For Whom the Dogs Bark

58F, 100%, NNE 13 mph and raining, sometimes steadily.  This is a small but popular New Years Day marathon that fills up in May or June each year.  It was my first marathon, and today was my fourth time running it.  It is organized by Steve and Paula, a couple of hippies who do things just a little differently, and a little better in my opinion.  It is held in Kingwood, Texas, on the Northeast side of Houston, run as four loops on park trails.  As a result, Steve has to keep the numbers down (700 for both the full and the half, I think about 400 for the full)  from what an open road race could handle. 

This race attracts a lot of BYU types, because most years it is a non-Sunday alternative to the Houston marathon and half.  Both sides of the half marathon today were won by BYU freshmen.  The male winner, Jacob, rode out with Wade and I.  He was a standout high school runner in the area but has decided not to run at BYU.  This was his last race before his mission in Italy later this month.  The half started 15 minutes after the full, so it took the leaders a while to catch us.  But honestly I don't even remember when Jacob passed me -- he said he called my name but I didn't hear him, must have been the doppler effect.  He borrowed our friend Linda's bib, so it was a bit awkward when they tried to award him the first-place medal.  But this race is relaxed about that sort of thing, they just changed the bib name in the computer and gave him the win.  The women's half was won by a girl from the Sugarland area (southwest Houston) who runs cross-country at BYU.  I don't know her but I had heard about her, so I said "Go Cougars" when she passed me halfway through the second lap, made her break her stride I think.  

Wade swore off marathons after his second (a near-hospitalization drama at St. George 2010), but he has been training well this last year and got a special dispensation from his wife to enter this one, although she refused to come out and watch him suffer.  (My family had no such issues.)  He had high hopes for a good time but it didn't pan out for him, his legs gave out and he got an Achilles problem, so he limped out the last lap.  But I stepped right up and got that 3:49 he was hoping for.

I knew going in that I was off.  My heart rate during training has been higher than expected, and even driving to Kingwood this morning after a reasonable night's sleep it was in the 80s instead of the 50s.  After Richmond I decided that no matter the speed I wouldn't run at more than 165 bpm and I held to that.  I knew immediately that I wouldn't be running 3:30 today when the first mile came in at 8:14 and I was already up to 163 bpm.  I ran right at 165 through 22 miles, then couldn't hold it any longer without risking throwing up.  Not that I was overly concerned about that, but there were lots of friends and family watching me at this local race and I didn't want to make too much of a spectacle out of myself just for a couple of minutes' improvement on my second-straight non-BQ qualifier.  I still held 155-160 through the final 4 miles, just didn't race it like I hope to do on a good day.

Given the rain, I made a game-time decision to run without socks.  I have been having trouble with my left sock slipping down into my shoe and I figured that wet socks weren't going to offer any more protection to my feet anyway, not to mention the extra weight.  My game-time decision based on razor, rock-solid logic worked out about as well as most Houston sports lately:

I had a contingent of 6 family members cheering every time I came around on a loop, plus my nephew and his wife and their kid were out on the course.  Knew quite a few runners as well, so I really can't complain.

I took EFS at miles 5 and 10, did not attempt it at 15.  And for those who are dying to know, I took one small swig of pickle juice at mile 15, very nasty stuff but I had no cramping so it must have been good for me.

I'm not going to dig the splits out of my Garmin, I haven't looked at them myself, there really isn't any good information there.  Here are the two most relevant numbers:  2574 and 164, miles and weight at the end of 2012.  For 2011 those numbers were about 3300 and 157.  Plus, most of my 2012 miles were junk miles, run at 140-150 bpm instead of 130 or 165, it finally caught up with me.  I'll try something different for the Boston cycle, probably fewer and faster miles; if that doesn't work it may be time to move on.

Steve and Paula outdid themselves on the finisher medal this year, 3.3 pounds of golden glory, an outline of the U.S. with Texas superimposed in proper proportion:

(My hands are curled back as a balancing mechanism.) 

It was a fun day despite everything, and a day to remember my blessings.  May 2013 be happy and prosperous for all of you wonderful bloggers.

73F, 905, S 8-16 mph.  6.18 miles in 58:21, 9:26/mile, 151 bpm.  Thought I would be pretty rested after waiting 11 days to run again, didn't happen, very painful run, and slow, and high heart rate.  Something is probably wrong.

41F, 79%, NE 18-22 mph and raining.  Great running weather.  Into the teeth of a n'easter I suppose, except this is the Gulf Coast.  But that didn't stop me from imagining I was running the docks in New England with the waves crashing in.  5.37 nautical miles in 54:24, 10:10 pace, 155 bpm.  4 bpm higher than Saturday, 38 seconds per regular mile faster, still not good but at least an improvement. 

I'm still going to go get a physical, though I haven't quite thought through how to explain my concerns.  Me:  "Doc, my times are ballooning, just ran a 3:49 marathon when I should have run a 3:19, something is seriously wrong."  Doc, after a pregnant pause:  "How far was that marathon?"

36F, 100%, NW 10 mph and raining steadily.  Pretty nasty out there, almost turned back but once I started I was on autopilot.  Still, I admit I took a perverse pleasure in it, maybe I felt a bit more virtuous than some of my lazy neighbors.  Even UnaTed was tucked safely beneath his down comforter.  I briefly considered ringing his doorbell, but thought it might be connected to an explosive device.  Either that or an unpleasant encounter with UnaWife.

I decided to run slow and did I ever. 10:02 per mile, but even at that speed my heart rate was 141 bpm.  Just taking it day by day -- I have lost aerobic conditioning from not running slow for a year, that is probably the main explanation for my problems.  Have to run slow in order to run fast.  I may have to go back down to 11:00 per mile in order to rebuild.  Either that or throw it all out the window and just run fast between now and Boston, but my legs don't seem to be able to sustain much of that right now. 

27F, 96% and calm.  Getting pretty cold out there, but much more comfortable than the wind and rain on Monday.  Ran 6.18 miles in 57:37, 9:19/mile, 147 bpm.

No running yesterday due to work commitments.

37F, 96% and calm.  Bright and clear, lost the long pants today and it was fine.  Woke up after 4 hours of sleep to some e-mails from China and had to be at a downtown meeting at 8:00 a.m., so oly time to run 4 miles, and fast ones at that.  4.38 miles in 34:34, 7:53 per mile, 8:29 (150), 7:43 (160), 7:57 (164) and 7:25 (171), max 175 bpm.  Felt pretty good all day after airing it out a little bit this morning, although I was dragging by the afternoon. 

36F, 97% and calm.  Another beautiful morning -- two shirts, gloves, beanie and shorts was just about right.  Ran 10.0 in 1:39:52, 9:59 per mile, 137 bpm, 142 max.  Pretty humiliating to run that slow, but it is what I need.  I swear I could feel the conditioning coming back into my muscles -- just an illusion I know but illusions count.  I decided, between now and Boston, not to do any running between 140 and 160 bpm.  Either slow or fast, nothing in between.  After Boston I'll probably move that to 135/165.  I think the last two training cycles have shown that for me there really is such a thing as junk miles.  Just because I feel stiff, tired and sore after a run doesn't mean I got anything out of it.

41F, 100%, calm and fog.  Nice weather.  Decided on short sleeves, beanie and gloves.  Shed the gloves after 4 then got cold.  I felt faster than Saturday but I wasn't, 8 seconds slower actually.  10.0 in 1:40:03, 10:00 per mile, 137 bpm, 142 max.  Took me a long time to lose the mitochondria buildup in my legs, it will take a while to get those little guys back.  I'm thinking of running exclusively slow all the way to the last 3 weeks or so, but I probably don't have enought discipline to do that.

45F, 100%, foggy but calm.  I am having severe problems with my back.  I bent over for an extended period of time doing some assembly before Christmas.  Running exacerbates it.  Just the stiffness after running, not actually while I am running.  My son Austin (the bodybuilder) pointed out that I need to stretch mty hams more diligently, because tight hams pull on the lower back muscles.  Despite his large, muscular legs, he can easily touch his toes even when he isn't warmed up.  The minute he said it I knew he was right.

I was in too much pain yesterday to run.  Felt marginally better this morning but thought I might skip it again just to be safe.  But safe isn't going to get me anywhere, so I thought I would go out for 4.  The minute I started running I felt better, and my pace for low heart rate was faster than Monday, 7.09 miles in 1:09:46, 9:50/mile, 137 bpm.  Back tightened up a little towards the end, but not as much as on Monday.  Then I stretched and rolled for a long time, seemed to help some.  Maybe back to 10 tomorrow if the day progresses well.

9:55 pace.

No watch, easy pace

9:55 pace.  Pulled up short with exacerbated injury.

Went to the chiro this morning but nothing much to show for it.  I just have a weak lower back that I never bothered to strengthen, so when I bent over for two hours a Christmastime to put some equipment together I injured it.  Sitting all day every day at work means that it never has a chance to heal.  Until Saturday I could still run on it, in fact I ran a marathon on it.  It would actually feel better when I ran than when I sat or stood.  But in the two full weeks plus very slow ramp-up following the marathon it only got worse.  I ran OK on Friday after taking the whole week off, then went out with Wade on Saturday morning and it seized up at just under a mile and a half.  I knew I was done, so I stopped and walked home.

I am going to try one more thing.  I noticed that I am at considerably elevated pain levels when I start to carry something heavy, such as a briefcase.  But if I "walk" through it and concentrate on relaxing my back muscles I can keep going and the pain subsides.  In the past, coming off of back injuries, that is the way it was in the beginning when I would try to run; I could actually run through an initial wall of discomfort and still get an almost normal workout in, though I could never run fast of course. 

But barring a miracle in that respect, I'm skipping Boston -- again.  I still refuse to go there just to run it, though that might be a mistake.  Since I have no qualifier at this point for 2014, this might be my last chance to run it.

If that doesn't work, I will probably go see an ortho, I have a friend who is a very good one.  But I am not going to get back surgery just so I can run, have heard very few good reports about back surgery.

Bottom line, I will try to post and read your posts, but I won't be a good blogger for a while.  I sincerely hope all of your training is going well.

No progress yet, haven't run at all and my back continues to worsen.  I'm on ibuprofen now just to make it through the day (and the night).

On the bright, side, I am going to see a doctor in the morning.  My sister recommended a physiatrist, which I had never heard about before, but they are like orthopedic surgeons without a knife, they specialize in bones, joints and muscles.  She swears by them.  So I went online and found the best-rated ones in Houston, at least in theory.  On the not-so-bright side, the top guy, unfortunately, is Dr. Kevorkian.  I figured it would be no problem getting an appointment and I was right, they wanted to know if I could come in right then.  But if he pulls out a needle I am out of there.  On the other hand, if I it turns out I can never run again . . . .

I asked this same sister a hypothetical question:  since she has run it at least 3 times, if she was signed up for Boston but knew her race was going to suck wind all the way from China, would she still go?  She said absolutely, even if she had to walk it.  I'm not so sure, could any race be that great?  Anyway, I have until the second week in March to cancel my hotel room.

Gaining weight, don't know how much though, I refuse to get on the scales.

That is all.

So today I visited the good Dr. Kevorkian, whom they call "Dr. K" around his office, which seems like a great compromise to me.  He is 67 years old, skinny as a rail, friendly and talkative, and quite knowledgeable about running.  I was in so much pain this morning that my wife had to drive me.  It was weird walking into an empty reception room, kind of like being the only occupied table in a restaurant -- makes you feel like you didn't get the memo.  He was assisted by a Baylor medical student and a doctor from Romania.  The gown was inadequate, but other than that everything went well.  He let me talk and talk, I told him my whole sordid history.  (OK, I left out the Ogden Marathon, he didn't need to know everything.)  The high points are as follows:

• I cannot run until running creates absolutely no pain.  Running of course compresses the back and irritates the injury.  Makes sense.  I can walk all I want, and do elliptical and other instruments of mental torture, so long as they don't create pain.
• I have to go through 4 weeks of physical therapy, whereupon I will report back to his offices.
• Pain meds are very simple, an Ibuprofen prescription that is 4x counter strength.  (I know I can buy it and do it myself, but the prescription is only $4.)
• Strengthening my back muscles will help my condition, not necessarily cure it.
• The MRI I gave him from last summer was mildly interesting to him, but he said half the adult population has herniated disks to some degree, just not a big deal.
• Definitely nerve damage on the right side from my first back injury 4 years ago.  He was able to isolate certain areas related to S1 that have less feeling on the right side than the left.
• Hams are tight as a bow string, hips are loose.
• My future as a runner is uncertain.  This is a serious injury but not necessarily the end.  We will re-evaluate on March 19.

Some takeaways:

1. This is not the same injury as last summer.  That was a piriformis pinching the nerve that goes through it.  My hips are still loose because I have been doing the proper stretching for that.  This is a plain-vanilla old-man strained back.  I think that is a good sign.
2. Doing the right back and other core exercises may help more than Dr. K. realizes.  The reason I have these injuries, I think, is because certain muscles (hams and glutes mainly) become stronger than the muscles further up the chain (back and abs currently).  Once I fix that, I should be in pretty good shape, though it now appears cerrtain that I will never be 30 again.
3. I have a pool-free back yard.  It might be time to change that.
4. Boston 2013 is history. I'm about to cancel my hotel room, so if anybody needs one let me know.

Excuse me, it's time for my nap.

38F, 74%, NNW 5 mph.  Best running weather in history this week.

36 hours after visiting Dr. K, after taking two 800 mg doses of ibuprofen, it was like it never happened.  I mentioned going out for a run and a cabal of family, work and running buddies practically staged an intervention.

Nothing much to report.  Went to a physical therapy lab yesterday that Dr. Kevorkian recommended.  She was very knowledgeable and gave me some simple exercises that made me feel quite a bit better after doing them only once.  The PT folks might be the smartest ones out there for runners' purposes.  Still don't have my blood work back, so still working my way through everything.  I miss the pain and suffering.

