I did 6 more at a 9:00 pace followed by legs and core.

50F, 100%, clear and calm.  Slept right through my alarm, don't know the last time that happened.  The alarm seems to be in perfect working condition.  But I got 8 hours of sleep, which feels great.  I woke up on my own just in time to do the seminary run, so I went out afterwards for a shortened session.   Had planned to do 10 x 1K but cut it down to 6 x 1K.  I could still feel the leg weights this morning, pretty tired the whole run and wasn't sure I could hit my splits.  I planned to do 4:21 (7:00 pace).  Ended up getting them, although it wasn't easy:  6:58 (160), 7:00 (162), 6:51 (165), 6:50 (166), 6:55 (168) and 6:58 (167).  3-mile warmup and 1.5 mile cooldown.  Felt deep fatigue after finishing.  Overall 10.37 miles in 1:24:57, 8:12 pace.  It is sobering to think about my chances of running this pace for the marathon distance.

PM:  5.0 on the TM at 9:30 pace.

64F, 91%, SSW 7 mph.  A little warmer but still not bad.  Ran 9.04 miles prior to seminary run, 1:17:24, 8:34 pace, 143 bpm.  Had to go to work early, so that was it.

69F, 96%, SSW 5 mph.  Getting hot again.  Out the door at 4:15 and ran 10 before the seminary run, then a half hour later went back out for 10 more.  Overall 20.13 miles in 2:56:50, 8:42 per mile, 147 bpm.  I have acquired some shin splint-type pain low on the front of my right leg and a little bit in my foot.  Hurts to flex my foot up, but not to extend it, kind of the opposite of Achilles pain.  It is responding well to ice.  Hurts like crazy when I go out the second time, then hurts again about 3 miles in before going away.  Never had anything like it and trying to think what I'm doing different.  I don't think it's the extra miles, most likely I got it lifting weights on Monday.  Either that or my stride has changed somehow.  I'm watching it, but so far it doesn't look like it will be significant.

74F, 95% and calm.  Ran 5 very slow this morning, the tendon on top of my foot still hurts after 4 days off, the longer I ran the more it hurt, but never reached the point where I had to quit.  I don't have an exact distance since my Garmin battery cratered, but it was about 5.  The foot stopped hurting immediately after I quit and has felt fine all day.  I went to the gym tonight and spent an hour on the recumbent bike.  Thought I would mimic my running heart rate, but couldn't get it over 121 and I had lactate overload in my quads after 10 minutes.  I whined at my daughter on the phone while I was on the bike and she said I needed to take off some of the tension and increase my speed in order to get the heart rate up.  I always thought if I was working hard then I had a high heart rate so this was interesting.  On a more practical note, my quads are dead.  Did some leg weights and came home with a backache, which is good, since I will need something lined up to replace the foot injury once it heals.

72F, 94%, SSE 5 mph.  Back was pretty sore when I woke up, but it isn't running muscles because I didn't feel anything when I was running.  Good news there.  I ran 7.53 miles in 1:06:19, 8:48/mile, 147 bpm.  The tendon on top of my right foot was sore at first, then settled down quickly until 2.5 miles, where it got very sore.  But at about mile 4 it settled down a little and didn't get worse.  I finished out the intended mileage plus a little with no major issues.  Foot quit hurting immediately when I stopped running, starting to see a pattern here.  I have had it on ice most of the morning, will monitor it during the day today.  If there is incremental improvement again, I will probably try to get in a little bit of speedwork this week.  Have to do something if I am going to run a marathon on June 16.  I've been thinking about how disappointed I would be if there was good weather in Duluth on that day and I couldn't take advantage of it.  Finished with a long stretching session, got to work and discovered I had sailed right past my 8:30 meeting, but at least I ran injured. . .  May do bike again tonight.

85F, 60%, SE 2 mph to start, 81F, 72%, SSE 7 mph to end.  When I got up this morning the foot hurt worse than at the same time yesterday, so I didn't go out.  Worked until mid-afternoon, then drove back home and went to the gym where I did one hour on the stationary bike at a cadence of about 90 per minute (upright, not recumbent, my back felt much better), felt better at that speed and resistance than last time, and I could read so it helped pass the time.  At about the 50-minute mark I got tired of reading, cranked up the tension and sped up to 104 rpm, whereupon my heart rate finally started to rise, all the way up to 142, but by the time I got to 60 minutes I felt like I was finishing a 5K.  Then did weights for about a half hour and came home and ate a full dinner, then went out the door for 5 actual running miles, 5.04 in 44:12, 8:46 per mile, 152 bpm.  Felt really odd at first but I eventually got used to the food sloshing around.  Foot has been improving all day long and felt fine tonight, not sure how it will feel in the morning.  The sun started to go down a little bit and as soon as the shadows came it felt much cooler.  But I learned that it is better to run outside hot than inside on a treadmill.

