Carl Sandburg and Travel Time [Entered 8/5/05]

Today, we visited the Carl Sandburg historical site and homeplace in Flat Rock. Sandburg moved down to North Carolina when he was 67, already world-famous. He lived at Connemara, his 300 acre homeplace, for the rest of his life. Pretty interesting place, and some more hiking while we were there, to boot. At the souvenir shop, I found a piece of classical sheet music written by Andres Segovia for his buddy, Sandburg, and purchased a copy for my own investigation later. Apparently, Segovia wrote the piece in 5 minutes, on hotel stationery, in response to Sandburg's request for "lessons."

Anyway, after that, it was time to find our way through the rain to Charlotte, and my flights back to Austin. The flights were uneventful, but a long layover in Houston wasn't that much fun. I read the entire Houston Sunday paper while I hung out in the terminal and even finished up the Sunday crossword puzzle there. I got through about 50 songs on the iPod during the flights, and it was good to hear a bunch of stuff with power chords in them.

Got home late, just after 11:00 pm, and my guitar and luggage made it just fine. All in all, another very successful trip to Swannanoa, and my only problem now is readjusting to Real Life. That should prove easy enough.

Let's Hike!! [Entered 8/5/05]

After our very late night last night, singing till 3:00 am, we got rolling this morning, had our last Swannanoa breakfast, said our goodbyes, packed up, and headed off campus until 2006. Jeff and I were a little bummed that it was over again, for another year, but what the heck. I was happy to find that my voice wasn't totally shredded after the 4 hours of singing, but I was really tired. It was nice to sit in the backseat of the car and zone out while we drove away.

We ended up in Flat Rock, where we checked into our hotel and dropped off our stuff. A quick lunch later, and we headed into the mountains for some hiking. It was drizzling just a little, but we saw a couple of spectacular waterfalls as we drove to our hiking destination. We ended up hiking about 2 1/2 hours on the Foothills Trail, on some pretty steep terrain. The pace was steady, and it felt good to get the legs going after a relatively inactive Swannanoa Gathering.

We finished off the day after the great hike with a trip back to Asheville and pizza. The couple of Stout beers were quite delightful, and I gorged on the Hawaiian pizza (had to keep in the musical mood, right?). By the time we got back down to Flat Rock, we were all pretty beat, and we slept the deep sleep of the fatigued. A really great day, but man it felt good to sleep on a real bed for a change!

Trail Running Again [Entered 8/5/05]

This morning, Tuesday, I surprised myself by getting up and running for the fourth day in a row. This time, it was just Jeff and me who were out there bright and early. We ran the usual Suicide Ridge trail, but did a little different approach to the trailhead, exploring some of the other trails that wind around the Warren Wilson College campus. The grass was heavy with dew, so our shoes got pretty wet during this one. We ended up doing 2 laps on top of Suicide Ridge, and then went back a different way, bushwacking across a big grazing ground in the high grass, totally soaking our feet. It was a strange and mystical morning, with very heavy fog making it almost impossible to see across the field at all. By dead reckoning, we found our way to the roads, and picked our way back to campus and our room. All told, it was nice brisk run, and Jeff made me lead the Suicide Ridge laps. Later, I figured it was so that I could catch any spider webs across the trail (I just ate one of them).

It was just about 41 minutes of running, and I'll estimate 4.5 miles total. The GPS would have been useless in the deep foliage, so I didn't wear it. Our fellow campers just shook their heads when they saw us finishing our runs as they strolled to breakfast.

Swannanoa Trail Running [Entered 8/5/05]

Monday morning, we got out there early for our first Swannanoa trail run. Just as we got started, around 6:20am, we saw our friend Rich crossing the footbridge, so we hurried to catch him for the rest of the run. We had a really pleasant run, with Rich leading the way on the Suicide Ridge trail loops. We ended up doing 3 loops of the trail, and then I added a loop of campus once I got back, waiting for Jeff, who had done an additional trail loop. For me, it was 55 minutes, about 6 miles total. Weather was nice and cool, but it was sure humid.

I felt great this year doing these runs, especially since last year, I was still recovering from my injury, and was unable to really enjoy the simple act of running as much as I did this year. Many stories were told and heard during the run, especially once we got past the really steep initial entry to the Ridge trail.

Biltmore Estates Trail Run [Entered 8/5/05]

This morning, we trekked down to south Asheville for a nice run. When we arrived at our parking place, a shopping center, there was a big bicycle race going on there. Several different races going on one after the other. It was cool to watch the guys blast around the 2 or 3 mile loop course time and time again.