Have been running a bit lately.  Skipped yesterday because my back felt sketchy by the time I got to the end of mu cul e sac.  Felt much better toay, I wouldn't say it is going great but there does seem to be some slow progress.  I have picked out a two and a half mile loop but haven't been running with any technology.  I timed it on Tuesday with my cell phone and I was at a 10:18 pace, felt a little faster today. 

Also on Tuesday I had a followup appointment with Dr. Kevorkian.  He had a complete write-up prepared from my first visit (love it when the medical profession embraces customer service) and we discussed my situation in detail.  He reiterated that he is not going to tell me not to run, he knows how addicting it is.  He said he is 10 years older than me, and he remembers starting to fall apart at my age.  Nice -- we old guys love black humor.  He also said he spends 10 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night stretching, that it needs to become part of my life, i.e., the same as brushing my teeth -- especially hamstring stretches.

I mentioned how much I liked Rhonda, the physical therapist, and he said he liked her too.  I reported that she had me on a regimen to get to a strong core, and he agreed that it would help, then lifting his finger he said, "to a degree".  It's not a magic pill.  Speaking of which, I am very lucky to have gotten rid of my back pain with two 800 mg doses of Ibuprofen.  Translated:  he sees back patients all day long who almost need morphine to get through the day, this is not something to mess around with, especially since I am already old enough to order the senior special at Denny's. 

When I told him I had gained 10 pounds already he was alarmed, said no more desserts.  This is one tough old bird.

Lots to think about, to be contineud.

63F, 83%, N 8 mph, light rain.  Went out for a bit longer this morning, missed yesterday due to work.  By my watch about 10:30 pace, was hoping it was under 10, just amazing how difficult running is right now.  At about the 3-mile mark my back started to hurt in one spot, low and slightly right of center.  But it was more worrisome than painful.  Finished off the run and so far today OK.  Didn't have any problem cycling through my core routine.  Hoping to do 4 a day next week -- tempted to do 6 but that might not be smart.  The bummer is that it appears I have neatly missed every last day of the good running weather.  Temps aren't ferocious yet but the heavy moist air is back, just feels different when it is coming off the Gulf, even if the official humidity readouts say it isn't fully saturated yet.  The wind was out of the north but that was from local rotation related to the rain storm, not a general weather pattern.

38F, 78% and calm.  After complaining about an early summer on Saturday I got a magnificent mid-winter morning today.  Too bad my pace was somewhere between a road construction schedule and being put on hold by United.  Ran 4.09 miles in 40:40, 9:57 per mile, about 155 bpm.  Was quite difficult to maintain even this pace, but it was faster than Saturday at least.

40F, 58%, NNE 8 mph.  Even better weather than yesterday.  Actually felt a little lighter today, same 4.09 mile route in 39:52, 9:40 per mile, 155 bpm average.

Went back to my other doctor today, the one checking all my chemistry.  I have low iron and low vitamin D₂, the latter because I never get outside in the sun.  He thinks I am overtrained, couldn't believe it when I told him I run everyday.  He asked me how I run after taking two days off, and I told him I run faster, of course.  But I am hardly overtrained.  I ran my best two races (two half marathons in a three-week period) early last year at the same time I ran 100 miles in a week, as well as other high-mileage weeks around it.  I told him I think I can train a lot as long as I keep the speed down, it is running hard too often that kills the goose.  So we'll have this guy stick with chemistry for now, still not sure I know what has happened to my body, but he has me on a 12-week regimen with high dosages of vitamins and iron.  Hopefully by then I will be back into a training program enough to check my vitals apples-to-apples with a couple of training cycles last year.  Physical therapy tomorrow.

55F, 86%, E 6 mph.  4.09 miles in 38:35, 9:26/mile.

66F, 85%, S 6 mph.  4.00 miles in 42:21, 10:35/mile, 146 bpm.

60F, 100% and calm.  4.09 miles at 9:30 pace.

63F, 97%, E 4 mph.  4.09 miles in 36:54, 9:01/mile

61F, 95%, ENE 16 mph.  4.09 miles in 41:13, 10:04/mile

42F, 100% and calm.  6.18 miles in 1:00:13, 9:44/mile, 150 bpm.

48F, 95%, S 2 mph.  6.18 miles in 56:17, 9:04/mile, 157 bpm/170 max.

68F, 93%, SSE 7 mph.  6.18 miles in 1:02:17, 10:05/mile, 148 bpm/152 max.

68F, 93%, SE 8 mph.  6.18 miles in 1:00:09, 9:44/mile, 148 bpm/153 max.  First indication of real improvement, 20 seconds faster than yesterday in same conditions and heart rate.

45F, 100% and calm.  6.18 miles in 59:04, 9:34/mile, 146/152.

51F, 100% and calm.  10.00 miles in 1:39:46, 9:59/mile, 144/151.

70F, 90%, S 9 mph.  6.18 miles in 51:38, 8:21/mile, 169/183.

72F, 94% and calm.  4.05 miles in 39:42, 9:48/mile.

93F, 97%, SE 5 mph.  6.18 miles in 1:03:23, 10:15/mile.  143/148 (53 resting)

47F, 61%, N 8-16 mph.  4.11 miles in 33:59, 8:16/mile, 164/179.

Phoenix, AZ.  About mid-50s.  My oldest daughter and I are on a trip to Eagar, AZ, my hometown.  Stayed with my nephew in Mesa off of Alma School Road.  Ran 5.00 miles with my daughter in 46:44, 9:21/mile. 

52F, 100%, calm and clear, solar effect from running too late in the morning.  6.18 miels in 50:15, 8:08/mile 167/181 bpm.

57F, 69%, NE 8-16 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:41:09, 10:07/mile, 140/150.

67F, 96%, SSE 8 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:36:54, 9:41/mile, 149/169 bpm.

69F, 96% and calm.  14.07 miles in 2:17:28, 9:46/mile 150/167, 55 bpm resting.  171 pounds, 14 over fighting weight.  So this is where I am.  I missed the prime running season this year in Houston.  I plan to run Boston next year, but I now need to re-qualify.  It will probably take 8:15/mile to do it.  I might could have run 9:00 today if it were a race and I didn't care about the rest of my life.  So that is the task, double the distance and take a minute off, by September -- no problem.

61F, 100%, S 3 mph.  Not too warm but extremely muggy out there, I don't think I understand well enough how humidity works.  Ran 10.00 miles in 1:38:11, 9:49/mile, 144 bpm, 150 max (resting 55).  Was hoping for a lower heart rate but this is OK for now.

66F, 100%, E 4 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:39:17, 9:57/mile, 142 bpm, 149 max.  53 RHR.

64F, 100% and calm.  10.00 miles in 1:41:45, 10:10/mile, 140 bpm, 145 max, 55 RHR.

47F (41 WC), 70%, NNW 14-22.  10.00 miles in 1:36:41, 9:41/mile, 146, bpm, 154 max.  Record low temperature.

41F, 96% and calm to start, 56F, 60%, SW 10 mph at end.  Went to bed and 9 and woke up at 5, one of the better night's sleep I have had in a while.  RHR in bed was 60, but got it down to 53 sitting in a chair after stretching and just before heading out at 5:50, late for a long run. 

This morning's temperature was a record low for the month of May by 3 degrees.  Funny thing, though, the same website that posted the 41F this morning is now saying the low for the day is 48F.  I'm totally suspicious, I don't think record lows mesh well with certain political viewpoints.  I know how it felt going outside, and it was not 48F. 

But great running weather regardless.  Around here there are not a lot of people running May through August, the big marathons in Texas are in the first quarter of the year, so this isn't anybody's training cycle.  I did see Coach Eric out there, though.  He was running quite a bit faster than me and I didn't try to join him.  I am still fat and slow.  I ran 20.00 miles, from my house down to the Y and back the long way.  I took two detours on the way down totalling about a mile, and I had 10.5 when I got to the Y.  On the way back I took a different detour for a tenth a mile so that I would finish before I got to my front door.  Speed on the way down, slightly downhill overall, was 10:05 per mile.  9:25 on the way back for an overall speed of 9:45/mile.  One water break at the Y, did not carry any water with me.

On the way back there was a woman leaving the Y just before me and running pretty well, so I chased her until she turned around at 3.5, then I maintained speed the rest of the way.  Overall 20.00 miles in 3:15:00, 149 bpm, 171 max.  RHR 53.  Weight 169, down 2 pounds from last week but still 12 pounds over my best weight.  My mileage is almost back, but at this weight my speed will take a while.  I took some comfort in knowing that at race weight I would have been a lot faster. 

I'm pretty happy with where I am right now, got in a good run on a fantastic day.  The people who didn't run today because it is off-cycle missed a historic day, my first 20-miler since January 1 (also the record low, don't forget that).

57F, 50%, NNW 4 mph.  In Chicago for a conference, 10.8 miles @ 8:50 pace, had to extrapolate some because the Garmin did not like the new location.  Ran from downtown south along the lakefront, past Soldier Field and McCormick Place out onto a point then back.  Good run.  Got hot at the end in the sunlight, even though the temperature was very moderate.  158 bpm, 171 max.

52 F, 72% and calm, Chicago again.  6.0 miles at 9:50 pace, 141/152.

71F, 84%, SSE 5 mph, back in Houston.  6.18 miles in 1:00:19, 9:46/mile 57 RHR, 145/152.  Then ran 6.0 from work in the daylight, 82F, 75%, SSE 9 mph.

69F, 86%, NE 11 mph, 6.18 miles in 59:01, 9:33/mile, 56 RHR, 143/153, ran one windsprint at the end, which was pretty awkward.  That's how I know I'm out of shape, no smooth 5K pace.

61F, 88%, NNW 6 mph.  Visiting daughter and family in Temple.  Got up late and ran 13.03 miles in 2:09:31, 9:56/mile.  RHR 55, 143/157.  Was planning on 10, then started texting with my daughter close to the end, and she came out and joined me for 3 more.  The speed fell precipitously (my fault, not hers), but the conversation improved dramatically.

56F, 100%, SW 5 mph.  12.11 miles in 2:02:30, 10:07 per mile.  53 RHR, 141/148.  Got sick later in the day and didn't run again until Saturday.

75F, 92%, S 9-18 to start; 77F, 83%, S 12-16 at end.  6.18 miles progression run in 53:52, 8:33/mile, fastest 7:53, two pretty funny-looking wind sprints.  RHR 56, 161/187.  Top end is highest heart rate in two years -- alltime best is 193.  Felt heavy and out of shape from not running, but weight is actually down a little, to 168.

75F, 88%, SSE 9 mph.  6.18 miles at 10:00.  On a whim I took the family dog, a border collie.  I wonder if 6 miles in the humidity was a good run to break her in?  She did fine, but had sore paws later in the day, which probably amounts to some kind of a violation on my part.

78F, 87%, SSE 9-19. 10.22 miles in 1:39:24, 9:44/mile, 60RHR, 150/167 bpm.

70F, 97% and calm.  10.0 miles in 1:37:1, 9:46/mile, 57 RHR, 144/158 bpm

72F, 97% and calm.  10.00 miles in 1:39:25, 9:56/mile; 62 RHR, 143/150 bpm.

76F, 94%, SSE 3 to start; 78F, 90%, SE 5 to finish.  14.0 miles in 2:13:46, 9:33/mile, 154/171 bpm.  Trying to get back on track for 70 for the week, meaning I need 20 on Saturday.

73F, 94%, E 3.  10.77 miles in 1:51:53, 10:24/mile.  55 RHR; 140/150.  Worst run in a while, just too much fatigue left from yesterday, I assume, though it wasn't like I ran hard yesterday or today.  Left the house and headed to the YMCA the long way.  My back was starting to speak to me and I needed to help my nephew move, so I called it a day -- woke my wife up and she drove to the Y and picked me up.  Did not feel good at all despite intentionally taking things very slow.  A run like this makes me wonder what is going to happen, but it's only one run.

73F, 94%, SSE 4 to start, 77F, 89%, S 8 to end.  Out the door at 5:00 for a re-do of Saturday's run.  This time my run for the day before was 0 instead of 14 and it made a big difference, had no problem with the run other than the last 2 miles which were in the broad daylight, but that is a matter of conditioning.  I hope to run quite a bit in the daylight this summer and get more acclimated to the heat than I have in other years.  But despite liberal body glide all of the sweating has left me raw, very painful post-run shower.  20.00 miles in 3:21:27, 10:04/mile, 56 RHR, 149/172.

About 2 miles in there was a huge emergency response going on in the neighborhood I was running through.  I was most of the way through the neighborhood when a cop car looked like he was trying to turn in front of me.  I moved out of the way but eventually realized he wanted to talk.  He asked me if I had seen a black male, but I hadn't seen anybody.  He said somebody had been shot and that I should go home.  I explained that I would have to go back through the neighborhood to do that and I might as well continue.  He said OK and left.  I have been unable to find any details.

74F, 91%, SSE 8 mph.  6.18 miles in 1:01:59, 10:02/mile, 55 RHR, 140/145.

77F (81F finish), 88%, SSE 8-17.  10.0 miles in 1:36:13, 9:37/mile, 149/163.

PM Vitamin D run:  5:00 p.m. -- 88F, strong south wind, 10:0 miles at 9:38/mile, 157/170.  Big solar run, was OK until the last two miles then died.  Need to do more of these.

79F, 88%, S 9 mph.  Went with Wade to run with a different group we got an invite to.  Some fast runners, faster than us at least.  They said they were going to run 12 at 8:15, which is beyond our capabilities right now, at least in this heat.  We told them we would try to run 4 and then we would turn around and jog it in.  I got there at 5:00 and ran a warmup mile, then another one with Wade.  The group arrived and we took off, first mile 7:44, second one about the same.  I was holding up surprisingly well, but Wade is not recovered from his surgery yet, so we slowed down, not that I cared at all.  We ran low to mid-8s for the next two and kept the speedsters in sight before we turned around.  Not too bad, good to know there is a little bit of speed left.  Plus a lot of these runners slowed way down as well, we weren't the only ones feeling the heat.