At about the 1-mile mark an unleashed mangy mutt (35 pounds) came running up, so I did my usual frozen statue defense, after pausing my Garmin of course.  The owner started talking and I thought she was trying to me her dog was harmless, but she was pointing at a rooftop, it was a bald eagle sitting there, the first I had seen in Texas, even the dog lost interest in my arthritic heel.  I looked at a Texas birds guide and sure enough, the bald eagle is an uncommon but year-round resident on the upper Texas coast, I had no idea.  There was a song-bird flying around it trying to get it to leave, probably has a nest in the area.  I have seen large hawks fly away when smaller, faster birds start pecking at them, but the eagle just ignored him, he was too special to run.  Very cool.  (Rye is going to have to psychoanalyze why the appearance of the eagle stopped the dog attack.)

72F, 100% and calm.  5.05 miles in 43:04, 8:32 per mile, 149 bpm.  Tendon on right foot is starting to recover.  Iced it twice today as a precaution, but was getting around a lot better.

70F, 100%, SSE 1 mph, cloudy.  Out the door at 5:00 for 7.00 miles in 58:15, 8:19 per mile, 149 bpm.  Same average heart rate as yesterday but 13 seconds per mile faster.  (Mile 5 yesterday was 8:15 at 157 bpm, today 8:05 at 152 bpm.)  Had a little bit of springiness going on in Charlie and Horse this morning, no tendon pain at all in my right foot, so they probably won't shoot me after all.  This week has felt like tapering, so I will probably run a 5K in the morning, might be able to get a PR despite the heat.  Then back to 10 miles a day next week if all goes well, and putting in some honest speed work.  Then, if everything goes really well, I will get in another hard long run Saturday a week, the goal will be 7:45.

75F, 100%, S 6 mph.  This would have been a great race in February, well organized, well attended, lots of good food afterwards.  But the first weekend in May is almost always going to be a little tough temperature-wise.

It was 72F at the time I left the house this morning, and 82F at 10:00 in the morning, so I am guessing the temperature for the 8:00 start.  This race is sponsored by the University of Texas, so there was a lot of burnt orange around and no Aggie maroon to be seen anywhere.  But they were taking anybody's money.  The wife of a colleague at work was running in it, and their kids were running the mile race afterwards (his two boys got first and second, but he doesn't like to run, go figure), so I decided to go to this one instead of the 5K in the Medical Center that I did last year on the same weekend.  I read this week that if you "prime the pump" by racing your heart a little bit ahead of time, you won't have so much trouble with the first mile.  So I warmed up for a bit then ran two and a half minutes at what felt like a 10K pace.  Was good and warmed up for the start, but there is no cure for being out of shape.  The first mile went OK, 6:30 (175 bpm) and I figured I was going to get a PR.  Second mile was 6:37 (186 bpm), still not too bad.  Then it all went south.  Couldn't maintain it any longer, third mile 7:01 (187) bpm, then 6:52 (188) for the stub split.  6:43 overall pace, not a PR.  I was 17th overall, and all alone.  Winning time was 14:55 and there were 16 runners under 20:00, including 3 or 4 women, then me, then the next one was over 22 I think.  They had me listed as a female, but I got it fixed, or at least they said so.  First in age group and I think third overall master. 

The course had lots of turns, but I ran every tangent and it still measured long.  I saw something recently about course measurement.  Race directors say the discrepancy is attributable to the Garmin technology, not the course measurement technique.  But Garmin geometry says that because it measures each straight line segment compared to a curvy actual course, the Garmin will always measure a little short.  So why does mine always measure long?  I think course directors make it a little bit long to ensure certification.  This one wasn't too bad, though, only 0.03 miles long, about 20 seconds at the pace I was running.  On the other hand, it meant the different between getting a PR and not -- but I am really aiming for 20 flat, which I wouldn't have gotten today under any circumstances, so no big deal.

