For Whom the Dogs Bark

72F, 87% humidity, calm and partly cloudy.  Felt really good out there this morning.  I ran 9.10 miles in 1:28:00, average pace 9:40 per mile.  Ran the first 7 at low heart rate and flat shoes, average pace 10:11, a new low heart rate PR for me by 13 seconds per mile.  I got 3 miles under 10, which is the first time that has happened.  The heat was off a little today, but it was still warmer than any of my fast low heart rate runs that I have tracked, so this is good progress.  Feels good to be in a taper mode, felt good to take a day of rest yesterday, I can feel the strength coming back into my legs.  I ran the last two slightly below marathon pace, 8:17 and 7:57, that felt good too.

This is going to be a good week.  Congrats again to all the great racers over the weekend.

73F, 94% humidity, wind WSW 8 mph, raining.  Gorgeous morning for running, rained most of the time.  I can't figure out why the humidity isn't 100% when it rains.  Ran 2 miles warmup, then 2 miles at 5K speed, 7:14 and 7:05, then relaxed for a mile and ran 10 x 200 basically as fast as I could with 200 cooldowns in between.  I can't measure 200 exactly on my Garmin, I'm sure there is a way, but I just run 0.12 or 0.13 and then hit the lap button.  Pacing for the splits ranged from 6:46 to 6:04 on a mile basis, mostly around 6:30.  Not very fast for a flat-out sprint, but a little faster than it was when I ran similar intervals earlier in the summer.  It really wasn't very hard, didn't want to risk an injury, funny thing is that form seemed to make more difference on speed than effort.

Spent a good part of the morning figuring out plane tickets to Hartford for me and my wife, should have done it weeks ago.  I finally had a eureka moment when I was all done and checked out prices to Newark.  About half, even with the extra cost of the rental car.  So back on the phone to change everything around.  Done now, but wasted too much time.

88F, 55% humidity, wind WSW 15-20 mph.  Have been buried under work all day and didn't get out until late afternoon.  Put on sunscreen, have never risked burning my skin in the moonlight, this was a new experience.  Started out as a blustery afternoon then gradually calmed into a very pleasant run.  Ran 9.25 miles in 1:42:01, average pace 11:01, regular shoes and low heart rate.  I don't have enough experience running at this temperature to know if my time was good for this heart rate zone or not, but it was a relaxing run.  At times my heart rate climbed out of the target zone as a result of the heat, but this run was about the legs, the heart is going to be fine.

About 6.5 miles in I stopped to get a drink at a golf course just as the sun was going down and saw this magical father/son moment:

74F, 94% humidity, wind E 5mph.  Pretty morning, partly cloudy with the full moon setting.  Ran 9.11 in 1:37:35, 10:48 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Was up very late last night and did not want to do this run, legs still sore from running last night.  It was a little bit of going through the motions, but this was the right run at the right speed and I got it in.  If I had known it would be exactly 9.11 miles I might have passed, not that I am superstitious.  I have an early flight tomorrow on a business trip that just came up, should be interesting getting my run in before the flight.  This taper isn't all that relaxing, at least the first week of it.

70F, 100% humidity, calm and clear.  A gorgeous morning out there, supposed to get cool in the next 24-48 hours so this might be the last hot run of the year.  Missed my run yesterday because at the last minute I had to catch a 7:30 plane to Dallas on a work matter and didn't get home until 10 p.m., a very long day and too tired to run at the end of it.

So this morning I drove down to the Y, they were doing 10 at 6 so I got there an hour early and did 6, average pace 8:39.  The almost-full moon lit up the deserted trail so I had no problems seeing.  Then the group arrived and we did 10 more.  My pace was all over the charts as I ran and chatted with different runners.  A lot of women in the group are doing San Francisco in 3 weeks, Wade is doing St. George in a week and I am doing Hartford in 2 weeks.  Then Wade and a friend from his work started talking shop, and after three acronyms I had had enough.  Took off and did the last three in 8:01, 7:55 and 7:57, felt good to air it out.  Wade said they discussed trying to catch me when I went around the final turn with two miles to go but decided it was hopeless.  These are the guys I run with. 

Total 16.0 miles in 2:17:29, overall average pace 8:35 per mile, flat shoes.  Heart rate all over the place as well, but got high at the end, 184 max.  Funny thing was, even with a high heart rate I felt pretty good.  The taper always makes me lose confidence so it was good to do a long run at marathon pace.

I got a shirt from the running club, my first singlet.  It is traffic-cone orange, you could get a job on the airport tarmac in that thing.  I won't wear it in the race because it makes me look sleek and trim, not my image, plus I'll get my pale bony shoulders sunburned.  BaldnSpicy will ultimately have to decide if I am fast enough yet to wear a singlet, even if I wanted to.  My guess is he will make me wait one more year, but it's in the washing machine right now to soften it up, just in case he says yes.