Anyway, it was really nice, maybe 70 degrees, clear and crisp compared to Austin. We walked to our trailhead, and took off down a steep hill towards the Broad River. After that descent, we had to sort of skirt around a big fence across the road and trail, and started on more flat ground after that. Jeff, Andy and I just cruised through monstrous forest land, along the river, enjoying the cool temperatures and almost natural cathedral conditions. Nice and quiet, we figured out that we must be on some portion of the 3000 acre Biltmore Estates property. No worries. It was an organized trail, so obviously they are used to folks running there. Andy fell back a bit, nursing an injury, and then Jeff and I had to turn around at 2.5 miles in when we reached a second big gate and fence that didn't offer a way around it. We turned around and made much quicker time on the way back, and I did just fine until we had to blast up that big hill at the finish. I felt a little like one of Lance Armstrong's teammates as I set a good pace up the first half of the hill, and then had to let Jeff go by to the top as I shuffled the rest of the way.

For the day, 5 miles, 9:05 average pace, but more like 9:40 pace going out and 8:20 coming back. We got a little frisky on the return lap, that's for sure. It was a fun run and a great start to another fun day.

The rest of the day was all about eating, packing, registration at guitar camp, unpacking, one last "off-campus" meal of good pizza and beer, and then time to settle into the routine of the Swannanoa Gathering. Nice. Oh, yeah, we also found time to cruise out into the mountains after lunch for a couple of miles on the Appalachian Trail, up a long series of switchbacks to an overlook. Great view up on top, too. The hiking felt good after the running of the last few days.

James K. Polk 5K [Entered 8/5/05]

Today was a little 5k race in Charlotte, NC. Actually in Pineville, NC, but you get the picture. About 200 people gathered for the James K. Polk 5K, on a hilly little course through a couple of neighborhoods, finishing at a recreation center and park. I was sporting my all-black Gazelles gear, but I wasn't about to intimidate any of the locals.

Jeff and I had a nice one mile warmup and then I did a few of the drills and some stretching before the race start. I lined up near the front, ready to go. The weather wasn't bad, even with an 8:00 am start, with temps in the 73 degree range. A ton of folks blasted out really fast for the first mile, but I stuck to my guns, and "ran how I felt" instead of trying to chase people I didn't know. That strategy worked well for me, as I started catching people at the half mile mark. From that point on, I wasn't passed, and I kept rolling up people the rest of the race.

First mile was flat to moderate downhill, and I clicked that off in a respectable 7:36. Since I didn't have any race goals today except to go for consistent effort, that was a good start. Mile Two featured the two nasty hills on the course. On the first one, I passed about 8 people, which was an ego booster. Gilbert's training really helped there! During mile two, I slowly caught up with a guy pushing a baby stroller. That wasn't so bad, but he had a little boombox strapped to his stroller, blaring annoying music at all those around him. I caught him, and then stayed away from him by pushing up the last couple of hills during mile two. That split was 7:40, as I kept my effort even considering the terrain.

By now, the sun was an issue, just as an annoyance. The course still rolled a bit, but it was primarily flat. I kept picking out people to catch, and was pretty successful with my little stretch run. That third mile split was 7:25, more like I should be running. According to the course markers, my last .11 miles was 0:50, 7:36 pace. I guess I did slow down a bit at the end. In that last bit, I was catching an older lady, who I knew was the local age-group hotshot runner in the 60-64 age group. Cathy was her name. Anyway, as I caught up to her, a voice from the side of the course yelled out, "Cathy, don't let the guy in black catch you!" That was me, of course, and Cathy did pick it up just enough to stay away from me to the finish. Turns out that it was Jeff who had yelled that to Cathy, since he had finished a few minutes ahead of me.

I finished 51/178 in the race, 8/12 in my age group, and 45/117 in male overall. Not bad for a casual race, but I was way off my 5K PR. Final time was 23:34, 7:36 overall pace. I'll take it.

We watched the final finishers and then cheered on the tiny tikes as they did their .1 mile race. That was pretty funny to watch. There was plenty of food and drink afterwards, and for a small race, it was really well done. No confusion over the course, and everything was clearly marked. Thumbs up.

I got in the full stretching routine as they passed out all the awards, and then we enjoyed the rest of the day. We visited the James K. Polk historical homesite (had to make sure and do that after running in his namesake race, didn't we?), packed up and headed to Asheville. We did a long walking tour of Asheville once we got there, including a lot of the sites found in Look Homeward, Angel, the big novel by Thomas Wolfe that we're reading. Asheville is a city of wide ranging terrain, so that walking tour wasn't easy. On the way to Asheville, we took in a folk art gallery just for fun. It was a fun day, and finishing it off at Barley's Taproom in Asheville for some really fine pizza and locally-brewed beer was a fine bonus at the end of the day.

400's in the Humidity

Today, we gathered as usual for 400m intervals. Nice warmup run over to Austin High School with Shannon, Amy and Joseph, I think. Anyway, drills drilled, we were ready for the festivities. I was still a little stiff from Tuesday, but felt pretty solid. Gilbert assigned me to do between 8 and 12 x 400m, since I'm racing on Saturday. The rest of my subgroup could do between 10 and 16, but all save Richard chose 12. Gilbert suggested 1:45 for our pace.