67F, 100% and calm.  Really big moon out there, bright enough that I had two shadows when I would run under streetlamps, one moving and the other stationary, kind of cool.  Out the door at 4:15, planned to run 10 with 7 x 1K as a workout part of the run.  Warmed up at 8:40 pace, then ran 5 intervals, whereupon the tendon on the top of my foot started to hurt.  Started another one and it was still hurting, so I quit without finishing it, jogged a little further then walked the rest of the way in.  Wasn't in intense pain, just trying to be careful.  The foot has been pretty good today, but is hurting tonight.  Total of 8.73 miles in 1:11:41, 8:13 per mile.  Intervals grossed up to 1-mile pacing were 7:11 (158), 7:05 (164), 6:49 (169), 6:52 (169) and 7:01 (170).  These weren't particularly hard, so that part was good at least.  Then went on the seminary run followed by legs and core, then came home for a long stretching and rolling session.  Seminary run ends Wednesday a week, and my daughter will have a ride next year, so this part of my life is almost over.  Have had kids in early morning seminary for 15 straight years, probably drove 10 of those years.  No wonder I don't sleep well.

67F, 100%, calm and clearing.  Big storm blew through last night but I never heard it, didn't know until I got out and had to start dodging debris.  Today is garbage day and nearly every can was blown over, with many of the hinged lids detached.  Sorry I missed it.  I resolved to go slow today, and found out I am good at that.  12.17 miles in 1:52:26, 9:14 per mile, 136 bpm.  I iced my foot twice yesterday and by this morning it was fine, no pain at all, at least at these speeds.

68F, 100%, N 7 mph, clear then cloudy.  Got in late from a dinner last night, where I ate too much rich food.  Was planning to sleep a little later, but woke up like a clock at 4:15, out the door by 4:50.  I wanted to get 6 before the seminary run.  It was originally supposed to be speed intervals today, but I was afraid of aggravating my foot, so I ran MP miles instead.  After 1 mile warmup I went 5 at GMP:  7:36 (157), 7:30 (160), 7:24 (163), 7:31 (164) and 7:39 (165).  Then drove my daughter to the church and ran 4 more slow miles (8:40 - 9:00) from there -- restarts are always painful but I got through it.  Overall 10.18 miles in 1:24:04, 8:15 per mile.  Then drove to the gym and did legs and core for about an hour, came home and ate, then stretched and rolled.  I felt one small twinge in my foot at about mile 4 of the fast ones, but that was it.  I probably saved a week of training but cutting it short on Monday.  Legs feel very tired this morning but not stiff and sore.

65F, 81%, calm and partly cloudy.  Got up very early and finished the run before taking my daughter to seminary.  10.00 miles in 1:21:18, average pace 8:08 per mile, 152 bpm, max 161 bpm.  Got a couple of high 7s in, wanted to run just a little harder today then let up tomorrow.  Nice crisp pace, but harder than I would have thought, especially at the lower temperatures we had today.  It occurred to me that I should be doing a lot of work in the 160 to 165 bpm range, that is where I run on a marathon, if not higher.  Aside from the mental aspect of getting used to that level of effort, it seems that in addition to overall fitness, there is a sub-fitness level within each heart rate zones.  Some people are more fit at higher heart rates, others at lower.  Obviously I tend toward the lower range, which is why I have a hard time holding higher heart rates for the whole marathon distance.  Just a theory, I get a new one every week.

Weights, rolling and stretching.

66F, 96%, calm between storms.  10.11 miles in 1:28:54, 8:42 per mile, 140 bpm.  Was saving up for Saturday morning, but now it's Saturday morning and we have lightning and thunder.  Not sure what will happen.

81F, 56%, NNW 7 mph.  Had to cancel the run this morning due to lightning.  I'll have to do the big run later, my next chance is Wednesday.  Went out at 5:00 p.m. and my new neighbor walked up -- actually it was his father, have yet to meet my new neighbor.  Wanted to thank me for painting his side of the fence when I got mine painted.  I was hoping he would contribute but I don't think it is happening -- at least he thinks I am a stand-up guy.  Turns out his son lives in College Station and bought this house just in case he "met someone" here in Houston.  His dad said it hasn't been successful and he doubts his son will ever move into the house.  So I got a lot of information about my bachelor neighbor quick, but it was 5:30 before I finally started, blazing sun but it felt OK at first.  The run started to get long toward the end, though.  10.27 miles in 1:27:39, 8:32 per mile.  Average HR was 153 bpm, even though it didn't feel like I was working that hard.  That is what the heat does, you have a higher heart rate and you get tired faster, even though your legs feel fine.  Best part of the run was meeting a guy coming the other way wearing a bad toupee.  That works as well as a sun screen I suppose, kind of like an umbrella, but doesn't the toupee just have to come off for the run, no exceptions?