PM sunshine and 90F, 55%, SSE 5 mph.  4.0 miles in 35:04, progression run, 8:46/mile, 9:19 down to 8:23, no HRM.

67F, 98% and calm.  10.0 miles in 1:38:21, 9:50/mile, 52 RHR, 140 bpm, 147 max.  Trying to keep it slow and easy this week.

PM:  95F, 33%, N 7 mph.  6.0 miles in 54:08, 9:01/mile; no HRM but felt like 170-180 at the end.  Started out OK but quickly wilted in the heat.  Last mile is mostly uphill coming back into downtown from the bayou bottom, including an imposing ramp to get up to street level.  That was hard.  Probably sabotaged my runs for the rest of the week.

69F, 100% and calm.  12.15 miles in 2:02:22, 10:04/mile.  55 RHR, 138 bpm average, 145 max.  Tried to take it slow, but I was still hurting by the end of the day.  Contemplated not running on Wednesday.

70F, 100% and calm.  Nice running weather this week.  Decided to play it by ear this morning, but when I got up I had recovered enough to run a little.  I went out and ran at a very comfortable pace, which almost equated to my low heart rate runs of a couple of years ago.  6.18 miles in 1:03:15, 10:14/mile.  58 RHR, 133 bpm, 137 max.  Was back to normal in a few minutes after the run, I'll try to get out this afternoon for a vitamin D session.

73F, 100% and calm.  Getting warmer.  10.00 miles in 1:39:14, 9:56/mile, 138 bpm, 148 max.  Ran the first 4 with Jessie, our border collie; she did fine, but certainly wasn't wanting any frisbee time later.

PM:  100F and calm, not sure of the humidity, but it is going to be a long, hot summer, perfect for my training plan.  Ran from downtown starting about 1:00 p.m..  It was very hot, but I knew from doing a couple of previous daytime runs not to take it too fast and I survived OK.  Not sure how I will feel in the morning though.  10.00 at 9:48/mile, no HRM (it gets soaked from the morning run so I don't bring it to work) -- lots of construction on the bayou trail so I had to improvise. 

I weighed 163 on the scales in the locker room this afternoon, compared to 170 after my run this morning on my bathroom scales.  I don't think I was really 7 pounds lighter, maybe 3.  I don't want to obsess about my weight, but 170 is too heavy for me to run fast, it just is -- I need good data.

68F, 100%, NNW 6 mph.  Much cooler, wind turned to the north and the air was very fresh.  Ran right at dawn and it was great.  10.00 miles in 1:41:55, 10:12/mile, RHR 52, 131 bpm, 136 max.  Possibly my first true low heart rate run in a long time -- I'm happy about my heart rate coming down, hopefully it isn't just temporary.  I could tell from a familiar kind of fatigued feeling at the end that I was burning a high percentage of fat.  Legs have felt tired all day, quite a lot of miles on them this week.

67F, 93% and calm.  Ran 13.0 miles in 1:53:53, 8:46/mile, 152 bpm, 165 max.  Then drove with my daughter and two granddaughters out to Humble for a 1-mile kids mud run, put on by Steve and Paula Boone, who also do the New Years Day marathon in Kingwood and a number of other races around here.  Had a great time and came in last.  I took Jane, the 3-year old and Jennifer ran with Kate, who is 6.  Jane is outgoing and headstrong, but hates getting dirty.  She was not happy from the first puddle, so we started going around all of them.  About halfway through she noticed her mom and sister about 20 yards ahead of us and became immediately indignant:  "Grandpa, they're trying to win! We have to make our feet go more fastly."  So I'm counting it as another slow mile, but I won't be filing a race report.

70F, 100% and calm.  Out at 4:35 a.m. for 20 slow miles in 3:17:11, 9:52/mile.  143 bpm, 161 max.  First 15 felt comfortable, joints and tendons got sore after that, still conditioning.  Trying to front-load my miles as much as I can this week, traveling the second half of the week.

75F, 98% and calm.  10.0 miles in 1:42:16, 10:14/mile.  52 RHR, 134 average, 139 max.

84F, 74%, S 8 mph.  Slept in after a late night and went out to run at 8:30 in broad sunlight, 10.0 miles at 8:54/mile.  47 RHR (a new record), 159/181, fastest split 8:26.  The sun is amazingly efficient at draining away my strength.

In Panama for work, 5.0 miles on hotel treadmill, started out a 9-minute pace but got impatient and cranked it up at the end, 7:30 for the last mile.  The TM readings were in Ks, but don't worry, I converted them to Ms.

Got on the TM at the house for 5 after getting home from Panama and right before going to bed.  Hope it doesn't screw up my run in the morning.  Highs in Panama, sea level and close to the equator, were 85F while I was there.  Upper 90s here in Houston.

80F, 88%, S 5 mph at the start.  Out the door at 4:33 for 20 easy ones, front door down to the Y and back.  It all went well until the sun came up about 7:30 for the last 5, then things deteriorated quickly, turned out to be one of the hardest 20-milers I have done.  Pretty much illucid by the last 2 miles.  10:16 per mile overall,  RHR 55, 148/164.  I reached the magic number close to the entrance to my neighborhood, about 0.8 miles from the house.  But I stopped anyway because I wasn't sure what would happen if I kept running.  Pretty beat up, I walked by a kids' water park, the kind with fountains coming out of the ground.  There were some park benches there and I figured there was a water fountain with water a little cooler than the water in my bottle.  No such luck.  There was an electrical switch on a tree nearby, but I couldn't see any valves to turn on.  Then through my delerium I realized that the switch might be to the pumps, not the lights in the trees.  I went and looked under the cover and sure enough, it had a timer.  So I turned it on and played in the water, including an overhead bucket that filled up and then drenched me.  Once was enough for that one.  After a while I felt someone watching and looked across the street to find a vigilant neighborhood guy in his bathrobe with arms crossed.  I waved but he was not amused.  I'm sure a complaint will be filed and somebody will put a lock on the timer.  Good thing there weren't any kids there, I would have had to elbow them out of the way.

78F, 95%, SSW 1 mph.  12.0 miles in 1:54:51, 9:34/mile, 53 RHR, 142/152.  Good run, could barely walk when I got out of bed but a stretching session helped and I was on my way at about 5:40.  Last few miles were in the sun and heart rate started to climb, highest single-mile average was 149 bpm, each of the last two miles.

Went out again at noon from work without a watch, 20 minutes out and 18 back, probably 9:30 and 8:30 pace respectively.  95F, 47%.  Actually felt better the second time, but that would have changed if I had tried to go 8 or 10.

77F, 94%, SW 3 mph.  6.18 miles in 1:00:12, 9:44/mile.  47 RHR, 135 bpm, 141 max.  Heart rate is starting to drop now, finally.

73F, 96%, ENE 1 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:39:51, 9:59/mile.  52 RHR, 132 bpm, 141 max.  Felt really good after this run. 

PM:  95F (100F heat index), 45%, S 10 mph.  Left work in the late afternoon, then took a phone call just as I was starting out.  It was 5:00 before I started, took it very slow, out the Buffalo Bayou trail west from downtown between Allen Pkwy and Memorial, crossing from side to side to avoid construction.  All the way to Memorial Park then around the loop and return.  Didn't have my Garmin, but according to the computer it was 11.96 miles, took about 2 hours.

On the way back I was crossing the bridge over Waugh Dr. and there was a body in the road.  He had been hit by a car.  Some of the runners around said they saw him run a red light when he got hit.  People were talking to him so I assume he was alive.  There was nothing I could add so I continued on, EMT arrived about a minute after I left, don't know what the final result was.  I've gotten to the point where I don't cross in front of any car unless the driver is looking at me, right of way is irrelevant.

77F, 94%, SW 4 mph.  Was planning to do 20 this morning but too beat up, decided to consolidate my gains and run a little less today.  I have a fast finish long run on Saturday; the goal is 9:15/8:15, 8:15 being the speed I have to run to both qualify and actually get in to Boston, as best I can tell.  So I thought I would try the 9:15 end of it.  Ran 10.00 in 1:29:55, 9:00 per mile, so a little fast.  RHR was 53, averaged 147 bpm, max 163.  Was very tired from the beginning, but my heart rate stayed low so I was happy -- we'll see what happens when I have to tack on an 8:15 second half.  Presumably the strength will come back into my legs with a little rest.

75F, 97% and calm.  10.00 miles in 1:42:51, 10:17/mile.  53 RHR, 133 bpm, 141 max.  Thought I had regressed but I compared it apples to apples against some recent runs and it was OK.

I made an appointment at a sports performance lab.  I really want to know at what heart rate I stop burning fat.  Probably a continuum but it would be nice to see the curve.  They do other stuff too, though, like lactate threshold, VO2max, HRmax.  Also something called running efficiency, which measures how much oxygen and fuel you burn to achieve a particular output.  It really isn't that expensive, should have done it long ago.  Plus the guy is English -- whenever I hear that accent I figure he is way smarter than me.

75F, 98% and calm.  Today's schedule was a fast finish long run.  Have never been able to do these very well and today was not an exception.  The plan was to do 12 at 9:15 then 8 at 8:15 -- yes, that is now my fast finish program, if I can do it I'll probably qualify for Boston and maybe even get in, so don't laugh.

First part went fine, came in about 9:13 average at mile 12.  Made a conscious effort not to speed up much beyond 9:15, though mile 12 came in at 9:00 flat.  Heart rate performed well, didn't hit 150 until mile 8 and mile 12 was 156.  But the speed wasn't there when I tried to knock it down for Part 2:  8:28 (165), 8:38 (165), 8:18 (170) and done.  WU/CD 1 mile, practiced my crawl for the CD and I'm not a tri-athlete.

Interesting part was my heart rate, it never got out of hand despite the heat.  I have run a full marathon at higher heart rates than these but couldn't sustain it today.  The problem is probably twofold: haven't really been doing many hard days, and still trying to get back into shape.  I'll try again in two weeks, there is at least some hope because I am improving right now.  If it doesn't work then I probably won't try to run the August marathon.

I set up an "aid station" with Gatorade (powder mix) and water, stopped every 5 miles.  That part of it worked pretty well.  Don't know how I am going to replicate powder in a race, though.  Maybe take my water bottle and stop to get refills, mixing it on the fly.  Not sure it is worth it but it was nice not to have stomach issues.  Overall a good week, just couldn't tie a ribbon on it.

77F, 95%, ESE 3 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:45:58, 10:36/mile.  52 RHR, 127 average, 134 max.  A true throw-back low heart rate run.

Went to a performance lab to get tested, ran about 30 minutes on the TM, to exhaustion.  I'm calling it 3 miles, top speed was 8.5 mph.  At the end they started increasing the incline until my legs turned to cement.  Top heart rate was 182, the test didn't last long enough to really max out the heart rate, as a result I didn't get a true VO2 max.  The last reading was in the high 40s, but my actual is probably higher than that.  Overall I was disappointed in the feedback I got.  My main goal was to get a fat/glycogen ratio breakdown at each heart rate level.  Turns out they were measuring something called RER (respiratory exchange ratio).  I don't know anything about it other than that, don't know if it is an estimate or a true measurement.  All I know is that the ratio sits at .71 at rest, is at .75 (15.6% carbs, 84.4% fats) at 120 bpm, .80 (1/3 carbs, 2/3 fat) at 130 bpm, .85 (50/50) at 157 bpm.  One way of reading it is that I can run at any speed I want under GMP and still burn 1/2 to 2/3 fat.  But in another way it is almost useless.  There is a lot going on between 130 bpm and 145 bpm.  The 130 to 157 bpm is two different worlds, so these numbers have little value for my training.  Still trying to figure things out. 

79F, 89%, S 7 mph.  10.00 miles, first 5 at 10:00/mile, 134 bpm.  Then 3 at GMP:  8:15, 8:18 and 8:13, then 2 CD.  Overall 9:18/mile.  52 RHR, 144/167 bpm.

PM 97F (102 HI), 39%, S 7 mph.  6.00 miles at 9:14/mile, 151/164 bpm.  Very hot run.

76F, 96%, S 4 mph.  6l18 miles in 1:00:57, 9:52/mile.  Average 136 bpm, max 141.

76F, 95%, WSW 3 mph. 14.40 miles in approximately 2:20, 9:35 to 9:45/mile.  No Garmin or HRM.  Felt about the same as yesterday, but a little faster.  I feel better tonight than I did yesterday night.

80F, 88%, SW 8 mph.  20.42 miles in 3:22:00, 9:54/mile, from my house down to the Y and back by the long route.  145 bpm average, 165 max.  Started at 4:30 and stayed under 150 bpm through the first 10 or 12 miles, then my HR started climbing in the heat and in the sun.  Ran the first half at about 10:10 pace and the second half at about 9:40 pace, last mile 9:21.  At 0.70 miles in I realized I had forgotten my liquids; my inclination in a situation like that is to bull my way through, but I realized there would be no 20-mile run today without a bottle, so I went back and got it.  Just meant that my route was a little different.  There were a few people running out of the Y this morning, but mostly quiet in the sweltering heat, not even mid-summer yet.

At mile 16 there was a guy in a small park with two large bulldogs loose.  They headed my way barking but I stopped, somehow remembered to pause my Garmin.  After a while we had an impasse, as the dogs stood there and I couldn't get through.  So I asked the guy which way I should walk and he said they were fine.  I walked up and met him and his dogs (Rye would have been proud of me).  He was Ken and he was doing some version of cross-fit.  Said he used to run 5 or 6 miles every day.  Then of course he asked how far I had run and was pretty amazed, though he shouldn't have been, judging from my appearance.  

The last 0.42 was mentally difficult.  I finished up right before the kids' water park in my neighborhood, took off my watch and took everything out of my pockets and had a nice shower, felt good to exchange salt water for fresh water. 

