For Whom the Dogs Bark

74F, 94% humidity, wind SSW 8 mph.  I should never have predicted the end of summer.  It is midnight now and raining hard, so there will be cooler weather tomorrow, night be wet though.  Ran 10.12 in 1:50:50, average pace 10:57 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  Was fine running this one slow, but to be honest there wasn't any particular hangover from the weekend running.  I wish I knew what I did right on Saturday so I could duplicate it.  The truth, though, is that I didn't run it that fast, not that you're supposed to, that's what races are for.  Thinking of running a 10K this Saturday for some hard miles this week, my daughter and her friends are running one in Temple so I might go back out there.

59F, 100% humidity, wind N 10 mph, blustery and rainy.  Pretty dang good running weather this morning.  Cooler and headed to cold in a few days.  Got out late after working late last night.  Strapped on my flats, ran about a mile and a half warmup then everything else marathon speed or faster.  Felt light on my feet, although I reached threshold level the last couple of miles, not so light then.  Ran a total of 11.13 miles in 1:31:33, average overall pace 8:13 per mile.  Average pace for the "speed" miles was 8:03, max 8:30, last 6 were 7:50, 7:47, 7:41, 7:24, 7:27, 7:37.  Started to get real lactate-y at the end.  This wasn't the run I intended to do when I started out, was going to do the routine of seeing how many MP miles I could run at 160 bpm or lower.  But my Garmin was not reading out my heart rate correctly.  It finally went down to 34 and stayed there.  Weird.  Halloween is over.  At that heart rate I was afraid if I stopped I would end up with those electric paddles on my chest.  I am trying to decide how fast to run the 10K on Saturday.  I think I can do a 7:30 pace, which means if I had any guts I would try for 7:15.

55F, 94% humidity, wind NNW 5 mph and rainy, not steadily but certainly coming down.  I must be losing fat because I get cold in this weather now.  Certainly good running weather, though.  I ran 10.14 miles in 1:47:29, average pace 10:37 per mile, regular shoes.  No idea what my heart rate was.  Finally figured out my chest strap has a battery in it, duh.  Kind of like a pacemaker.  I replaced the battery when I got home and everything is fine.

Well, my friend that I go to church with succombed to her cancer yesterday morning after a long battle with many ups and downs, so I will be spending some time with her husband the next few days.  She was optimistic to the end, even though she knew she would not recover this time.  She knew it was her time and was thankful for the extra years she had been given, she should have passed on three years ago.  She was a kind woman, simple faith, strong; she lived a full and honest life and had no regrets that I could tell.  She was angry when her cancer came back four years ago but quickly made her peace.  She said a month ago that she would soon be sitting at the feet of her savior.  I imagine she is already there, but I doubt he is letting her sit.

57F, 63% humidity, wind N 12 mph gusting to 23, clear.  The rain cleared out and it was invigorating out there, the low humidity and wind made it feel cooler than it actually was.  Ran 8.12 in 1:10:59, average overall pace 8:45, average for the MP miles was 8:21, range 8:04 to 8:35, heart rate 160 (brand new battery in my heart rate strap -- maybe not as good as new shoes but pretty cool anyway).   I was wearing regular shoes, so getting six consecutive sub-MP miles was a slight improvement in this training zone. 

Starting to cut back a little bit.  Pretty interesting article in a marathoning magazine I get about tapering.  He is holding to the gospel of cutting back as long as 4 weeks before a major race, citing study after study.  I haven't achieved much doing that, seems like I consistently run slower in marathons than my training indicates.  He might have identified one of my problems, though.  He says that long slow running during a taper actually damages muscle structure more than short fast sessions and that you can lose conditioning by not keeping up the intensity almost to race time.  Conversely, you can maintain conditioning (maybe not improve it) for up to 10 weeks if you stay intense and short.  Not sure why anybody would do that for 10 weeks, but it is an interesting thought.  Bottom line, I am not tapering a lot this time, and I am going to go ahead with the 10K on Saturday.  It isn't textbook distance and timing, but I want to see what happens.  I don't think there will be much negative come out of it unless I pull something.