61F, 97%, calm and clear.  Out very early again to finish the run before the seminary run, thus avoiding the dreaded re-start.  Ran 4 easy at 8:25, then dropped it to GMP for the next 6:  7:23 (156), 7:33 (159), 7:36 (162), 7:22 (164), 7:30 (166), and 7:27 (169).  These felt pretty good.  Altogether 10.10 miles in 1:19:24, 7:54 per mile.  The plan is to do 20 at 7:45 on Wednesday (the run I missed on Saturday), however . . .

Possible disaster after the seminary run.  My lower back, which has been bothering me all weekend but felt fine during the run, seized up and I could barely walk when I got out of the car.  I have been stretching and I have iced it, to little effect.  I have a herniated disk which pushes against the sciatic nerve between L2 and L3, causing a small amount of permanent numbness in my right foot.  I got this 4 years ago, right after I started running, and it shut me down for the summer, very intense pain initially.  This morning is a rude reminder that I am not a young man.  Maybe it will go away as quickly as it came, but I am worried.  At least it appears I have been through every injury now, since we are apparently in a recycle mode.

63F, 89%, NW 6 mph with light rain.  Figured I should at least post the weather.  My injury might be in my upper glutes instead of lower back.  It is very deep, impervious to ice, and it only hurts when I try to walk.  I can stand, sit and drive normally.  And my left leg is normal, just my right, too bad I need them both.  When I focus on keeping the muscle relaxed, whatever muscle it is, I can walk.  And it is a little better this morning.  So there is hope, although a 3:20 marathon in Duluth is not going to happen at this point unless I am back to full speed at some point this week.  That will be a long shot.

Painful throughout the day.

Not much better.

No real progress.  I think it must be my herniated disc flaring up again.  It is an old injury which has resulted in numbness on the bottom of my right foot continually since it happened four years ago.  There isn't any place I can push to stimulate muscle pain, and it doesn't improve like a regular muscle or tendon injury would do.  Definitely not an overuse injury, I was not running big miles when it happened.  It might be related to lifting weights.  This morning I did an hour on the stationary bike, got my heart rate up to 158 at one point.  Planned to do it again tonight, but it didn't feel too good during the day today.  If I can't spin then I am toast, probably am anyway.

Did spin bike for one hour this morning, for the third straight day.  Actually getting better at it, moved from 15.5 mph to 16.8, and got my heart rate up to 169 for short bursts.  I don't know how much conditioning it is preserving, but I get a good endorphin dose out of it.  I went to a chiro this afternoon who specializes in sports injuries and they worked me over pretty good.  They say my right hamstrings are the source of all my ills, they don't think it's the back at all.  I'm a little skeptical, but it's not like I have any answers.  I have to do ice and some prescribed stretches twice a day, not too bad for homework.  They also put that black tape all over my back, didn't totally follow the explanation for that either.  The chiro runs a 2:02 half, so he is in the mix.  They said I could run by feel, so it's back out on the pavement in the morning to see how it goes.  Still hope for Grandma's, I have until June 1 to pull out without forfeiting my housing money.

73F, 88%, SSE 6 mph, partly cloudy.  Summer weather patterns are starting to take permanent hold.  I felt about the same when I got up, but armed with the chiro's encouragement I went out and ran.  5.22 miles in 45:04, 8:38 per mile, 151 bpm.  Even correcting for the heat and humidity I have lost 4 or 5 bpm in conditioning, could have been worse and might still be.  The back/glutes/abs/whatever it is were an issue the whole time, iced immediately but still seized up like an overheated engine when I tried to get out of the car after driving my daughter to school.  Limped around for a while fixing my breakfast, could hardly put any weight on the leg.  Then all of a sudden it improved, shortly after taking two Ibuprofen.  I never take drugs.  Actually, I think the improvement was starting to happen anyway, but not sure, maybe this stuff kicks in really fast?  If they hadn't told me I could run I would be thinking right now that I had made a serious mistake.  I'm going to keep my other appointment on Monday, see what he says.  The best I can say for this morning is non-definitive, trending toward negative.  But it's just one day.