Much of it is heat, but I really need to get better at running this distance.  It wipes me out.  When I first started on the road back I noticed how a particular distance would be hard, then manageable as I move up to the next level.  At 20 miles, I am pretty sure I would improve noticeably if I did it two or three times a week, but right now I'm not recovering quickly enough to do that and I would soon be behind the eight ball.  It also takes at least 3 hours to do it, and I don't usually have that much time without getting up even earlier.

Hurried off to help somebody move and Wade was there.  He isn't running right now, he thinks he tore the mesh in his abdomen that was installed in a surgery in April.  He was doing fine until that happened.  He says it takes him about 2 hours in the morning to get warmed up, then he is fine for the rest of the day.  Kind of an odd thing.

73F, 61% and calm.  I was overjoyed with our weather this morning, unbelievably low humidity, went long again, very low heart rate, though probably not low enough.  20.00 miles in 3:24:22, 10:13/mile, RHR 50, 132 average bpm, 144 max.  Pretty tired by the end, but it went OK.

69F, 75% and calm, another great running day.  10.00 miles in 1:25:22, 8:32/mile.  RHR 50, 147 average, 176 max.  Did 5 miles warmup, 9:42 (130), 9:03 (139), 8:48 (141), 8:51 (143) and 8:43 (144).  Then 5 x 1000, 7:44 mile pace (158), 7:33 (160), 7:33 (163), 7:23 (165) and 7:14 (169), 7:29 average pace.  These were hard, but results were better as I progressed through the sequence without a lot of extra work -- I have quite a bit of endurance now, just need to be able to apply it at higher speeds.  I jogged out each mile, generally in the 9:20 to 9:40 range.  Legs feel good, this workout did not waste me, which is probably the best thing about it.

Driving to Arizona starting this afternoon, I'll get in some high altitude runs there.

Fort Stockton, TX, 65F, 48%, SSE 8 mph, 2,972' elevation.  Ran 10 miles out of the motel, straight up Hwy. 285 and back.  Was making pretty good time (heart-rate wise) on the way out, then turned around and realized I had been running slightly downhill with the wind at my back, pace dropped by about 30 seconds per mile.  Lots of oil out here, and lots of oil-field trucks going by, some closer to me than others.  Overall 10.00 miles in 1:39:23, 9:56/mile.  46 RHR, 134 average, 146 max.  Then into my car to drive to Arizona.

Big Lake, AZ, 44F, 68%, SSE 8 mph, elevation 9,100 at end, highest point 9,400.  Drove from Round Valley up to the top and ran to Big Lake, a fishing reservoir up here.  Lungs were burning the first half-mile heading up the first hill, then I was OK through 10, then it was a struggle to finish the last few hills, my legs were too tired.  My niece gave us water every two miles and a ride home when we were done.  Dirt road all the way, some of the rocks were too big for my Jingas.  14.00 miles in 2:19:22, 9:57/mile, 49 RHR, 148/170.  The wide open meadows on top are spectacular, but this cell-phone photo is inadequate.  The mountain in the distance is the second-highest point in Arizona, climbed it a couple of times when I was a kid.  Some friends ran up it once but I was never that crazy.  Now that I am that crazy I am incapable.

Springerville, AZ, 44F, 82%, E 5 mph, elevation 7,000'.  Ran north out of town along the highway, out and back.  Lots of hills but quite relaxing after yesterday.  10.00 miles in 1:34:51, 9:29/mile.  49 RHR, 140/156.

According to the new person running this race, there were double the number of entrants from last year.  I showed up expecting at least 200 runners but there were more like 25, and that was 5K and 10K combined.  Most of the faster runners were in the 10K, but we all started together.  Combined with 7,000' elevation, the first 2.5 miles was all uphill, plus a couple of side-hills on the way back down.  I had an 8:40 mile in one stretch.  Was comfortably below 8:00 for most of the way down, but my legs were too wasted to do much more than that.  I did pass the 5K winner, though.  Turns out he is the son-in-law of a woman I graduated with.  She now has 22 grandchildren and counting, of which he is the proud owner of 6.  Age division awards were a bit spotty, to put the best light on it.  Some divisions had no runners.  Mine had 4, so they gave it the whole deal, starting with the bronze medal and dramatically announcing me as the gold medal winner.  The medal was actually yellowish in color, so I took it home.  I don't have any races at elevation scheduled for this year (unless you count SGM), so not sure if any of this running this week did any good.  I had fun though; went to my HS reunion and got to hang out with my family for a few days.  Drove back to Houston over the weekend.

79F, 84%, S 3mph.  Back in Houston, ran 10 at normal LHR pace, 1:40:48, 10:07/mile.  Felt good to be back in the soup, in a twisted sort of way.  Heart rate was 53/135/141

Didn't run today.  Legs are still recovering from some rough miles last week -- could feel some things going on in my left foot so I decided to take the day off.

75F, 99%, W 2 mph.  Pretty muggy this morning.  Ran 10.00 in 1:26:53, 8:51/mile.  Ran the first 5 slow then picked up to GMP for the last 5:  10:08 (127), 9:42 (135), 9:12 (141), 9:12 (144), 9:09 (140), 8:13 (158), 8:16 (162), 8:09 (167), 8:19 (170) and 8:04 (176).  Finished the miles readily enough, improving, but heart rate is still too high.

76F, 97%, SSW 3 mph.  Went on an ultra-low heart rate run in the morning, 6.18 miles at 10:41/mile.  53 RHR, 121 average, 126 max.  Was surprised I could run at all at this speed, but according to my test at the performance lab this is where I burn the most fat.  Have to see if this is a viable pace or not.

PM:  96F (98 heat index), 31%, SE 4 mph.  Didn't have a watch or HR monitor, but ran for 58 minutes and went 6.26 miles according to the computer, comes out to about 9:16 pace, but the time isn't exact, could have been plus or minus 20 seconds -- heart rate felt about 155 to 160 level of effort at the end.  Didn't really want much more than that. 

79F, 88%, SW 4 mph to start, 85F, 72%, WNW 8 mph at end.  Started late and ended up running a lot in the sun, plus tried the low-low heart rate thing again.  Did not work at all for this distance in the bright sunlight, ended up with some 12+ miles at the end and the heart rate still got away from me.  Overall 12.36 miles in 2:21:41, about 11:30 per mile.  RHR 50, 125 average, 139 max.  Totally exhausted at the end, believe it or not.  There is a lot of work to do in this training zone.  I didn't even know it was down there.  Hope I didn't cannibalize my long run tomorrow.

78F, 88%, WSW 3 mph.  Started at 5:00 a.m. but really should have started about 4:30.  Goal was a 20-mile fast-finish long run, 8 laps around a 2.5 mile course I have marked in my neighborhood.  Did better than last time (3 weeks ago) but still didn't pull it off.  Felt good through the first 10:  9:19 (136), 9:21 (139), 9:05 (143), 9:20 (143), 9:10 (145), 9:15 (146), 9:09 (143), 9:12 (147), 9:18 (149) and 9:13 (151), so heart rate held steady until the last two then started climbing pretty quickly.  The fast ones started off well but I got tired quickly:  8:09 (163), 8:18 (166), 8:13 (169), 8:12 (173) and 8:08 (176).  0.3 WU/CD.  For the "official" miles, my overall average was 8:53.  I think if I could have held 170 for a couple of more miles I would have been able to finish the run.  I stopped for water/Gatorade at mile 5 and 10, then every lap after that.  Was starting to feel dizzy on the last two laps so I shut it down.  But certainly an improvement over the last one, and way beyond anything I could have attempted 6 weeks ago.  I'll probably try again in a week and see if I can do it -- giving myself one last shot at a BQ in August.

72F, 89%, ENE 4mph.  20.03 miles in 3:04:36, 9:14/mile.  Basically ran the first half of Saturday's run twice.  Weather was good and decided I would start out the week hard and see how long I can stay strong.  After this week I have a 3-week taper, so I figure I can do anything I want other than get injured.  Happiest about my heart rate today, 148 average, stayed under 150 through 12, 162 max.  Some of that is due to the 72F, which is slightly cooler than average, but not all of it.

PM:  Ran 10 from downtown without any equipment other than my cell.  Approximately 1:32, which comes out about the same as this morning.  Didn't feel like I was pushing too hard, though it was definitely a slog at the end.

74F, 97%, NE 3 mph.  10.00 miles in 1:46:36.  First 5 at ultra-low HR, 12:00 (119), 11:54 (120), 12:01 (120), 12:06 (121), 12:05 (121), then 5 a little faster:  10:18, 9:51, 9:31, 9:25 and 9:13.  That was it for the day.

75F, 96%, NE 5 mph.  15.00 miles in 2:17:46, 9:11/mile.  Was planning to go 20 but was starting to get fatigued and lots of running left for the week.  Compared to Monday, I broke 150 bpm in mile 8 instead of mile 12, so definitely more tired.  55 RHR, 151 average, 167.

73F, 100% and calm.  10:00 miles in 1:40:37, 10:03/mile, 128 bpm, 140 max.  Not sure where the 140 cam from, never saw more than 134 on my watch.  Was just trying to run easy, keep the miles going without wearing out.

74F, 100%, N 1 mph.  Pretty consistent weather this week.  Another 10.00 but my heart rate was still high toay for this speed, 129 bpm/135 max.  So similar to yesteray, but 10:11 per mile instead of 10:03.  Felt good, though.  One last big push tomorrow, then a final decision on the August 10 marathon in Wisconsin.  I am already registered, but if tomorrow is a disaster I might decide not to go.  But I'm giving tomorrow's run all I have.  I cut back the last 3 days just so I would have a little in the tank.

75F, 93% and calm.  It rained for a couple of hours late yesterday afternoon.  When we went out to eat about 8:00 last night the pavement was steaming and I knew my run this morning had just gotten a little bit harder, because the same thing happened Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  It went OK, and I'm going to go ahead and run my race, but it wasn't a smashing success.  I left the house at 4:45 and opened up with 0.15 WU followed by running 10 at 9:14 average:  9:06 (139), 9:24 (139), 9:12 (143), 9:17 (144), 9:10 (145), 9:16 (146), 9:22 (147), 9:09 (148), 9:13 (149) and 9:09 (150), so 10 below 150 bpm, compared to 8 on Wednesday, but compared to 12 on Monday.  Then took off for the dreaded second half, though it took 3 or 4 miles to get dialed in:  8:24 (157), 8:30 (162), 8:20 (163), 8:15 (1767), 8:13 (170), 8:06 (173), 8:16 (176) and 8:15 for a half mile.  Then slogged out the remainder 2.4 at about 10:00 pace.  Altogether the 20-mile portion (I re-started my watch after 20) took 2:57:22, 8:52/mile, 154 bpm average, 179 max.  20 oz Gatorade and 20 oz. water.   

Cutting myself a lot of slack for the humidity and the high mileage week.  I figure if I concentrate on turnover for short distances during the taper that I can eke out a few more minutes.  If I was going to shoot for a straight 3:40 BQ I think my chances at this point are 50/50, which is a miracle with everything that has happened this year.  To get a 3:35, which is what it will realistically take to actually get into that certain race with all the bomb-sniffing dogs, it goes down to 25/75.  Any runner knows if your odds are that good you go for it. 

Paavo Nurmi Marathon, Hurley, Wisconsin (Population 1,547, Elevation 1,496 (1.03 persons per foot above sea level)), August 10, 2013.  It is named for a lawyer who won a big mining lawsuit and let them name the town after him in lieu of taking a fee.  As a lawyer I can understand both sides of that one.

79F, 100%, S 3 mph.  Temperature was 80 when I went to bed last night, so I was surprised to see the high reading this morning, but the wind turned and conditions were close to the max we have here in the summer for morning runs.  Starting my taper now, so lower but more intense miles.  5 at GMP or faster:  8:17 (154), 7:51 (164), 7:44 (172), 7:44 (178) and 7:52 (181).  HR 169 average, 182 max.  I'm not really very good at these higher heart rates.   3 WU/CD. 

79F, 93%, SSW 6 mph.  8.07 miles in 1:32:37, 11:28/mile, low-low HR:  53 resting, 121 average, 127 max.  Different kind of fatigue after finishing these super slow runs.  Either I am training a new system or using new muscles.

76F, 96% and calm.  8.20 miles, 3 WU, then 5 x 1K:  7:50 (156), 7:29 (163), 7:12 (170), 7:14 (173), 7:16 (176).  RHR 53, 152 average, 183 max.  Cool-down and stop.  Pretty good times today  Comparison to July 2, which was 69F:  7:44 (158), 7:33 (160), 7:33 (163), 7:23 (165) and 7:14 (169).  Hard to draw any conclusions.  Temperature and heart rate were lower on July 2, but I ran faster today, so I'm calling it a win.

78F, 96%, SW 5 mph.  Slow-slow again today, trying to stay smart and still get something done.  8.16 miles in 1:34:43, 11:37/mile.  53 RHR, 121 average, 127 max. So definitely slower than Tuesday.

79F, 94%, SSW 5 mph.  Intervals again today, trying to force some speed memory into my legs.  3.0 WU then 5 x 1K again:  8:00 (157)), 7:25 (166), 7:35 (170), 7:38 (173), 7:41 (177).  RHR 55, 151 average, 180 max.  I tried to dial it down a bit on the speed, so my legs felt better but my heart rate for each repeat was almost identical to Wednesday.  These heart rate results are probably not a good sign for a taper week (I should be improving, not getting tired across the board, starting with RHR), but I think I can get away with some experimenting this far out.  Might even go hard tomorrow, though certainly not 20.

79F, 93% (77 DP), SSW 5 mph.  Got in late last night from a trip to the airport and I had an 8:00 commitment this morning, so there wasn't a lot of time to run.  Made it out for a few anyway:  10.30 miles in 1:31:27, 8:53/mile, 151 bpm average, 169 max.  The last 6 were between 8:30 and 8:35, and I could have made it to 16, which was what I originally intended.

