Zombie Gym-boree

Friday's visit to Gold's Gym was an object lesson in one vital thing that I overlooked. I must digress...

I went over to Northcross Mall to pick up my IBM 10K packet, and on the way there, I noticed the fine Fuddrucker's restaurant. I had planned to go eat at Subway, but somehow, the idea of a grilled chicken sandwich and those fabulous wedge cut fries called to me. I went to Fuddrucker's as if in a food-enhanced trance after the packet pickup, and happily ordered my grilled chicken combo. Settling in with my book (Neal Stephenson's "The Confusion"), I waited on my order. Once it was ready, and slathered with cheese and barbecue sauce, it was time to chow down. It was really good, of course. Anyway, after reading maybe 30 pages, I packed up and left.

Now, I normally don't go into details about food, but it lays the groundwork for what was to follow. Right after I finished up at Fuddrucker's, I headed over to Gold's for my workout. The cycle warmup (just 15 minutes) was not quite as usual. My HR was much higher than normal during the cycle warmup...about 150-155 peak instead of the usual 125-128 peak. That was because of the large meal that was being digested at the same time. A lesson learned, which is, don't eat a big 'ol meal right before working out. Duh.

That moderate malaise colored the rest of the workout, but I persevered, and finished all the exercises despite it. By the time I was done, I felt fine, but I sure won't do that pre-workout feeding again! I spent most of my time on core stuff, but added the minimum leg stuff (quads/hamstrings/calves) and a somewhat abbreviated upper body workout (curls/bench/tricep extensions). I felt good after finishing up, and I'm glad I went, but I sure wish I had had better sense about my pre-workout meal. Oh, well.

Tomorrow is the easy 4 miles and stretching, and then it's race day on Sunday. I'll shoot for a PR, which would be 47:52 (7:42/mile), set back at the Capitol 10,000 in April, 2005. Frank has graciously offered to pace me, since my PR 10K pace is his "easy" marathon race pace for Chicago. That way, we both get what we want out of the race. If I'm having a great day, I'll try to get more out of it, but I'd be happy with a sub-48:00 time. My recent speedwork and tempo runs have all been "PR" times, so maybe I'm due for a great race? We'll see on Sunday. Let's hope for overcast skies and temps as low as possible this time of year. The course is pretty much dead flat, with a nice long one mile gradual downhill (it's not much of one, but it does slope ever so gently down in that stretch) at the finish. Not too many turns, either, so the course is certainly faster than the old IBM course, which twisted all around.

Fartleks (And A Cool Front!!!)

This morning, it was the standard pre-race Thursday fartlek workout with the Gazelles. It was overcast and a bit windy as we got going, and the temperature actually dropped as we went along. Finally, it appears that the end of the 100+ degree days is upon us. I ran the fartleks with Amy, Shannon, Susan, Margaret and David, and we took turns leading the accelerations as we did the Congress Avenue loop on the trail. 15 minutes or so of nice and easy running (9:53 pace for just over 1.5 miles) led to the 10 x 1:00 fartlek section. I led the first one, and we all did good work leading the pack. There's a certain pressure to do a good job out front, but we enjoyed the morning. We ended up with just under 2.5 miles of fartlek running, at an average pace of 8:08/mile, including the 1:00 recovery bits between the fartleks. Finished it off with .9 miles of cooldown running at 9:07 pace. Overall, right at 5 miles, 8:52 overall pace for the morning.

We actually got chilled waiting after the run was over, which was a welcome change after so many weeks of sweltering heat. Granted, it was still only 74 degrees, but the slight breeze really felt good. Once Gilbert and the folks who did the 7 mile loop showed up, we did some strides and then some form drills and hopping. It was fun to do that stuff today.

When we walked back to RunTex, the Governor's black Suburban showed up, and he hopped out for his run. I talked with him for a bit about the weather (that's what we all talk about), his workouts, and then about how the hurricanes have impacted on his workweek. I told him about my Mom and how her church did during Rita, and he talked for a bit about how the churches really saved the day in both Katrina and Rita, doing for people without all the paperwork and red tape that government sometimes requires. It was actually a pretty interesting chat, and as always, I must admit that I didn't vote for the man, but he's not such a bad guy when you talk to him outside of his normal workplace.

I was heckled by some of the Gazelles for chatting up the Gov, but that's okay with me. I joined Amy, Karen, Shannon and Alex for some stretching, and the day was done.

Now, I just have to figure out what my goal is for the IBM 10K...

Repeat Mile Repeats

This morning, I joined my old gang on the Tuesday/Thursday Gazelles crew for speedwork. On the schedule were mile repeats at Zilker Park, the standard rolling course for such. It felt somewhat cooler this morning, but that was probably an illusion after yesterday afternoon's 107 degrees. I ran over to Zilker with Amy, Shannon, Michael and Alex, enjoying a relaxed run while we chatted about any number of things. Drills drilled, we grouped up for the work. Gilbert lumped a bunch of us in the last group together, and announced that 7:30/mile was a good pace for the first one, and to see what happened after that. He said that 4 was the maximum if we were racing on Sunday (the IBM 10K). The group was Gretchen, Karen and Marcy(?), who all left us on the first repeat and formed sort of their own group, followed by the rest of us in a pack. That last pack was Amy, Shannon, David, someone I didn't know, and me. There may have been one other person with us, but I can't remember that right now.

Anyway, we rolled through the first repeat in a relatively relaxed 7:36. David pulled away at the end for a slightly faster finish, but the rest of us were together. The second one was clockwise, which went up the steeper hill early, and on that one, I pulled away with David, running how I felt, and finished in 7:16. Another 2 minutes of rest and a couple of cups of water, and we cranked out number 3. On that one, I was more or less chasing the Gretchen/Karen group, and I finished in a surprising 7:06. Everyone else finished nice and consistently around 7:30. As we lined up for number 4, Gilbert told Amy and Shannon and David that they should stop. I eagerly asked if I should stop, too, and he said "No, you should do all 4." Well, I tried. I paired up with Gretchen, and we were off on the last repeat. I tried to keep a steady gap between us, since she's faster, and I did a pretty good job. I thought I was struggling, and figured I'd come in on the last one slower than number 3, so I was pretty stoked to see 6:57 on my final repeat. It was a perfect set of repeats, each faster than the one before. Granted, you're supposed to be consistent on them and then pick it up on the last one, but this sort of distribution of times is okay with me for now.

Average pace for the repeats was 7:14/mile, an improvement of three seconds from a couple of weeks ago when I did this workout with the Chicago people. I'm obviously happy about how strong I felt, even though I was gasping at the end of the fourth repeat.

Michael, Alex and I ran back nice and easy, although it was slightly faster than the trip over to Zilker. Gilbert joined us as he caught up to us on the way back, doing his warmup for his own mile repeat session that would follow with Bernard. Richard was finishing up his 7 mile recovery run at the same time, so we ended up with 5 people by the time we reached RunTex.

Once we got back, Amy suggested that we join her for situps, so I drank my Endurox and settled in with Amy and Alex for core exercise. I did 2x40 crunches, 2x40 leg extensions, and 2x25 "Jan" crunches, with 2x10 pushups and 2x20 back raises. I must be growing accustomed to those, because they weren't all that bad today. I did a fair amount of the stretching, too, just for preventative maintenance.

