1, 2, 3, 4!

This afternoon, I got off my duff and went to the gym for essential exercises (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). Did floor exercises and back raises/obliques for core. After yesterday's extensive core work, that was enough for today there. Did single sets of the leg weights, which felt great in helping me work out any minor stiffness or soreness remaining after 3M. Doing the single sets is enough to stimulate the muscles, but not enough to tire them out or break down muscle tissue. I won't do them during Marathon Week, but until then, they still serve a purpose. I went ahead and did full upper body sets and weights, just for fun. I'll probably even back down to single sets there next week, just to continue to let the whole body get primed for the marathon. I was glad to visit the gym, and got done in an efficient 55 minutes.

Tomorrow, I get to do my speedwork on my own, but I think Gilbert is calling for a change, so it should be easier to do a tempo run type workout than it would have been to do 10 x 800m.

2 weeks, 5 days until Freescale. Not that I'm counting...

Here Comes The Sun

Another easy run today, this time with Jan and Frank. We cruised an easy 7 miles and had a grand time. Somewhere around 9:50/mile, including a water stop at Mopac. I felt really stiff and clunky at the start of this one, but by the end of it, I felt nice and smooth, which is the idea. I had tweaked my hip yesterday getting a little too aggressive with a different stretch, and was worried that I had really messed something up, but that seems to have worked itself out.

I stretched (more carefully today!) afterwards, and got a chance to talk with Pete for the first time in quite a while. Plus, Shannon and Alex stopped by after their workout for a few words. The weather was spectacular, bright and clear once the sun came up, and temps in the high 30's. Just a nice day to be out there.

Frank and I were musing about the fact that it wasn't long ago that our 10K target pace would have been at or slower than our 3M half marathon pace, which made us very happy and grateful. It's really cool that all of the training is coming together like it's supposed to.

Today I finished off the month's running, of course, and I scored 197 miles, a new record. Now, the taper continues downhill to the marathon. We'll keep up our intensity on the speedwork, including 1000m track repeats and 800m track repeats next week, but I'll gradually slim down the recovery runs, and the long runs get shorter. The very last week, the week of the race, we do a modest speedwork deal on Monday, and then it's rest and/or easy running no more than 30 minutes until Freescale. Time to focus.

Short People Ain't Got No Reason To Live

Geez. Today it was announced and confirmed that we all ran a slightly short course at 3M on Sunday. The course monitors failed to send us down a very small detour near Shoal Creek, just after the 10K timing mat and before the relay exchange point. We ran the proper course last year, but this year, they just missed it. So, we ran almost exactly a tenth of a mile short on the day. That mysterious mile 7 was actually .9 long. Dammit. So, adding in 48 seconds (8:00/mile pace at the time for a tenth of a mile), I missed my lifetime PR by 37 seconds after all. Let the record show that the new 37 second gap is probably exactly what I wasted in the port-o-john during mile 4. And, I don't know if I would have cranked it up much more than I did, had the course been properly monitored. Maybe, maybe not.

Still, it was a great race for me, and I have to accept that. As for the PR, I think honor requires that I reinstate that 1993 Atlanta Half Marathon 1:44:04 as my lifetime best. Maybe I'll get the proper PR at Indy in May. Gives me a real race goal for Indy, now, that's for sure.

Let's Go To The Hop [EZ Running & Circuit]

Today we got together for what we thought would be an easy 7 mile loop around Town Lake. Gilbert suggested that we do that, but stop after 5 miles at Austin High School to do some situps and pushups before finishing. That sounded good to us, so off we went. Jennifer, Brian, Richard, Charlene, Rich, Emily and one other Gazelle formed up a posse and we did those first 5 miles nice and easy indeed, trotting along for the most part. I think I may have picked it up slightly when we got closer to the track, but it stayed conversational. Rich was getting all our race stories from yesterday, and we all had fun chatting away as usual.

Once we got to the track, we found out that Gilbert wanted us to do two circuits, which were just fine. It was a surprise, but it wasn't that tough. After that, we did fast feet, planks, and the two different kind of leg raises with partners. Some fun on the monkey bars later, we were done at the track. Our pack gathered back up, and we finished off the 7 mile loop.

The actual running was in the 9:40/mile range, and it felt totally comfortable. I was surprised that I didn't have any real soreness. The circuits loosened things up, and it was a fun day all around. Everyone is really focusing in on Freescale now, and you can tell folks are paying careful attention to everything now. It's an exciting time in Gazelles World, and less than three weeks to the big payoff!

Let Me Roll It [3M Half Marathon]

Today was the first time in four tries at the 3M Half that I was able to really run the race. In the past, it's been a week closer to Freescale, and I either used it as part of a longer training run (back in Galloway days), or I was under orders to run it at MGP and no faster since it was close to the marathon. This time, Gilbert had told me to run the first 5 miles pretty easily, and then I could do whatever I wanted for the last 8.1, but I still wasn't supposed to go totally all out. I arbitrarily chose 8:15-8:30 for my opening pace, and then I figured I wanted to run the last 8 miles at 8:00/mile pace or so. For time goals, I hoped to set a new "Masters" PR, beating my Motive Half finish time, and for a stretch goal, I'd like to break my lifetime half marathon best, a 1:44:04 run back in 1993 in the Atlanta Half Marathon. For that, I'd have to race my much younger self.

The day was near perfect running weather, in the high 40's as we warmed up and did our pre-race drills, and once the sun came up, it warmed to the low 50's. Nice. There was minor confusion finding the gang for the pre-race warmups, but we managed to mostly get together for a nice trot of about 2 miles. We did our drills and some minor stretching, and then I had to get going. I visited an interesting shrubbery there at Gateway, and went to my car for last-minute stuff. I took a GU, a little water, and decided on a singlet today. I had my 2004 Decker shirt on as a warmup, and planned on ditching it along the way. Dropped off my post-race clothing bag with the truck, and I was ready to go. I had forgotten that this is a much bigger race than most of the other DC races, and had to wait outside the fencing until the horn sounded. I started off with Jennifer from our group, and we eased into the crowd without much trouble. About a minute and a half later, I finally crossed the start line. Off we went!

I eased through the crowds for that first, mostly moderately uphill, mile, and turned onto Braker. By now, the sun was peeking over the trees, and it was a pretty picture seeing all of us run along. I passed a bunch of people I used to run with back in the day, and with a brief word to them, I moved on. Turned back onto the access road along 183, and over to Mesa. I skipped the first water stop, but took a little water at the stop at mile 4. My pacing was slightly erratic, as I was running by feel, but I wasn't able to lock into a steady pace early on. To my chagrin, I had to make a hydration adjustment stop at some port-o-johns during mile 4, which cost me maybe 30-40 seconds. That's the first time this racing season that I've had issues there, so I'll guess it was a fluke. Anyway, I guess I was hurrying to catch back up, and I caught Jennifer again during mile 5. We passed the bagpiper guy right before crossing over Mopac, and went past the mile 5 marker on that overpass. Time to have fun, according to Gilbert. I was feeling great, and after stripping off the Decker shirt, I was ready to run. Rock and roll!

Splits, miles 1-5: 8:53, 8:15, 7:58, 8:44 ("rest stop" in here), 7:41. Overall pace 8:18, more or less right on target, even with the wasted rest stop time. I relaxed at this point, figuring that I'd just run how I felt from there, and see how it went.

The portion on Shoal Creek to Great Northern is imprinted in my memory from a zillion training runs and races, and I sort of went on autopilot through there. I pulled away from Jennifer a little bit in there. I took a GU at the next water stop, somewhere around mile 5. We cut across a neighborhood, and then after negotiating the relay transfer point, it was time to head towards Burnet for the long straight trip down that road. Mile 7 was probably a little short-marked, and mile 8 probably included a tiny bit of extra distance as a result. I got tickled when the course monitors warned us about the speed bumps going towards Burnet. We were running well, but I don't think we were going to go airborne or anything if we hit those. Once I got on Burnet, I caught up with Richard around mile 8 or so. We chatted very briefly, and I just kept on moving. I was feeling really good through here, and even though it looked like it, I really wasn't trying to race Richard. I was just running my race. I kept hearing him back there, though, so he was tagging along nicely. Miles 9 and 10 were rolling down Burnet and Medical Parkway. All systems go! There was a fun rock band along Burnet as well as a steel drum guy, and even a Dixieland band. That was unexpected and welcome entertainment. I noticed that I was whittling down my deficit to my 8:00 overall pace, and I didn't feel like I was working super hard, so that was very cool. I took my Enervitene at the water stop between miles 9 and 10 or thereabouts, and Richard went past me while I was juggling all that. I caught back up with him pretty quickly, and we ran more or less together for a bit. Just 5K to go!

Splits miles 6-10: 7:47, 7:10 (probably fractionally short), 8:05 (fractionally long), 7:53, 8:00. Overall pace had dropped to 8:03. I was definitely on Masters PR pace by a bunch, and if I could pick it up late, I had a shot at my lifetime best. Cool.

Mile 11 featured a minor uphill on Guadalupe after we went up a shorter little hill on 38th St. Again, the course monitors warned us of the "tight turn" onto Guadalupe, which was funny. It was just a right hand corner, after all. Jennifer zoomed past me right at the mile 11 marker, saying that she was "dropping the bomb" at that point. She zoomed ahead. Richard and I slowly rolled up to Jennifer during mile 11, and by the mile 12 marker, I had passed Jennifer again. I figured that it was time to go ahead and let it fly, so I really went after the last mile. I passed a ton of folks during mile 13, including my massage guy, Ron, and a bunch of strangers. I was finally running pretty hard, but it didn't feel crazy or anything. Turning onto 12th, we rolled down and up and then down again, cruising to the finish. I saw Jason on the sidewalk there, and kept on going. I took a split at mile 13, but didn't look at it, and just focused on running through the finish line. I knew from my mile 12 split time that I had a really good shot at a lifetime best, and didn't want to leave any wasted time out on the course late. The finish line seemed to come up quicker than I expected, and suddenly, I was done. I took a little time to catch my breath, but I wasn't as wasted as I was at the end of Motive or Decker (or the 20 Miler). That's very cool.