Weather in Hurley, WI this morning:  48F, 87% (45 DP), NW 6 mph, raining.  I probably won't be that lucky in 2 weeks, but one can always dream.

79F, 92% (DP 76F), S 4 mph.  1.5 WU then 9 x 400 at 7:00 to 7:15 pace (estimated, I didn't press the lap button, wanted to run more by feel), 200 jogging in between and 400 jog at end, 6.00 miles total.  51:57 total tim, 8:40/mile.  152 bpm average, 182 max.  Felt good to air it out a little bit, and felt good to finish in under an hour.

77F, 94%, S 5 mph.  6.14 miles in 56:24, 9:11/mile, 142 bpm average, 152 max.  Nothing special, just trying to walk the line between staying sharp and fading.

Legs were slightly more tired than I thought they should be this late in the taper, so took the day off.

79F, 94%, SSW 3 mph.  Ran this right at 10-minute pace.  Wanted to get some miles in without racking up any deficits.  First 6 felt very good, legs were strong.  Then they got sore.  It has been almost 2 weeks since I ran 20, almost tempted to do it on Saturday but hopefully I won't.  Overall 12.11 miles in 2:01:01, 10:00/mile.  141 average heart rate, 152 max.

74F, 100% and calm.  Woke up stiff and slow, legs dead from running 12 easy yesterday.  But I was out the door on autopilot, sat down to get a RHR and it came to 55.  I can tell this taper is doing a lot of good?  The reason I don't trust my training is because it has never given me a reason to trust it.

Started out and legs felt heavy, though not sore.  I pushed it just a little and came in on the warmup mile at 9:26.  Then went 5 x 1K pretty hard, trying for 7:45 but ultimately faster than that:  7:56 (152), 7:42 (159), 7:07 (169), 7:06 (175) and 7:08 (180).  The third one kicked in nicely, was working hard but felt mostly under control.  Overall 6.02 miles in 48:56, 8:07/mile, 156 bpm, 185 max.  Even though I could never hold it that far, it felt good to see my legs churning at my old half marathon pace for the last 3 repeats.  Hopefully 8:15 will be sustainable in a week.

75F, 100%, calm and bright sunlight most of the run.  Kept the lid on today.  My daughter is in town with her family for my wife's birthday, so she agreed to join me at 7:00.  Left the house at 6:05 and ran 5 at low-low HR, 11:35 per mile, 122 bpm.  Then I met my daughter, told her I didn't want to run anything under 8:45, so that is what we did.  9:04 (137), 8:49 (144), 8:56 (147), 8:53 (149).  Then my daughter peeled off and I ran one more, 8:35 (156).  It was oppressively hot with the high humidity and the sun beating down, was very happy to see my heart rate under 150 at this particular speed.  It compares favorably with the splits in this training zone that I was seeing at the start of last year and the end of 2011 when I was hitting my PRs.  I could see myself running 8:15s at a similar heart rate if the temperature were in the 50s, but we will soon know.  We will have some rollers and a little bit of altitude to deal with (only 1,500 feet but it makes a difference to a sea-level guy).

78F, 93% (77 DP), SSW 3 mph.  Ran a quick 4 this morning at GMP, 8:41 (138), 8:18 (151), 8:11 (156) and 8:10 (159).  4.06 miles in 33:50, 8:20/mile.  150 bpm average, 162 max.  Legs feel good today.  HR seems to be almost in the right zone, it might be even better if I get a boost from the weather this weekend.  It will come down to conditioning rather than heart rate -- that sounds a little off, but from experience I know that if my conditioning is good I can sustain higher heart rates for longer distances.  Current forecast for Hurley on Saturday morning is high 40s/low 50s, that can change quickly but at the moment I can hardly believe my luck.

79F, 89%, SSW 8 mph.  Still hot but no big deal at these distances.  1 mile WU then 3 x 1K:  7:27 (158), 7:17 (166) and 6:57 (174).  Overall 4.08 miles in 33:24, 154 bpm average, 182 max.  Trying to get apples to apples (or at least apples to pears):  Last Friday, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th repeats were 7:42 (159), 7:07 (169) and 7:06 (175), so today might be an improvement.

Some sobering realizations about the marathon course in Wisconsin.  Looked up a couple of comments about the course and people were complaining that it was a very challenging course.  Apparently it is mostly hills, which if true will not be good since starting and ending elevations are almost the same.  The course profile shows lots of bumps but it always does and I don't trust them anyway, they are usually wrong.

79F, 94% (77 DP), SSW 7 mph.  4.10 miles at GMP, 33:38 total, 8:13/mile.  8:29 (139), 8:13 (151), 8:05 (157) and 8:05 (160).  Heart rate climbing too fast, but I think that is a weather thing.  Felt like I could do 16 but not 26.  Banking hard on a big boost from the weather.

3-mile shakeout run with 5 sprints in the last mile to create lactated legs for carb loading.  But couldn't eat enough carbs to meet the standard, decided not to push it.  9:19 (129), 9:12 (137), 7:39 (157), 5:52 (170) for the stub.

Writing this on Friday night, at my motel in Ironwood, MI, across the river from Hurley, WI.  I have driven the majority of the course and I am worried.  Nothing jawdropping, but it's just that there is 26 miles of it.  I don't think a flat mile exists in the whole state.  The purpose of this race is to get a BQ -- otherwise it would be a lot of fun.  The scenery is beautiful, the people are nice and the weather is fantastic.  Maybe it won't be a big deal.  I ran bigger hills in Arizona, not well, but that was at altitude.  And the course from downtown Houston along the bayou that I ran 5 or 6 times in the afternoon heat is almost as hilly as this one, so there is a sliver of hope.  Maybe the thick cool air will save me.

Temperature at race time is forecast at 51F, climbing to 66F by the finish.  Dew point right now is 48F, compared to 72F in Houston.  At least I achieved my weather goal by coming here.

Well, it was an interesting day.  Didn’t get a BQ, but I think it was due to factors beyond my control, couldn’t really have done anything more.  The course was a monster and it actually got too hot at the end, up there in the north woods.  But I had fun.  There are thousands of lakes up there, and I may have talked my wife into getting property somewhere in the Upper Peninsula.

This is a small marathon, but that is deceiving, it is an important event for this region.  It is a venerable race, this was its 45th running, not many races can say that.  It was organized but not well-organized, no feel of large marathon professionalism, which was OK of course.  I got to the registration desk late Friday afternoon and they had me registered for the half, even though my form was in the marathon book.  They said they would fix it but they were also like, “dang, there’s another one”.  I wasn’t super confident but decided that the race was small enough I could get it fixed if I somehow managed to qualify.  By this time I had driven portions of the course and I knew that goal was receding into the sunset, so I decided that would be a happy problem to have if somehow they didn’t give me an official qualifying time.

In keeping with the theme, there was quite a debate about bus pickup times.  The website said 5:15, the local newspaper said 6:00, and a sheet handed out at the registration desk said 6:15.  I decided to go with that but went a little bit early just in case I was wrong.  I could drive to the start and figure out later how to retrieve my car.  But I guessed right.  It was me and a bunch of friendly, old local guys on the first bus -- the crowd that wakes up at 2:00 ready for the day.  The bus was literally 2/3 full of old men with heavy Scandinavian accents (mostly Finns and Norwegians, as far as I could tell), have never seen anything like it.  They were having a grand old time, curious about what brought me up there.  It got raucous when I said I came up there for the weather; apparently this marathon is known around there for being hot, humid and miserable.  One guy had a long, thin gray goatee and a do-rag -- he said that just proves you can never trust anything on Google.  He was also pretty fired up about the price of Grandma’s Marathon, said next time I should come run his, which is free, including a t-shirt, chip timing and a certified course.  He did say his was “small, not like this one”.  These guys are the reason I finished 6th in my age group, which you would think would be impossible for a race that had about 200 total individual runners.

Another unique thing about this race was all the relay teams.  They were running 5-mile legs and the town turned out in force -- I think there were almost as many relay teams as individual runners.  One of the teams had about 10 runners in it (not sure how, maybe there were two teams).  They showed up somewhat inebriated and started doing drills and chants like a football team warming up.  One guy’s running outfit was cut-off jeans and basketball shoes -- no shirt.  He was practicing his starting block technique.

Starting temperature was about 50F, but the sun was already up at 7:30 when they started -- not sure why they don’t just start an hour early, but I think they consider 10:00 too early to drink beer.  I tried to go very relaxed the first mile but it came in right at 8:15, my goal pace.  The next two were a little slower, but it was difficult to maintain an even pace due to the very uneven course.  I read somewhere that there was a total of 1,800 feet of climbing, though the finish line was only 3’ higher than the start line.  They had mats every 5 miles, but not at the start line -- gun times only.  At about mile 3 I fell in with a 51-year old guy from the Detroit area who was running his 14th marathon, but his last one was 1997, so he had no idea what he was doing.  Our paces seemed similar, so we decided to work together.  We ran all the way to about mile 19 before he fell off pace.  By about mile 20 I still had an 8:17 - 8:20 cumulative pace going, but went up a big hill and my legs failed to recover for the first time, at which point I knew it was over.  Did the 10K death march and ended up walking part of the last hill in mile 26, which was the longest and steepest of the course.  Finished in 3:46:59, but because of no starting mat my posted time (whenever they get around to it) is going to be the gun time, 3:47:04. 

Here are my splits, reliable heart rate readout kicking in after two miles:  (1) 8:15; (2) 8:33; (3) 8:24 (158); (4) 7:56 (159); (5) 8:04 (158); (6) 8:34 (160); (7) 8:22 (161); (8) 8:33 (162); (9) 8:16 (162); (10) 8:14 (162); 8:13 (160); (12) 8:23 (160); (13) 8:05 (160); (14) 8:24 (167); (15) 8:08 (166); (16) 8:17 (165); (17) 8:22 (163); (18) 8:24 (166); (19) 8:27 (166); (20) 8:30 (170); (21) 8:46 (168); (22) 8:38 (168); (23) 8:41 (168); (24) 9:32 (164); (25) 9:55 (158); (26) 12:19 (149) and (26.28 by Garmin measurement) 2:45 (9:58 pace) (149).

Low 70s at the end, but I never got an official temperature/humidity reading.  My heart rate was never bad, which I attribute to running down here all summer.  It was actually lower than when I ran my first BQ in Richmond 3 years ago.  When HR goes down at the end of the race, that means “bonk”, pure and simple, very easy to interpret that particular biofeedback indicator.  But I believe that my bonk for the last 3 miles despite a lower overall heart rate means I haven’t come all the way back yet.  The day I ran my PR (SGM 2011) I averaged 169 for the race.  Today was 163 (disregarding the bonked miles).  And the hills used up precious glycogen, which I think may be a different metric than heart rate.  It all added up, but I didn’t run poorly, I did slightly better than in January on a flat cold course.  Today I just wasn’t quite ready, probably would not have made 3:35 even on a flat course, though I would have been much closer.  On to St. George, my first qualifying race for 2015, when my BQ switches to 3:55, I’m embarrassed to say.

78F, 100%, SW 8 mph.  Felt good to get out running again, for about half a mile.  Lower left leg and calf are still sore from the race.  Ran 4.05 miles in 43:13, 9:29/mile, 141 bpm, 154 max.  I have travel the next two weeks, so good timing for the build-up.  Then 3 weeks as hard as I can go, then a 2-week taper for SGM.  Not sure what is going to happen after that, I don't have anything else scheduled until Woodlands in March, and I'm pacing my son on that one.  Maybe I'll run Grandma's next summer.  Now that I've toured Paavo Nurmi's little shop of horrors, Dick Beardsley's should be a snap.

But on that subject, the guys on the bus told me it was a fun course, just not fast, and that was a good description.  This course was very beautiful and the people were wonderful.  I might run it again sometime if it aligns well with overall training plan -- but I won't be trying to get a PR.

75F, 96%, NE 3 mph.  Drizzly and cloudy this morning, felt pretty comfortable outside.  5.30 miles at LLHR:  121 bpm, 125 max.  11:41/mile.  RHR 58, so my body is still trying to build back from Saturday's race.

I decided this morning that I am quite happy with how fast I came back from my injury, though I am not all the way back yet -- but at the same time I need to find my ceiling quickly, never found it before the injury.  I am probably going to do something like the following: 

(1)  Train through SGM -- run hard on race day, maybe even let up a little bit the last week going into it, but basically train through.  Definitely going though, there will be several relatives and friends there, so it will just be a fun day.  My time for that race is pretty irrelevant at this point, other than getting a qualifying time for Boston 2015 in the next age group up.

(2)  Next target race Kingwood on New Years day.  Boring 4-loop course but flat as a pancake, almost always cool or cold weather, and measures the correct distance.  Between now and then my training is going to involve lots of distance, front-loaded with lots of LHR miles, lots of long, long runs (maybe 24 miles instead of 20) and lots of daytime running.  I think I can get started right away, I really believe in LHR running and those miles don't seem to be affected too much by my recent race.  I noticed on Saturday that despite minimal speedwork going into the race it was no problem hitting GMP for extended periods of time even on a very hilly course, the problem was maintaining heart rate through the last 10K, maybe even bumping it up, need to get just a little tougher.  Every 4 weeks or so do a monster distance or workout week, then back off until I recover.

(3) Pace my son at Woodlands, then possibly run Grandma's or Paavo Nurmi next summer. 

(4) Start programs for long-term weight loss and serious long-term core/glute/hams weightlifting.  Even though I am 163 right now at 6'0" and look skinny, I am 22% body fat and can barely do a situp.  The ceiling is soft in this area, but the trick will be doing both at the same time while avoiding injury.  My bodybuilder son is a fountain of knowledge and can help me.

(5)  Something in the fall or Kingwood again, maybe both, next target race being Boston 2015.  That might be it, but that's a long ways away and could change several times.