I have been to two different chiros now and they are both saying the same thing, that it isn't a herniated disc but sciatic nerve passing through the psoas, which has probably been aggravated from a recent uptick in weights.  I guess that's right, it's all I have to go on right now.  Ran a mile this morning and it hurt a lot, although I am getting around OK today.  Needless to say, Grandma's Marathon is a scratch.  It seems that an aggressive stretching regimen is going to get me past this the quickest.  I am spinning for an hour every morning and started back on weights yesterday.  There is some discomfort with that but it is on a different order than running or even walking.  Those are the only two activities that give me trouble.

I am feeling a lot better, probably because I don't run anymore.  My plan is to do spin bike every morning for an hour, weights three times a week, and tons of stretching.  So far this week I have spun four times and weights twice.  Got 18.5 miles this morning, spinning for an hour on settings 10 and 15, my best so far (believe me, I would have preferred about 7 or 8 1K repeats).  I actually got my heart rate up to high 160s.  When I finished there was a large puddle of sweat under my bike.  I was impressed, but I don't think that opinion was shared by the bikers around me.  Just trying not to lose too much fitness, folks.

So the gym I go to is called Planet Fitness.  It stresses low prices and a judgment-free environment.  As a result it is friendly and low-key.  My son used to go there every day for about a year, and got some pretty large muscles.  But for his birthday last week he upgraded to LA Fitness.  (I don't know how widespread these gyms are, they are both pretty prevalent in the Houston area.)  So I have been going there with him to do weights, but I think I prefer the cheap place.  LA Fitness has more machines, but it seems to be full of posers, really large guys covered with tattoos and a bunch of high school wannabes whose daddies bought their memberships.  (Looking at it honestly, I admit that my son fits in well there.) 

I am trying to ice twice a day but it usually ends up being only once.  For the first time in decades I can touch the floor in front of my toes with knees locked.  It is ironic that I am gaining hamstring flexibility because of what I thought was a back injury.  I think the injury is in the piroformis.  When I sit with my ankle over the opposite knee, I can do fine with my left leg but my right leg doesn't bend much.

My chiro consults with one of the national track organizations and I like him a lot.  I think he may even be somebody who can help me long term. 

Back to the gym for the 6th spin bike session of the week.  Got 21.95 miles in one hour, previous high was 18.45, so I am starting to get some decent heart rates out of this.  MaxHR this morning was 183.  Depth of sweat puddle under the machine was 1.39 mm, also a PR.  Got my second warning -- they will probably refund my money and kick me out in a week, but I'll be running by then so it won't matter.  Traveling all next week.

85F, 85%, calm and partly cloudy for a 9:00 start.  I am recovering very slowly from my injury, so I decided to run my first mudder as a way of speeding things up, not that my doctor needs to know.  Back didn't feel too good but it seems OK.  A little stiff but not much pain.

The first task was to find the perfect shoes.  I rummaged around in my garage and found of pair of old jogging shoes that I used to run with Crockett through the night in the mud in February.  They were right where I shed them, still caked with East Texas mud.  Perfect.

Picked up Wade at 7:00 and we drove to Humble, about 45 minutes from here.  They had a kids run first, which turned all of the slopes going into the ponds into a slippery nightmare.  The biggest and deepest holes were right at the start/finish, so that all of the spectators could get a good show.  About 1500 runners trying to get through the holes at the start.  Wade got a good line and was considerably down the course before I made it through, not that I would have caught him today.

There were probably about 20 holes on the course, along with some scrambles up banks.  Some of them could be bypassed, many were taking advantage but I held the line for the most part.  About 1 mile in, an 8-year-old was feeling the heat and didn't like how his race was shaping up.  He was telling anybody who would listen that those guys up there were in front because they cheated.  I didn't take water and I ran all the tangents.  Precious seconds.

I never caught Wade, he said I was about a minute behind him, which puts me at about 35 minutes, a 5K PW.  I doubt that I ever got faster than an 8-minute pace, no idea whatsoever about my placing.  Hammed it up for the crowd a little bit in the final 3 holes before the finish line.  We got fire truck showers and my shoes are now clean.