So, it was a good day of running after my day off yesterday. Total mileage 7.7 miles, with 4 x 1 mile repeats in the middle of it at 7:14/mile for spice. Easy run tomorrow and the gym, and fartleks on the trail on Thursday. I'm starting to look forward to the 10K on Saturday.

Ugh!

Well, this morning, my schedule didn't allow me to go to RunTex for the pace run. I intended to go out after the kids got on the bus, and do a 2 EZ / 5 pace type run in the 'Hood. By the time they left, though, it was already over 80 degrees, and I just was totally not inspired to get out in the big heat to come. So, I was a bad person and I skipped this workout. As it turned out, it was 108 degrees yesterday afternoon, the hottest day of the year, and today, it was an ovenlike 107 degrees when I went to pick up the kids at school. It was just awful. We've been pretty lucky with the weather all summer, really, but these last two days have been really bad. The weather report promises a break on or about Wednesday, but I'll believe that when it happens. Tomorrow is a return to the Tuesday/Thursday group for 3-5 x 1600m. I presume that's on the track, but until I get there in the morning, I won't know for sure.

Freescale Training Begins! [Entered 9/25/05]

This morning, it was hot again, 85 degrees it turns out, and pretty windy as we got the edge of the corner of the disturbance surrounding Rita. When I woke up, I immediately went back to CNN for Rita coverage, and saw that the storm had hit right at the Louisiana/Texas border, but would likely spare my hometown of Lufkin the more vicious weather of the storm's east side. Nonetheless, I carried my cellphone with me on today's run, just in case there was an emergency call from home.

This was the start of official Freescale training, so I started at 6:00am from RunTex with a whole new group of training partners. Diana, Liliana, Amy and Alex were there, of course, along with new folks Michael, Jennifer, Charlene and one other person who I didn't get around to meeting. Alex soon shot ahead to run with faster people, and so our tribe of runners carried on without him. We sort of took turns leading the run and carrying the pace work throughout the run, which was nice.

We reached the first Powerade/water stop at the 4 mile mark in short order, and I took a GU there just for fun. One guy turned back at that point for an 8 mile day, but all the rest of us continued into the hilly portion of the workout. With more folks in our group today, the water stop took a little longer than usual, but again, not a deal breaker.

Splits miles 1-4: 10:24, 9:24, 9:43, 9:45. Pretty relaxed pace. With the new folks, we were sort of finding out about each other, so the slower start was probably inevitable. Overall pace early was 9:49/mile, actually right on the money for a broad range of marathon goal pace, down to 8:15/mile goal pace or so. Certainly my 9:00/mile MGP was in that range.

We continued chatting and enjoying the still dark conditions as we toured the hilly Scenic Drive portion of the run. I was feeling really good this morning, and that obviously made me pretty happy about the day in general, even with my worries about the hurricane in East Texas. We ended up with two packs in our group: The first pack with Amy, me, Michael, and Jennifer, and the second pack with Diana, Liliana and Charlene. The gap wasn't all that large, but it just worked out that way. At the dry cleaners at Pecos and 35th, we stopped for another quick water break, and I even poured some water over my head to cool down a bit. Off we went.

Splits miles 5 and 6: 9:21, 9:30. Overall pace down to 9:41/mile. Water stop relatively efficient, we were off to Exposition.

The hill up 35th Street is a testy thing, and the group split pretty quickly into the two aforementioned packs. We made the turn onto Exposition, and tackled that rolling course straight down to O. Henry Middle School, where I had placed the Gatorade cooler. Those two miles were challenging terrain, but again, I was feeling just fine. We stopped at O. Henry for the last Gatorade supplies, and I reminded everyone as they came in that Gilbert suggested that we pick it up over the last 3 miles, to learn how to run when you're a bit tired. I took off and ran alone for the rest of the course.

Splits miles 7 and 8: 9:26 and 9:09. Slowly we were picking it up. Overall pace down to 9:34/mile.

I put the hammer down for the last 3 miles, and except for Michael being fairly close after one mile, I was pretty much alone to Auditorium Shores. It turns out I picked up the pace a lot more than I had thought I would, once I stopped and checked my splits. Alex was there at the RunTex water coolers, but I couldn't even catch my breath for about a minute to chat with him. He was amused, I think, but I just had to take a little time to gather my forces to have a conversation. Several cups of ice cold water later, I was ready to converse.

Splits, miles 9-11.5: 7:38, 1.2 miles at 7:46/mile, and a last mile at 8:10, as I slowed just a bit at the end. That was a really fast finish for me, close to 10k race pace. Overall, we ran just under 11.5 miles, and my overall running pace was 9:05/mile, so I dramatically dropped that overall number over the last few miles. With all the water stops, overall pace was a still good 9:39/mile.

After all the rest of the gang finished, we did strides (I did 6x100m of them), and those weren't as terrible as they usually are, although I got winded pretty quickly doing them this morning. The marathoners were finishing up their 15 miler about this time, too, so it was good to see the whole gang for a change. We had a good stretching session there at Auditorium Shores, and even had breakfast tacos, courtesy of Mario's Deli (Mario is a Gazelle). What more can you ask other than good food, good company, and a good workout? Okay, there was no music, but hey, it was still just 9:00am!

I called my parents on the cellphone, and they reported that the storm was really howling there in Lufkin, with some serious tree damage, but that so far the house had escaped damage. The regular phones were out, and power was out, but water was still going, and it really wasn't raining that much there. Dad's generator was chugging along, keeping the freezer and refrigerator going. I hung up, glad to hear that so far they were weathering the storm pretty well. After that conversation, I noticed that the Chicago folks had surrounded Gilbert and had presented him with something. It turns out that they all chipped in (there are probably 30 Gazelles going to Chicago) and bought a plane ticket and hotel room for Gilbert so that he could attend the marathon with them, to encourage and support them all marathon weekend. I thought that was awesome, and Gilbert was really touched by the gesture.

I had to get going after that, so I missed the presentation of Gilbert's bicycle, but I understand that the custom paint job was pretty cool. I saw Richard as I was leaving Auditorium Shores, and he looked like he had finished up his 20 miler in pretty good fashion. He even had a couple of folks to run with the whole way, so that was pretty cool.

A pretty good start to Freescale training. Now, next week is all about aiming at the IBM 10K on Sunday. If the weather breaks, I may take a shot at my Masters PR. All I'm asking for is 60 degrees on race morning...

Gym-boree [Entered 9/24/05]

Ho hum, another Friday, another visit to the gym. 30 minutes of indoor cycling to warm up, and then the full weight routine. As usual before long runs, I just did minimal leg work, but I did full sets and reps of the core and upper body stuff. Tomorrow is our first official Freescale training run, and tonight is when Rita pounds the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. The forecast here midweek was for big wind and rain here on Saturday and Sunday. Now, it looks like we might just maintain our drought instead. My people in Lufkin are prepared, or as prepared as you can be. At least Dad got to buy a generator. A good excuse, no?

Easy Run [Entered 9/24/05]

What with all the Rita stuff, I've neglected to update the blog for a few days. Schade. Thursday, I went out in the morning here in the 'Hood, and knocked out 60 minutes of easy recovery running, 6.2 miles. About half and half trail and road, and it was quite uneventful. I felt pretty good, even after yesterday's tempo run/race, which was encouraging. A little stretching afterwards hit the spot, too. One thing I don't do when I run easy in the neighborhood is strides after the run. I just feel a bit self-conscious about running up and down the block with that exaggerated form.