And we were off! My group was pretty large, with Sandra, Amy, Shannon, Margaret, Tall Richard, Richard S., and one other woman whom I did not know. Richard S took off and ran his own pace for the entire workout, so the rest of us cruised through the laps. We did some talking during the early 400's, but it got quieter as the workout progressed. We did an excellent job of staying on pace, and kept our recovery walk/jogs to a strict 1:00, so I'm happy about that. We picked it up considerably for the last two intervals, which were two that I paced, coming out of the peloton to pick us up at the end of the workout. (I led the first 3 or 4, too, but then turned over the pace work to the others). Good work!

The times? 1:46, 1:44, 1:44, 1:44, 1:45, 1:45, 1:44, 1:45, 1:43, 1:45, 1:39, 1:36. Average pace was about 1:44, or 6:56/mile pace.

We thought we were done then, but Gilbert called for us all to do 100 situps. I did 2x25 of the standard curlup crunches, and groaned through 25 true crunches with people holding my feet on the ground. Finished off things with a new one where you lie on your back with legs extended, and you sort of rotate your legs around the legs of your training partner, who is lying opposite you. Hard to explain, I guess, but it was pretty tough after everything else.

The nice return run to RunTex was with Tall Richard and Amy, and we chatted the whole way about music and fun subjects like that. I stretched at RunTex with several folks, and chatted a bit with Gilbert, Patrick and Jan. Then, I peeled off the soaking shirt, got dry, and headed home. It'll be weird to be away from Gazelles for the next week, but it'll sure be fun to be in Asheville, NC, instead! I'll report "from the road" while I'm there. We should be doing some nice trail running and a lot of guitar playing and singing. I can't wait!

Stats for the day: 6.7 miles, 4800 meters of intervals at average 6:55 mile pace. Warmup/cooldown running at 9:30/mile, just right.

Circuits Again

After a long weekend visit to Mississippi, I was ready to get back to Gazelles this morning. Some of my peeps told me I looked sleepy, but I really felt pretty good. It was extremely humid today, and we'd all be drenched by the time we were done with the workout. I was a little worried because I did absolutely no running in Mississippi, but I'll just call that a vacation of sorts to recharge the running batteries.

I saw Patrick and Jan right away when I arrived, and then most of the regular crew showed up after that. Frank is in New York/Vermont, and Alex met us over at AHS for the workout. I ran over at a nice easy pace with the gang, and then drills were drilled. The workout today was to do 3 sets of 800m circuits, using the quad squats against the fence instead of the plyometric jumps. I took Gilbert's advice again, and ran the 800's quite easy, but very consistent. The circuits aren't all that bad, but when you start running after doing the lunges, your legs always feel like rubber. My 800's were 4:16, 4:19, 4:11, an average pace of 8:33/mile. That's faster than 60% effort, but still quite reasonable. I did the first 800 with David, and then the last two with Shannon and a few others. It's nice to have a little pack to run with on the track. Alex was there, and he looked like he was having fun. Hopefully, he's almost ready to rejoin the herd?

Afterwards, we did the same low hurdle jumps from last time, and although I still feel very earthbound doing them, it was pretty fun to finish things off that way. I ran back to RunTex with Amy, and we accidentally ran harder than I had planned, but that's okay, I guess. A solid stretching session followed that, with Patrick and Jan, among others.

A little joking around with Gilbert, and I was headed home. For the day, a modest 5.2 miles. The plan for the rest of the week is a nice easy 30-45 minutes tomorrow in the 'Hood, then Thursday is 400's with the Gazelles. I'll probably do a little less of those than normal, since I've got a 5K race in Charlotte on Saturday. After that, it's trail running for a week while I'm at guitar camp in Asheville, NC. I'm already looking forward to it!

Circuit Training and some New Stuff

This morning was very humid, but a little cooler, I think. Anyway, it was a day for circuit training, which isn't too tough running, but it's a tough little workout all the same, due to the exercise sets in between the running that don't allow full recovery. I was a little sleepy this morning, but that passed soon enough. My legs felt fine after yesterday's pace run, and I ran over to Austin High School at the back of the herd, running with Richard. Warmup was sensibly paced, drills were drilled, and it was time to do our thang.

Today, Gilbert substituted the wall squats (against the chain link fence) for the "Superman" jumps. We were to do as many circuits as we could until Coach said it was time for the "new stuff." I ended up running most of the 400's with David, as I was determined to run the 400's easy between each circuit. The 400m times were very consistent, 2:12, 2:11, 2:10, 2:11, and I did 4 complete exercise circuits. Gilbert was seemingly everywhere, making adjustments to folks on various exercises, and it was fun to see him stalk someone and jump in with some sort of correction.

