For Whom the Dogs Bark

78F, 91%, SW 5 mph.  Felt cooler this morning although it wasn't really.  I think the day off did wonders, all LHR today but more importantly I held my heart rate through most of the run, had a 10:06 average going at mile 11.  Altogether 14.09 in 2:23:35, average 10:12 per mile.  I really should back off this week, but I am probably not going to get a 20-miler on Saturday, plus I leaving the following Friday to go backpacking in Wyoming, so I don't want to put in too many easy weeks in a row.  I'll stick with high mileage for a few days at least, especially since I feel pretty good right now.  Happy Monday all.

78F, 90%, SW 4 mph.  It rained heavily yesterday late afternoon, and the air this morning seemed heavier, even though the official humidity reading is not so different from other days recently.  This run felt like running a marthon, complete with muscle cramping afterwards.  I started with 6 at LHR and they went well, average pace 9:49.  Then ran 5 at 7:25 average:  7:27 (157), 7:22 (165), 7:27 (170), 7:28 (173) and 7:19 (178).  To put things in perspective, I did this run at 7:17 10 days ago and planned to run these at 7:10 today, simply could not go any faster.  When I finished the MGP splits I had an overall 8:38 pace going.  I stopped to compose myself, then did 3 more with the objective of staying ahead of the 8:38 guy.  How about 9:38.  Final results were 14.11 miles in 2:06:08, average pace 8:56.  I was beat up enough that I locked my office door at work and took a nap.  Withholding judgement for now, but not happy about today's results.

79F, 88%, SSW 7 mph.  For some reason it didn't seem as warm today, even though official conditions haven't changed much.  I think the extra wind helped.  Ran 14.15 at LHR, 2:23:02, average pace 10:06.  Best thing was that until mile 10 I had a 9:54 average going, which was a pleasant surprise after yesterday.  After that the heart rate went south, but I didn't sweat it.  Actually, I was sweating quite a bit, but it was a miracle that I could even run today -- yesterday felt like running a marathon.  Even though my times were bad I must have gotten some benefit from it.

80F, 85%, S 5 mph.  There was a cloud with textbook lightning in it to the south about mile 6 of the run this morning, just as the sun was coming up.  Kind of pretty, thought it would cut the run short but no such luck, the cloud was dissipated by the next lap, probably melted in the heat.  The plan today was to warm up a couple of miles then try to do 12 at 8:00, just to mix it up a little.  I had second thoughts when I saw the temperature.  The forecast for every morning in the last 10 days has been between 74 and 76, but actual has never been below 78.  Sure enough, got up to 80F this morning and was about to bag the whole idea and switch to something reasonable, but decided what the heck, I ain't skeerd.  

Then the Garmin cratered on my way out the door.  It just didn't hold its charge, though it seems fine now.  But I knew exactly where the 2-mile mark was, so I ran to that, checked the time on my cell phone, and then did a little less than 4 laps on a 5K plus a little bit loop.  I tried to guess at an 8-minute speed and as things turned out I was pretty close.  Mapped out the loop on a Google Map application when I got back, and turns out I ran 12.40 miles in 100 minutes net, after subtracting out 3 water breaks (counted the seconds, they were about 15 seconds apiece), so about 8:04 per mile.  I'm calling it MP miles more because of the effort than the speed.  Then jogged home the remaining bit.  Pretty happy with this run.  I recall running a time trial half marathon at about 7:58 pace last August or so, temperature about 66F if I recall, although I can't seem to find the blog entry.  I am pretty sure it happend, though, and I think today was a better run, maybe quite a bit better, just don't know quite how to measure the heat factor.

We love to complain about the heat down here, but it really isn't too bad once you get used to it.  On the other hand, if you stay out too long you might need a doctor:

77F, 94%, N 3 mph.  Very tired legs whole run, but got through it.  14.08 LHR miles in 2:27:00, average pace 10:27 per mile, heart rate was no longer controllable after mile 11.  Right about then I stopped at the golf course water station on the return trip and they had taken the coolers back to the shed for re-filling.  So I ran the last 6 miles with no water.  Interesting experiment, not particularly distressing, but my sweat rate dropped and my heart rate climbed faster.  If I had had to run 10 that way it would have been a problem, but no problem this morning.

77F, 94%, ESE 1 mph.  Met Wade at the Y and we ran for a while with the group, but we both had to get back early so we turned around after 4 and headed back.  There was a distant bolt of lightning just as the group started off, but everybody soldiered on.  So did I, even though it is against my rules.  At the turnaround it started to rain heavily and the air freshened up quite a bit.  Lightning never got close to us.  We were already soaked so the wet part of it didn't matter.  We ran 8.37 miles in 1:18:53, average pace 9:26 per mile, average heart rate 135, at times dropping down into LHR range.  MaxHR was 145.  In other words, the slow slog yesterday, painful as it was, allowed my legs to recover.  They have recovered even more today due to the low miles.  Spent the rest of the day getting ready for our backpacking trip coming up on Friday, more painful than running.