Splits miles 11-13.11: 8:01, 7:43, 7:00, last .11 in 0:42. Final time 1:43:53, pace 7:55/mile. Although I didn't know it for sure at the time, this was a new lifetime PR by 11 seconds, beating 33 year old Jay. Broke my Masters PR time by 4:12, and this was my best 3M Half by a big 13 minutes. No matter how I look at it, it was a really good race, and it truly felt comfortable the whole way, except for maybe the last little bit.

I saw Frank right away, and we gathered up Amy (who had a fabulous race), Brian, and Richard for post-race cooldown running. We were all grinning ear to ear, and I think pretty much everyone had a great race. Lots of PR's today. We did an extremely slow cooldown trot along Shoal Creek, looping through a park just north of the finish line area, and that really helped to relax the body after our efforts.

After picking up our gear from the truck, it was nice to get warmer clothes on. I drank my Endurox, and then headed into the football stadium there to get some food and to enjoy the post-race scene. 3M puts on a good show, and it was really fun to hang out and tell our race stories to each other. I think our entire gang is really excited about Freescale now, and I know I am. The weather was spectacular by now, and just soaking up the sun was truly wonderful. It was one of those "This Is Why We Run" deals...honest physical effort, good friends, simple pleasures of warm clothes and free food. I was glad to hear that Alex had a solid race and was pain-free, and Richard reported that his foot ailment seems to be in the past, too.

Anyway, we finally headed to the shuttle bus (Brian, Amy and I), and made the journey back up to Gateway and our vehicles. What a great day! Even the fact that I had guitar orchestra practice this afternoon didn't dampen my spirits one bit. :-)

Congratulations to my pace peeps Shannon, Amy, Brian, Charlene, Richard, Jennifer and Rachel, who all had great races. Shannon, especially, had a monster race, exceeding even Gilbert's wild goal time for her. Jennifer blasted her PR, too. Now, a few days of easy running, and the Taper Begins!

When The Rain Comes...

Today was our Saturday super easy jog plus strides that occurs before races. A fairly small crew gathered under drizzly skies for this adventure. We covered maybe 3 miles at 10:00/mile, nice and relaxed, and then knocked out 5 striders. Basically not much happening with it, but we got amused when the rains came and went while we were out there like goofy people. We stretched afterwards in the coming rain, which was increasingly silly. At any rate, Gilbert clarified my race task for the morning (relaxed 4-5 miles, then "go" for last, flatter, portion of the race), and that's mostly what I needed out of the day.

It's really strange, but I'm just sort of sleepwalking into the half marathon tomorrow. I should be more nervous, but I guess no matter what, I just want to run at slightly faster than MGP to start, and then finish strong. Okay. It would be really cool to nip under 8:00/mile pace for the race, so I'll keep that in mind if things are going well.

I'm A Loser [Slackin'...]

Okay, not really a loser, but when I skip a workout, I feel some psychic pain. Again, it was the last recovery run of the week that I skipped, and all things considered, I'm getting over it. I did do core exercises here at home both Thursday and today, but I just couldn't get excited about visiting the gym, either. Schade.

Now, I just need to figure out Gilbert's true wishes for me for 3M on Sunday. We've gotten several different messages, and I think I'm just going to tell him my plan tomorrow and see if that's in the ballpark. Saturday might be a rainy affair. Yuck.

Oh, yeah, I picked up my Freescale shoes, the newest iteration of the Mizuno Wave Creations, the Creation 7. These are my 14th pair of Creations, and it makes me happy that I haven't had to switch shoes because the manufacturer has messed up my favorite shoe or dropped it from their lineup. The 7's have a little more radical design in the midsole and outsole, but basically the same fit and feel. I'll start working them in this week, and will run the long run next Saturday in them. I should have maybe 40 miles on them by Freescale time.

Rollercoaster (Say What?)

Today was a fun workout, the fartlek tuneup run that happens midweek before a big race. It was nice weather for it, too, clear and cold in the high 30's. Gilbert told us to do the 1:00 accelerations at something like half marathon pace, not the really hard intervals that we've sometimes done. 20 minutes warmup, 15 x 1:00 accelerations with 1:00 recovery jogging between, and finish it off with cooldown from wherever we find ourselves. Off we went.

We had 8 of us in our group today. Frank joined us as a guest runner, as most of his peeps were absent today. With Frank, we also had Carrie and Amy (the "other Amy"), Emily, Jennifer, Brian, Rich and me. It was cool to have so many for this run, so we would only have to lead two intervals at most. The 20 minutes of warmup running were about 9:45/mile pace, nice and easy. I tried to rid myself of the Abba tune, "Waterloo," that was stuck in my head from about the half mile mark of the day, by telling it to everyone. It helped a little. Carrie and Amy said that they got stuck on "Take A Chance On Me" instead.

Once we hit the trail again after the I-35 bridge, it was time to start up the accelerations. I took the first one, then Frank, and so forth. The first time through the rotation, we generally ran quicker on the intervals as usual, but comfortably so. The second time through, I think we picked it up just a tad. Nonetheless, we stayed together all the way around, and had a good run. The cooldown run was about a mile and a half, about 9:30/mile pace. There was more discussion of pure pop music as we did the cooldown, and they gave me some great ideas of songs to throw at the long run group in a couple of weeks. I really enjoyed this one. Something about staying in a tight group like that, with everyone taking assigned turns leading the way, makes for a fun time.

We finished things off with 5 striders and then Gilbert led us in balance drills and some of his hopping stuff. It was silly as usual, at least if you were watching. I stayed around to stretch with Aaron and a couple of other folks, and then it was time to go.

For the day, 7.25 miles of running. The fartlek section of the run was 3.4 miles at 8:27/mile, including the recovery jogging, so that was just fine. On average, I'd guess our accelerations were done at 7:30-8:00/mile, depending on who was leading.

From here on out, it's truly easy running until the 3M half marathon on Sunday. Gilbert told us his idea of pace for 3M, and it sounds incredibly fast to me, especially when you balance his other warning not to "race" 3M too hard. If I run what he suggests, it would be a huge PR effort. The course is certainly fast, and the weather looks to be good, but I'm not sure if I'm going to try to run quite that hard with only 3 weeks to go till Freescale. We'll see.

Here Comes The Sun [7 Recovery Miles]

This morning, a brisk 38 degrees out, I met up with Frank for our semi-regular Tuesday recovery run. We slept in this morning, and started at 6:00 instead of 5:45am. Okay, it was only 15 minutes, but there was a big difference to me waking up after 5:00 for a change! We had a great time touring the 7 mile loop around Town Lake, covering a wide variety of conversational topics. It was funny hearing about what his group discussed on their 22 miler Saturday. As we turned towards RunTex at the Mopac bridge (we ran counterclockwise today), it was really nice to see the city backlit with the rising sun and all the rainbow colors in the clouds and morning sky. We ended up with those 7 miles at 9:20/mile, including the short water stop at Mopac. A little faster than usual, but the run felt great, and since we were talking most of the way around, I think the pace was okay.

Once we got to Auditorium Shores, we knocked out 5 striders on the grass, and I didn't even hate them very much. Frank had to get going once we finished those, but I stuck around after changing into dry clothes and did most of the stretching routine with Shannon and Alex as they got there from their Meriden workout. It was truly nice out, just chilly once you stopped running.

From there, I went up to Gold's for a gym visit, munching a Power Bar on the way.

Clank, Clank, Clank

After some micro napping in the parking lot at Gold's (something about the warm sun in a closed car...), I forced myself into the gym to do my leg exercises. I did a bare minimum of core stuff, the floor exercises, and then launched into the full leg routine. I did all the leg exercises, maybe for the last time until after Freescale, and it was actually a lot of fun. Tomorrow, I'll go back for upper body and more core stuff, but I'll consider this one an Alex-like "Essential Exercise" visit and will call it a victory. Oh, yeah, there were a lot of new members there today at Gold's, so it will be interesting to see how many of them stick with it this year. I know I was one of those exact people last February, but now that I'm a regular, I have permission to make such observations. :-)

The Tao Of Running [Meriden 1000's]

Rich suggested today's title. It goes to the central point that many of us have made from time to time, that we just do whatever Gilbert asks us to do, in order to get a "Good Job!" from him during one repeat or the other. Today, just a couple of days after the 22 mile training run, we met at RunTex for the long warmup/cooldown version of the Meriden 1000m repeats. Meriden is my favorite workout for some reason, despite the fact that it is difficult. Gilbert had us do the 3.1 mile warmup today, which we covered at around 9:30/mile pace. The warmup was actually pretty funny. The whole mob got started, and at the very end of the pack was Sean and me. We weren't running all that slowly, I thought, but in the darkness, we were all alone after just a half mile or so. All my usual running pals were cruising ahead of us somewhere. It was okay with me, and I got a chance to have a nice chat with Sean, but it was somewhat disconcerting. Along the way, we gathered up Erine, and both he and Sean were still feeling pretty beaten up after the 22 miler. I felt pretty good, actually, but my legs just felt a bit heavy. I picked up the pace a little, and we dragged along and finally caught up with my usual running group at the Lake Austin RunTex, and followed them in from there. We made one goof on the run to Meriden, turning one street too early, and so we had to run the last Meriden hill as the end of our warmup, which was interesting.

Drills drilled, and once again, everyone is getting really short with the distances for those. You can tell that the peeps are feeling the fatigue of a long training season, and the enthusiasm for some of the ancillary stuff is waning a bit. Gilbert warned us again that he wasn't timing the Meriden repeats today, and told us to do only 3 of them, focusing on form both uphill and downhill, in order to loosen up our legs and hips and to get ready for the mostly downhill pounding of the 3M Half Marathon this weekend. After that, 5 uphill striders and 3 backwards striders. We all just took off in a big mob, and my people hung out at the back. I tried to take it easy, and ended up finishing with Brian and Rich. 90 seconds rest and then we did the second one. Brian pointed out during that repeat that "only" doing 3 x Meriden was a piece of cake compared to the usual 5 x Meriden, that repeat number 4 was where the will to continue is the most vulnerable. I thought that was a good observation. All the repeats were done in total darkness, which is sort of surreal, especially on the downhill bits. We got passed by the schoolbus during the last repeat, which made for a lot of fumes as we pushed up that last hill. I ran in with Charlene on that one. Our times weren't that much slower than usual, but I guess 10-15 seconds is a lot when you're talking 1000 meters.

