For Whom the Dogs Bark

45F, 6.71 miles in 1:30:01, average pace 13:25, average heart rate 126.  This looks like a pretty marginal run but it actually wasn't that bad.  I started out very slow, 14:31 the first mile and 14:12 the second.  But my speed improved every mile as my body and heart started to get into a rhythm, and my last partial split was at a 12:28 pace.  Coming off a hard run Saturday at near-marathon effort, this was an OK run, I felt better at the end than when I started.

I was driving into the neighborhood yesterday and saw two pit bulls hanging around the fountain by the entrance, no collar and scraggly, they could have finished 1, 2 in an ugly dog contest.  Pretty ticked at whichever redneck let his dogs out.  Anyway, this morning I ran with some bear spray I took on a backpacking trip in Wyoming a couple of years ago.  It was like hunting quail with an elephant gun. 

63F, 7.08 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:43, low heart rate.

There is a guy in this neighborhood who runs like a machine every morning.  He is about 5 or 6 years older than me, I think.  He runs with perfect posture, the same course every morning, short precise strides, shaved head held high.  I don't think he is trying to get ready for anything because he runs exactly the same every day, looks like about 8-1/2 to 9-minute miles, I'm guessing he goes about 4 miles a day but I can't be sure.  It might be more or less.  That is not a bad alternative to what I am doing, but I'd rather struggle than look good.  As my wife said one morning after happening to see me as she drove past, "you don't look very good out there."  Maybe in 5 or 6 years I'll join up with the gentlemen runners, but first I have to find out what my limits are.

38F at start, 36F at end, 7.25 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:25 per mile, average heart rate 133 bpm.

This heart rate stuff makes me boring and I have sworn off blogging much about it, but this morning's run was particularly interesting/frustrating in that context.  My heart went off like a rocket by the time I got out of the cul de sac, going as high as 181 in the first mile or two, even though I was not breathing hard or feeling any fatigue.  Then it gradually came down and hovered in the 110 range for a while, then even less, dropping to 93 at one point, which is less than a brisk walking pace for me.  Never once did I speed up significantly, or slow down at all.  My first mile was 13:11 and my last partial split was at an 11:44 pace.  I actually ran most of these miles in the 115-120 bpm range, and the overall pace was faster than yesterday.  Maybe something about cold weather makes my heart want to protect me until my body heat starts to build up.  (OK, I know it's not really cold, but down here in the thick humid sea air, 38F actually feels pretty cold.)  Either that or the machine can't get a good reading when I'm not sweating much.  Either that or I'm about to have a heart attack.  I might go see my brother-in-law and get it checked out, purely for scientific reasons of course.

I ran the Sugar Land Turkey Trot this morning with two of my kids, a 20-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. I didn't want to run too hard -- last year I injured my Achilles running too fast in a 4-mile turkey trot -- but I couldn't pass up the chance to get a couple of my kids out there. I warmed up for two miles then went looking for my kids. They were already lined up, almost in the front. I suggested we should move to the back given our projected paces and they said only a few people are going to do 6 minute miles and we are behind them. Turned out they were right, I passed at least as many people as passed me, probably more. I had to remind myself that these kinds of races draw a lot of beginner runners, non-serious runners and non-runners. I thought the 5-mile distance would discourage most of the non-runners but plenty of them found the start line. I have never raced this distance so I didn't know what to expect. I decided to go out between 8:00 and 8:30, which turned out to be about right. I averaged about 8:16 per mile, splits were 8:23, 8:26. 8:25, 8:08 and 8:10. The last couple of miles were somewhat difficult, as I tried to pick up the pace and we turned into a stronger than expected wind. Based on today's time, I would say a 50-minute 10K would be a pretty good projection for me right now. I could have run a little faster but not a lot. There was a bagpipe player right at the finish line. (Do they all play the same tune?) I noticed that wind and kilts are not a good mixture. After I finished I went back to look for my kids. I found my daughter a few minutes back and ran with her for a bit. She said my son was behind her, so I left her to look for him. I ran back and back, over a mile and a half, past the walkers and strollers until I found what looked like the last lady, walking by herself at least a quarter mile behind anybody else. Seeing all those runners back there confirmed that I had lined up correctly. I knew my son wasn't that slow, so I turned around and ran back to the finish line, where he and the rest of an unhappy family were waiting. Turns out he had passed my daughter without her knowing it and finished only a minute or so behind me. This is a kid who never runs. Disgusting, but better for him to do well than the alternative. Anyway, it gave me a chance to cool down very slowly and maybe get in more miles than I had planned. I don't know how I did, it seemed that I finished in about the first third of the pack, but every body was in a hurry to leave so we left. I'll have to wait until times are posted to verify anything, the times in this post are my own.

38F, 7.23 miles in 1:30:00, average pace 12:27, low heart rate.  I felt pretty good the whole time and my pace was steady, but legs were tired at the end.  I was ready to stop.

I didn't get a time for my race yesterday, I guess my chip wasn't working.  Bummer.  My kids' chips worked fine at least. 

My father-in-law ran a turkey run in Orem yesterday.  There were four men in his age division.  They gave him the fifth-place ribbon.

46F at beginning, 60F at end, 25.13 miles in 4:30:00, average pace 10:45 per mile.  The object today was to be on my feet for the projected time for my next marathon, without actually running at marathon pace.  I figured an 11 minute per mile pace would do the trick, which would put me at about 24-1/2 miles, give or take.  Since my pace was a little faster than I planned, I came within 12 minutes (4:42) of running a whole marathon in a time that would have been 16 or 17 minutes faster than St. George, so obviously I am making progress.  My time in the actual race will depend more on the temperature than anything, I am guessing, so it is way to early to celebrate.  I have been through this training fire drill enough times already to know that race day results can vary a lot, either way, from predictions based on training results.  (Not that I am a veteran, but I have run three of them so I have learned a little bit.)  I will probably be somewhere between 4:10 and 4:45 on race day, but that is a pretty wide range.  I'm off to take my daughter to breakfast, happy weekend all y'all.