Today, my sister and mother both worked most of the day at the evacuation shelter in Lufkin at their church (my sister came up from Houston on Wednesday afternoon), and it was obviously a moving experience for them. I hope the storm spares my little home town.

Tempo Race

This morning, the fall marathoners (and me) gathered for the 4 mile tempo run. Even though Gilbert always tells us that it's more about pacing and striving for a negative split, this workout is almost always just a race. As Patrick joked this morning, you run this 4 miler at 5k race pace and that's about right.

Easy warmup and drills, and then it was time to get moving. It was dark and would remain dark for the duration of the 4-miler, but more on that later. I scouted out the crowd at the start line, and couldn't think of anyone in line that I could definitely say I would finish ahead of. That's a serious crowd! I felt okay warming up, but I was resigned to finishing last in a fast group.

For the first mile, I trailed everyone. I could see the pack with Richard and Jan ahead of me, but I was concerned only with running my own pace. Since it was so dark, I couldn't see my watch, so this became a case where I was truly "running how I feel." As usual in the first mile of any workout, I felt like I was gasping for breath, but I settled down by maybe the 3/4 mile mark. Peering through the darkness, I finally saw the footbridge, and crossed over for my first mile. Split was 7:47. I didn't know that at the time, however.

Mile two was where I settled down, and I even felt a little lighter on my feet through this part of the course. I passed a lot of folks on the trail here, even though none of them were my fellow Gazelles. As we approached Mopac and the turnaround, Greta came from behind me and passed me. I think she started late. I could also see Jan ahead of me for the first time since early in the run. By the time we hit the turnaround, I was only 50 yards or so behind Richard, and maybe 10 yards behind Jan. That was encouraging after being left behind so quickly in the first part of the run. My split at the turnaround was 15:15 (7:28 for mile two). That's a little short of a full second mile, but that's where we turn around. I think it's 40 yards short of a full second mile. So, I did see that halfway split, and I thought I had a shot at a personal best for this course if I just kept moving smoothly.

I caught Jan at about 2.25 miles, and we exchanged quick greetings. I couldn't tell exactly where Richard was ahead of me, so I just kept running down people wearing a dark shirt instead. It was really dark, remember. For some reason, it was easier for me to run the second half of this run, maybe because the miles were counting down as I went by the trail markers. For whatever reason, I picked it up in mile three, with a split of 7:14. I didn't know that information while I was running, but I hoped I was doing well.

Crossing the bridge, I kept chasing shadows ahead of me, but it wasn't until I was about a half mile from the finish that I could confirm that the runner ahead of me was Richard. He had 50 yards or so on me, and I tried to close that gap in the final bit of the run. I think he knew I was back there, and he matched my accelerations pretty well. I would guess that he got me by about 15 seconds. I heard Gilbert yelling for the runners as they approached the finishing line, so I kicked it up a notch, and motored through to the finish. Good job.

I was gasping, but very happy to see a final time of 30:03 for the run today. That's a PR for me by about 12 seconds. The previous PR was set on a perfect running day with crisp temperatures, so that made today's effort that much more special. Final mile split was 7:34. Overall pace 7:31, which was fun to see. Also a big negative split, 15:15 versus 14:48 coming back. Mission accomplished.

We did 8x100m striders afterwards, and these felt just fine from the start. I hung out with the peeps for a while, and then went back to RunTex to retrieve my dry clothes. A couple of happy conversations later, and I was headed home. Naturally, I was drenched again, but I really think the weather is finally changing for the better.

Hurricane Rita promises to dump a bunch of rain into Central Texas this weekend, so Saturday's 12 miler through Scenic might be a wet one. We'll see.

A Real Gym Of A Workout

Tuesday is Gym Day on my workout calendar, and this was no exception. No cycle warmup today, but I did good stuff elsewhere. I added reps to pretty much all the core stuff, after finding out yesterday morning that I could do more than 25 at a time. Complete leg routine, keeping the weights to a level that allowed smooth exercise there. On upper body, I added a few pounds to get to 80 lbs on bench press, which is still pretty low, but it was nice to get back to where I was back in June when I last was consistent with gym workouts. I'm looking forward to the day that I get to 95 pounds, with a 25 pounder on each end of the bar. Maybe in a month...

So, nothing truly exciting, really, but I did fight off a small case of "Gee, do I really want to go to the gym?" to get there today. Tomorrow is the 4 mile tempo run, and again I expect to be in last place amongst the marathon group, but I can still strive to run a good tempo.

Pace Running

This morning had similar weather to Saturday, which should be no surprise, I guess. We gathered at 5:45 for the pace run, and everyone is feeling pretty good by now, as the Chicago folks head into week 2 of their taper. I partnered up with Diana and Amy for our shorter 7 mile pace run (2 easy, 5 pace), while the Chicago peeps did a 2 easy/8 hard version. Within the first quarter mile, we had lost sight of everyone else, as we cruised along nice and easy. Amy competed in a triathlon yesterday, so she was going to do 7 easy miles to get into the habit of the Monday pace run. Diana was going to see how she felt, but thought she'd do the pace portion quicker.

We really ran easy the first couple of miles, and after crossing the I-35 bridge, it was time to pick up the pace. Amy settled into her pace, and I pushed on. Diana asked me to wait for her after a bit, so I held up while she caught up with me during that first fast mile. My plan was to slowly put the accelerator down as the pace portion continued, running how I felt. I guess that my pace was a little quick for Diana after a mile or so, and I found myself running alone after we crossed under Congress Ave. It was dark for the entire run, which was sort of fun. It certainly kept me from checking my watch every 5 minutes. I took a quick stop at Mopac for a cup or two of ice cold water, and continued on with some really strong miles down the stretch. After a slow start, I ended up with a pretty good run.

Splits: 9:55, 10:05, then 9:12, 8:26, .6 miles at 7:55/mile, quick water stop, and 7:53, 7:50 to finish up. 6.9 miles, average pace 8:48. (with water stop time, pace to 8:59/mile). 4.8 miles of pace running at 8:17/mile average, again with a slower first mile. Good stuff!

On a warm morning, I'm okay with this run. We did 6x100m striders afterwards, and I felt 100% better this morning than I did on Saturday after the 13.5 miler.

Gilbert called for situps and pushups again, so once we walked back to RunTex, a bunch of us did our core work. I did 2x40 crunches, 2x30 leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 back raises, and 2x10 pushups. After that, I did stretching, and I felt pretty darned good. It was fun to trade tall tales and humor with Jan, Amy, Alex, Jason and Frank as we stretched.

This was a good start to the running week, technically the first week of Freescale training.

Just Go Long, and I'll Hit You At the Goal Line

This morning, warm and muggy as usual (please come soon, Fall!), started with all of us gathering at 5:45 am for a scheduled 13-18 miler. I planned on doing the 14 mile (approx.) version of the loop, and the Chicago folks had the option of extending it to 16 or 18 miles, depending on what they felt they needed. I partnered up with Diana and Volel, since Amy was triathloning on Sunday, and Jan and everyone else was blasting away at a much faster "relaxed" pace than I intended to run.