On the 5 uphill striders, I focused very hard on high knee action, which is a weakness of mine. Gilbert corrected me twice on the way down, after strider number two (high knees), and after number three (my left shoulder was dipping). Apparently I fixed those problems, because I got a "Bueno" after repeat number 4. :-) I found a really good gear for the backwards striders, and was moving really quickly up the hill that way, passing a bunch of folks. Maybe I should do Wilkes backwards instead? Uh, no, but it's a thought.

I ran back with Aaron, and although we ran slightly faster than usual, it was a fun conversation. He's an interesting guy, I think, but today we were mainly comparing child rearing notes. My kids are slightly older than his two oldest, so he was checking on what is coming up for him. The 3.1 cooldown miles were knocked out at about 9:15/mile pace.

For the day, it was 9.15 total miles, a good start to the week. We'll probably hit just around 50 miles this week for the last time before Freescale. Last week, I hit just over 47 miles, and I took that extra day off on Thursday instead of doing that second recovery run, so that was a solid week. This week will be the last week where I do all the gym stuff and the regular amounts of leg weight work. Starting next week, I'll cut back to single sets of leg exercises as the long taper begins. Man, the marathon is all of a sudden thisclose to being here. I had my first marathon dream in a while last night, and I was pretty restless as a result. For the record, it was a successful marathon in the dream, so it wasn't a marathon nightmare deal. Those will come later as the race gets even closer.

The Long Run [Entered 1/22/06]

Saturday, we all carpooled up to the 4 mile mark of the Freescale course for the last really long run of the training season, a 22 miler back down to the finish. I could tell that everyone had their game faces on for this one, as the talk was about what they had eaten the day before, how many GU's they had brought today, and how they would pace themselves. Gilbert gave us the word to run it relaxed, and not to worry so much about a "fast finish" to the run. He wanted us to actually run the finishing miles down and back on Cesar Chavez, but that wouldn't work out due to traffic concerns. Still, we would cover the distance. Temperature was fine, hanging in the mid 40's all run long. We got sunshine for the last 10 miles of the run, too, once the sun came up.

With little more to say, and after I had taken a pre-run GU to top off my energy stores, we were off. My pace group ended up starting with 9 or 10 people, a huge crowd. We had Amy, Shannon, Charlene, Jennifer, Rachel, Richard, Rich, Brian, and Tony (who would turn around at about the 8 mile mark). I took a quick hydration break during the first mile, investigating a shrubbery just off of Jollyville Road, but soon caught back up with the pack. As we turned onto Stonegate, heading towards Braker Lane, I hung back and waited to make sure that Amy was okay after she investigated the woods to the east of Stonegate. We picked it up the next mile or so, and caught the pack again as we reached the first water stop at Burnet Road. I took a GU at the water stop, as I did throughout the day, and after a couple cups of Powerade or water, we were off. Some of our crew had dashed across Burnett to visit McDonald's, and the group ahead of us had all taken a sudden interest in Jack In The Box later. Ah, yes, the inevitable plumbing discussion! Anyway, so far, so good. We were in a comfortable pack, and things seemed just fine.

Splits miles 1-5.5: 10:22 (includes brief rest stop), 9:10 (catching back up to the pack), 9:48, 9:37, 9:50 (another brief stop to wait on Amy), and .52 miles at 8:51 pace catching the pack again. Overall, a nice 9:40/mile.

It was good to get finished with Burnet Road, and by the time we had turned through the industrial park portion of the course, everyone had finished up their various rest breaks, and we were a pack once again. Conversation was lively, and everyone was feeling quite strong. Somewhere in here, we gathered up some additional runners. Sean joined us and would stay with us the rest of the way. We also picked up Shirley and Erin and one other woman through the Great Northern portion of things, but they would choose their own path later on. Now, we were almost big enough to be a local race, it seemed. The second water stop was on Great Northern, and we all grabbed more fluid, and took our GU's, etc. Rudy and Henry did a great job all day with tons of snacks and great music, and it was a truly nice thing that they helped us this way. Pumped up with a little Hendrix and some Powerade, it was time to get moving. Off to the races!

Splits miles 6-9.8: 9:45, 9:14, 9:25, 9:11, 0.3 miles at 9:23/mile pace. Overall, 9:33/mile. About 5:20 of total waterstop time so far, typical with a pack as big as us today.

Down Great Northern, then over to Shoal Creek, the running was easy. We enjoyed the nice neighborhood and the quiet streets, and reached Hancock much quicker than I had expected. Turning onto Hancock, I was glad I had brought my shades. It was pretty bright through there. We encountered a pretty big traffic delay at Lamar (or was it on Burnet?) of some 50 seconds, but while running kept a very good solid pace through this section, including the modest hills along North Loop as we crossed east towards Duval. Again, everyone seemed just fine, no one was falling behind, and we all moved around in the pack finding new people to talk with as the pace blob formed and reformed itself along the way. Henry was waiting for us at Duval and 53rd Street, and we took Powerade and water once again. Suddenly, we were way past halfway for the day, and it seemed like we were just getting started. That is a good sign, I'd say.

Splits miles 10-13.6: 9:13, 9:11, 9:19, and 0.8 miles at 9:25/mile. Overall 9:28/mile pace. Another 50 seconds of traffic light stoppage, and that third water stop was 2:32. Let's go!

Duval is a very pleasant long downhill trend all the way to the UT campus. We had good luck with traffic here, until after we exited the UT campus. I think the talk strayed to food during this stretch, but there were so many conversations going on, it was hard to keep track. Safely through the UT campus, we passed the talking oil derrick, and negotiated the nasty little hills there by the Capitol. We had some traffic stoppage along San Jacinto, but I just let the watch run. Up and over to the Capitol, we took a tour of the Capitol grounds, and then popped out, crossed 11th to Congress Avenue, and found Rudy with the last water stop. We had picked it up a little through here, which was fine (and partially based on easier terrain). We enjoyed a last fully supplied water/Powerade/goodies stop, gathered ourselves up, and headed out for the big finish. Almost done, but still miles to go.

Splits miles 14-17.5: 9:08, 9:06, 9:37 (some traffic stoppage in there), and 0.86 at 8:58/mile. Overall running pace down to 9:25/mile. Last water stop was 3:02 for me as I hung back to help explain the remaining route to a friend of Charlene's.

Cruising down Congress, I had to hustle to catch the pack after my map assistance at the water stop. Jennifer and I were running pretty fast for a while there, and I had a quick mile as a result. We had really good luck with traffic and such, and made it to Second Street and over across Cesar Chavez without much trouble. The group had picked things up a bit, anxious to be finished with this long training day. We were still very compact as a group, which was unusual for this late in a long run. Rich, Sean and Shannon seemed to be leading the pace work, along with a lot of help from Brian. I noted the mileage as we turned onto the trail on the north side of the lake, and figured out when our turnaround point would be. Although we had already run some 20 miles, we looked pretty fresh, since the weather was cool, and I really wished I could tell all those folks running on the trail what we had done already that morning! We saw a bunch of the faster groups heading back on the trail towards us, and gave what encouragement we could to them. We took a brief water stop at the Mopac bridge (1:26), and then turned around for the big finish. Although Gilbert had suggested that we use the final miles as "cooldown," everyone was in a mood to get finished, so the pace picked up instead. I panicked for a moment as the group slowly pulled away from me, but when I checked our pace briefly on the GPS, I relaxed, knowing that we were starting to kick it in. We did string out a bit on this very last stretch of turf, but it was okay by then. It was nice to cross the First Street bridge, and I passed the gang so that I could run all the way around the final corner, and added a little distance along Riverside, simulating the finish. That was just for me and my brain. We were done!

Splits miles 18-22: 8:12 (catching up with the pack), 8:35, 0.5 miles at 8:54/mile, water stop at Mopac, and then 8:18 and 8:00 to finish. Exactly 22 miles, by some whim of GPS. Running pace was 9:12. With all stoppage time included, pace dropped to 9:48, which was still just fine for this sort of run. Pretty much everyone had a fabulous run, it seemed. Richard was being careful, and cut some distance off the run, but he seemed to be working his way through his foot problems. The rest of us slogged through the whole thing, and it was great to see everyone so happy with their day. From here on out, it's much easier training, although it will still require some effort to get to the starting line on February 19th.

I walked along Riverside for a quarter mile or so, looking for the spray-painted "26.2" or "Finish" marker, but couldn't find it. Oh, well. I skipped strides today and walked back to Amy's car with her to get my stretching gear, etc. By the time we got back to Auditorium Shores, Gilbert had already taken the stretching about a third of the way, and I eventually took over when he had to get going to an appointment. Spirits were high, and the stretching was fun as usual. After I finished off the main group of people, the rest of us went back and did the stretches that we had missed when we got there this morning. The weather was getting chillier now with the sun disappearing behind clouds, and we were glad to be finished, I think.

Amy drove Liliana and me back up to our cars, and the long day of running was over. I felt pretty good, but I was certainly tired. I know I'm going to do well at Freescale now, weather permitting, and all I have to do now is stay healthy.

Later on Saturday, about 50 Gazelles and family gathered at the Kerrigan's house for a party and baby shower for Gilbert and his wife. Alex and I had three hot dogs each, and man, they were good! A couple of beers and some snacks, and it was a great day. I had a blast meeting some folks, including Jennifer's husband, Bert, and Henry's girlfriend Jennifer, among others. We laughed a lot at ourselves and our strangeness...at least we realize that we're odd creatures, doing something like training for a marathon. I had a great time there, and as always, it was fun to see everyone in civilian clothing. The guys looks more or less the same, but the women are dramatically different when they aren't wearing caps or ponytails. :-)

I crashed hard once I got home, after having a couple pieces of pizza that were left over after my kids' dinner. It was a good day. And now I get to sleep in on Sunday, the only day of the week that I can do that nowadays!

