For Whom the Dogs Bark

74F, 97% humidity, wind SW 2 mph, clear.  Beautiful morning back in Texas.  I ran 8.02 miles in 1:13:46, average pace 9:12, flat shoes.  Hip issues at a 3 or 4.  I ran the first couple of miles at lower heart rate then gradually sped up until I got to the 165-170 bpm range.  If I had run further I would have been there anyway running 10+ minutes per mile in the humid heat.  I have changed my mind about altitude.  I now think heat is worse, because I ran slower today compared to UVM pace at similar heart rates and the same shoes.  Some of it might be recovery issues, but it is now 9 days since the marathon so I don't think that played a major role.  Splits were 10:23 (127), 9:25 (141), 9:21 (146), 9:12 (152), 8:51 (160), 8:46 (166), 8:44 (170), 8:53 (172).  Comparatively, miles 2-6 in the marathon were 8:20 (173), 8:15 (163), 8:28 (168), 8:31 (166), 8:29 (168), and miles 9-13 were 8:10 (168), 8:25 (170), 8:52 (173), 8:22 (168), 8:36 (168).  These splits included some of the major downhill miles at UVM before I started to tire significantly, so it appears, for me at least, that altitude, low temperature and downhill (UVM conditions) are about 20-30 seconds per mile faster than sea level, heat and flat (today's conditions). 

My guess is that no altitude, low temperature and flat (fall marathon at sea level) would be considerably faster than a race like UVM.  If that is true, then it means heat is a huge factor (turning the fastest conditions into the slowest) and downhill a smaller factor.  The other thing I learned is that I have a lot of work to do in the 160-175 range, just below where my legs start to get tired.  There may be some easy pickings there if my legs can sustain those speeds enough to get in some serious miles.

I realized that this is a nerdy entry, but I am posting it anyway because I need to keep the info somewhere!

81F, 80% humidity.  Ran 8 miles slow this morning in flat shoes.  The Garmin wouldn't stay on, I think it was a battery thing but the battery warning never flashed.  So I just ran slow and checked my heartbeat every 20 minutes or so.  Despite that, it crept up to 142 by the end, which doesn't really qualify as low heart rate, but it is almost impossible to keep it down in this heat.  Overall I ran about an 11-minute pace.  Hip had some issues halfway through but I was able to control it by concentrating on form.  I think I will try regular shoes tomorrow and see if they make a difference.  I am doing so well with my feet and ankles that I hate to go back, but maybe a day or two will help.  The whole object of the flat shoes is to eventually arrive at a point where I have less injury, and I can feel myself headed in that direction.  For now at least I feel much better than I have felt in a while.

Didn't run yesterday morning because of work pressures, thought I might run last night but decided late that my hip needed a day off anyway.

The weather was 79F, 83% humidity at start, calm.  Started out as a beautiful morning, don't really mind the moist air, at least for the first few miles.  I ran 10 very easy miles at low heart rate, regular shoes.  The Garmin is still acting up, it kept turning off, even though I charged it two days ago.  I think it is leaking charge even turned off, so I'll leave it on the charger and see if it works better tomorrow.  If not, time for a new one.  I wish they were more reliable, as I am not aware of any good substitutes.  For what I paid for that thing it should last more than a year and a half.

Oh yes, the run.  Early miles, to the extent I could get momentary readings when I turned the Garmin back on, were about 11:00 pace, drifting gradually up to 12:30 at the end, a slower pace and a wider drift than I get on cooler days.  Part of that is the shoes, part the heat, part "operator error".  The air at the beginning was completely calm and "sweating", just tiny drops falling even though there were no low clouds.  Finally some clouds came in and I finished in a downpour with some wind, which felt considerably better, although I am sure my wife won't be happy when she sees the wet kitchen floor I left at the house this morning.  Tried to dry it off but there are still some incriminating spots I am afraid.  Hopefully I'll still be a runner tomorrow.

I wanted to test out my hip wearing regular shoes, which seemed to work pretty well.  My hip didn't even make an appearance until mile 3, and behaved pretty well after that.  I really think the irritation is from quite a bit of hill work the last month.  I ran a hilly trail the week before the marathon, then the marathon, then last week in Central Park.  It doesn't take a lot, just a little bit of up and down is enough to trigger it.  Now that I am flat again I think it will gradually improve.  I'll probably do flat shoes tomorrow and see if everything still holds together as well as it did today.  Flat roads, flat shoes, flat chest, I think I see a pattern here.

75F, 97% humidity, calm and clear.  The storms blew out last night, leaving the air pretty fresh and nice, but very warm.  I ran 10.6 in about 1:45:00, flat shoes.  No hip issues of any note, so feeling pretty good about this run.  My Garmin stayed on for three miles, which I ran at low heart rate, then it switched off and stayed completely dead.  Getting out the manual today to see if I can figure out anything.  Possibly a battery issue but I doubt it.  I think the bottom line is it went kaput, to use a technical term.

After my watch went dark I kept the same speed for a while, until about mile six.  Then a runner passed me with her husband riding alongside on a bicycle.  I let her go for awhile but she wasn't running all that much faster and I had been toying with speeding up anyway because my hip was feeling fine.  So I kicked it in to about a 10K pace with about 5K to go, after she was quite a ways ahead.  At least I think that was my speed, that was certainly the effort level.  I am guessing low 8s or high 7s but I am not sure.  The lady made a turn and I never saw her again.  But I worked very hard without water and held the pace all the way to the end.  I reached pretty close to my limit on this run, to the point I wasn't hungry afterward.  I didn't throw up, but I definitely didn't want to risk runing any harder in the heat.

If my hip stays OK today I'll probably go long in the morning, it is time.

74F, 97% humidity at start, 80F, 85% at end, wind calm.  A very nice morning with a couple of hours of full moon before daylight.  Just at moonset I glanced over at the red setting moon and noticed it wasn't full anymore.  What the heck?  I knew a full moon doesn't change into a half moon  just like that, it takes a week, and half moons don't set at sunrise, they set at midnight or noon, depending on whether they are waxing or waning.  I knew it was either the apocalypse or I was seeing a lunar eclipse (earth's shadow on the moon), which is considerably more rare, for some reason, than a solar eclipse (moon blocking the sun), and to have it right at moonset with an enlarged red moon in the sky must be rare indeed.  So quite a bonus by getting up early this morning.

And early it was.  Out the door at 4:30 intending to run 20 miles, but only made 16.  I got a big blister on my left foot just at the base of the big toe.  In all my running I have never gotten a blister, a hot spot once in a while but this is the first one.  I am chalking it up to high sweat levels and minimal shoes.  Both hips were yelling at me as well, so I called it a day.  They feel OK now.  I ran my miles mostly in the 9:45 range, must say I was surprised at how difficult that was.  I considered pushing through but decided it is still too soon after the marathon, live to fight another day.  Would have done better in regular shoes today undoubtedly.

Here is a photo taken by a guy in Richmond, Texas, which is southwest Houston.  This is how it looked here.  I think the further west the more of the eclipse you got to see.

Happy weekend, all.