There is going to be another one in September on the same course, I think I will bring my granddaughters.

80F, 96%, S 7 mph.  Got outside for my first morning run in a while.  Ran 3.46 miles in 32:46, 9:29 per mile, 146 bpm.  The high heart rate relates to both lost conditioning and very high temperatures for this early in the summer, basically 8 weeks out from the hottest week.  My back did not feel good, but on the other hand it wasn't getting any worse.  I went to the gym and finished off another 30 minutes on the spin bike, then did weights, came home and stretched.  Off to get an MRI this morning, then the chiro, probably won't tell him about my mud run on Saturday.  Looking for a substitute marathon, but it may be in the fall before I can find a flat cool one at low altitude on a Saturday.  (I only have a few requirements.)   No big deal, though, at this rate I won't be ready for one before then.

79F, 97%, S 6 mph.  My back felt stiff and sore when I woke up, with all of the sessions yesterday, but it held up pretty well during this run, the last mile was 8:03.  Overall 4.11 miles in 34:46, 8:27/mile, 154 bpm, 174 bpm max.  My heart rate behaved like this was a tempo run, and it was far from it.  Partly the heat, as I said yesterday, but that isn't all of it.  I have a "sinking" feeling that I am a couple of stones heavier.  There was a scale in my hotel room in Miami last week, which registered me at 163.  But I blithely attributed that to different equipment, now I'm not so sure.  But at least I am running a little, even though it isn't very comfortable.  Had to stop for about 30 seconds at one point to fix my Garmin, and it was painful to start again.  Another weird thing -- as I was eating breakfast I was watching my heart rate come down.  It paused for about 10 minutes in the 125 bpm range before heading on down, have no idea what that is all about.  Maybe I have the vapors.

76F, 96%, calm and clear.  Didn't run the last two days, was in San Francisco attending the U.S. Open with a client.  I got in very late Tuesday (2 a.m. Wednesday morning) due to thunderstorms in Houston, then an early flight out on Thursday morning.  Was curious how I would do because I felt good the whole time.  Walked the course all day on Wednesday which was helpful.  So this morning I ran 5.07 miles at 8:43/mile, 154 bpm, 168 max.  Heart rate is still very high but I'll deal with that later.  Did a ton of stretching and felt fine afterwards.

75F, 94%, NNE 3 mph, mostly cloudy.  Nice running weather this morning with a hint of a breeze.  7.10 miles in 59:45, 8:25/ mile, 158 bpm, 180 max.  I felt stiff and sore when I got out of bed, but it went away within the first quarter mile, haven't recovered completely but haven't felt this good or run this far in a long time.  I purposely sped up the last mile trying to hit 8:00, got 7:38 instead and it wasn't that difficult.  It's the new loose and limber me I guess.  I got an MRI on Monday but haven't heard results yet, I'll probably get them when I go in on Monday.  I can smell the end of this, hopefully I'm right.

72F, 91%, NE 3 mph.  7.40 miles in 1:05:22, 8:50/mile, 154 bpm, max 166.

7.55 miles in 1:05:16, 8:38/mile, 157 bpm, 176 max

71F, 93%, N 1 mph, clear at sunrise.  Ran 7.00 miles in 1:02:58, 9:00 per mile, right on target, but no heart rate monitor today.  I ran the first two days of this week then didn't feel like running any more.  At the chiro yesterday he dug deep into my piroformis, got my attention real good.  But I felt better.  Ate steak last night so wasn't feeling the greatest this morning, but went out anyway.  I was only going to run 1 mile but I kept going since things didn't seem to be getting worse (or better for that matter).  Eventually decided to go a whole 7 and managed it so I finished right at my doorstep.  I am becoming a little too familiar with the routes in my neighborhood.  When I got back I decided to keep moving, so I took my son's dog out for a walk.  (She is a border collie and has lots of energy.  I might teach her to run, but I don't think my wife wants her to become our dog.  Kind of a complicated parent-child-canine drama going on here.)  Then iced my back and I will do stretching at some point today.

80F, 80%, WNW 3 mph.  3.16 miles in 27:24, 8:40 per mile.  Shortened run was due more to work pressures, although I was also trying to be careful.