(6)  Keep my job, I'm going to need it.

74F, 100% and calm.  Slightly cooler.  Ran 6.03 miles in 1:09:44, 11:31/mile.  LLHR: 120 bpm, 125 max;  RHR 48.  My RHR yesterday was 10 bpm higher, kind of strange.  But when I went out to run and sat down to get a reading, I started talking to my neighbor who is training for the Houston marathon, telling him about my race, etc.  By the time I got done it was in the low 60s.  When I sat still it dropped like a rock, all the way to 48.  But I did run better than yesterday, whether because of better weather or further recovery hard to tell.

Yesterday I got a health screening at work, not for personal reasons but because they offer a discount on health insurance premiums.  So I went and got my arm cuffed and finger pricked.  All the readings were very different from the ones I have gotten recently.  Blood pressure was 126/64 instead of 106/60 like I normally get at the dentists office.  Blood sugar was 109 instead of 60 from my last physical.  HDL was 37 instead of 63.  Total cholesteral 176 instead of 138.  Just a low-tech operation.  Then I had to fill out a very invasive survey on which I lied repeatedly (e.g., I get depressed whenever I think about my PR, about 5 times a day).  Finally, I have to promise to try to run a 5K.  I'm hoping they will accept a 3:47 marathon, it's the best I can offer right now.  Anything for a 3.4% discount.

73F, 93%, NNE 6 mph.  By late yesterday I was feeling good and thought I could get away with going long today, thought better of it this morning and decided to do 10, then ran it too fast anyway.  10.79 miles in 1:34:08, 8:43/mile, 155/173.  Got some good data out of it, though.  Last Wednesday I ran 4 at GMP, tapering into the race.  Miles 3 and 4 were 8:05 (157) and 8:05 (160).  Today those splits were 8:48 (151) and 8:34 (154).  So just eyeballing it, adjusting for weather differential and curvature of the earth, it looks somewhat equivalent, i.e., given that I bonked and didn't race the last 10K a week ago, seems like I have mostly recovered.  That being the case, I next compared miles 3-11 today with last Saturday.  Here it is, race times first:

(3) 8:24 (158) and 8:48 (151); (4) 7:56 (159) and 8:34 (154); (5) 8:04 (158) and 8:37 (157); (6) 8:34 (160) and 8:44 (158); (7) 8:22 (161) and 8:41 (160); (8) 8:33 (162) and 8:41 (161); (9) 8:16 (162) and 8:37 (162); (10) 8:14 (162) and 8:34 (165); and (10) 8:13 (160) and 8:35 (169) (mile adjusted pace for the 0.79 actually run).

So early on not a dramatic difference, slower pacing today but also lower heart rates.  But by mile 5 the heart rate draws even and pretty soon there is a big drop-off in today's results compared to race day.  So if my physical condition is truly about the same, that would mean I am getting 20-30 seconds per mile boost from improved weather, principally the humidity/dew point factor.  That comes out to 9-13 minutes difference over the race distance.  Cut that back a little because initial mileage is similar and there is still, conservatively, a 7-10 minute boost from dropping the dew point from 75 to 55.

71F, 100% and calm.  LLHR run, 10.00 miles at 11:50/mile, last mile 12:19.  RHR 53, average 119, max 126.  Amazing how depleted I feel after these fat-burning runs, but glad I could keep it up for a full 10 without a heart rate spike.

71F, 96% and calm.  Still good weather.  Same run as yesterday.  Have started my legs and core program, so things were a bit slower today.  10.02 miles at 11:51 per mile, HR 121, 127 max.  Off to China for the rest of the week, so any further mileage is going be TM, not planning on running outside in that air.

10 miles on the TM at the hotel in Beijing, prior to leaving for the airport.  I had my HR monitor with me, so I set the TM at 11:30 to see what would happen.  By mile 5 I was over the LHR zone, so I switched to a fast workout.  Second 5 started out at 160 bpm, then ratched up gradually, finishing at 193, equal to my HRmax, first time I have hit it in 4 years.  It was odd, could have sustained the pace for even further, but didn't seem to be going that fast, not much under 7-minute pace according to the readout.  But I don't really trust the data readouts on treadmills, probably going faster than it indicated.  This was the first time I have worn a monitor on the TM and it was interesting to see my heart rate oscillate at the same speed, though I am not sure of the exact speed.  It would swing between 117 and 122 then back down again, all the while at a constant pace.  Just thinking about my next marathon would make it spike.

75F, 93%, ENE 8 mph.  10.01 miles in 2:00:41, LLHR, 12:04/mile, 120 bpm, 126 max.

Left foot is bothering me, decided not to run for a couple of days.

South Lake Tahoe, about 50F.  Ran 4.83 miles with my brother-in-law down by the lake, 10:40/mile, 137 bpm, 153 max.  Altitude at the lake is 6200', 7400' at our rental house.  As close as I can tell, I am about 20 seconds per mile off due to the altitude.

Ran with my sister-in-law down the hill to the lake, then the same route as yesterday.  The road down is 3.5 miles and has a 7.5% average grade, so it was pounding my legs pretty good.  Probably shouldn't be running this hard on my gimpy foot, but it seems to be holding up OK.  7.73 miles in 1:12:19, 9:21 per mile, 136 bpm, 173 max.  They need air here.

Same route as Saturday, but at the end I ran back up the hill.  Couldn't run it all the way, some of the grades were just too steep.  I would walk until my heart rate got down to 155 then run again until I red-lined.  So ended up about 4 walking sessions of 1/10 mile apiece, otherwise the total distance would have been closer to 12.8.  Probably worked too hard on this run but it isn't like I'm saving myself for anything.  12.43 miles in 1:59:51, 9:39/mile, 154 bpm, max 179.

Staying in a hotel in Reno, 6 miles on the TM at 5.5 mph, just trying to recover.

77F, 94%, WSW 3 mph.  Back in Houston.  Got up early after getting in late last night.  6.13 miles in the morning at low low heart rate, but no Garmin, it was dead because I never charged it during the vacation.

PM 6.0 miles on the TM, starting SGM hill work.  1st mile flat warmup at 6.0 mph.  Then downhill 5% grade at 6.7 mph for 2 miles.  Then uphill for 1.75 miles, starting at 3% grade working up to 7%, speed  starting at 5.7 mph working up to 6.7.  Then 1.25 downhill 5% grade, 6.7 mph up to 8.0 mph.  Didn't wear a heart rate monitor, but I'm guessing 170 bpm max.  Not much of an offering to the running gods, but (i) I am old, (ii) if I do this consistently over the next 4 weeks it will make a difference, and (iii) my name is Flatlander.

Didn't get a weather reading, but felt about the same as yesterday.  6.05 miles at LL heart rate, 12:39 per mile, 120 bpm/125 max.  Even at this bottom-end heart rate I am usually about 45-50 seconds faster.  I got a resting heart rate before the run and the lowest it would go is 62, about 10 bpm higher than normal, so I am either in steep recovery mode or something is haywire with my body.  I'm opting for the former.  My legs felt fine but they obviously are not.  My left foot felt OK during the run but it hurts when I sit down then get up to walk around.  It needs active recovery.  So I guess I am pretty beat up but I feel fine and have no problem running so far.

PM:  6 more on the TM, 1 mile WU, 5% downhill for 3 at 9:00 pace, 3% uphill for 2 at 10:00 pace.  Not quite as intense as yesterday, but doesn't need to be.  SGM is not a target race for me this year, I'll pretty much train through it, but hoping the TM work will at least let me take advantage of the downhill and to prepare for Veyo.

74F, 100% and calm.  Same run as yesterday, 6.05 miles, 12:12/mile 120 bpm,125 max.  RHR was down to 57 this morning, which explains the difference in pace.

74F, 96% and calm.  Ran to Wade's house and picked him up, did 12 and then a few more on my own.  Very hot for some reason.  Stopped at the splash pad in my neighborhood.  17.00 in 2:43:12, 151 bpm/173 max, 9:36/mile.

74F, 97%, ENE 1 mph.  8.04 miles in 1:40:14, 12:28/mile.  LLHR, 121 bpm, 126 max.

PM 6.0 on TM, up and down.

75F, 96% and calm.  6.06 miles at 12:19/mile, 121 bpm, 128 max.

PM 6.00 on TM, 5% down, 3% up.

73F, 98%, NE 1 mph.  Waiting for the weather to break, still too early in the year.  5.32 miles in 50:35, 9:31/mile.  I have a severe left hip problem, first time for this injury.  I can run on it a little bit sporadically, but if I try to do too much I can barely walk the rest of the day.

Brief shakeout run, testing out my hip.  3.33 miles in 30:43, 9:14/mile.  Hard to tell what is going on.

74F, 98%, NE 4.  6.07 miles at LLHR, 12:33/mile, 120 bpm/127 max.  PM 6 on TM at very easy pace, no incline.  I have started medicating after the run in the morning with large ibuprofen doses; it takes down the swelling in my hip, gets me to the next run.  Didn't take it after the PM session and it worked out fine, but very sore in the mornings.

76F, 97% and calm.  No break in weather yet.  Went for a full 12 with ibuprofen afterwards and it worked out OK.  9:28/mile.  158 bpm, 172 max.

74F, 100%, NNE 3.  Very sticky out there.  If you haven't run at 74F dew point at sea level you have no idea.   6.00 miles,12:54/mile at LLHR, 125 bpm, 129 max.  RHR 62.  HR data shows I was feeling the effects of yesterday's run.  Also very little sleep, never good despite what they say.  If RHR is elevated then there is that much less heart rate reserve to work with.  Won't affect you unless you are maxing out, and then it definitely puts a cap on what you can do.

PM 6 on TM, tried one mile at 3% downhill.  Worked OK, and ibuprofen is working OK. But probably too late to do anything at SGM, lucky if I break 4 hours the way things are going.

76F, 97% and calm.  12.00 miles in 12:12:17, 11:01/mile.  Ran LLHR for 7 miles then 5 at MP + 20:  8:38 (9162), 8:33 (171), 8:27 (178), 8:36 (183), 8:49 (187), max 189 bpm.  Astronomical heart rates for very anemic speeds.  Ibuprofen for hip, it feels fine.

77F, 1005, E 5 mph, intermittent rain.  It was sweating, not raining, more like water dripping off the ceiling in a sauna.  Ran 8.04 miles at LLHR, 13:08/mile, 122 bpm, 128 max.

72F, 100%, N 9-13 mph, rain off and on.  Supposed to be thunder and lightning this morning as our first "cold front" moves through, but it never materialized and I was able to get the run in, which was pretty important.  Woke up at 2:20, good practice for SGM in two weeks.  Finally got up at 4:00 and was out the door at 4:25.  Ran 20.35 miles:  .16 WU, then 15 at 9:18 (153 bpm, 166 max), all I could manage in the cruddy shape I am in right now, then finished with 5.19 at 10:14 per mile.  Drank Gatorade made from powder mix every 5 miles, plus water at mile 15.  Felt like I had run a lot harder than I actually did, not good.  Injuries seem to be OK though, second day in a row with no Vitamin I.  My upper left glute felt like it was going out at about mile 11, but it was just a cramp, changed my posture a little bit and it went away.

Pretty good miles this week, but it is a good thing this race is a gimme.  For the first time in several years I am worried about cracking 4 hours.

73F, 57%, ENE 5 mph.  Not that I woke up eagerly, but at least I was anticipating 63F this morning.  That is what the forecast was when I went to bed -- completely off and it doesn't look like we will get anything in the 60s this week.  I have seen voodoo queens who are more reliable.  The consolation prize was the lowest humidity I have seen in Houston.  My legs were quite tired and slow but the low humidity kept my heart rate down.

I was out the door at 4:25, ran down to the Y and back for another long run -- not really back to back since I took Sunday off, but kind of felt like it.  Pace was 9:44, 24 seconds slower than the fast miles on Saturday, but I only went 15 then.  Plus my heart rate toay was 147 average, 157 max, so things were more in control.

74F, 91% (DP 72F), calm.  The cold front never materialized, even though the Weather Channel website keeps predicting low 60s -- we haven't even reached high 60s yet and I don't think we will on this weather cycle.  I need to get my own met tower.

Last night around dinner time I started running a fever, had to bundle up just to keep from freezing.  But I took two aspirin, after a minor drama finding the bottle:

My wife claims it was on this shelf, but I never saw it, still don't.  Then hit my pillow at 9:15.  Woke up at 5:15 feeling fine, shrugged my shoulders and went out for my planned recovery run.  It was my best LHR run in as long as I can remember:  6.00 miles in 1:12:05, 12:01/mile.  118 bpm, 123 max, 11:38 (120 bpm) on the last mile.  RHR was 55.  All this after doing two 20s in 3 days.  Last week I did 3 LLHR runs, they came in at 12:33, 12:54 and 13:08, all at higher average heart rates than this morning.  My wife was a little bit ticked when I got back, she was up wondering what I was doing.  I shrugged my shoulders.

I have no explanation, I'm just giving up.  I should quit looking at a watch, quit checking weather reports, quit doing slow days, quit doing fast days, just run as far as I can as hard as I can every day.

This morning a woman who is out jogging pretty often was running with her daughter, looked to be about 12, big smile on the daughter's face.  That works on so many levels.  Their dog made a run at me from their garage a few mornings ago, but I'm going to overlook that.

66F, 94%, N 1 mph and clear.  Unexpectedly got cooler weather this morning after complaining for a week.  Another very early start, ran 20.55 miles in 3:06:47, 9:05/mile, average heart rate 155, max 174.  Similar route to Monday down to the Y and back, but heart rate about 8-10 bpm faster, not bad for the extra speed I gained but not close to what I once could do.  Closed out the last couple of miles at about an 8:50 pace, so I think I am at least in the zone to break 4 hours.  Not great but better than where I was 10 days ago.  I'll probably shoot for 3:45 to 3:55 on race day, but a lot will depend on how things develop during the race, especially miles 8-20.