Extra Rest

I felt a cold coming on during the afternoon on Wednesday, and ended up taking Thursday (recovery run) and Friday (easy gym) off. This is pretty much what I'll do for the marathon, so why not go ahead and do it today, too? I've followed my Day Before The Marathon nutrition routine, so hopefully, I'll have a fun long run with the gang. 22 miles, more or less. I guess Gilbert will still ask us to try a fast finish...maybe the last 4 miles? Right now, he's got us scheduled to run the last 22 miles of the marathon course, including the stretch out and back on Cesar Chavez. That might be a little dicey with traffic around 9:00 am, so we might have to call an audible during the run and go down and back on 6th Street instead. We'll see in the morning.

I hope I get a good night's rest!

Will It Go 'Round In Circles? [20 x 400m Repeats]

This morning was one of the fun, but testing, workouts in the Gazelles canon, 20 x 400m repeats. Gilbert usually schedules this one about a month away from some big goal race, to check our ability to run 400's faster than we did several months ago, and to see how you maintain or even increase the pace when you're getting tired. It's a long day of training, but a good one. It was nice and cold this morning, in the high 30's as we started, and virtually everyone was wearing long pants. Gilbert asked us to do the long warmup, so we knocked out a fairly brisk 2.7 miles to Austin High School at about 9:20/mile pace. I ran with my pace tribe, and the warmup felt a little easier than that. It was still dark, of course, but we had really good moonlight, and there weren't many problems finding our footing as a result.

Drills drilled (once again, people are trying to cut the distance short on these, which is amusing), Gilbert grouped us up and gave us the final scoop and paces. These 400's were in groups of 5 x 400m, 1:00 rest between. After each set of 5 x 400m, we'd "trot" a full 400, and then launch into the next set, with each set 2 seconds per 400m faster than the previous set. He wanted 100 situps and 10 pullups after we were finished, as well. My group was Jennifer, Brian, Rich, Charlene, Marcy, Emily, Rachel, and two other women that I just don't know by name yet. It was a big group. Gilbert wanted us to start with 1:42 laps, then 1:40, 1:38 and 1:36 for the last set of 5. Last time I did these was back in November, when I did 15 x 400m with Rich, at an average pace of 1:39.5 per lap.

Our first set was a little erratic, as we tried to find the pace in the dark. We took turns leading the way, and on average, we did okay with our numbers. We ended up just over our 1:42 target average with splits of 1:44, 1:43, 1:41, 1:41, and 1:44. So far, so good. We trotted a 3:05 400m, and went right into the second set.

Again, we took turns leading the way, and came in right at 1:39/lap, just under our 1:40 target average. We were starting to get a little frisky, and we were only halfway done. Most of us grabbed Powerade on this break, and after about 3:30, we were ready for group number 3. Splits for group two were 1:41, 1:40, 1:38, 1:38 and 1:37.

Quite a few of our crew had to leave after the third set of 5 x 400m, so we had some aggressive leaders on a bunch of these laps. I learned to leave just enough distance between me and them so that I came in more or less on pace. It wasn't time to really go for it, yet. Everyone was hanging in there pretty well still, and it was nice when we were done to be able to know that there were only 5 left to run. Another trot lap, and we rolled into the final set, with only about 6 or 7 of us to finish up the workout. The splits for this set were 1:41, 1:37, 1:35, 1:38 and 1:36, just over 1:37 average laps, just under our 1:38 target. Good running!

Strangely, I was feeling pretty good still, albeit a little tired as we started the 16th repeat after the rest lap. Brian and Rich tended to lead most of the final laps, pushing the pace especially hard on the last 3 repeats, and I really didn't have the speed to stay with them, I don't think. My times were just fine, but I was 3 or 4 seconds behind them on some of the last laps. They did great today! The really speedy people were long gone by now, so it was just our lonely pack working around the track as the sun came up. Still, it was a nice last set of repeats, with splits of 1:40, 1:34, 1:36, 1:34 and 1:32 to finish. 1:35 average, just under 1:36 target. Last lap is a personal best for 400m repeats for me, which is very cool at the end of such a long workout. Our overall average lap pace was 1:38.5, one second average faster than last time, with more repeats in the workout. Good one.

Erine was still hanging out, so he joined Brian, Rich, Jennifer and Charlene for the 100 crunches on the track. After that, Brian, Rich and I went over to try pullups, but I could only do one pullup. Pitiful. Rich did all 10, in fine fashion. Brian did some indeterminate number between those two extremes. The three of us did a really easy run back to RunTex, the short way back, covering 1.6 miles at 10:00/mile pace. Even at that pace, we passed Erine on the way, who was taking it really easy after all the repeats.

I hung out and stretched with Jason and Aaron, and then it was time to go. It was a really long day of training, but a good one. I'll probably be pretty tired tomorrow, so the easy recovery run will be easy indeed. I think just one set of leg exercises at the gym as well, and no leg press this time. For the day, 9.77 miles, with 8000m of repeats in there at an average mile pace of 6:36/mile. That's pretty fast, I'd say.

Blowing In The Wind [Recovery running]

This morning, it was blustery. Winds around 15-20 mph, seemingly in our faces the whole way (sort of the old "it was uphill both ways" adage...), with temperatures a relatively mild 48 degrees. Wind chill made it seem much cooler, but that's just whining. I was dressed appropriately, and hey, we're runners. Rain, hail, sleet or snow, and we're pretty much good to go. Anyway, it was early when Jan, Frank and I started out on the 7 mile trail loop for our easy recovery run this morning. It was nice to have Jan with us, who's still working on recovery from her Achilles injury back in December. It was a chance at super slow speed to catch up on what's happening with everyone, and believe me, we ran nice and easy. With the couple of stops included, we averaged 10:20/mile, without the stop time, it was a still slow 10:00/mile. My legs felt fine after about a half mile, and after that, it was fun out there this morning.

We wrapped things up with the sun still barely above the horizon, and Frank and I even did 5 x striders on the grass there at Auditorium Shores. Altogether a very satisfying run, and most of the debris left over after Wilke was worked out of my body. After Frank left, I hung around and chatted briefly with Gilbert, Shannon, Amy, Thon and Erine, among others.

7 miles, at the aforementioned 10:20/mile blazing pace.

Gymtastic!

After the recovery running, I made my way up to Gold's for the first weight workout of the week. I did the full core workout, full leg workout (two sets of everything again after taking it easy last week), and the full upper body workout. Finished it off in a sprightly 50 minutes while listening to a Podcast on the iPod. Talk radio. This was a pretty satisfying workout, and a nice finish to the exercise day. After that, I went by Target to get some materials to repair and restring the marimba that my mother has given Sarah. Mom had this instrument when she was a kid, and has saved it all these years. It's really nice to have the luxury of a nice marimba like this, and it will be even nicer to never hear those awful bell kits that Sarah has had previous to this. I've had to manufacture felt spacers, which has taken a while, and the restringing process is tedious, but it will be nice when I'm done. I've finished the "black keys" and am now started on the "white keys." I know you're terribly interested in that. :-)

The Hills Are Alive [W-W-W-Wilke hill repeats]

Today was the dreaded (for me) Wilke hill repeats. I've just got some mental hangups about this one, and I try every time to get rid of those phobias. We all met at RunTex for the long warmup to Wilke, just over 2.6 miles, under overcast skies and a muggy 65 degrees. Our little group of Jennifer, Brian, Rich and myself came in last to Wilke, after we strolled the warmup at just under 10:00/mile pace. We were all a little tired still, and some of the guys were quite a bit stiff after their run on Saturday. Right when we got there, we jumped in with the other folks for drills. It amused me to see that lately we're going shorter and shorter on the drills. Gilbert gathered us up after that, and gave us the details for today. He told us that 10 x Wilke was what all the marathoners should do, then 2 backwards Wilkes and finally 3 uphill striders at the top of Wilke. Since I've done so miserably at this workout historically, I wanted to do at least 7 Wilkes. I was a total failure the last time at Wilke back in August, when I felt awful and only did 3 x Wilke. Today?

I got through the first 4 or 5 repeats relatively comfortably. Relative to what, I don't know, but I wasn't making my usual awful sounds at the top of each repeat. Gasping for breath at the end, yes, but none of the usual wimpering or barking. The course was wet at the bottom, which made for some chancy footing until we got about 1/3 of the way up, but that really didn't cause any real problems. When I got to 7 repeats, I was pretty close to being finished, but I made myself do one more repeat for my mental health. At the end of number 8, I was really grabbing for air, and decided that was enough for me. The two backwards Wilkes were amazingly tough, and my quads were just screaming at me towards the end of each repeat. After those, the three short uphill striders at the top of the hill felt almost feather-light. Weird, that.

Anyway, I survived the encounter with Wilke, and we bunched back up after a few cups of water for the cooldown run home. I ran back with my same tribe as started the day, and we covered the distance again right under 10:00/mile pace. The long cooldown run always feels great after the stresses of Wilke.

For the day, 8.6 miles. I didn't time the actual Wilke repeats today, but I did leave the GPS watch running while we were doing them, and it was a really funny ball of dots for the portion of the workout spent running up and down the hill. I stuck around and did some stretching today with Aaron and Alex, and the day was done. I'm glad I'm done with Wilke until after Freescale, but I'm also glad I mostly conquered my Wilkephobia today. The 20 x 400m on Wednesday will be fun after this. :-)

This is My Hometown [Lufkin tour entered 1-15-06]

Saturday, I was again back home in Lufkin, and got up early for a solo long run there. I managed to avoid banging my toes or shins on any of the now unfamiliar furniture in my old house there, and creeped out without waking my family asleep and warm in their beds. I waited for it to get just light enough to be seen, and headed out about 10 minutes to 7:00 am, GPS synched, iPod ready, and hat and gloves on for this tour of Lufkin. It was glorious running weather, mid-30's to start and eventually warming to maybe low 40's by the time I finished, bright and clear. I would sign up right now for weather like that at Freescale! I did wear long pants today, just in case I miscalculated and had to walk, and wore two shirts, topped by the bright red long-sleeved Gazelles shirt. I wanted to be seen running in the city, mainly because I wasn't exactly sure how familiar my home folks were with runners.

Gilbert had the Gazelles scheduled for 12-14 miles today, doing the 3M half marathon course, so I figured I'd go out and aim for something in that range. I carried a water bottle and a couple of GU's, and was ready to go. I had not had my usual Friday night pasta dinner, but since this was "only" a 14 miler, I should be okay.

After some initial turning through my old 'Hood, I crossed over into the inner part of the loop, and again ran my old route to elementary school, passing by Trout Elementary at about the 2 mile mark of the day. I was running by feel, keeping it nice and relaxed, because I'm considering this run to be an extension of the recovery week following the 20 miler last weekend. I was feeling good, and just sort of made random turns down streets in the general direction that I was headed. These are fun runs, with no set course, and I just take them as they come. I came upon my Dad's dental office right at mile 4, and walked a few steps there as I wrestled open a GU and drank some Gatorade. It was only about a 30 second stop, and off I went, into Downtown Lufkin. So far, it was a delightful run.

Splits miles 1-4: 9:48, 9:09, 9:02, 9:05.

From Dad's office, I passed into downtown, went by the old central library, and surprisingly, had to wait about 20 seconds at a stoplight at First and Ellis, because there were some cars coming through. No one was more surprised than I was at this turn of events! Downtown is sort of a ghost town after 5:00 and during weekends. Oh, well. On past the First Baptist Church and around the Civic Center again like last time, and I did a loop around the Courthouse as well. I decided to go by the old High School, which is now the middle school for Lufkin, so I turned into the bright sun onto Denman Avenue and ran carefully down the sidewalk there all the way across the large expanse of Timberland Drive (where I spent many a night cruising up and down the street with my girlfriend back in the day), past Shipley's Donuts, and finally entered the grounds of the high school. Physically, it looks much the same, with a few new buildings added for additional classroom space. I had some nice moments running around the campus, and I even hopped the fence at the track for a ceremonial lap around the old cinder/crushed rock surface where I ran so many years ago. I ran behind the old gym and choir room, passed the shop garages where the hoodlums met to smoke during school, curled around the band hall and the new basketball gym, and cut across the parking lot where my driver's ed course started 31 years ago. That was pretty cool! At that point, I figured my mileage was such that I should continue in that direction and ran down the four lane Chestnut Avenue, south towards the Loop again. I was a little nervous on that street, as it was sort of like running down Burnet here in Austin, with cars zipping by fairly closely. I ran mostly on the grass beside the road, being careful not to step into a hole that could ruin my day. Finally, I crossed over the loop, and at 8 miles or so, I stopped briefly by the Lowe's for my second GU and some more Gatorade. I estimated that I had about 4 or 5 miles to get home from there if I went by Mary Anne's old house site, so I was feeling pretty good about my day. My pace was staying very consistent, and I felt like I could run this pace all day.

Splits, miles 5-8.29: 8:56, 9:10, 9:02, 8:55, and .29 miles at 8:48. Overall, a nice 9:08 pace, and with all stop time included, 9:22/mile. Time to take it to the house!

Since I really didn't know for sure how far I had remaining, I didn't do the usual "fast finish" to this run. I can save that for next weekend's 22 miler. I turned on Harmony Hill Road, then behind the new Best Buy, down to the new Academy Sports, and crossed precariously over Hwy. 59, past the Super Wal-Mart, and in front of where Mary Anne's house stood for 45 years. It's nothing but cleared ground and surveyor's stakes now, which is sort of sad. Onward I went, though, keeping a close eye on oncoming traffic on the relatively narrow expanse of Daniel McCall Drive. Went past the junior college, which is apparently still not back in session, and turned onto a farm-to-market road, aiming now towards my house. I thought it was about a mile from Mary Anne's old house to the railroad tracks, and then I figured another 2 miles from there, so I'd hit between 13 and 14 miles. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be much further to the tracks! Oh, well. I passed a road crew picking up debris on the side of the road, and they looked at me as if I were an alien. Maybe I was? I heard and then saw a train roaring down the tracks ahead of me, and picked it up just a little as I approached it, thinking I'd have some time to wait once I got to the tracks. Nope. It timed just perfectly, and was past me by the time I got there. No breaks for me! For the final stretch home, I decided to stay on farm roads, and turned down (this is really the name of the road!) Gobbler's Knob. It was the source of many bad jokes when we were in High School, none of which I can relate to you now. Today, it made for very pleasant running, with room to run on the shoulders of the road. I thought I remembered an entrance off of that road into my neighborhood, but it was an unknown quantity to me, since I had never tried it before. I came upon it, and followed my instincts in the general direction of the house, finally seeing a familiar street name. Just as I was about to pass a particular intersection (and coming up on 15 miles!), I noticed familiar houses, and realized that I was very close to home indeed. That was a relief! From there, it was just a few tenths of a mile, and I was back at Casa Clement. Right at 15 miles for the day, a nice run.

Splits miles 9-14.94: 8:45, 8:51, 8:49, 8:46, 8:58, 8:54, and .65 miles at 8:32/mile pace. For the day, 14.94 miles at 9:07/mile average pace with all time included. Without the few minutes of stop time, pace improved to 8:59/mile. Either way, it was a nice run. Exactly what was required. The course was even similar to the 3M course, with moderate terrain change throughout.

I did some balance drills and some strides in the yard there, and then rejoined my family for the day's festivities. I didn't get to stretch much, but I sneaked some stretching in during the day when I could.

For the week, a modest 35.5 miles, and I think I did a good job of giving my body a bit of a working rest after last week's heavy mileage and long race. This coming week, it's another big mileage week, the last really tough week before Freescale. We start with the Wilke hill repeats tomorrow morning, which will be challenging. After that, the rest of the week seems easier.

Iron Man [GymStuff]

After taking the day off yesterday (I had gone 5 days straight, after all), I visited the gym today for a full workout. Did almost all the core stuff, just leaving out the planks. I'll add those back next week. Roman chair stuff wasn't as bad as I remembered, but they're tough. Still just one set of all the leg exercises, and I backed off on leg press today, dropping the weight to 140 lbs from 160. Legs felt fine and all, but I'm trying to really get some recovery this week, so backing off the leg exercises seems reasonable. Upper body stuff was back to normal, and I felt pretty good after I was finished with the whole workout. Right at an hour for everything, since I skipped indoor cycling.

Today, I experimented with listening to a podcast of a geek computer radio show from the left coast, and it worked just fine. It was kinda cool to listen to a talk radio show while cranking out the exercises. It'll be music again tomorrow on my Tour d'Lufkin, but for a change of pace, I liked the podcast today.

Dancing In The Dark [2000m Repeats]

Today was the only speedwork for the week, 2000m repeats on the road course at Zilker Park. A pretty full crew showed up this morning in the chilly (35-38 degrees) air for the festivities. I was really sleepy this morning, but once I got moving, I shook off most of that torpor. Gilbert sent us over to the Park with the admonition that 5 x 2000m was the "minimum," which came as news to most of us. I warmed up over to Zilker with Shannon, Rich, Brian and Jennifer, and we ran easy indeed, arriving last. It was totally dark for all but the last repeat this morning, which made the last bit of the warmup a little dicey running along the little railroad tracks in Zilker. No ankles were turned, and so we joined the rest of the gang for drills. It was hard to get folks to do the full distance of each drill this morning, and we got a good laugh out of that.

Finally done, Gilbert grouped us up and gave us some target times for our 2000m laps. We had a new runner, Laura (?), along with Emily, Jennifer, Shannon, Rich, Brian and some other folks who didn't stick with us the whole time. Gilbert suggested to us that our group should shoot for a 2000m time of 8:20-8:30, which would be way faster than the last time I did this workout. My best performance on this workout was an average of 9:06/lap or 7:20/mile pace, way back in August, with a fast lap of 8:54. Okay. Off we went.

Focusing very carefully on the dark road, we took Gilbert's advice and did the first lap fairly easily, just to finish warming up if nothing else. Everyone stayed together for that one, and we were amused to actually catch up some of the distance between our group and Frank's group ahead of us. 2:00 rest, and it was time to go again. We dropped the pace quite a bit on the second lap, and came even closer to Frank's group. Rest again, and this time, we actually caught the tail end of Frank's group ahead of us, and dropped our pace again. We were taking turns leading the group around, and Rich in particular was showing us the way this morning. One last rest period, and we really knocked out a good lap on number four. I was walking around a bit, getting ready to do the fifth and final lap, when word reached us that Gilbert had decided that four repeats was enough and we were done. Although we had improved our pace on every lap, he still told us to stop. That was sort of disappointing, but further review told me that 4x2000m was plenty this soon after that 20 mile race. Better to stop a little early and stay healthy.

Splits: 9:34, 8:54, 8:40, 8:27. Last two splits were "PR" splits for this workout. Overall pace was a new best, too, 8:54 avg (7:09 mile pace). That 8:54 average was 12 seconds faster. Excellent. We even reached Gilbert's target time for that last lap, and although it was fairly hard work, I think I had another lap left in me at least at that pace.

Nice and easy return trip to RunTex with Jennifer, Rich and Frank, and the day was done. I'm glad that I had some snap in my legs following a race, and there appears to be very little stiffness or soreness lingering. This is all good stuff. I put on all sorts of warm clothes after we got back, and stuck around to stretch with Shannon and Aaron. It was cold once we stopped running! Shannon has been getting by on crazy small amounts of sleep lately, getting a big report done in her PhD research, and I think she's looking forward to some easier days the rest of the week. I hope so, for her sake. The conversation between the three of us was true geekspeak, with mentions of physics, math, and even bacteriology. Kinda fun, really.

For the day, 8.4 miles, with those 8000m of repeats in the middle. Good one. Tomorrow is super easy recovery running on my own here in the 'Hood, and a gym visit. Friday is a full day off, which will be wonderful. Saturday, I'll have to do my 14-15 miler on my own, but that could be fun. It'll be yet another Tour d'Lufkin, and with that kind of mileage, I think I'll go by the old high school, among other sights in town.

The Stroll (Recovery Running, part deux)

This morning was nice and brisk, maybe 45 degrees, crisp and clear. I met up with Amy and Frank for the second recovery effort of the week at 5:45 at RunTex, and we were the only souls around, that's for sure. We ran the 7 mile loop clockwise, and generally had a fun and chatty time of it. With a brief water stop at the Mopac bridge included in our time, we cruised the 7 miler at a swift 10:30/mile pace. Scintillating! When we finished, the sun had still not really risen, so it was early all around. We voted to skip the striders today, and headed straight back to RunTex instead. While we were out there, we saw various other Gazelles coming the other way 'round the loop, also doing a nice and easy 7 miler per Gilbert's instructions. He didn't want any of the folks who raced on Sunday to try speedwork today. Alex and Liliana were among those enjoying the respite from hard running labors.

Amy and Frank scurried off to work and/or the gym, but I stuck around a bit and did much of the stretching routine. I just felt like I needed it, even though it was fairly cool when you weren't running. I had put on a bunch of warmer clothes, of course. I had brief chats with Steve Sisson (commiserating about the 20 Miler), Joseph and Kelly, and it was fun to get back in touch with all those folks.

Stretching done, it was off to the gym. I'm feeling pretty good, considering the hard effort on Sunday, but I'll continue to be careful about hard running the rest of the week.

16 Tons, and whaddya get? [GymStuff]

Once I finished the run and stretch, it was time to get up to Gold's for the week's first strength workout. I got up there pretty early, and decided to listen for just a few more minutes to ESPN Radio in the truck. Well, let's just say that the combination of the sun streaming into the truck and warming things up, the many layers of clothes I had on, and the droning of the talk radio dropped me into a slumber for a while. Groggy, I forced myself to get out of the truck after maybe 30 minutes of quick napping, and headed into Gold's.

Ron, my massage guy, had advised me that I should consider only doing one set of the leg weight workout stuff this week, instead of the usual two sets. Okay with me. So, I did the biggest part of the core workout, leaving out only Roman chair stuff and planks. Then, the single set leg workout, which felt pretty good. After the legs, it was on to upper body, and that went well, too. I'm starting to get back to my pre-Christmas weights and reps there. I managed to get the whole thing done in about 45 minutes. Despite my pre-workout slumber, this turned out to be a good workout, and I'm glad I got in there to do it.

Tomorrow is some sort of speedwork with the Gazelles. I think I'll approach it a little less aggressively than normal, maybe backing off on pace just a little, and I may do a little less than the max number of reps for a change. I'll see how I feel in the morning.

There's Got To Be A Morning After (Easy Recovery Running)

This morning, under overcast skies, I met Amy, Shannon, Gretchen and Brian for some ridiculously easy recovery running. We were all still tired after yesterday's race, but the very easy 5.2 miles that we did sure did feel good. We strolled along at 10:30/mile pace, just nice and easy, and generally had a good time discussing the race and the marathon coming. All of us looked a lot more fluid running by the end of the run than at the start, though.

We did some striders after that (I did 5x100m), and then Shannon and I stuck around for stretching. Aaron even showed up for some stretching after his 10 mile pace run, so I got to chat with him for a while. I got a chance to talk to Gilbert about the race after he sent his 7:30 group off for their workout, and he agreed with me that with the windy conditions, we had done pretty well. He pointed out that you could tell the Gazelles were stronger than most, no matter what our pace, because we had our form together even at the end of the race pushing to the finish. That's probably true. The pictures from this race will be interesting, though.

Tomorrow, more of the same, a nice and easy 7 miler this time, followed by a gym workout.

Everyone Knows It's W(i)ndy! (RunTex 20 Miler)

What a day! This was supposed to be a controlled race/training run today, with an easy 5 mile start, then a trip to MGP, and a fast finish over the last 3-5 miles. What happened, you ask? Read on, my blogophiles...

I met up with Frank and Peter Martin at the Gateway parking lot, and we carpooled up to the race site up in Round Rock. I had a banana and some bread this morning, as I continue to try and add some more calories to my pre-race feedings. Also drank down the Enervit pre-run drink mix, sort of an Accelerade clone. I was all done with all that by 6:50 when we arrived at the Dell Diamond parking lot. The first thing we noticed on the way up there and at the site was that the wind was howling. 25-30 mph howling. And, it was from a direction that would screw with us the last 5 miles of each 10 mile loop of the race.

We bailed out of the car, and walked over to the Start/Finish area to meet the other Gazelles for the warmup jog and stretch. A quick visit to Port-O-World took care of that sort of thing, and we started the warmup right at 7:00, catching Gilbert coming the other way. We jogged very slowly for about 1.6 miles at 10:00/mile pace or thereabouts, back along the last mile of the race course, and then back to the Dell Diamond into the wind. Spirits were high, but this is such a new race for us, going 20 miles, that there was also some quiet concern. Drills drilled, and a brief stretching session done, Gilbert gave us final cautionary words, and we were left to our pre-race prep.

I made arrangements with my pace group for a meeting spot in the corral, and went back to the truck to ditch my extra clothes and get my race gear. Took down a pre-race GU, washed it down with some water, pinned on my race number, and strapped on my belt with all my GU's. Frank and I visited the woods to observe some particularly interesting foliage, and then we found our way into the corrals. This was a singlet and shorts kind of day, with the temp at the start about 55 degrees. It was bright and clear, and it would warm to the high 60's by the end of our racing day. I lined up with the usual suspects, including Rich, Richard, Amy, Shannon, Jennifer, Brian, and Erine (sort of a guest appearance). We lined up way in the back of the field, since our instructions were to run quite easily for the first 5 miles. Because of that, we basically missed what sounded like a pretty nice live National Anthem. Some 2 or 3 minutes after the horn, we crossed the starting line for our adventure.

We eased our way through the crowds for the first twisty mile of the race, passing lots of folks even though we were just strolling along. The most hilly section of the course was right at the start (and at the start of the second loop, by extension), so it wasn't a bad thing to sort of pick our way through those opening miles. Erine soon left us, after 2 miles or so. The rest of us made a nice little pack, and we negotiated the first bit of the course right on schedule. The Governor was ditching long pants at about mile 3, but he soon caught us again, and we never saw him after that. Rumor has it that he "only" ran the 10 miler today. I took my first GU at mile 4's water stop, and throughout the day, I took water or Powerade at every stop (every two miles). Seemed to work for me. The course rolled into the countryside after about mile 3, and we even got to get up close to a big farm with lots of cows on it around mile 4-5. For the first 5 miles, we eased our pace faster each mile, until we had almost reached our MGP by mile 5. A very good, very casual start, and we were all running together, sharing the workload. But, the wind was coming [foreshadowing].

Splits miles 1-5: 10:03, 9:31, 9:12, 9:05, 8:49. Overall pace so far 9:20, just what we were supposed to do.

Now, turning into the wind, things got interesting. The effort required to maintain pace into the wind was considerable, and it threw off some of our race goals. We tried to take turns blocking the wind, but that wasn't very successful. We rolled through the next 5 miles, and it really got tough for the last two miles of the loop, into the teeth of the wind with no cover to speak of. We had a hard time dealing with the simple act of tossing our used water cups to the side of the road. Poor Richard got hit twice by cups of water (sorry!). It was a huge relief to turn back towards the north and duck out of the breeze. I took my second GU at mile 8's stop. By the time we reached the 10 mile split, Rich and Shannon had pulled ahead a little, and continued to press the pace all the way to the finish. I kept going with my own pace, because I mainly wanted to finish strong, and I knew I'd need all I had once we reached mile 15. The 10 Miler people turned away, and we were left to handle the second loop as best we could. So far, so good. I felt pretty good, and the temperature, while not ideal, wasn't causing me any severe problems. Onward.

Splits miles 6-10: 8:41, 8:28, 9:00 (water stop), 8:36, 8:46. Overall, down to 9:01/mile, well under 4:00 marathon pace. Thanks to Richard for pointing this out during the run. It boosted my spirits to see how quickly we had dropped the pace down to that 3:##:## time frame (we hit that overall pace at the mile 7 split)! 10 mile split total was 1:30:11. Time to work on a negative split.

We pushed through the hilly first couple of miles of the loop again, catching and passing Rachel, who has run the last couple of long runs with us. By now, we were rolling up on lots of folks who had lined up way ahead of us, and were now paying for some early pacing mistakes. That was encouraging. Another GU at mile 12, and pretty soon, I found myself running alone. Shannon and Rich were way ahead, and suddenly, I had lost my running pals. I didn't look back, but I guess everyone was making their own judgments about their running day. I wasn't speeding up too much, but that's the way it worked out. So, I just moved along, finding people to catch while not trying to throw down with a really fast push just yet. Passing the cows again, I made the turn towards the mile 15 marker, back into the wind. There was a tall guy that I met up with here, and we ran more or less together for the next few miles. That helped. As I made that sharp turn, I glanced back to see who was back there, and I just saw Richard, maybe 50-100 yards back. Okey dokey. The wind didn't make me very happy, but I was happy to see the 15 mile marker. Only 5 miles to go. There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Splits miles 11-15: 8:46, 8:38, 8:34, 8:15, 8:27. Overall pace down to 8:51/mile. For those 5 miles, I was running MGP for a 3:45 marathon, through the hilly part of the course, but with the wind not a factor. Half marathon was passed in 1:57:00, another good sign. Time to dig for the finish now.

I fought through mile 16 (last GU at that water stop) and 17 in pretty good fashion, using up extra energy just to maintain the pace I had established earlier in this second loop. The wind was really causing me some mental anguish, but I pushed on as best as I could. The last sharp uphill bit was in there somewhere, a short little uphill bump, and I almost gave in to the walking demon once I got on flatter land after that. I backed off just a little, maintaining a sort of "survival shuffle," and eventually found my way again. Mile 18 was a very hard one for me, and it took all I had, mentally, to fight off the suddenly overwhelming urge to walk this one in. I took about 20 yards of walking after the mile 18 water stop, and then with a shake of my head, I got back running. It was a near thing, that's for sure. With a final cup of cold water poured into my hat, it was time to slog to the finish. I was running with a lot of effort, but the wind was blasting me by now. A fast finish was not in the cards, but maybe I could still finish strong.

I passed Leslie during mile 17, I think, and she came back to me during mile 19. We had turned onto Highway 79 for the last time, and the wind was almost intolerable by now. I passed the tall guy one last time, and with Leslie drafting off of me, we pushed to the end of this thing. I had more evil thoughts of walking or stopping, but managed to fight those off by easing the speed back just a little to gather myself, and then getting back to work. It was encouraging that, as bad as I thought I doing, I was still passing people. That helped a bunch in those last 3 miles. I passed 30K in 2:45:00, more on that later. By now, I was counting down the miles in a very methodical way. 1.6 miles to go from the 30K marker. 1.2 miles from the mile 9 marker. 1 mile from the mile 19 marker (duh). Finally, Leslie pulled away ahead of me 5 yards or so, and we finally made the turn out of the wind towards the finish area. I have rarely been so glad to see a corner in a race course. I tried to pick up the pace as best as I could, and made that final turn into the parking lot with maybe .2 miles to go. With the end in sight (and sound...Evel's announcer's vehicle was drawing me to the finish), I picked it up a little bit more, and was actually moving pretty well as I passed Gilbert with 30 yards to go. One last corner, and there was the timing mat. Done! I took a few steps, stopped, took some deep breaths, moved, stopped, etc., until I finally got my medal, and moved out of the finishing chute. Man, that was a hard race!

Splits miles 16-20: 8:41, 8:39, 9:07 (tried to quit here), 8:54, 8:35 (finally back to MGP for final mile). Overall, still at 8:50/mile. 2:56:47.

Finally done with this thing, I found Frank, chatted with a few folks, got a Powerade, and then we made our way back to the truck to get more clothes and post-run sustenance. On the way, we saw all the rest of the gang in their finishing kicks. Let's just say that they all had a very serious look on their faces. I'm sure I looked the same way just a few minutes earlier. I put on long running pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt, despite the warm conditions. It was a comfort thang. Endurox in hand, we walked back around the baseball field to the start/finish area to meet up with everyone else. I saw some Gazelles doing their post-run striders, but I just couldn't get excited about that today. I did do the balance drill moves as we walked, trying to loosen up my quads, hamstrings and hips. That was largely successful.

I saw most everyone I had hoped to see in the post-race hubbub, and generally, the relief of having finished the race made everyone seem pretty darned happy. Rich had a great race, as did Shannon. The rest of the gang did very well, too, with times under 4:00:00 pace. Given the conditions, I'd say that we all earned our medals today.

A quick check of the results board showed that Frank had successfully defended his 2nd place finish in the Clydesdale (or is it Rhino) division, so he got a snappy running cap with the race logo on it. The finisher's shirts, by the way, were pretty cool. Black long sleeved tech shirts (I've got a ton of these by now!). Lots of Gazelles snagged age group awards, and Gilbert won the race overall, with another Gazelle in second place.

Frank and I drove back to his car, and he was off to Costco to do some errands on his way home. I stopped and got a Dr. Pepper and a bag of ice, myself. It was time for a cold soak for the first time in a while. My legs were telling me it was a good idea to chill them down. I did a little stretching at home, first, and then it was time to get in the tub. That adventure was brisk, as usual, but I did feel a lot better after 30 minutes in the tub with cold tap water, then the bag of ice as it joined the party. I don't think I whimpered too much as I eased into the water. Not too much, anyway. At least I read most of the Sunday paper as I chilled out, literally.

Final thoughts: I set a new 30K PR on the way through this race, knocking 6:12 off my best Buda 30K time. Always a good thing. This was also the fastest 20 miles I've ever run, as I've never reached the 20 mile mark in a marathon at 8:50/mile pace before. I averaged 8:40/mile for the last 15 miles of this race, 5 seconds/mile off my MGP, but given the windy conditions, I'll take that as a good sign. I had a decent negative split between first and second loops, too, with a 3:25 drop between the two halves, 20 seconds/mile faster. I also managed to conquer some demons on the course today, getting back to decent, not stellar, running form after a strong urge to quit nearly derailed the whole day. I am happy with my effort today, and I'm cheered by the fact that I got it back together for a decent last mile, fulfilling my main desire today of finishing strong. Last, this was the end of my biggest training week ever, at 56.35 miles. I'm confident I'll do a lot better with a real taper for Freescale.

Now, I'm going to go and try to take a nap. Hopefully, everyone will leave me alone long enough to catch some quality slumber time. :-)

Jog 'n Stretch

After a full day off yesterday, today was the traditional easy jogging and full stretching ritual that comes the day before a race. Weather was really nice, starting in the high 30's and nice and clear. We really jogged this one, doing 30 minutes per Gilbert's instruction on the trail. My little group was Rich, Amy, Liliana, Alex and Brian, and we had a lot of fun chatting away. It's been a while since I've seen Amy, so we had to catch up on her new job and all that entails. We ended up with something like 3 miles at over 10:00/mile pace, truly easy running. 32 minutes of running time, for those keeping score. Richard showed up late, and joined us for the last half mile or so of the run. There was some good-natured ribbing about sleeping in and all that sort of thing...

Once we got done, we did a few striders on the grass and then Gilbert led the rather large group in balance drills and some hopping around. After that, it was time for the long stretching routine, and by then, it was just glorious outside, nice and sunny, and I think that lifted everyone's mood to a new level. Just a nice relaxing morning with the Gazelles.

Gilbert gave us more advice regarding the 20 miler tomorrow, and basically his plan for me is about what I had considered on my own: Easy 5 miles at 9:00 pace or thereabouts, and then 10-12 miles at MGP (I'm thinking that pace is 8:35, Gilbert seems to think I should be aiming faster than that), and a fast finish over the last 3-5 miles. I may actually run with the GPS watch tomorrow to try and keep myself on proper pacing. This is not so much a "race" as a well-supported long run, so maybe I should approach it that way. My overall pace goal for the race is not well-defined, but I do want to have the feeling of being strong late in the race. If I do what I think I can, I should end up with an overall pace around MGP. It will be a "run how I feel" type deal, and I'll pick up the pace at the end somewhere after the 15 mile mark, depending on how I'm doing.

I've just got to get some GU this afternoon, and I'll be all set. This is also a full pre-race dress rehearsal for the marathon, and I'll eat just like I plan to eat before Freescale.

Easy Running

The end of the exercise day was an easy hour run. Actually turned out to be 56 minutes or so, and I stopped at 6 miles exactly since it happened near the house. 9:20 overall pace, truly easy, and good work. I resisted the urge to pick it up, aiming for full aerobic running the whole way. I ran at dusk, which is a peaceful time to run in the 'Hood. Now, a couple of days off (Saturday is 20-35 minutes easy plus stretching), and then the race on Sunday. This is going to be a record mileage week for me, by the way.

20 Miler Course Recon

I drove the 20 miler course today, and it will be an interesting test. No giant hills, but lots of rolling terrain and some sneaky long inclines. A fair amount of hilly stuff in the first 3 miles of the loop (which will also be miles 11-13 in the race). Wind may be a factor as well, with lots of wide-open terrain and country roads. After Decker, Pervasive and Motive, it seems to be not so bad, but for a 20 mile race, that second loop will be interesting. I still think my plan will be to go out nice and easy, maybe as much as a minute slower than marathon goal pace, at least for the first 5 miles. Then, I'd like to shift to MGP for the next 10-12 miles, steady as she goes, and try to pick it up for the last 3 miles, more or less like we do on all of our long training runs. I want the mental lift that will come from being able to pick it up a little when I'm tired. Weather may be a bit warmer than we'd like, but otherwise, it should be a nice race to do. With an easy 2 mile warmup and maybe 1-2 miles of super easy cooldown jogging, it will be a long day, but basically just what the doctor ordered. This will be a great chance for a full marathon rehearsal.

Return to the Gym

Today, I finally got back to the gym, and I'm glad I did. I was pretty efficient, and knocked out the high spots of the routine in about 50 minutes. Except for the upper body stuff, I hadn't lost any strength, so I took that as a good sign.

For core, I just did the floor exercises (3 different kinds of crunches), and then back raises and oblique raises on the incline rack. Next week, I'll get back to the Roman Chair stuff and planks. These went much better than I had anticipated. Leg stuff was pretty much the whole routine, with quad extensions and hamstring curls (did two sets, increasing the weight on the second set because my old settings seemed way too easy), and then seated calf raises (these were just like normal). After that, it was time for big boy leg presses, two sets of 12 reps at 160 lbs (plus whatever the sled weighs). Those will become a once a week deal in the last two months leading to Freescale, just to stimulate the leg muscles. Finished off leg stuff with standing calf raises, just one set, but three different foot positions. Not bad.

Upper body stuff was where I noticed the layoff the most, and I guess that's to be expected. On bicep curls, I did two sets with the curl bar, one at 50 lbs and one at 60 lbs. Those actually went better than I had thought. Bench press I did two sets, one at 95 lbs and one at 105 lbs, and I think that's a good approach for me to help me improve there. Seated rows were just like last time I did them, but on the final exercise, the tricep pulldowns, I fell off quite a bit in the second set. No worries, though. I know that's because of my absence from such work, and it'll come back pretty quickly.

They've finished the remodel on my gym, and the new locker rooms feature really nice new wooden lockers and a new floor. Everything else is basically the same, but it seems a lot nicer without the dented metal lockers that they had before.

I plan on going out this evening for a really easy hour run, and Friday is a full day off of everything.

Longhorns Are National Champs!!

What a game! Vince Young just might be Superman. If you didn't watch the national championship football game, you really missed a magnificent contest. The second half, in particular, was just amazing. The level of athletic talent on the field was staggering, and it seems like virtually everyone there played up to that level. That's rare in sports, where all those in the game play at their maximum ability. It was a treat, and it was even over by 11:20 or so.

Anyway, it was a great game, it lived up to and surpassed the hype surrounding it, and the team I was rooting for won. That's pretty much all you can ask, right? Now Vince can go and pick out his new car...he's going to be a wealthy young man by April or May, after the NFL draft.

Fartleks With A Big Crowd

This morning, we met early for the usual fartlek tuneup workout before a weekend race. Slowly, everyone is starting to get back after the holidays, and familiar faces are showing up now. 5:45 was early since I'm finding my way back into the time routine still after the holidays, but it was fun to see the gang anyway. We seemed to have some new faces in the crew, too.

Gilbert gave us the drill, which was to do the 7 mile loop with 2 miles easy running and then 15 x 1:00 fast fartlek pickups alternating with 1:00 rest jogging. After that, we'd finish off the loop with easy cooldown running. Weather was nice, mid 50's and clear.

Off we went, in the darkness. The groups sort of form up as we go, and after a mile, we had a group of about 11 people, much more than normal. By the end of the run, I had learned the new names, and I can only hope I remember them the next time I see them. Frank is still getting over some ailments suffered over the holidays, so he ran with our group instead of his usual group ahead of us. Amy wasn't there today, but she might be doing the Tuesday/Thursday routine this week with Shannon. We had Frank (guest runner), Rich, Richard S., Brian, Jennifer, Charlene, new Amy, Carrie, Kristin, and Emily as we crossed over the I-35 bridge and got ready to run fast.

We took turns leading the 1 minute pickups, which made for a much more fun workout. There's both extra energy and some mental pressure when you are out front setting the pace, especially with a group that big. But, we had enough people that we didn't have to lead more than 2 at most. For a change, we did a good job of backing off on the recovery jogging, probably to something like 9:15-9:30 pace, and the fast bits were pretty fast altogether. Everybody took a turn at front, and we crossed the Mopac bridge with only a couple repeats left to do. New Amy led the last repeat, and we all regrouped for the easy cooldown run to Auditorium Shores. Very solid running on the fartlek segments, and the cooldown run was still fairly quick at about 9:00 pace, but it felt really easy after the fast stuff.

When we got to Auditorium Shores, we were getting ready to do our strides and join Gilbert for his balance drills, but he had other ideas. He yelled at us to do one more mile of cooldown running, so grudgingly, we gathered back up and did that extra easy mile of running at his bequest. There was some grumbling among the pack, but as usual, we did what he said to do.

Splits: 10:30, 9:20 (warmup miles), then 8:07, 8:20, 7:43, and .65 miles at 7:35 for the fast sections, including the easy jogging bits...the fast running was obviously fast in a lot of spots. Finished it off with cooldown miles at 8:59, .4 miles at 9:03, and that extra cooldown mile at 9:38. For the day, 8.3 miles (including striders), overall average pace 8:51.

By the time we were doing our strides, he was getting antsy, and stopped us after 4 striders to join the balance drills. The drills were fun, and I felt like I was loosening up as we progressed through them. Once we were done, I hung out for a much needed stretching session with Alex, Brian and Charlene. It was another good workout with my Gazelles friends. Nice.

The rest of the week is easy running or days off, with a return to the gym tomorrow. The big 20 mile race on Sunday is the highlight of the week, of course. More on that as Gilbert reveals to me what my race assignment will be. I'll go and drive the course tomorrow for recon.

My tuneup massage with Ron turned up no terrible knots or damage, and after a couple of days of easy workouts, I'll be ready for the 20 miler. Now, I've got to go and put all the Christmas decorations up in the attic. Yee haw.

2005 Stats (And Year in Review)

2005 was a new PR for total mileage for the year, with 1505.4 miles. In almost every month, I was ahead of last year's numbers on monthly mileage, too. Number of runs went up from 172 to 192, or 14/month. My average pace on runs was way faster, too. I've had really strong PR's at virtually all distances this year, at least Masters PRs. I've got a shot at some lifetime PR's in 2006, at the marathon and half marathon distances. I even managed to drop a few pounds, shedding 7 pounds from last December to this December 31st. All of this is good stuff.

I think having an injury-free year and adding the weight training is where most of the improvement occurred. And, running fast helps you to run fast, so increased intensity is part of the equation as well. In 2005, I actually did most of the things that Gilbert has suggested, and lo and behold, I became a stronger and faster runner. Go figure. :-)

I've been patient with my Gazelles training since joining in March 2004, putting in the time and effort, and since September, it seems that everything is coming together in a big way. Now, I only have to get my mental powers focused on the hard effort that will be required to deliver the big payoff at Freescale 2006. Physically, I'll be ready. I'm hoping that the RunTex 20 Miler on Sunday will give me the remaining internal strength that I'm seeking, and then we've only got one more 20+ miler after that in training to top off the physical side. The marathon is much closer than it seems possible, but I'm going to be ready.

Goals for 2006? I break them out in a few categories:

Training

1. Adhere to the Gazelles training calendar, and try not to skip the "recovery" runs that I sometimes ditched in 2005.
2. Keep up the gym work, tapering it a bit before Freescale, and then getting back after. In the summer, experiment with some periodization of weight training, going for bigger weights and lower reps to build some strength in my running "off season."
3. Try some cross-training after Freescale and in the summer, substituting some cycling for easy runs for a change of pace.
4. Stick with my new plan of only one marathon per year. It's been fun being able to keep those long summer runs to the 12-15 mile range instead of trying to get in some 20 milers in the August and September heat.

Racing

1. Use RunTex 20 Miler and 3M Half Marathon as training tools, not all-out races, aiming at Freescale Marathon on 2/19.
2. Sub-4:00:00 at Freescale marathon. Truly, all I want is a 3:##:## on my chip time, which would be a lifetime PR, and my fastest marathon by some 21 minutes in the last 6 years. Anything under 3:59:59 is a bonus. More specific goals for Freescale will be set after consulting with Gilbert and a host of predictive computer models. Note that this was also my goal last year, and the year before, and...
3. Lifetime PR attempt (1:44:04, 7:57/mile pace) for half marathon at Indy 500 Half Marathon in May. Based on my fall racing season, this is a reachable goal on the very flat Indy course.
4. Sub-7:00 paced 5K and take a shot at 47:00 in the 10K.
5. Improve my race PR's for the 2006 Distance Challenge races in the fall.

Miscellaneous

1. Continue to try to improve my nutrition, especially my Dr. Pepper habit and occasional candy attacks.
2. Try to whittle my body weight down just a little more, or at least burn off some more of the "goo" that seems to stubbornly cling to my midsection.
3. And, for the 25th year in a row, I would like to slay my personal dragon of procrastination, which creeps into many phases of my life. Maybe I'll start working on that later. Joke!

Recovery Running in Lufkin

This morning, I ran a pretty relaxed route through Lufkin again. The weather was clear and cool enough, probably in the 50's. I basically just wandered around old neighborhoods, and today added a trip by my elementary school, following the route that I used to take on my bike as I rode to school back in the day. More nostalgia, I guess. I didn't want to get out there today, and tried to negotiate with myself about doing the run after I got home to Austin, but that just seemed silly. After Dad went to the office, I went ahead on out there, and got the workout done. Turned out to be a lot of fun.

Somewhere in the second mile of the run, a dog started tagging along with me, and accompanied me for the rest of the workout. She trailed behind me about 50 feet, and just appeared to want to get her work in, as well. Life in a small town with no leash laws...

Ended up with just over 7 miles, right at 9:00 pace, and I'm glad I got out there after fighting the mental demons. I also did a fair amount of stretching once I got inside, while I chatted with Mom.

It was a nice trip home and all that, but I'm glad that I'm finished with driving long distances for a while! Time now to focus on the 20 miler this Sunday and try and formulate my race plan. Gilbert has promised to give out individualized assignments for the race, as he thinks it's too long of a race to really push, this close to our goal marathon. Maybe he'll clue me in tomorrow? I will also try and get back to the gym tomorrow after the fartlek workout, since it's been about two weeks since my last gym work.

Long Ladder Workout [Posted 1/3/06]

It was great fun to be back with my friends this morning for the workout. We had a lot to talk and laugh about, and that helped make this fairly intense run go easier. Gilbert had suggested that we'd vote on the workout, but it turns out that he chose the one I would have voted for anyway, so I didn't mind his totalitarian approach so much. We were to do the 10 mile loop, starting with an easy 20 minutes, then 20 minutes at marathon goal pace (I chose 8:35 again, 3:45 marathon pace), 2:00 easy jog, then 2x10:00 minutes at 15k-20k pace (I had 8:00 in mind, based on Decker) with 1:00 jogs between, and then 6x1:00 minutes at 5K pace (I figured we'd just be blasting on these, so pace was not a detailed concern here), with 15 seconds jog recovery between. After that, it was cooldown jog to the finish.

Warmup was nice and easy in the dark, as we tiptoed along the trail. It was a small group of Gazelles this morning, but we started with almost all of our normal group, Shannon, Rich, Brian, Jennifer and Charlene. Only Amy was missing, due to travel after New Year's weekend. We talked a lot about their tour of Mt. Bonnell and New Year's partying, and generally had fun with the opening bit. Splits were 9:30, 9:32, odd distance at 9:16/mile.

20:00 MGP segment went well, too, and we seemed to have hit our goal pace of 8:30-8:35 on average. We picked it up on the second mile a little, but that's sort of normal. It was Shannon, Rich, Charlene and me as the pace picked up. Brian and Jennifer were on a slightly slower pace just a little behind us. When we reached the end of the segment, it felt pretty comfortable, but faster than the opening segment. Splits were 8:36, 8:20, and .33 miles at 9:10 pace, which may be a GPS glitch. Average was right on target.

After the 2:00 easy jog, it was time for the 2x10:00 pieces at faster pace. Due to my error, the first 10:00 segment was accidentally only 8:00. Oops. I stopped us when my watch read 50:00 instead of allowing for the 2:00 rest period in there. At any rate, pace was 7:56/mile for that first accelerated bit. The 1:00 jog rest wasn't very long, of course, and then it was time to crank it up again. The second 10:00 segment was accurately timed, and our splits were 7:58 and .25 at 7:34. We sped up trying to catch two Gazelles ahead of us. I was pleased with our pacing on these bits, as we pretty much nailed the 8:00 sort of pace I had imagined. Another minute's jog, and it was time to finish off the day.

I didn't individually time the 6 x 1:00 bursts, but with the 1:00 rest jog included, we averaged 7:44 for a mile, so our fast running must have been near 7:00 pace. We also had one last fast bit at 7:20 pace, heading to the Mopac bridge, which was probably our actual running pace. Rich, Shannon and I took turns leading those bursts. We walked back to get a cup or two of water there, and then joined Brian and Jennifer as they swung by, and all of us did our cooldown run together. After the fast running, the cooldown felt really easy, which is the idea, I suppose. Cooldown after water was 2.1 miles at 9:30/mile pace.

Overall, 10.3 miles at 8:45/mile average pace. Quick. We felt awfully good by the time the cooldown was done, and didn't even moan too much about the 10 striders at Auditorium Shores. A handful of us did the full stretching ritual, and I know I needed it in a big way. After that, it was time to get going for my trip back to Lufkin to pick up my truck.