Volel is just returning to running after a monthlong bout with strep throat, and was pretty tough for being out there at all. Diana, as previously noted, is just getting started again after taking the summer very easy. She's aiming at Boston 2006, so there's no hurry for her in her training right now. So, off we went. We saw other people in the gang for quite a while, just ahead of us, but it was obvious that once again, I was in the last group for this run. We talked and laughed about a variety of subjects as we cruised up Riverside Drive, past all the student apartments, and tackled most of the hills on this route in the first 4 miles. Finally making the turn on Grove, we soon ended up at the water/Gatorade stop at 4.5 miles. Bernard was there, manning the water station, as Gilbert apparently jumped in with one of the groups ahead to run with them for a bit. I took a GU at that water stop, as well as water and Gatorade, and we were off. The pace was pretty easy, but I figured that since Diana and Volel were both talking about cutting the run short to about 10 miles, I'd have 3 or 4 miles at the end to push the pace.

Splits early: 9:34, .6 miles at 9:41, 9:35, 9:28, and .85 at 9:36 pace. HR was just loafing along, which was a good sign. I was grateful for the company on this run, and content to run along at a nice and easy pace for a while. Pace to the water/GU stop was 9:34 overall.

The next portion of the run was the nicest. We soon entered a quiet portion of the park system east of the Longhorn Dam, and with the sun still not up, we were navigating by a combination of pre-dawn glimmer and full moon. It was really relaxing to go through there, just the sounds of our footfalls breaking the stillness. We ran up on a couple of the groups ahead of us in there, as they had made a wrong turn (including Gilbert, which was funny), and had to backtrack to return to the trail. They soon left us behind again, which was okay. There will be time to race later. We crossed Longhorn Dam, and stopped briefly for another drink of water behind the Holly Power Station. The water was really warm, but it served its purpose.

By now, Volel had to admit that ending the run at 10 miles was a fabulous idea, so he and Diana were in agreement as to the endpoint of the run. We made one more water stop, a quick one, near the rowing center. Continuing on, I gave them the option of mileage choices as we crossed under First Street. At that point, they told me to go on, that they knew the way back, and so I took off for the last 4 miles or so. I picked up the pace to a moderate effort, and enjoyed the rest of the run by myself. It's not as much fun as running with other folks, but rewarding in its own way, I guess.

Splits: 9:34, 9:39, .77 miles at 9:43, 9:45, .9 miles at 9:40, and 9:22 (I pulled away during this mile). Overall pace through 9.1 miles was 9:37/mile. With water stops factored in, overall pace dropped to 10:01/mile. We needed the fluids on this rough weather day, but this was slower than I've been going in a while. No worries. It was time to pick it up!

I didn't watch the watch(es) for the rest of the run, but just tried to pick an effort level and keep it up for the last 4 miles or so. I made a last stop for some really great cold water at the Mopac RunTex truck, and headed into the last couple of miles. I pushed to Auditorium Shores, and except for staring into the rising sun on the last quarter mile or so, it wasn't so bad. Did a good job of picking up and holding the pace on my own, and I was happy with how the run finished up.

Last splits: 8:27, .5 miles at 8:20, 8:16, and 8:27. Good strong finishing kick. Overall pace improved from 9:37 to 9:17 as a result of those last miles. With all the water breaks, overall dropped from 10:01 to 9:44. I'll take this one. Final mileage 13.65 miles.

Grudgingly, I did 5x100m strides, and let me tell you, I was really stiff today! The first "stride" was mostly just exaggerated form walking for the 100m, loosening up the legs, since I couldn't do anything resembling a normal strider. After that walk up and back, using all the form stuff we've worked on in the past, I was able to go on ahead and do 5x100m actually running. I've not experienced being that tight after a run in a while, but the strides did their thing, and I was pretty much back to normal after they were through. A lot of water and Gatorade later, I made my way to RunTex to retrieve my stretching gear and post-run stuff. That walk felt pretty good, too.

I didn't see many of the marathoners, so I presume they gathered on their own to stretch somewhere. The stretching for the rest of us was at Auditorium Shores, in the shade, and it was actually quite comfortable. I really needed the stretching today, for some reason. There was some extreme tightness that needed to be worked out. After the usual grunting and groaning, we were done. I talked with Pete for a while, and it was fun to hear about his two week stay in New Mexico, fixing up their vacation home there (he jokingly calls it the "Gazelles Altitude Training Camp"). He's actually quite the woodworker, so he was able to do all the work himself, along with his father.

I missed out on a cold water soak with everyone, since I had to attend Gilbert's fall marathon information session. Gilbert used Alex and me as examples of how the program works, which was amusing to me. I guess I did set a bunch of PR's at distances short of the marathon, but I still haven't run that solid marathon yet. Hopefully, that'll be this year!

Anyway, it was a workmanlike day at the running office. I was pleased with how easy the first portion of the run went, and how strong I was able to run at the end. I had a really great power nap this afternoon, as my body just told me it needed extra rest after a huge lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I'm looking forward to the day off on Sunday! For the week, 35 miles, and the only "miss" in the schedule was the 30-45 minute recovery run on Tuesday. Did all the other stuff, including both gym workouts. Good enough.

Gym-my Olsen, Cub Reporter

Today was another fun day visiting the gym. Started with 30 minutes on the indoor cycle, listening to tunes, and I moved up in resistance on the bike today. According to the little computer screen, I covered 6.5 simulated miles. Woo Hoo! When I have the time, it's pretty relaxing to do the cycle thing. Ron (and Alex) have advised me to get out on the open road on my bike for some recovery riding, and maybe I'll get around to adding that at least once a week. It'll be a little goofy on my hybrid cycle, but since I won't be going for speedy group rides or anything super long, my existing Trek should be fine for any 1 to 2 hour type rides. After the cycling, I took 15 minutes to get in most of the stretching routine, just to make sure I was good and loose for the weight work.

The core stuff was occasionally agonizing, but it's a good kind of agony (is there such a thing?). I was able to add a couple of reps on the straight leg raises and on some of the floor work, too. Since we're going 14 miles tomorrow, I took it really easy on the leg stuff, only doing 2 sets of weighted lunges. I like those mainly because they gently stretch out the hip flexors, which tend to get tight on me. After that, the upper body stuff was pretty rugged, because I added reps and/or weight to almost everything today on that segment of the workout. My arms were pretty much used up when I was done. As always, having the iPod made all the difference in making the workout pass by quicker.

That was it. Nothing really exciting or interesting amongst the other gym rats there today. Tomorrow is the aforementioned 14 miler, nice and relaxed, I hope, since I won't have my usual running partner, Amy, in attendance. (Could I have put more commas in that last sentence?) She's got her last triathlon of the season on Sunday, and wants to save her energy for that effort. Good luck, Amy!! Saturday, I hope to catch on with some folks running my speed. I'd hate to have this run turn into some sort of time trial for me, and I'd rather not run alone. We'll see who shows up.

Recovery Running in the Dark

Today, I went in for a sports massage, my usual tuneup that I go in for once the mileage starts building up. Ron didn't find any terrible trouble in my legs, but there were certainly a few spots that were sore when he started digging in to do his work. While I was there, he also showed me a couple of new exercises for ab work (he's also a personal trainer).