78F, 84%, N 2 mph.  7.00 miles in 1:02:52, 8:59/mile, 152 bpm, 164 bpm max.  Went to the chiro and told him I had been rolling my piriformis across a softball, trying to mimic what he did to me on Friday.  The guy is a little competitive I think.  He dug into it even harder, brought tears to my eyes, chuckled and said that is a little different than a softball don't you think?  I said yes sir.

78F, 88% and calm.  Ran 11.00 miles in 1:38:09, 8:55/mile, 157 bpm, 172 bpm max.  This was about all I could do with my current level of conditioning.  The sun came up for the last mile and a half and I melted like a popsicle.  Actually started to get nauseous, which was pretty weak.  My back hurt for the first 0.1 then wasn't much of an issue.  I took water at 4.5 and nothing further.  I have ice on my back now but it is mostly precautionary.  I think I have turned the corner on this thing but I'm trying to be smart about how fast I come back, although going from 7 to 11 doesn't look too smart, I know.

75F, 94%, SE 1mph.  10.00 miles in 1:28:50, 154 bpm, 165 max.  Felt good.  I think I'll do the same thing tomorrow.

75F, 95% and calm.  10.00 miles in 1:28:52, 8:53/mile, 154 bpm, 167 max.  Felt a little better today, but according to heart rate it was the same run as yesterday.  No two runs could be more similar.  Tomorrow is the first Saturday with the possibility of a legitimate long run, still trying to decide how far to go. 

Suspecting that heat and lack of conditioning didn't explain everything, I got on the scales last night, 165; back on this morning before the run, 164; then after the run and after drinking 4-5 pounds of liquid, including one water break during the run, 159.  Apples to apples it appears that I have gained about 5-7 pounds from relative inactivity in the last month, hard to believe I could put it on that fast.  I thought I was watching my calories more closely than that.  That is significant extra weight to be carrying around. 

77F, 94% and calm.  Another day, another 10, 1:30:05, 9:00 per mile, 153 bpm, 165 max.  Wasn't sure what would happen today.  I had designs on a longer run, but last night sitting in a movie theater my disk starting pushing against my nerve, to the point I was limping on the way back to the car.  (It was MIBIII, good movie by the way.)  Stretched it out last night and this morning and I made it through the run, intentionally pacing a little slower.  Tomorrow is a well-timed day off.  So no long run today.  This has been a good week, no sense pushing it.  I am still struggling with the heat in any event.  Better to ease into it over several weeks instead of jumping in the deep end like I had to do this year.

Then I took my son's dog for a walk and wore her out.  At this rate she is going to be my dog.

74F, 100% and calm.  Temperatures have dropped just a little.  Got out a little late and my back was hurting, plus I was planning to meet Wade at the gym, so I figured I would stop at 6 today, even though the original plan was to see how I did at 12.  Ran to the gym, about 2.7 miles, then did treadmill for .65 miles while Wade finished up.  I gave him the download my son had given me on the weight machines, then we ran back to his house.  I left him there and went back to my neighborhood.  Even though my back still hurt to some extent, I was feeling pretty good from an aerobic standpoint at 6 (9:30 per mile might explain some of it), so I decided to do 8 and one thing led to another.  Finished up the full 12 according to plan, although I didn't feel quite so good as I had felt back at 6, to put it mildly.  Including the treadmill, 12.07 miles at 9:28 per mile, 150 bpm, 170 max. 

76F, 95% and calm.  As of last night I had general tightness in my lower back and was planning to skip running entirely today.  But I woke up at the normal time and headed out from force of habit.  Everything seemed normal when I started, some early back pain which subsides after about a minute.  But I only had time for 6 so I ran it at a harder effort than yesterday, 6.05 miles in 50:30, 8:21 per mile, 159 bpm, 179 bpm max.  More than anything, the heat plays with my head, I keep worrying that my old speed won't be there when cooler weather comes.  Won't know until then, though.

72F, 100% and calm.  A little bit cooler again.  Full moon out for the entire run, and an audible and visible hoot owl on top of a roof.  He was talking to another one that had a higher voice.  For the longest time I thought it was a mourning dove, their cries are very similar.  Not sure what owls eat in this neighborhood though, maybe frogs.  We have good birds here.

I started at 4:25.  My back hurt a fair amount to start, then a little bit more at about mile 4, but made it through OK.  One water stop at mile 4.7.  Total 12.10 miles in 1:52:54, 9:20 per mile, 149 bpm, 162 max, so this was a slightly better run than Monday, even though Monday was a day off.