After the fourth circuit, Gilbert called us over to do a series of two-footed hops over a string of low hurdles, and I think there were 5 hurdles, maybe 6. Anyway, except for the fact that they got a little pushed around, resulting in some short gaps and longer gaps in the row, that was a fun exercise to add to the end. More plyometrics for our amusement! Maybe my vertical leap will improve from its current pitiful level?

We were done after that, and Frank talked me into running back to RunTex the "long way," which is about a mile longer than usual, going counterclockwise on the trail, over the Mopac bridge and back that way. We ran easily for him, and somewhat quick for me, for a cooldown run. I clicked off two miles at 8:47 and 8:44 at the end. It felt fine, but it was just a little quicker than normal.

I was totally drenched afterwards, but it was a good kind of tired. There was lots of joking around after that at RunTex, and we tried to push Alex a little to relax about his running and to enjoy it. I hope we didn't make him mad at us. When you're coming off an injury, sometimes you just want to be left alone. I know that for a fact from last summer!

No stretching today. It'll be 3 weeks or so until I see some of the gang, like Frank and Jan, so it was sort of strange as we all left the parking lot. I'll be there for the Tuesday and Thursday workouts next week, I think, but then it'll be August before I fully rejoin the Herd. I'm looking forward to some nice trail running in Asheville in a couple of weeks, a 5k race in Carolina that should be fun, and some running in Mississippi later this week.

Tour de Lance: It was awesome watching the last mountain climb in the Tour de France this morning, by the way! Lance and his team just destroyed the field with a torrid pace up the very long final mountain, and once the debris settled, it was just Lance and three other guys to the top. A final push separated the four down to two, and although Lance was outsprinted at the top of the brutal uphill finish, he put a lot of time into everyone else in the field. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to comprehend what sort of lung-bursting effort that takes, but I know enough that I look at Lance with awe in times like these. Now, of course, he just has to handle the remaining 11 stages in the same way, and he might win number 7! I'll be watching...

Long Pace Run

This morning, I tagged along with the fall marathoners as they did their first 10 mile pace run. This one was easier than they will eventually become, with 5 miles of "easy" running at 60% and then 5 miles of harder running at something like 85% of effort. Time wasn't the issue, since no one really knows their goal pace yet. I figured that this was a run I could do, despite my non-marathon status. I'll alternate doing 7 or 10 mile runs on Mondays until Freescale training begins in late August.

We started at 5:45 due to the workout length, but I felt good and rested despite the slightly earlier start. I assumed that I'd be bringing up the rear of the group, since I was just having fun, and I intended to run the easy part really easy. At the start, everyone pretty much pulled away from me, and I was trailing behind, following Mike by about 20 yards or so. Just after we popped out from behind the Austin American Statesman parking lot, Bryan caught up with me, and he fell in with me for the next long while. It was nice to have a running partner, and I got a chance to get to know him a little while we ran along. After crossing the Longhorn Dam, we made a quick stop for water behind the Holly power plant (just 26 seconds), and then continued on with the rest of the easy running. At about 5 miles (turned out to be 4.8 miles), or 45:00, I declared it was time to start the pace running. Bryan and I had knocked out the easy running at 9:16 pace, which was actually just about right.

Bryan stayed with me for the first mile and a half of pace running, and then told me to go on, and he'd pick a different pace to bring it home with. I felt like I was running under control, but I was certainly running faster than we'd been going. I didn't look at my watch, intentionally, because it would be too easy to make all sorts of decisions to slow down or speed up based on what I saw. I tried to do the old "run how you feel" deal, pushing the pace to something that I might be able to handle for an hour or so. Pete passed me near Austin High School (I'm guessing he started later than we did, duh...). I didn't stop at the Mopac water stop, figuring I'd be better off continuing my run instead for just 2 more miles.

I thought I was slowing down over the last two miles, but again resisted the urge to check my pace or HR. Finally, I went under the railroad overpass, passed the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, and finished with a nice little kick. Done.

Turns out I did 5.26 miles at pace, at an average 8:24/mile. Pretty solid running, I think. Overall, the run was 10.1 miles at 8:49 pace. This was a good run just two days after a similar length long run on Saturday. I like these pace runs, but they're tough. I think they help me cope with discomfort late in races, but maybe that's just Gilbert's brainwashing, you think? My last miles for the day were 8:23, 8:14, and 8:17, so my fastest running was late in the run.

Did 5x100m striders after catching my breath a bit, and then wandered back to RunTex. I stayed and stretched with Patrick, and talked a bit with Gilbert and Alex. Alex was just finished with his PT appointment, and he's been released to run a little bit, so we should see him tomorrow.