And, also since I was near RunTex, I stopped in to get some shoe fitting advice from Gilbert. I need to get a second pair of shoes to rotate in now that I'm down to one pair of shoes still in the safe mileage zone. He suggested I try a different brand of shoe, so I settled on a pair of Fila Providence zapatas. Those are Fila's cushioned shoe, much like the Mizuno Creations that I've worn for 5 years. Comfy, and $20 cheaper than the Mizunos, too.

In the afternoon, I did some cross-training by edging the yard, which was harder than it needed to be just because I haven't been as diligent with that yardwork task lately, and I also decided it was time to trim up the ivy/ground cover in the corner bed, too. Fairly tough to do in the high afternoon heat.

Then, at 8:00 tonight, I went out to test out the Filas on a recovery run. It was fairly uneventful, cruising up and around the 'Hood, but I couldn't run in the nature preserve since it was dark. Ended up with 5.8 miles at 9:20 pace, pretty restrained running. I would have stopped a little earlier, but "Bridge Over Troubled Water" came on the iPod about when I was finishing up, and I decided to listen to it again, so I just pushed "repeat," and kept on running for a little while longer. HR was a little higher, but it was significantly hotter than last Thursday's recovery run of equivalent length, so that was most of it. I didn't feel distressed at all during the run, so the HR was just showing me that conditions were a little tougher than last time.

Tomorrow is a trip to the gym. It's been a good week, but I'm really looking forward to something like a cold front to come into our part of the state. This warm weather needs to go!

800m Repeats

Another Wednesday, another fun speedwork session. Meeting again in the pre-dawn darkness at 5:45, we had a relaxed warmup over to Austin High School, and did the drills. We shared the track again with the Rogue Training folks, who I believe are beginning their Freescale training. I couldn't figure out what their workout was, but it seemed to be something of a longer paced run. Hard to say, really.

Anyway, Gilbert was running late, so we got going on our own, since we knew what we were supposed to do. 6-8 x 800m, and our times were well known, as well. I grouped up with my 400m group from last week, "new" Amy, Carrie, and Jan, and we took off, aiming for a 3:28-3:30 average. It was difficult to gauge pace in the dark on the track, so our first repeat was slightly slow. After that, we were erratic, but stayed in the range of proper pace. We took turns pacing, and everyone did good work in that regard. Since I'm not doing a fall marathon, I stopped at 6 repeats with Jan, and Amy and Carrie finished up the full 8. It is a good group to run with for me, and we even were right behind Richard's group for one or two repeats. I must admit that I didn't have much left for a fast last 800, though.

Splits: 3:37, 3:28, 3:25, 3:27, 3:29, 3:26. Average pace about 3:28, or 7:00/mile pace.

Jan and I did our 3 x 200m striders after we cooled down a bit, and after listening to Gilbert speak to the Chicago folks about the 4 week taper, we were off for the cooldown run back to RunTex. Frank, Carrie, Patrick, Jan and I ran back together, which made for good conversation. It's exciting to listen to them get ready for Chicago, doing all the pre-race worrying, but I'm glad I'm not doing a fall marathon.

Once again, we were drenched upon completion of this running festival, but we all felt good. I did the full stretching routine, and after a few more conversations, I was off. For the day, 7 miles total, 3 miles of fast intervals at 7:00/mile pace. Easy run tomorrow, bumped up to over 60 minutes, then 14 miles on Saturday, long run pace.

Dammit, Gym, I'm A Doctor, Not A Mindreader...

Sorry for the Star Trek reference above, but I got amused by it. Anyway, this afternoon it was time to get back to the gym for all the fun that that entails. No cycle warmup today, so I was able to knock everything out in a quick 1:13. I did full sets of everything on core exercise, adding some reps on the floor crunches (those done on the floor, not actual crunching OF the floor). Then, I had to call an audible and do the upper body stuff next since someone had taken up residence on the first leg machine(s). I moved up to 50 lbs on the bicep curl bar, and huffed and puffed through that exercise, trying not to notice the guy next to me doing one-arm bicep curls with 60 lbs in each hand. Intimidating! I also moved up in weight on the tricep extensions, and those were tough at the end of the upper body routine. Finally, I finished with the leg stuff, moving up in weight on hamstring curls and doing all three positions on the calf raises for a change. All in all, it was a good workout. Good stuff on the iPod, too, but it seemed to shuffle to Billy Joel a little more than I'd prefer. For 3 or 4 tunes, it chose instrumental rock and slightly heavier stuff, which was fun because it happened right when I was pushing bench press (Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix).

Anyway, after I got over the urge NOT to go to the gym, I actually sort of enjoyed myself once I got to the gym. Typical story, that.

Through the Fog and Mist...

Ah, 'twas a foggy morn this day as we gath'r'd fer 7 miles of easy running... A truly small group of folks came out today, nice and early, for our 7 mile recovery effort after Saturday's long run. I think 10 people at maximum. The temperature was pleasant, but it was still 100% humidity after the rains of Sunday. It made for sticky running, but it wasn't anything debilitating. Gilbert told us to go nice and easy today, and once we finished, to do 10 minutes of zig-zag striding (more on that later).

I headed out with Jan, Patrick, and Kim, and we had a nice time of it. The three of them had all gone 20 on Saturday, so they were feeling a little more beaten up than I was. We talked the whole way through, and ran truly easily. A quick water stop at Mopac and a shorter one at about 4.5 miles in broke up the morning a little bit. We eased back to Auditorium Shores after 7 miles of 10:00/mile pace, the easiest running I've done on a Monday in quite a while.

After a cup or two of water (nice and cold!), we hit the grassy fields for the zigzag strides. The idea there is continuous movement, so we would stride up, jog back, and immediately do the next stride. Over 10 minutes, we covered an additional mile, and Jan and I did those as a duo. Totally drenched now, we headed back to RunTex and did some stretching while we enjoyed our post-run beverages.

All in all, a quiet day of training, but it served its purpose, letting the legs work out some of the residual sludge from the long run on Saturday. This week is a pretty easy one, so I'm looking forward to every workout.

Alex is excited because the Tuesday/Thursday folks get to do Wilke's hills tomorrow. I'm not too sad about missing that one, myself. It'll be good to have the full crew there on Wednesday, too. Frank is in New York today for work, but will be back for the fun on Wednesday morning.

For the day, 8 miles of running, all at about 10:00 pace. Super easy, all systems go.

Stretching Out The Long Run

After taking a day off yesterday (I had birthday shopping to do, so it was for a good cause), I was ready to run this morning. We met down at RunTex, after I dropped a cooler at the 16 mile mark for the marathoners, and then carpooled up to Gateway shopping center for the start of our run. Amy and I planned to run 15 miles instead of the 20 planned for the fall marathoners, essentially duplicating our run of two weeks ago, and adding a run all the way to RunTex instead of stopping at Starbucks.

The weather was pretty nice for this time of year, and everyone was in good spirits as we got started. Gilbert cautioned us to take it easy early, and then to push the last couple of miles pretty hard, anywhere down to 10K pace if we could. So off we went. Amy and I immediately fell to the back of the pack, except for occasional runners who were making pitstops in the bushes. We were very close to the pack that had Richard and Kim in it early, but Alex, Patrick and Jan were all out of sight after 2 miles. It was pleasant running along in the dark, and we clicked off the first 4.5 miles before we knew it, arriving at Gilbert's Gatorade/Water stop and catching up to the aforementioned group there. After a GU and a cup or two of fluids, we were off.

