For Whom the Dogs Bark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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