Now, tomorrow is "just" circuit training, then an easy run on Wednesday. I'll be in Mississippi for a few days after that, so I'll have to figure out how to simulate the scheduled ladder workout for Thursday (or maybe I'll just run for fun instead?). Saturday, I'll just do a relaxed 60-90 minute run. This was a good start to the running week, that's for sure.

Quick Long Run

This morning, we got to "sleep in" and meet at 6:30 instead of 6:00 for our 10 miler. Richard was out of town, along with Jan, but Amy and Volel were there for the run this morning. The route was the I-35 loop on the trail and then the adventurous extra bit snaking along and up the Mopac overpasses, to Enfield and Exposition and finally back to RunTex. There's a good bit of hilly running, most of it in the last 5 miles of the run.

I intended to run nice and easy, but it seems that we just are going fast nowadays. Amy and I were the very last runners in the whole pack for the first couple of miles, with Volel just ahead. Margaret and Kim were around us as well. It was overcast, which was okay with me. We reached the water stop at the Mopac footbridge, 4.8 miles in, at a brisk average pace of 8:45/mile. Too fast, really, but not stupid fast. I think I got caught up running with Kim, forgetting to temper my pace for this longer run. Oh, well.

After an efficient 1:45 water stop, we zig zagged up underneath Mopac, heading for Enfield. The trail was blocked by an official barrier, so we had to do some cross country efforts, which were a lot hillier than we usually do on this route. Our little pack of runners stayed together pretty well despite the challenging course, and huffed and puffed our way up Enfield to Exposition and the Powerade stop at O. Henry middle school. Appropriately enough, Henry was there, riding his bicycle on a wind trainer as he waited there with the Powerade. He's still working through his leg problems, but that was pretty clever of him to combine a workout with his duties as Powerade maestro. That was 6.6 miles at 8:50/mile average pace, as we worked through the tough couple of miles there. That was a 1:48 water stop, by the way.

From O. Henry, we're supposed to pick it up all the way to RunTex, if we can. I started off that last little bit going a little easier, and Volel got a pretty good lead on me heading back to the trail. I got rolling and pulled away from Amy once we hit Veterans Drive and continued to push all the way home. There was considerable traffic on the trail this morning, with a large number of people strolling along, 3 or 4 wide on the trail. Frustrating, but I tried not to let that bother me more than usual. I caught Volel midway through the next mile, and went on by him after a spirited chase to catch him. Pushing all the way to the Zero marker, I crossed in a pretty fast time.

I hadn't intended to run this hard today, but it turned out to be 9.8 miles at an average 8:37 pace, probably a "PR" for this training course. My last miles were 8:30, 7:59, and 8:04, which was pretty good running. Amy and Volel finished pretty closely behind me, so we all did well today. If you add in the water stop time, our average pace dropped to 8:58/mile, but that's still quick for us, especially if my marathon race goal pace is 9:00/mile. :)

I knocked out 5x100m striders on the grass, and then we gathered for the extended stretch-a-thon at RunTex. There were tons of people there this morning, but it was still lots of fun to coach everyone through the various stretches.

I hung out afterwards for a bit and chatted with Alex and Volel, admiring Volel's cool iPod setup in his car, where the iPod (the big 60 Gb version) lives in his trunk, taking the place of the CD changer that used to be there. That's a cool idea!

Sunday is a probable full day off, but I may cross train and mow the yard instead. :)

Tempo Run (Time Trial)

This morning the herd gathered at RunTex for our monthly tempo run. After a warmup and drills, I was feeling a bit better, or at least not as stiff as I started out the day. I didn't feel altogether great, however, and wasn't very confident about how I'd do today. I guess I always feel that way, but it was more pronounced for this workout. At any rate, we were to do the usual 4 mile tempo course, aiming for a negative split and a fast finish.

I took off with Amy, Shannon and Jan, and we sort of eased through the first mile. I had pulled ahead of my running partners by the one mile mark, a pedestrian 8:08 split. I decided to keep pressing the pace little by little, and by the time I reached the turnaround, I had caught up to Richard, who had gone out quicker than us. Mile 2 was 7:24 (that mile is slightly short, by maybe 50 yards). I drafted along behind Richard for maybe a quarter mile, and then moved on around him. I figured that he'd tag along with me, but by the 2.5 mile mark of the course, I had pulled away. The knowledge that he was back there kept me moving along, though, because I assumed that he'd pick it up and catch me by the end. I was working pretty hard, but was still under control as I crossed the footbridge and clicked off the 3 mile split. I wasn't looking at the watch by now, just marking the splits, but my split was 7:10 for that one. I was really moving! I kept it up all the way to the finish, and with Gilbert urging me on to the finish, I had a last mile split of 7:32. Final time was 30:14, 7:33 pace, and a new "PR" for this workout.

I was very happy with this one. After feeling a little out of sorts, I was able to come through with a very good run. Nice! In what is becoming a regular occurence, I saw the Guv again today as I stormed home on the last mile of the run. I've heard he's using a Runner's World marathon training plan that features 3 days of weekly training, so that would mean today was a tempo run for him, too. A True tempo run, naturally, instead of our time trial tempo effort today.