Then out the door at 7 with my daughter for cooking duties at the ward 4th of July breakfast.  Me and 3 other men cooked a million pancakes and eggs to match.  Sausage and bacon were pre-cooked.  Also set up and cleaned up.  But by the time the Scouts got through the line the pancakes and juice were all gone, so no carbs.  Resisted the urge to stop by IHOP on the way home.  Next time the cook eats first.

73F, 100%, calm and almost full moon, a little higher in the sky this morning.  Looking forward to 6 mph breeze and 95% humidity.

Ran 12.00 miles in 1:52:00, 9:20 per mile, 146 bpm, 157 bpm max.  Incremental improvement in heart rate over yesterday.  I calibrated this one to come in right at 1:52:00, just something different to occupy my mind.  Maybe pacing is in my future -- I think I'm going to start practicing holding a flag up when I run, that should get the neighbors chattering.  It is hard right now -- hot, out of shape, still 2 or 3 pounds heavy, and my back hurts every step.  But there will be better times.

77F, 95% and calm.  Met Wade down at the Y, it was the first Saturday for the running group.  Wade has been doing a lot of gym work recovering from an abdominal injury, so the goal this morning was to go slow and a reasonable distance.  The group we started with was the intermediate group and the first mile came in at 11:00.  We soon found ourselves forging ahead, even though we were intentionally keeping it slow.  Every mile was faster, though, and we ended up with a 9:55 average.  8.20 miles in 1:21:26, 9:55 per mile, 139 bpm, 151 max.  When we got back the "green" group was there, looks like we will have some pretty good runners in it this year, including a woman who completed a full Ironman in Cozumel and a guy who can run a quarter in 60.5.  Fun morning, back didn't have the sharp pains to start, although it still bothered me.  Very gradual improvement, but I think it is going to get there.

So yesterday was a big day.  My daughter called at 2 a.m. and cheerfully announced she was on her way to the hospital, and that things were moving "very rapidly".  Trever Scott was born at about 3:30, third grandchild, first grandson.  So no running yesterday.  Mother and son are fine. We are very grateful and happy.  Everybody says he looks like his dad.  I think he looks more like a baby, albeit a very fast one.

77F, 100%, NNW 1 mph.  Thank goodness we got a stiff north wind blowing in today.  Ran 12.17 miles in 1:53:28, 9:21 per mile, 150 bpm, 166 max.  So much for the concept of progress.  Actually, I think the extra 4 degrees makes a big difference.

73F, 100% and calm.  Lots of rain the last week and it appears that it will continue for the rest of this week.  Ran 12.04 miles in 1:52:54, 9:23 per mile, 146 bpm, 152 max.  The object today was to keep my heart rate at 150 or below for the entire run, even if it meant not making a 9:20 pace.  I'm pretty sure I am not getting much base-building, fat-burning benefit when my heart rate goes over that threshold.  \

It worked out better than I thought it would.  Miles 3, 4 and 5 my heart rate was already climbing, I was over a 9:20 pace and I figured it was going to be a slow, sweaty disaster.  Then miles 6, 7, and 8 came in nicely:  9:07, 9:00 and 9:10.  Mile 9 ballooned to 9:36 and I was just hanging on after that.  The heart rate bumped over 150 a few times, especially at the end, but I would always slow down.  Even though mile 12 was 9:52, I was under a 9:20 cumulative pace through mile 11.  I missed it overall by 31 seconds, so better than I anticipated, I figured I would go over at mile 6. 

Joe and I have discussed this before, I think, but if you are holding to a particular heart rate, there seems to be a sweet spot somewhere between miles 6 and 10 which usually lasts 20 minutes to a half hour.  Then I fall off the cliff, in heart rate terms.  I don't know the physiological explanation, but in practical terms it means don't get excited during a marathon just because I am feeling good at mile 8.

Near miss in the mud this morning.  With all the rain some of the construction sites in my neighborhood are shedding a thin layer of clay onto the street.  I stepped on some wet clay right before dawn and nearly went down.  Not sure of the consequences of a fall onto the concrete, possibly hitting the back of my head.  Last time that happened was a winter morning in Albuquerque -- I was partially cushioned by an inch of snow and a beanie.  There would have been no cushion this time, really felt lucky.