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...