After everyone gathered, we finished it off with 5x100m striders. Gilbert made an example out of me after that, and held a rope around my waist as he made me lean forward and really exaggerate proper running form while he held me back. I didn't look too silly, I guess, so that was a victory.

Alex showed up this morning to check in with Gilbert, and I was able to heckle him a bit. He ought to be back with us soon, I think. Some stretching with a bunch of people, including Jan, Patrick, Pete and Frank, and we were done. Jan is off on a cruise, so I won't see her for a while. Bon Voyage, Jan! Frank wasn't in a particular hurry to get to work, so we were able to talk a good bit, too.

It was a good day of running, tempered by the knowledge of the bombings in London. Jan had checked in with her friends there, and they were all okay. I hope that any of Richard's people are okay, as well.

Will it ever rain here again?

Easy Run & Gym [Entered 7/7]

Wednesday, I went out early and did a very relaxed 40 minutes in my neighborhood. No GPS, just a HR monitor to keep my pace in true recovery mode. I'm guessing I did just over 4 miles, but that's just a guess. It felt good to just let the legs do their thing and work out some of the stiffness from yesterday's Circuit Extravaganza.

Afterwards, I went to the gym and did pretty much everything I should do. I did all the ab/core stuff on my list, leg extensions and hamstring curls and calf raises for the legs, and a few upper body exercises for effect. It was a good workout. On the iPod during the gym portion of the festivities, I had it on "shuffle," and was amused at some of the odd musical shifts. The best was when it went from Jimi Hendrix ("Hey Joe") to the Monkees ("Mary Mary"). Since Hendrix opened for the Monkees on one of his first American tours, it was actually historically correct. At least that amused me... :)

Circuit training and African Jumping Jacks?

Back with the gang this morning, we gathered and then cruised over to Austin High School for circuit training and "new stuff." I ran with Margaret, Shannon, Jan and Amy over to the track, just enjoying the morning. My legs felt pretty good, but I guess I was a little stiff from yesterday's racing. Drills were drilled, and Gilbert could see very clearly this morning, and corrected my form on the Butt Kick drill. Okey dokey.

The workout was circuit training, between 4 and 10 circuits (ten?!), with just 400m intervals between sets of exercises. This time, for "advanced" people, the bench stepups were replaced by more athletic stepups where you change feet in midair on each repetition, accompanied by more arm swinging for balance. Once you got the hang of it, and got over the fear of missing the bench on your stepups, it was actually a better exercise. We all got totally filthy doing the situps and back raises on the track, but what the heck. One of these days, I'll be smart enough to wear a dark shirt instead of white for these workouts.

I took it truly easy on the 400's, per Gilbert's instruction, averaging just 8:55 mile pace (around 2:14 per 400), and did the minimum of 4 circuits, including 4 sets of exercises, before Gilbert called us over for the extra fun stuff. The exercises weren't that bad, again, but there was continuous huffing and puffing since we never really get a chance to catch our breath.

The extra stuff was a set of what I'll call African Jumping Jacks, where you kick your leg out, Rockettes style, and clap your hands beneath your leg, holding your leg nice and straight (if you can). Alternate your legs, and you've created a pretty silly looking group of sweaty runners dancing away. We did 15 per leg. Then, we did two sets of "Fast Feet," one minute each, and we were done.

The Governor was on the track as we left, plugging away at his own workout. No running bodyguards today, though. I joked with the big boys in the black Governor Surburban about why they were not out there with him, and they laughed and said that they had work to do later, and didn't want to get all tired. Funny. We all giggled (not the bodyguards, of course) amongst ourselves about the nearly overwhelming urge to greet the Guv with "Adios, Mofo" after his recent gaffe, but we successfully avoided that.

I ran back to RunTex with Amy, Shannon, Leslie and David, in a time nearly exactly like the warmup run. Good set of stretching later, and we were done. Patrick and Jan stretched with me as we joked around a bit more with Gilbert.

It was a fun day of hard training work. For the day, 4.7 miles and 4 circuits of strength work. I'll be sore tomorrow, no doubt.

A New Way to Celebrate the Fourth!

This morning, Amy, Patrick, Jan, Frank and I gathered at Austin High school for the inaugural Silcon Laboratories Marathon Relay. We promised each other that it was just for fun, with no pressure except that of running pretty fast in the heat. We met at 5:45 am to hand out the trinkets and shirts from the packet and to stake out our turf on the football field at AHS. Frank's family joined him, and I must say that his young children were really good troopers. Even though they had lots of fun food and snacks as well as a bunch of fun playtoys for the kids (moonwalks and slip 'n slides), it was a long day in the sun for the spectators.