Early splits: 9:17, 9:10, 9:18, 9:17, and .6 miles at 9:03 pace. Avg pace 9:14, after water stop time average was 9:33. A nice start.

During the second segment, we hooked up with Matt, a new guy to us, and ran with him until the UT campus. Again, nice running along the old Freescale course, along the railroad track road, through some neighborhoods, and on Shoal Creek Blvd., which is nice and wooded. Amy entertained me by relating a strange foreign film she had watched the night before. It was so strange that she had to get online and see if there were other folks who had some clue what it was supposed to mean. Funny. This was the same stretch of road where we were singing "Goldfinger" two weeks ago, so maybe it's something about that bit of asphalt? We rolled up on the second water/gatorade stop comfortably, moving along well. Another splash and go and a GU, and that was the last time we saw Richard and Kim's group. They left us in the dust from there, I guess.

Splits on Segment Two: 9:24, 9:28, 9:28, 9:13. Overall average pace 9:18, with water stops it slowed to 9:44/mile.

With Matt making us a trio, we navigated through the miles to 45th Street, across there to Duval, dodging the road construction, and then down Duval and into the UT campus. Matt eased back the pace there, since he had to go 20 miles today. Amy and I exited campus and reached Bernard's water/gatorade stop feeling good and strong. Time for the last push.

45th/Duval/UT Campus splits: 9:19, 9:18, 9:19, 9:12, and .4 miles at 8:20. Average for the day so far was 9:16/mile, with all water stops 9:38/mile.

Amy told me to go on ahead if I was feeling strong, so I pushed pretty hard up the hills there on San Jacinto just east of the Capitol, and turned down Congress for the last push. I worked really hard for the remainder of the run, pushing close to my max towards the end. I wasn't looking at the watch(es), but was just concentrating on running hard. It was a relief to cross the First Street bridge, go down the ramp, and double back to the water coolers at Auditorium Shores.

The last splits: 8:13, 7:17(!). I guess I really was running hard, huh? That dropped the overall pace for the day down to 9:05/mile, and with water stop time, the pace was still a strong 9:24/mile. A great day at the running office. Amy arrived shortly after I did, and we met up with Alex for our 8 x 100m strides after we caught our breath. Alex had run much faster than we did, but he was a good boy and "only" ran 15 miles, too.

The strides did their usual magic, and my legs felt better by the time we had finished them. We got our stretching gear and met over at Auditorium Shores to stretch on the grass there since it was such a nice morning. The marathoners were still coming in while we were stretching, so they did their own thing over at RunTex. The stretching was very helpful in working out some of the residual soreness from the morning's exertions. Alex offered to drive me up to my car, and we decided to do a cold soak at Deep Eddy this morning on the way. That cold spring water sure revives your legs after a long run! Fully refreshed from the brisk waters, we made our way up to Gateway one last time, and the running day was over.

Thumbs up all around, I'd say. Final tallies 15.1 miles at 9:05 pace (9:24 pace with water stops), and 15.6 miles including the strides. For the week, my mileage bumped up to 39 miles, and it looks like Freescale training officially kicks off next Saturday. Except for skipping the gym workout on Friday, I had perfect attendance for my exercise schedule. A good week.

Next week is somewhat laid back, with easy runs on all days except for a 6-8 x 800m workout on Wednesday. Should be a nice chance to bump up those recovery runs on Tuesday and Thursday a little more, since Monday is an easy 7 miles.

Churning through the old RunLog, I find that I'm 320 miles ahead of last year's to date total, a 50% increase. That's partly because I was injured and recovering during last summer, but it's still nice to see. From here on out, my mileage was pretty high last fall and winter, so I don't think I'll continue that sort of big increase, but I know I'll pass last year's totals by late October or early November. Fun with numbers.

More Recovery Running

It's just occurred to me that all these entries for "recovery runs" might lead someone to think that I'm in some sort of 12-Step Program to "recover" from a dependency problem. Well, to tell you the truth, I guess I do have some addictions that have proven tough to kick. One of them is running, of course, so the "recovery" runs would only feed that, wouldn't they? The others are mostly musical, my CD acquisition thing (although I'm down to 3 or 4 a month, nowadays), my GAS (guitar/gear acquisition syndrome), but it's under control since I have most of the musical toys that I've desired except that cool Taylor T5 guitar on my list, and Microphone Envy, in which I keep making eyes at a couple of nice vocal mics to add to the old gear locker some day. All you can do is take it one step at a time, right?

Okay, enough digression. Today, I got out on the road at 8:45 am, and it was still nice and reasonably cool even then. Such a change from even a few weeks ago, when it was insufferably hot once the sun came up! The mission was to stretch out the Thursday recovery run a little bit from the 51 minutes that I did last week. I figured I'd shoot for adding 5 minutes, and if I did more than that, that would be okay. Again armed with all sorts of electronica, I switched on the iPod, synched up the GPS, and got my HR monitor up to speed, and I was off. During the run, I mostly kept an eye on the HR number, to keep it very low in the totally recovery range as much as possible. It was a nice morning, and except for keeping a vigilant eye out for the garbage and recycling trucks in the 'Hood, it was stress-free.

A really easy first mile let my legs loosen up, but I felt fine from the start. After the first 3 miles that looped back to the house, I was having a fun time, and I headed back to the nature preserve behind the 'Hood after that for the second half of the run. It's always nice to get away from asphalt and hit the dirt and gravel roads and trails back there. When I got to the first logical turnaround point, I was still having too much fun, so I kept on going and went all the way down to a more rocky portion of the trail for the second turnaround. That is a little more uncertain footing, but as long as you watch where you're putting your feet, you're fine. The trail ending, I picked it up just a little as I headed back on the last half mile of road, but I never really pushed it too hard, since the purpose of the run was to go easy. I finished off things by doing 4 striders after I had cooled down a bit.

Once I got stopped and checked the distance and time numbers, I was really surprised to find that I had gone 6.4 miles at an average pace of 9:07/mile. That was pretty quick for a recovery run, but later analysis of the HR numbers showed that I was a good boy today and stayed in the proper range for the vast majority of the run. This was a nice surprise. I guess that shows how much 15-20 degrees of temperature changes the load on your body during a run (the Tuesday run had similar HR numbers, but my pace was way slower, almost 10:00/mile for 3 miles!).

So, a fun run, and now except for some cross-training the next few days (mowing the yard, and cycle/gym tomorrow), I don't have a running appointment until Saturday morning, when I get to do the first 15 miles of the marathoners' 20 mile run with them. I guess the official kickoff for Freescale training is next weekend, and I'm ready for it to start. It'll be cool to have a whole tribe of people doing the same thing on Saturdays as I'll be doing, instead of making up my own weekend program like we've done all summer long.