I sprained my left ankle on a rock in the dark at mile 11, stumbled along pretty badly for about a quarter of a mile but eventually it either went numb or got loosened up.  It seemed like a pretty bad sprain at the time and I am still hurting somewhat, but I don't think it will affect race preparations.

I decided to shut down the long runs after today.  I did 3 in 5 days and they were just what I needed to get back in shape after my last race and ensuing hip injury, but they have done their job; anything more might make me stale, at least if I ran them hard.  Based on my almost-no-taper experiment, I have six more training days, then carbo-load on Thursday, then on the plane for Las Vegas on Friday and drive to St. George.  Then run it.  For the next six days I'll probably try to tune up by doing TM up and down, speed work and running in the afternoon heat for solar effect.

66F, 100% and calm.  Very tired legs, but they warmed up after a couple of miles.  6.03 miles at 12:13 pace.  LHR run, 119 average, 125 max.  Other than the first mile, these felt about the same as Tuesday.

PM:  5.2 on TM, uphill and downhill.  Tried to keep the slopes modest (3% down, 2% up) given my recent hip injury which I attribute to this kind of running.  But on the last mile, a downhill lap, my hip started to hurt the same as before and I quit immediately.  Took a big ibuprofen and went to bed, hoping for the best.  Even if I can run level, if I can't run downhill then SGM is going to be a big problem.

72F, 94% and calm.  Warming up a little bit but I don't care anymore.  By the time I get into it after SGM it will definitely be cooler.  Ran 1 mile WU then intended to run 5 at GMP (optimistically 8:45) minus 15 or 30.  First two were 8:17 and 8:15, then my Garmin went dark, exactly at 3:00; not sure if it was coincidence or some sort of a programming issue.  I tried to maintain the same effort through the last 3 miles -- on a hunch I turned the Garmin back on for the last tenth or so and it lit up as if nothing had happened.  I maxed out my heart rate at 184.  It was about 160 after mile 3, so I am thinking I was likely in the 7:50 to 8:00 range for the last 3, but really not sure.  Took another Ibuprofen after I finished and so far my hip is behaving.  But the injury is definitely there.

Noon:  87F, 67% (DP 74F), back out for some sunshine miles, 6.20 at 9:15 pace, HR a little lower:  156 bpm average, 175 max.

76F, 94%, SE 3 mph.  Ran 4.05 a LLHR, 12:12 per mile, 120 bpm; then joined my daughter who is visiting for another 6.05 at 9:20/mile, 158 maximum heart rate.  Garmin is acting up, may run SGM without it just to see what happens, but not sure I have the guts to do that.  Legs are very tired today, before and after running.

74F, 97% (73 DP) and calm.  1 mile warmup, then 5 x 1K at 7:30 to 7:40 pace, jogging out each mile, so about a 5K pace for the repeats, at least given my current conditioning.  I have a sore throat and various related symptoms and was feeling it on these intervals, legs did not feel strong.  I hope I recover by this weekend.  My watch was turning on and off and is now completely dead, I'll try to figure it out, but it is starting to look like my adventurous "no Garmin" experiment for SGM is turning into a necessity, no time at this point to get it fixed.

75F, 100% and calm.  Lightning in the south but it didn't approach.  8.05 miles at 9:30 to 9:40 pace, 140 bpm, 145 max.  Garmin went out again after mile 5, so some of this is guesswork, but it is pretty close.  Sore throat and related symptoms have abated, not entirely gone but they probably will be soon -- as further evidence, my resting heart rate was down to 152 prior to running, it has been 157 to 162 for a week or two now.  Legs felt much better this morning, object was just to stay active.

I am floored by the SGM weather forecast this morning.  If current projections hold, the finish line will be at or under 60F, with an 8 mph tailwind.  By far the best conditions I have run in, too bad I'm not in shape for a PR.  Just shows how difficult it is to get everything lined up perfectly for a single race.  The downside of temperatures that cool is that the start line is projected at about 30F minus wind chill, almost too cold to run well.  I think I am going to take a sleeping bag with me on the bus, and I will probably wear long sleeves, gloves and a beanie.  No long pants though, that just won't work.

76F, 100% (which means 76 DP) and calm, still summer conditions here, though I no longer care.  My Garmin is totally AWOL, it will be useless for this weekend. I'm going to send it in for repair today I think, should get it back by the time I need it post-SGM.  But I did try to keep the device going long enough to get some paces.  I was trying to run by feel at what I thought I could sustain through the marathon distance; as best I can I was at about 8:45/mile, give or take.  That should translate well to more favorable conditions this weekend, might even be able to average 8:15 to 8:30 for the actual race, but not going to push it, at least on the first half.  Was able to get my heart rate at the end of the run, showed 156, good news.  Sore throat symptoms almost entirely gone.  Left leg/hip still bothering me -- if I crash and burn that is the most likely culprit.

Temps about the same as always, didn't check it though.  Went out without watch or HRM and ran 3.5 at about 9:00 to 9:20 pace, then ran sprints, topped off with an all-out sprint to the house and began carb-loading.  I don't see how anybody can ingest 700 grams of carbs, I was done at 350, probably won't eat for a month now.

It was a great day, textbook fast-time running conditions and I beat my A goal by 11 minutes.  BQ by more than 5 minutes for my current age group as well as a Monday qualifier for my new age group in 2015.  Can't believe my age group placing, it is a guess but I saw the sheet in the runners area and it cut off at 45th place, which was a 3:33.  Don't have splits, but I remember seeing about 1:57 on the clock at the half, which means 1:54 chip time, which means 1:40 on the second half (my 4th-fastest half marathon time), possibly a 14-minute negative split.  Couldn't be happier, the running gods owed me one.  Here is the rest of the report, with updated offical statistics.  Sorry for the length, it's for my own records:

Traveled to St. George with my son Austin.  Got him to come on the promise that we would do a show on Saturday night in Vegas, last minute plane ticket was expensive but worth it.  Made the expo but got skunked on the drawing at the SGM booth.  My bib number was 1267, second fastest non-elite line -- I wondered what time I could have possibly written down in my registration to get a bib number that low.  I was embarrassed but not enough to ask for a higher number.  The hotel was happy to cancel my reservation for the second night, but insisted that I be out at noon.  Ordinarily, they said, there would be some flexibility but not this time, because of the marathon.  Isn’t that backwards?  I was put out, but I carb loaded at a local Italian place, bought a bagel and banana and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Slept OK for 5 hours, ate half a bagel and the banana, then caught what looked like the first bus at about 4:10, intending to sleep at the start line.  I brought a down bag and three layers of clothing.  But everything was fenced off, couldn’t get out into the trees.  Bedded down behind the PoPs, pretty comfortable in the grass, not much wind.  Then I texted my brother-in-law Byron and he was already set up behind the fire truck, so I moved over there.  The ground was colder and the wind was cutting through the bag and all my layers.  But it was still better than moving around in the cold or shivering at the fire pits and using up energy.  I was starting to feel my flu symptoms return from earlier in the week.  With 40 minutes to go I got in line for the PoP and met a guy my age from S. Jordan who was running his 27th St. George.  Finished with 5 minutes to go, hurried back to the fire truck and woke up Byron, who was somehow relaxed enough to sleep.  Hurried and packed my stuff, and took off all warm clothing except my beanie and gloves.  But with my frozen hands I couldn’t get my down bag back into the stuff sack, then tried to cram it all into the drop bag and the top ripped.  Took it all to the truck anyway, they threw it in and in the pandemonium I could see my bag spilling out.  The horn had already sounded, so I decided to worry about everything later, though I was glad I had left the cell phone on in case I had to call it.  I worked around the fence and was immediately in the shuffle to the start line.

I brought ibuprofen because of my injured left hip, was quite worried that it would go squirrely on me and I wouldn’t be able to finish.  Took 200 mg at mile 3 or 4 (dry swallow but I got it down) when my hip started to bother me on some of the initial rollers, and then a precautionary one again at mile 11.  Stopped for Gatorade at miles 5, 15 and 21, two healthy swigs each time, no other liquids.  Ate two pickle slices going up the hill at mile 18 when my right ham started to feel tight; it went away almost immediately.  I had tissue in case I needed to make a detour into the trees instead of waiting in line, but never quite reached that point.  That was it, I travelled light of stomach and light of pockets.

I ran very slowly to start, but felt better immediately upon crossing the start line, it felt great to be finally moving.  I was now doing something familiar.  I heard somebody talking and it appeared that my offset from the gun was somewhere between 3:00 and 3:30.  Everything except my frozen toes felt fine, and they were OK as well after two miles.

I also ran without a watch, as I have been threatening to do.  Didn’t even pack one.  My Garmin has cratered and I haven’t fixed it yet.  This was a non-crucial race in terms of condition level and BQ potential, so I took the opportunity to see what would happen running by feel, rather than borrowing a watch, buying a cheap lap timer, or resorting to number of available options.  Shortly after the start I heard a pacer talking and looked back to see balloons and a 3:45 sign.  They passed me in the first mile or two.  I thought it might be a good goal to keep him in my sights.  I stayed close until the bottom of Veyo, where he announced that his overall pace goal was 8:32, and that he had banked a minute for the trip up the hill.  I was thinking that wasn’t a good idea, everybody knows you don’t bank time on this course.  But I couldn’t criticize him too much, since 3:45 was my A goal and yet there I was right there with him.  They got pretty far ahead of me going up the hill, which I ran very, very slowly on the steep part, but they were never out of sight.  I was trying to do math in my head to figure out how fast I was going, but I couldn’t catch all the mile markers and clocks, plus I could never remember the previous reading by the time I got to the next one.  But it seemed I was comfortably below 9:00 and the proximity of the pacer seemed to confirm that, assuming he was running accurately.

At the bottom of Veyo I wondered what my heart rate was and decided on 143.  I was barely working.  Picked it up slightly at the top at mile 9 for the remaining lesser climb into the half.  The 3:45 group was a couple of minutes ahead at the half, which I was happy with.  But I figured he would pick it up so I did too.  After mile 14 the course drops off the face of the earth.  I was careful to land almost completely forefoot, avoiding all heel contact if possible in order to preserve my left hip.  By mile 15 The Pacer was a little closer and I decided it was time to gamble; I closed the gap, catching him at mile 16.  He was still close enough at 16.2 that I heard his dramatic announcement of 10 miles to go, if you’re on this course to begin with then you can certainly run 10 more miles.  Have heard all of that before, but honestly, this thing was speeding by, no mental torture at all.

But I did take the opportunity to speed up again, resolving to keep him behind me as long as possible.  I figured the deeper into the race I was before he caught me, the closer I would be to 3:45 and the further away from missing a 3:55 qualifying time.  I sped up further at mile 19 or so after cresting the last hill, still felt OK, still slapping palms and thanking the spectators, my family, all my friends, the Academy, etc.  Kept looking for the 3:40 pacer whenever I had a good view down the course, but I never found him/her because, as I found out later, he/she didn’t exist.  They were pacing only in 10 minute increments, not 5.  I was chasing a phantom.

I continued to feel good, slapping palms all the way through mile 23, when I decided to speed up one last time for the final 5K.  I had been passing runners 2 or 3 at a time since the half, now I was doing it 4 or 5 at a time; I realized later it was not because I was fast, but because everybody else my speed was already done.  Couldn’t do much math until I saw the clock at mile 24 and counting backwards I realized I was almost a lock to break 3:40 if I could maintain any reasonable pace, which got me pretty excited.  I really put it down then, but despite all this "acceleration", my average pace for the last 10K was actually a little bit slower than for the third 10K (see below).  Started pumping my fist at every band I passed, and exhibiting other unsportsmanlike and juvenile conduct.  A brief moment of overwhelming exhaustion at 24.5, but then I passed another band somewhere in there and I was good to the finish. Loved those bands today.  My son Clint tracked me online, and is showing these splits at all the mats on the course:

10K:  8:33/mile

13.1:  1:53:36; 8:40/mile cumulative, 8:46/mile for segment

30K:    2:36:35; 8:20/mile cumulative, 7:38/mile for segment

42.2K: 3:34:04, 8:10/mile cumulative, 7:42/mile for segment

The clock at the finish line said 3:37 and some change, and I knew I had almost certainly broken 3:35, negative split of 13:06, not 14 like I originally thought.  I over-celebrated crossing the mat, then bent over and cried for a minute.  I’m a sensitive guy.  I came within three and a half minutes of my PR yet I felt more like I had run a vigorous 20-miler.  I was looking for food instead of a place to throw up.  Found Austin, then lost him.  Went to the drop bag and found that all of the contents had survived, including my cell phone.  Hooked up with Austin, walked 6 blocks to the car, drove to the hotel, showered and checked out at 11:58, that was the closest call of the day.  Large hamburger, fries and root beer float at Smashburger with Byron and his colleague from the biology department at BYU, along with his colleague’s family.  Called Clint and confirmed my chip time.

Drove to Vegas, made the broadcast of the night session of the LDS general conference, and then saw the Blue Man show with Austin, which I highly recommend (both Austin and Blue Man).  Out of the blue, they announced me as the inventor of the Whack-a-Mole.  I blamed my wife for setting me up, but she denies any connection to the fraud.  In bed by midnight Pacific time, only 22 hours after waking up.

The day I got my PR was on this course it was 81 degrees at the finish line.  Adjusting for weather differences I think I would have run a 3:24 that day instead of 3:30, so today was probably about 10 minutes off my best marathon.  Further, unbelievably, I finished 51st in my age group, out of 275 -- looking through the list, they came from all over, but I wouldn’t have thought there was any marathon where I could finish that low, even Boston.  But all of a sudden there are a lot of fast old birds wherever I race.  Time to step up my game if I can.  I am sure this must have been a fast day for everybody, but it was memorable nonetheless, one of my three best races.  I am thankful to have this one to remember.