We set up Jan's sun tent (it was funny to watch us try and figure that out!), and it was lucky that we had Amy with us who has done some actual camping. Those of us not running right away continued our hydration and eating as if it were a marathon that we were doing, while Frank got busy with his warmup. It was a fun scene, watching all the runners gather for such an interesting event. The event got off on time, more or less, and Frank took off on the 12K leg of the race. Since all of us had done long runs on Saturday, we were really not thinking about winning anything, but we wanted to perform well all the same.

There was some confusion over where Jan was supposed to be in order to exchange the wristband with Frank for the start of her 10k leg, and she was really nervous about it. I think that for most of us, we're used to starting with the horn goes off, we know exactly when to do a warmup and all that stuff, and the uncertainty of the start time messed with us a little. Some more than others. The exchange went fairly smoothly, however, and Jan was off. Frank did a good job on the 12k leg, which was more or less a chunk of the old Motorola marathon course between mile 18 and mile 21 or so, out and back.

Alex showed up during Frank's leg, and it was fun to see him there. He'll be recovered from his injured leg soon, and in the meantime, I picked on him a little bit about the monster cross-training workouts he's doing instead of running. He took it in a good-natured way, but I know he's just dying to get out there and join us for all the training. Oh, yeah, Gilbert's team was way ahead in the Mixed competition. Duh.

The 10k legs were the most difficult of the event, featuring all the really hilly bits, and even incorporating a bit of the tough Meriden 1000m repeat course. While Jan was out running, Amy and I checked out the logistics of where we'd be for the start of our 5k legs, and by then, the race volunteers had figured it out a lot more smoothly. We'd be fine. As we waited for the start of Amy's leg, there was more hydration, some food intake, some rest for us, and of course congratulations to Frank for leading us off. The sun kept rising, and it was going to be really hot by the time I ran. There was a rumble of fear in my gut, but it passed (maybe it was just indigestion?).

Amy and Jan smoothly handled the handoff for leg 3, and Amy was off. Jan was hit hard by the heat, but soon found the ice cold soaked towels which really helped her to cool down. Jan ran pretty close to her existing 10k PR pace, considering the heat, and I know she was glad to be finished. She advised Patrick a little bit about his upcoming leg, and then settled in the tent to get refreshed.

Amy did a good job on her leg, probably doing the best job of matching her 5k PR pace among the team, and Patrick was off on the last 10k leg. Jan and I went up to the course to catch Patrick on his effort, and were able to boost him up a little on the highway bridge going by AHS at about his mile 3.5 point. The sun was just crushing people by now, and the occasional cloud felt like a chilly cool front by comparison to direct sun. I got a little nervous again about running in the heat, but I knew the course very well, and knew it was basically flat, so I got okay pretty quickly.

After Patrick passed, I had yet another hydration adjustment, and then jogged over to the transition area for my leg of the relay. That was all the "warmup" I did. I sure wasn't "cold!" We had a good idea of when everyone was going to finish, and I was ready long before Patrick showed up. I chatted with Anne a bit as I waited, and found out that she was having to run the 5k finishing leg as well as the leadoff 12k leg for her team. A teammate bailed on them at the last minute. What a drag that would be! It was comforting to see Larry, a fellow Gazelle who works for RunFar, the timing people, in the chute calling out the numbers of the incoming team runners. Ivi was along the rail giving me support, along with a bunch of other Gazelles and of course my full team. Patrick came through running strong, and I snagged the wristband and was off for the anchor leg for our team.

Frank said we were in something like 25th place after his leg, then we'd moved up to 17th at the end of Amy's leg, so I figured I'd just try to pass as many people as I could, counting them as I went by. This would give me something to do so that I could try and ignore the heat and sun. Gilbert gave me a shout as I got underway, and then I was up on Cesar Chavez, going into a mild headwind. I was passed pretty early by a fast guy, and then a little later, a military guy on the CAV team passed me. That was it for people going by me. I slowly reeled people in, catching about 7 people by mile 1, which was apparently at the first water stop (I grabbed water and poured it over my head, but that was enough). Without a mile marker to get my pace, I just continued to run hard but controlled to the turnaround on the First Street Bridge. I saw Leslie, a fellow Gazelle, ahead of me at the turnaround. By mile 2, I was heading back down Cesar Chavez, with that slight tailwind, and when I crossed under the Lamar bridge, I caught the CAV guy again, which was sweet! I got a mile click at the 2 mile mark, and I was doing something like 7:35 miles for the first two. Press onward! 17 people down, only 1 passing me for good. I was feeling okay by now, relieved to almost be done. 18, 19, 20 people. Hitting the DogPound loop, I was at 21 people that I had passed, and up ahead of me was Leslie. As much as it was uncomfortable, I pressed on to try and catch her before the finish, because that would definitely be an improvement in the standings for us in the mixed division. Churning for home, I caught Leslie in the last tenth of a mile (22 people passed on my leg), and powered forward to the finish going as hard as I could. My third mile, according to the markers, was 7:13 pace, but I'm not sure how exact the markers were.