Running Fast, 400 Meters at a Time

This morning was nice and cool(er), so we were all in good spirits as we jogged over to Austin High School for our 400m repeats. I ran over with Jason and Thon. When we got there, there was a giant crowd of runners which soon sorted itself out as the Rogue Training people moved to the starting area for their workout and we put ourselves together for ours. They were doing either 2x1600 with 4x300 afterwards (Fall marathoners) or a 2 mile time trial (new Freescale marathoners), which made it pretty exciting on the track as we shared that small 400m oval. As it turned out, there was really no problem, but you did have to watch over your shoulder as you finished your 400m interval, to make sure that you didn't veer into the path of someone in an outside lane as you peeled off the track for your 1:00 active rest. I'm sure we messed up their pacing as we were doing fast 400's while they did longer intervals, but that's about the only other thing that was an issue. By and large, the Rogue people were using the 4 outside lanes, and we used the inside 2 lanes, but there was some crossover. Steve and Gilbert basically worked it out for us all.

Anyway, we did our drills, and as the Rogue people started coming around the track, we jumped in group by group to do our 12-16 x 400m with 1:00 rest between. I was in the last group (no surprise there), with Carrie, a new Amy, Sarah and Jan. We were told to shoot for 1:40-1:45. Carrie and Amy were pretty good pacers, so we took turns leading the pack, and were pretty consistent. Since it was dark for the first 8 x 400m, it was hard to check your pace at the halfway mark, but we did okay with it. Jan and I finished after 12 x 400, and cheered on the other three as they did their full complement of 16. Turns out it was a fast set of repeats, at least for me they were. Our last lap was pretty quick, which was mainly because Jan and I were chasing down Frank's group ahead of us.

Splits: 1:48, 1:43, 1:43, 1:40, 1:42, 1:41, 1:42, 1:39, 1:42, 1:41, 1:40, 1:33. Average pace 1:41 (6:47 mile pace). My previous best set of these averaged 1:43, so this was a nice surprise to see where I was. HR numbers seem to indicate that while these were fast, they weren't max efforts. Those average times will hopefully improve during Freescale training, but I'm happy with them now.

Jan and I ran back with Frank, and that was pretty relaxing. The weather was almost chilly on the way back with our wet shirts, but that is totally okay with me. After changing into a dry shirt, I joined Jan for stretching and Gilbert's mandated situps and pushups (he yelled at us as we left the track to do 150 situps and 50 pushups). I did 4x25 of my regular crunches, 2x20 of the "Jan" crunches, and 2x10 of another evil crunch variation that Alex has shown me. 2x10 pushups and 2x15 back raises completed the workout. With the weather so nice, Jan and I had a good time chatting about stuff. I'm excited for all the fall marathoners, especially now that after Saturday's 20 miler, they're on a long taper for Chicago. They're all pretty confident and ready for their race.

For the day, 6.7 miles total, 4800 meters of fast intervals at the aforementioned 6:47 average mile pace. Tomorrow is another easy recovery run, which I'll stretch out a little more from last week's 51 minutes.

...And a Recovery run, too!

Will wonders never cease? I even did the prescribed recovery run this evening, after the gym workout. I used the HR monitor to keep me honest, and really took it easy for the 32 minutes and change that I ran. Ended up just under 10:00 miles, truly easy running, HR really loafing along, and the whole effort felt like nothing, which is how it's supposed to feel. Over the coming weeks, I'll slowly build this Tuesday run up to the 7 miles that Gilbert has the fall marathoners scheduled for. Today, a nice and easy 3.26 miles, mostly on the trail in the nature preserve behind the 'Hood. Fun running where there aren't any cars.

The iPod provided some more inspired moments of sequencing: Bruce Springsteen's "Independence Day" followed by Emmylou Harris singing "To Daddy." Two songs of leaving family behind. I also got the Rolling Stones doing "The Last Time" followed by Dwight Yoakum's "Ain't That Lonely Yet." Those are both songs relating to the girl leaving, but the guy putting up a brave front about the whole deal. It seemed like the songs that popped up on Shuffle this evening were all relatively laid-back songs, too, as if the machine sensed the type of workout that was happening. Before you say I'm crazy, I realize that the iPod is not a sentient being, but sometimes...

Gym-Gymanee...

Another Tuesday, another visit to Gold's Gym, where I'm pretty sure I'm the scrawniest guy there. I may have been the best distance runner in the house this afternoon, but who really knows that kind of stuff?

I didn't do the cycle warmup today, due to a small time crunch, but I got in the full weight workout, which was actually not too bad. I'm creeping back up to my old numbers on the core stuff, but I'm not there yet. Legs were fine, but I'm not worrying too much about increasing the weight on those exercises. Just reps of moderate weight for extensions and hamstring curls, but I do concentrate on the 4-way hip machine to strengthen all those weird muscles that stabilize you while running. The upper body stuff was challenging, and on those I figure I can go for it, since tired arms aren't going to bother me too much on Wednesday doing 400m repeats.

The random tour of the songs on the iPod was amusing, with some really strange jumps in genre, but it kept the workout moving along nicely. I liked the shuffle choice that went from Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" to Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More." I thought that was sort of inspired.

Altogether a solid workout, just the third in a row according to my schedule, but at least I've got a streak going. If I get really motivated, I may sneak out this evening for a nice easy 30 minute recovery run, too. We'll see...

Pace Run

This Labor Day morning, we gathered at RunTex at 6:30 am for a couple of differing lengths of pace runs. The fall marathoners would use this as a last time trial over a 10 mile distance to test their speed fitness over a longer course, and they did a warmup and drills session as they plan to do on their marathon race day. The rest of us did 7 miles, with 2 theoretically "easy" paced miles and 5 fast ones. Since I was going to do the shorter distance with an easy start, I skipped the warmup mile and drills, and waited for the start of the run, enjoying the morning. Margaret showed up to run, and so we decided to be partners for the 7 mile pace run. Gilbert told the marathoners that he expected them to be much faster this time than a previous 10 mile pace run, and sent them off, counterclockwise on the Longhorn Dam loop. Margaret and I went clockwise on the I-35 7-mile loop, starting a little ahead of the standard starting line.

It was a nice morning today, fairly cool (74 degrees?) and clear sunshine skies. Starting the run at 7:00 am was dramatically different than our usual 6:00 start, but it was really nice out there. We probably started out faster than true "easy" pace, and reached the water stop at Mopac averaging around 9:00 miles. After a quick water stop, we were off again, but at about the 2.5 mile mark, Margaret told me to go on, that she wasn't feeling great, and so I took off from there. I didn't look at the watch from there on, just running by feel.

I had hoped to get to the I-35 bridge before encountering the fast-moving marathoners coming the other direction, but the first fast pack got me at about my 4.25 mile mark, and their 5.75 mark. After the "shirtless ultrafit" pack, I saw Kenny, and then Alex, the fastest runner wearing a shirt this morning, and then Frank and Jason and all the rest of the gang. Jan was running with Dick, who was probably a good pacer for her for the first 7 miles of her run. After all that excitement, I think I probably pushed it while I was seeing all those guys. A quick Gatorade stop at the I-35 bridge with Bernard (Gilbert's cousin) manning the coolers, and I was off for the last couple of miles. It was getting to be pretty hard work, but I pushed up the Riverside hill, and tried to carry the momentum of the backside downhill there for the rest of the run.

There were a couple of folks to chase down as I went down Riverside and then turned onto the trail for the big finish, which helped distract me. Pushing all the way home, I finished nice and strong. It was a very good run for me.