48F, 100% and calm.  If it had been hot I would not have gone out today, but with temperatures rising towards the end of the week I decided to test out my legs.  They were OK, 6.2 at an easy pace, I'm guessing 9:30 to 10:00.  I could definitely feel the race in my legs until about the 3-mile mark, at which point they felt better and they feel OK tonight.  I'll be pacing Wade in a 10-mile race on Saturday in the Woodlands, so I do want to get some work in without overdoing it.

I've been sorting through a lot of variables from Saturday, although the more I think about it the more I realize how little I really know:

• Weather had to be the number one factor.  How can you beat less than 55F at the finish line with a significant tailwind until at least the bottom of Veyo, and a cross wind going up the hill?  I could actually feel it pushing on my back at some points.
• I have always believed that the altitude cancels out the downhill advantage for a sea-level runner; but with my two best marathons now being on this course, that is open for debate.  On the other hand, I have run mediocre to bad races in Provo (twice) and Ogden (not even going there) -- a bit higher altitude in those places but a lot of downhill and not as much uphill.  I still believe, however, that the hit a sea level runner takes going to altitude is greater than the advantage an altitude runner gets when coming to sea level, have seen that one time and again.
• I peaked perfectly.  I did three 20-milers in the 5 days before my taper, and the taper was only 10 days and active (a week of regular workouts without long runs, then two days' rest, then race day).  This worked because I was still peaking, I hadn't plateaued going into that last 5 days before the taper, since each 20-miler was faster than the previous one, at equal or lesser effort.  But it is risky, because you don't really know until after you have gone long if you are at the plateau or not, or at least I don't.  If I had plateaued I might have risked overtraining, which takes a longer time to recover from, probably even longer than the typical 3-week taper.
• I ate whatever I wanted the last week, but avoided red meat and tried to eat carbs as healthily as possible.  I carb-loaded but not excessively.
• Running without a watch, I may have run the first half slower than with one (not too sure about that, though, I underestimated my fitness level going in and that would have kept my pace slow), and the second half faster (this is definitely the case -- no way would I have dared to bomb down the course at 7:35 to 7:45 if I had been looking at mile splits).
• The altitude running over the summer probably helped.  3 days in Arizona in July, one of them a grueling 14-miler at 9400' and a 10K race half uphill at 7000'.  Then 3 days at Tahoe in August.
• I got a big boost from running in the heat all summer long.  8:30 per mile at SGM felt like 10:00 here in Houston.  Any morning I made it out against the odds this summer was money in the bank at race time.
• It is also possible that I got a lot of benefit from long, slow miles.  I hate them but they did not slow me down on race day, and they seemed to sustain me through the final miles.
• What is the deal with my age group?  Three guys under 3 hours, the winner from sea level?  I have seen Boston times not much better than that.  No answer for that one, I just have to get better.
• There is good and bad to take from every race (leaving Ogden out here); that's why it is so important to make sure the process itself is fulfilling, because race day is never going to be perfect, although this one was pretty close.

I promise no more comments about SGM.

54F, 100% and calm.  Ran 5 in the neighborhood, then another 2.5 to Planet Fitness all at LLHR.  Did some leg and core work there, then ran home at a faster and more comfortable pace.

On the way to the gym I crossed a road at a 4-way stop sign with a marked crosswalk, in front of a large SUV being driven by a high-school girl.  I was 2/3 of the way across the front width of her vehicle, having already passed the driver's side, when she hit the gas, missing me by inches only because my reflexes were faster than hers.  It was almost like I knew what she was going to do before she did.  Law of the jungle I guess.

Legs felt fine after finishing, but were pretty sore at the end of the day from doing weights.  It has been a while, need to get back to that on a consistent basis.

58F, 100%, ENE 3 mph and clear.  The weather has been excellent this week, can't not run.  The wind is shifting to the SE today and tomorrow and it will be warm for a 10-mile race on Saturday morning, but I am pacing so I don't really care.  Caught up on some sleep and didn't have a lot of time once I got out, but went out for 6 at LLHR in the neighborhood.  Legs still quite sore from weights yesterday, but I hope that means they will do some good.  Nice long stretch and roll session afterwards, felt really good to do that.

69F, 93%, ESE 4 mph.  Basically duplicated Wednesday's run but just a little further.  5.8 in the neighborhood then 2.7 to the gym, all at LLHR, probably about a 12:00 pace.  I did a leg and core workout then ran home at what felt like a normal pace, low 9s I think, but without a watch just not sure.

77F, 100% and calm.  Cement giving off steam after early-morning rain, easily the worst conditions I have ever raced in, and top 5 for even being out running.  I told Wade I was going to pace him today, though he wasn't sure what he could do (he has been running in Wyoming all summer) and neither was I, coming off of a major race last weekend.  But neither of us expected this temperature/humidity combo.  Met Wade and Linda at his house and we drove up to The Woodlands from there, arriving about 45 minutes early.  No warmup.  Wade kept telling himself to go out slow, but he ran the first mile in about 7:50.  I figured if he was going slow I was going to have to push to stay with him, but he faded starting after mile 4 or 5.  He was eventually hurting so badly I thought he would have to quit, but once we got to mile 7.5 I knew he would push it in no matter how much he was hurting, that's just the way he does it.  We finished with an 8:24 overall pace, including an all-out sprint from about 100 yards out.  I never have enough strength to do that if I am racing for myself.

After the race was over I went back out on the course for a half mile, found Linda and ran her in.

I got a text this afternoon from Coach Eric congratulating me on second place in my age division.  I was sure it was a hoax.  Last year I ran a 7:11 pace and got 2nd, 70th overall.  But went to the computer and it was true.  Just the luck of the draw though.  Times were a little slower this year, but 70th place was a 7:24 pace, not that far off.  I just happened to be in a slow group, unlike last weekend.  7:47/mile won my age group, not sure if I would have been able to do that today.  And the sprint was timely, as the next three finishers in my group were within a few seconds of us.

The good thing is that the first few miles (sub-8) felt pretty reasonable, if not sustainable for a full 26.  Gives me hope for a good result in January when we will presumably have actual running weather.

72F, 99%, E 4 mph.  Cool weather coming but not here yet.  10.32 miles at LLHR, pace estimated by feel but according to the clock it was extremely slow, probably went slower than I needed to for the low heart rate effect.  Was going to go to the gym but ran out of time.

73F, 96% and calm.  Still no cool weather, it is offiially overdue now.  Predictions are in the 50s for tomorrow morning.  I ran 7.5 in the neighborhood, then 2.68 to the gym, all at LLHR, a little over 12-minute pace, then did two circuits of legs and one of core, then ran home (3.06) at a normal pace.  Pretty tired after all that but it felt beneficial.  Hip started bothering me again, but not acute and not sure if it means anything.

70F, 99%, NW 6 mph.  Cold front still not here, but wind was freshening during the run and it is definitely moving in.  Was only gong to do 10, but decided on an extra loop at the end.  12.5 at LLHR, 12+/mile pacing, though not certain any closer than that.  New Garmin is on its way.  Legs felt tired to start but felt OK through the middle, quite fatigued as I finished.  Slow speeds are hard, mentally and physically.  But the good thing is you are always good to go the next day.

54F, 100%, NNE 1 mph.  Actually felt a little warmer than that, the air was very heavy.  Saw Wade out there and he thought it was 63F.  Started out clear but rain is moving in.  Took the day off yesterday due to work constraints, wasn't worried too much about that since I raced so recently.  Ran 10.66 at a comfortable long-run pace, i.e., I didn't go fast, slow or long, bad runner.  But it felt good.  Stopped at the gym at 7.5 miles and did weights.  Garmin has shipped, should be here Monday or Tuesday I am guessing.

62F, 100%, NNW 5 mph, rising to 12 mph.  Ran 5 in my neighborhood then drove to the Y and met Wade for 12 more.  He was feeling it pretty good this morning, we started out at a 9:30 pace and ended up at 8:10, 8:45 average for the 12.  The first 5 were a little slower than that.

57F, 100% and calm.  Ran 7.5 in the neighborhood and to the gym, did a quick leg and core circuit, adding a little weight over last week, then another 3 back to the house.  Pretty uneventful but felt good.  First 7.5 was LLHR, about a 12:30 pace as close as I could tell, then based on Saturday's effort it felt like about a 9:00 pace on the way home.

66F, 94%, N 3-10 mph.  Starting to get blustery during the run, but no rain materialized.  Ran for the first time in forever with my Garmin, at LLHR, was pleasantly surprised.  Either because of the cooler weather or better conditioning, I ran at a faster pace than I have been:  10.00 miles in 1:55:58, 11:36/mile.  52 bpm resting HR.  Average HR 119, max 125.  This heart rate sits right at 50% of my heart rate reserve, i.e., halfway between 50 bpm and 190 bpm, which are conservative numbers for min and max (have actually clocked 44 on the low end and 193 on the high end but not consistently).  That is where I measure higher than 80% fat-burning as compared to glycogen, so it is an efficient rate to do base miles at, if I can stand the monotony.  Also, based on perceived effort, prior to today I have been running slow miles without my watch too slow, probably in the 110-114 range, which is not necessary, but better than running it too hard,  Legs are fatigued from running this slow but they should recover quickly.

50F, 100%, calm and clear.  Pretty much perfect weather and I took full advantage.  Warmed up for three:  9:16 (133), 9:00 (140) and 8:50 (142); then 7 at GMP:  7:51 (154), 8:05 (154), 8:12 (155), 7:52 (159), 8:04 (161), 7:55 (163) and 7:52 (164), total time on these miles was 55:52, 7:59/mile; then 0.51 cool-down at 9:26 pace, overall 1:27:45, 8:21 per mile.  I was happy overall because I didn't know how hard 8:00 pace would feel.  But I would like to see the heart rate drift a little flatter, it started out nicely but would have been nicer if it had stayed under 160 through the entire 7 miles.  I had to increase the effort level somewhat in order to reach the target cumulative pace.  Bottom line, though, 8:00 pace at marathon-length effort at least felt approachable this morning, which is good news.

53F, 96%, calm and clear.  Another beautiful day, ran 8.0 at LLHR, 11:00 per mile, exactly, 119 bpm, 128 max.  Average heart rate on last mile was 122.  Then a weight circuit at the gym and back home at a comfortable pace, 9:00 to 9:10 per mile, heart rate between 138 and 145.  Today was the best LLHR time I have achieved, though looking back at my summer entries I was surprised to see some mid-11s toward the end of July.  So adjusting for temperature today's run may not have been that much better.  But in September I had nothing under 12 and one LLHR run in the 13s, yet I ran a 3:34 at SGM.  Nothing makes sense, but I feel like I am getting stronger, sticking with the strategy for now, probably all the way through New Years Day then reassess.

53F, 100%, NNW 1 mph, clear. Ran 15.09 miles at LLHR, 2:57:15, 121 bpm, average pace 11:45/mile.  Held steady at 11:20 per mile average through 8 including an initial 11:53, then significant pace drift for the remainder in order to maintain the low heart rate:  11:35, 11:51, 11:57, 12:14, 12:23, 12:15 and 12:30.  Interesting that I was slower on the first 8 today than yesterday.  Yesterday followed a GMP 7-mile run from Wednesday.  Today followed a "recovery" run from yesterday, but I also did a weight circuit, so that could be the difference.  I was going to do this again for 20 tomorrow, but I'm having second thoughts, I would be over 13:00 and maybe even 14:00 by the time I got to 20 miles, not sure I have the bandwidth in my brain to take that on.  There is definitely conditioning that needs to occur even at the low end of the spectrum.  I'll probably either do this one again or switch to a faster pace to get in the 20, not sure which.  My legs are trashed this afternoon, which surprises me.

54F, 100% and calm.  Ran to Wade's house, ran 13 or 14 with him and returned home.  Did not feel good at all for the entire run, my heart rate was running 20 bpm higher than Wade's; usually it is 10 and sometimes even less.  If Wade ran 50 miles per week he would be faster than me, but he doesn't really have the time to do it consistently.  Despite the bumpy start and a PoP stop, we gradually increased our pace throughout the run, mainly me keeping up with Wade.  He slowed down a bit toward the end to accommodate me, but after leaving him I actually sped up the last two, hitting sub-8.  Overall pace was 8:44 per mile, which I was happy with under the circumstances.  Heart rate topped out at 173.  I think the most likely culprit is Thursday's gym workout; weights take a lot out of my legs, as they should.  Took two naps during the day and saw Gravity, pretty good but not primo -- too much bad science.

63F, 100%, calm and cloudy.  It rained a lot yesterday and the system hasn't completely moved through, though it isn't raining anymore.  If things go well time-wise and legs-wise I will do a lot of miles this week.  Today was 23 at 8:57/mile, pretty good run though I don't know if I did it too fast to prevent recovery by tomorrow.

Legs felt good after taking yesterday off, held a sub-9 pace through 12 miles at less than 150 bpm (mile 12:  8:49 (150).  I broke that barrier in mile 13, but held the same pace through the end of the run, breaking 160 bpm only on the last mile.  Last 4 miles were 8:56 (158), 9:00 (159), 8:43 (160) and 8:55 (161).  No trouble holding the pace but legs are sore and not sure if it is sustainable for more of the same as the week wears on.

68F, 100%, S. 1 mph.  Quite a bit warmer for a couple of days, then it will cool off again.  Felt better waking up this morning than when I went to bed last night.  Went out for a LLHR session, legs very stiff at first, but eventually loosened up and times kept going down until mile 10. Mile 9, the fastest split, was 11:07, and mile 10 was 11:28.  11:26 average, 119 average heart rate, 125 max.  I was OK with this; last Friday (a much cooler day and weights the day before instead of yesterday's brisk long run) came in at 11:20 average for 8 with more heart rate drift at the end than today.  I'm guessing that weights affect me more than miles.  Drove to the gym afterwards and did a leg and core circuit.  Hoping to go long again tomorrow, depending on how I feel and work pressures.