That ice cold towel felt just great as I trudged through the finishing chute, and I loaded up with food and drinks from the very extensive selection there. It was all smiles when the gang caught up with me, and I think we were all pleased with our day.

According to the official website, my leg, which started when Patrick crossed the finish line, was 23:17, or 7:31/mile pace. That sounds about right. I know it was as hard as I could run under these conditions. Overall, we clicked off the relay in 3:21:42, good for a very sweet 13th out of 119 teams in the Mixed division. There was no overall listing for the approximately 300 teams, but I know we were well up the charts.

A job well done, we did a couple of group photos, and continued to refuel with all the tons of fresh fruit and drinks that we had brought for our feast. It was such an easy comraderie that we all felt, enjoying the successful efforts of each of us, and just relaxing after the work was done. There were tons of people there this morning who we knew, and it was a really cool thing to get to hang out with so many of our running friends to start the Fourth of July. I hope this event continues next year!

After 30 minutes or so, we got moving and were able to get Jan's tent packed back down with little trouble, and we made our way back to the cars for the journey home. I took Alex to his car, which he had to park a long way away this morning. Thumbs up for this one, despite the heat and all. I think I avoided sunburn, so life is good.

Long Run From Coach's House

It's been interesting this summer and spring, not being in the fall marathon group for the Gazelles. I've rather enjoyed the fact that I won't have to do those really long long runs in August and September. It does set the non-marathoners a little apart from the marathoners, but that's okay with me. I'm sort of a "tweener," doing long runs up to 12 or 14 miles, but skipping the longer stuff until it comes around for Freescale training. Today, for instance, the fall marathoners get to do 16 miles, leaving from Gilbert's house in far south Austin, and doing a long out and back route. The rest of us chose our own distances.

We all got going right on time from G's house, on a morning with the usual Austin weather. Volel joined us this morning, coming back as usual from some sort of injury. He said he'd run whatever distance I was running. Also with us were Amy and Shannon, who wanted to do between 10 and 12 miles. I suggested that we go 12, turning around at the water stop about 6 miles into the route. Richard zoomed ahead to run with Jan, Patrick, Sean, and all those guys.

The early miles felt really nice and comfortable. The route was hilly, with lots of sneaky long inclines or declines, but no really terribly steep hills like a couple of weeks ago. Our pace was pretty solid for this sort of run, and we reached the first water stop (Powerade stop) about 3.2 miles in, at 9:17/mile pace. A quick little 1:20 for Powerade, and we were off for the next leg.

It was fun talking about anything and everything with our little gang, and it was fun to have Volel along. We reached and passed the 5 mile mark, and Amy and Shannon both said they felt good, so they'd go on ahead to the turnaround with us. The turnaround was at 5.9 miles, and the increased hills in that second section had slowed our pace to 9:20/mile. Our water stop was slightly longer here, 2:29, as I took a GU, and everyone else got plenty of water.

Turning back, we noticed immediately a very long and steady uphill section or two, which was an unpleasant surprise. I was feeling pretty good still, but that may not have been the predominant feeling amongst the four of us. We reached the last water stop, 8.62 miles, and our average pace had dropped a little more, to 9:25/mile. The heat was taking a little toll, but mainly this was due to topographic challenges.

I tried to rally the troops a bit for the last stretch, and we got moving a lot quicker to the finish. We clicked off the next two miles at 9:16/mile pace, which was a lot better than we had been going. There wasn't nearly as much conversation by now, but we were still in a nice pack. When we got to Wm. Cannon Drive again, just over a mile from Gilbert's house, I decided to push a little harder still, and I slowly pulled away from the other three folks on the last two tough hills of the course. My last 1.2 miles were at 8:20/mile pace, a solid pickup over the end of the run. I worked hard over that last stretch, but it felt good to push like that on the hills.

Overall, I clocked 11.82 miles at an average pace of 9:17/mile, so I had a negative split on the run. With the water stop time included, the pace dropped to 9:44/mile. Either way, it was a good solid long run. Pacewise, I think we were about where we should be, and it was sure nice to have three people to run with who were so compatible at that pace.

I had to leave pretty quickly afterward to go help out and lead the other Gazelles in their Saturday stretch at RunTex, so I didn't get to hang out and chat too much. On the way up to RunTex, I saw the folks finishing up their 16 milers, and there was a pretty big gap between people over those last 3 miles. I'll be interested to hear about some of those runs later.

The stretching was fun, with a lot of new folks joining some of us old timers, and it felt great to work out the kinks. I picked up the marathon relay packets after that, and headed home. Time to go and watch the Tour de France and Wimbledon now for the rest of the morning!