Splits? 9:05, 8:59, (.25 miles) at 9:01, for 2.25 "easy" miles at 9:02 pace. Then, after water, I went 8:11, during which I started my solo running portion of the day, then 7:38, 7:28, another gatorade stop, then 7:28 and 7:47 to the finish. All told, 7.04 miles at 8:08 average pace, which was moving along pretty well for me. The faster miles were 4.8 miles at 7:44 pace, nice and solid work there. If you add the water stop time, overall pace was down to 8:28/mile, and the faster miles with their lone water stop would go up to 8:00 pace. All the numbers were quite good.

Once the marathoners started coming in, it was apparent that everyone had really blasted this time trial / race. Frank and Jan knocked a ton of time off, as did virtually everyone I talked to. Alex had a really good 7 miler, easily the fastest he's run on a longer run since before he got hurt in late May.

I saw Mark Gray, an old friend from Lufkin, at the water coolers at Auditorium Shores, and we had a nice long talk there. It was such a nice morning that it just felt like a good opportunity to hang out. He's recovering from a broken ankle he suffered while rock climbing, but he looked pretty good on his feet. Hopefully, he'll recover fully from it so he can enjoy his running.

Gilbert was excited about everyone's times today, and congratulated the herd on a job well done. Exhorting us to go and party the rest of the day in celebration, we were finished. Frank, Kelly, Alex, Jan and I went and stretched afterwards by RunTex. It was apparent to me that everyone was enjoying the morning, and no one was in a big hurry to go home. Finally, we all headed back to our respective abodes, another good day of running in the books. Alex was off to the gym, of course, for more fun, but the rest of us had had quite enough for one day.

10 Relaxed Miles [Entered 9/4/05]

With some 5,000 Katrina refugees coming to town this weekend, our little training runs aren't all that significant, but I guess life must go on. The Governor is reporting that Texas has absorbed some 200,000 evacuees from Louisiana, which is a staggering number. Sarah and Jake tell me that there are already some students who've started classes in their middle school who are from the path of Katrina.

As for our run, we started nice and early on a fairly cool day, maybe low 70's. We did the Longhorn Dam loop for 10 miles. Once again, Amy and I ended up pretty much dead last in this increasingly fast group, even on a relaxed day. Jan and Patrick ran with us for a while, but eventually moved ahead and ran with faster folks. Alex and Liliana ran fast after starting slightly behind us. We enjoyed the day, though, and rolled through the lake loop in pretty solid fashion. The splits were fairly consistent, and after a slow first mile or two, we ended up under 9:00 pace for most of the last 2 miles of the run. With 4 miles to go, we saw Thon and Richard up ahead, so we kept the distance between us and them constant, as a game. Thon went on to do the "bonus" 3 miles at Mopac, and Richard joined us there after we took a drink of water for the last 2 miles. The three of us finished up casually, with 9:09 and 9:20 miles at the end. Throughout the run, my legs felt a bit heavy after yesterday's full leg workout, but nothing terrible.

For the day, 10.03 miles, 9:09 average pace. With water stops, 9:31 pace. Just what Gilbert wanted, I think.

I did 8x100m striders after that on the grass at Auditorium Shores, and headed back to RunTex for dry clothes. The stretching session was fun, with a few more groans than usual, since Gilbert was walking around correcting stretching form for a lot of folks.

Alex and I went to Deep Eddy for a cold water soak to finish off the day, which felt great. Now, what am I going to do on Monday when the marathoners do their 10 mile time trial?... I'm thinking a 7 mile trial, followed by 3 miles of easy cooldown running.

Another 30+ mile week, and the mileage creeps upwards...

Gymnastique

Today, I went in for Round Two of gym work. I must admit that my upper body was really sore from Day One of the gym return, but it had settled down by today. I started off with 22 minutes of cycling to warm up, then did some easy stretching. After that, it was time to get down to business. Once again, I was indulging in iPod tunes, which made the day go by much easier.

I got back to doing full sets of all the core stuff, and added in a couple of things I skipped on Tuesday (back raises and obliques). I still am short of the number of reps that I was doing back in May and June, but that will work itself out over the next couple of weeks.

For the legs, I added back the 4-way hip machine, but the machine was a different model than they used to have, so the weight was a little light today. No worries. I'll get that all dialed in by next week. Legs felt just fine, so I was happy about that.

Upper body stuff was entertaining as usual, and I eased the weight up on bench press by 5 pounds. I was done with the entire adventure in a relatively efficient 1 hour and 50 minutes, including cycle warmup, and I did full sets of everything on my usual list.

Katrina

I have a lot of family in Mississippi, and it seems that all of them found safe havens during the storm. My brother-in-law (my brother's wife's brother) is working on his Ph.D in psychology in Gulfport/Biloxi, but he moved up to Jackson last weekend to stay with family, with just some clothes, his guitar and his laptop computer. His apartment near the beach is totally destroyed, so what he has with him is all he's got. Fortunately, most of his PhD work is on his computer, but his books and papers are all gone now. He's thankful for his life, though.

My brother and sister-in-law live in Vicksburg, and they are still without power even now. They got phone service back yesterday, and they have running water and natural gas, so they are better off than most. Strangely enough, they even have cable, although he doesn't have power to watch it. A neighbor has their power back on, and David has an extension cord running from their house to his, powering an upstairs window A/C unit and their refrigerator. David reports that except for some tension in the city over gasoline shortages, Vicksburg seems to be more or less back to normal. He reports that winds in Vicksburg, some 150 miles from the coast, were a steady 70 mph during the height of Katrina's visit through the northern part of the state.

My uncle's daughter even gave birth to a girl on Monday, as the storm closed in on Jackson, where they live. The girl is destined to be called Katrina, but her name is MacKenzie.

Keep all the victims of Katrina in your thoughts and prayers. Even though help is arriving in force daily, it's going to be a very very long time until life shifts away from survival mode along the coast. I know New Orleans is under water, and the situation is dire there, but Mississippi actually took the most brutal aspect of the storm. There's a lot of folks with nowhere to go.

True Recovery Run in the 'Hood

This morning, I set out at 8:30 for 40-50 minutes of easy running, per the Gazelles schedule. These are the runs that I have often skipped, but Gilbert has finally convinced me of their value in helping the body and legs to recover nicely from the harder efforts in the week. This new weekly routine of harder stuff on Monday and Wednesday and recovery efforts on Tu/Th makes great sense to me so far.

Since it was going to be a true recovery run (using the HR monitor to keep my effort way easy), I decided to experiment with running with the iPod today. I was probably over-gadgeted today, with the HR monitor, the GPS watch, and the iPod, but I don't really care. Even starting later in the morning, the temperature wasn't too bad, although the sun did change things a little. The morning weather has improved lately, but the humidity has remained high. I basically did my usual 4 mile course (approximate), and today the nature preserve behind the 'Hood opened back up to foot traffic, so I included 10 or 15 minutes on the trail back there as well. It was a nice run, and for the most part, I did a good job of keeping my HR within the target range. The music was a nice diversion, so I may continue that experiment on the recovery runs.

Ended up with 5.4 miles of comfortable running, average overall pace 9:29. Some stretching once I got into dry clothes, and it was a good start to the day. Now, I'm off to do some birthday shopping for my daughter.