45F, 63% humidity, wind NW 3 mph, clear as a bell.  Extremely fine weather out there this morning, going down to 35 degrees by tomorrow.  It is already colder than when I ran even with the sun up.  Ran 8.01 at 10:20 per mile, low heart rate and regular shoes.  I am proving to myself time and time again that regular shoes are about 20-25 seconds per mile slower than flats.

The "coach" of our Saturday running group just posted results from three races that members of the group have run in the last two weeks:  The Nike Marathon in San Francisco (women only), a local half and a local10 mile run.  The fastest marathon pace was 9:35, half 8:31 and 10 mile 7:51, 53 runners altogether.  After Hartford, it appears that I am right in the mix with this crowd.  We eat too much Tex-Mex and BBQ down here.  I think it's time to fire the coach.

35F, 63% humdity in Temple, Texas, clear as a bell.  Probably the best running weather ever.  I drove up last night after work, about a 3-hour drive from downtown Houston.  When I arrived my daughter had 12 3-year olds over for a final blowout celebration of my granddaughter's birthday, which was actually on Monday.  It was a Beauty and the Beast theme.  I thought it looked more like bedlam.  Good thing I am the grandpa and not the pa, I've done the pa part already.  Conked out on the couch at a reasonable hour and got up at a pretty leisurely 6:00 this morning. 

Found out I had forgotten my pullover, managed to borrow one from my son-in-law, then we headed to the race.  My daughter ran too, along with several of her friends.  One of them is fast, she ran cross-country for UVU 5 or 6 years ago although her 5K is 3 minutes slower now.  I wondered if I could beat her but kept my mouth shut.

I warmed up for two miles, wearing gloves, pullover and beanie.  By the time I finished I didn't need the pullover and after the race started I realized I didn't have my gloves on.  Thank goodness for the beanie.  All the Utah runners would have gotten a good laugh at us.  We were bundled up like it was a trip to Alaska and chattering away about the temperatures.  Really, it was perfect to run a race in, no moisture and no wind.

Unfortunately, the race started up a hill for a half mile, then turned around and came back down to the starting line.  This race was sponsored by the City of Temple so I assume nobody got fired for coming up with this bright idea for a first mile in a 10K.  When I saw it I told my daughter that I had never run a 10K but I was pretty sure this wasn't going to be my day.  The hill is steeper than Veyo in the SGM.  The good thing is it was on fresh legs.  When I got to the bottom I had my first mile in at 7:27 (172 bpm) despite the hill and I knew I had a shot at making my 7:15 goal pace. 

Second mile was 7:10 (174), flat and good surface.  Didn't know if I was being too aggressive with my heart rate or not, but I knew I could hold 170 for 10K distance so thought I might be OK at 175.  Was certainly feeling good.  UVU girl was about 150 yards ahead, she is good on downhills and opened up a pretty good gap on me coming down "Veyo".

Mile 3 7:12 (174), everything hanging together pretty good.  Made up about half the gap on UVU girl.

Mile 4 7:23 (177), another hill out at the end of the course.  Passed UVU near the end of this mile and I started to pick up speed, figured I could do anything for 2 more miles.

Mile 5 7:05 (181), after the 7:23 on Mile 4 I made myself run faster, concentrated on form and on the second place woman, managed to pass her at the end of this mile.  I wouldn't say I was OK but I have hurt worse.  No significant lactate buildup in my legs.

Mile 6 6:55 (185), pretty much red-lining it here.  I had a shot at catching a guy but said "nah, I'm tired".  I would have tried harder if I had known he was 47 years old.

Mile 6.15 (0.58, 6:33 pace)  I think the course was a little short, I measured it at 6.15 and somebody else said they got 6.19, so it probably wasn't full 10K, but pretty close.  Overall pace, assuming 6.15 miles, was 7:10 (7:06 for a full 10K), made my goal, and beat my pace from last month's 5K by a small but significant margin.

I finished 10th out of 80 runners, pretty good day.  (Also finished first in my age division, but let's just say it wasn't overly competitive.  Second place was 27 minutes slower and there wasn't a third place.)  First place overall was 35:xx, not bad but not an overly impressive field.  My daughter got 26th, 8:13 pace.  She has gotten faster in the last few months, even though she doesn't have much time to train with two very small children and her husband being a first-year resident.  As my wife said, "You daughter is more impressive than you."  Thanks dear, I already knew that. 

Here we are, dorky beanie balanced out by beautiful daughter: