Climb Crowders Mountain [Entered 8/13/06]

Sunday, we met up for the trip up to Asheville. We loaded up Jeff's car with all of our camp paraphenalia (guitars, bags, ukulele, stuff), and headed over to Crowders Mountain, which was sort of on the way to Asheville. We got there early enough, right about when they open up the park, and had a pleasant little hike up the steep road to the peak. Again, it was much cooler than Austin, but it wasn't a crisp fall day or anything like that. We had fun clambering around on the craggy peak and along the ridge up there, and after quite a while doing that sort of climbing, we made our way down the mountain on the longer but more gentle trail down the other side of the transmission tower up there. It was a fun time, and the hiking helped take the edge off my legs remaining from the race on Saturday.

From there, we drove a scenic route up to Asheville, via parts known and unknown. We stopped in Chimney Rock, NC, for a snack (we had a great all-you-can-eat ice cream feast there at this little corner store), and then came on to the Warren Wilson College campus to check into camp. Jeff and I saw a lot of familiar faces there and around the dorm, and soon enough got our stuff unloaded and into our room for the week. We lucked out and got a room in the only air-conditioned dorm on campus. After unloading, we had a good bit of time until the 7:00 orientation, so we headed "off-campus" for our traditional last dinner in town. Of course, we found the time for another hike, about 90 minutes, along the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway on a nice trail. That was an out-and-back affair.

Dinner was at one of our two favorite Asheville establishments, Asheville Pizza Company. Jeff and Andy had, duh, pizza, which they pronounced as the best they'd ever had. I had fish and chips, because I just wanted something different. That was good, too, though. A couple of good beers there (I had a stout of some sort), and we were ready to rejoin our fellow campers.

Andy took Jeff's car and headed back to Charlotte, and left Jeff and I to start our musical week. The orientation was entertaining, with the various teachers for the week giving a brief sampling of what they'd be doing in their classes, and we settled in after that for some socializing with the tribe. There were plenty of returning campers, and we basically just enjoyed the vibe of the place on Sunday night. Yes, we had another beer from the beer trailer, supplied from a local microbrewery, Highland Brewers. That's just what you do, you know?

After catching some of the nightly music popping up all around, we turned in relatively early, around midnight. We'd have plenty of time throughout the week to try to test our limits of sleep endurance. Why blow the week on Day One? :-)

Let's Go Racin' - Salisbury, NC 5K [Entered 8/13/06]

Saturday, I was in Charlotte, NC, visiting with Jeff and Andy before guitar camp starts on Sunday. Since I was in town, we figured we'd locate a race so I could test my mad Gazelles skills against the Carolina locals. I've run a 4 miler and a couple of 5K's in and around Charlotte and Asheville, so it would be interesting to see if I had really improved.

I had not been told where the race was, but they did tell me that it was a 5K. We prepared accordingly by gorging ourselves on pasta on Friday night like we were running a marathon the next day. What the heck, right? Saturday, Jeff and I left his house pretty early, and picked up Andy on the way (he lives in Concord, NC). After some driving around, we ended up at a grade school (or maybe it was a middle school) in Salisbury, NC, for a club 5K. There were around 200 people in the race, so it was a decent crowd. This was only one of 3 or 4 5K races available to Jeff and Andy this weekend! Coming from Austin, where the summer racing pickin's are pretty slim, this was astounding to me.

We got signed up quickly, and after a quick drink of water to top off the tanks, we went out on the course for a brief warmup. The course was along a greenway for a little while, with a loop through a neighborhood for most of mile 2, followed by the return on the greenway and finally a 2/3 lap tour of the 300m track at the school for the finish. Our reconnaissance run only showed me the flat greenway start, but I understood that there was a hill during mile 2, the only bump on the road, so to speak. I was comfortably warmed up after our mile jog, and even got in some strides to further loosen up. I had no real race goals except to run how I felt. I ran about 22:10 at the Silicon Labs relay, so a time around there would be good for summertime racing.

We popped into the crowd (it was a tear tag race, so no chips) with minutes to spare, and I lined up about 2 yards from the start line. No national anthem, but we had a prayer, and we were off. Weather was just fine, compared to Austin. It was in the lower 70's at 8:00am, conditions with which I was unfamiliar this time of year. I ran alongside Kathy, the 60 year old woman that beat me last year at the James K. Polk 5K, knowing that she traditionally goes out too fast (thanks, Jeff and Andy, for that bit of scouting!). She was pretty fiesty, flashing some elbows going around some early corners. I was more amused than annoyed. The guy from last year who pushes his two kids in the stroller, complete with boombox attached to his stroller, blaring away, was just ahead of me the whole race long. That music was mightily annoying. Arrrrrrrrgh!

Soon enough, I was at the first mile marker, ahead of Kathy for good, and with an eye on Steve, the stroller guy. After letting a bunch of people go out hard in the first mile, I had started to reel a bunch of them in by that time. Cool. First mile was 7:07, about what I like to see at that mark in a 5K.

Mile two started right away with that hill. It wasn't awful, but it took its toll on a bunch of my fellow runners. I passed a lady pushing a stroller and some younger runners (high schoolers and young college) on the hill. Coming down the other side, I entered the out and back portion, so I saw Jeff and then Andy going the other way. I was encouraged that I wasn't a hideous distance behind them. The turnaround was clearly marked and was a wider turn than normal on a turn like that, which felt more comfortable. I skipped the water stop entirely, and chugged along. I kept passing people, and was not caught by anyone during mile two, so that was pretty cool. We turned off the street and back on the greenway, and there was the mile two marker. I sort of had a shot at a PR! Mile two was 6:58, even with the hill. Was that a mistake?

I still could see and hear Steve with the boombox stroller ahead of me, but couldn't close on him. We retraced our steps, and just when I was thinking about really dogging it home, I could see and hear the finish area commotion, so I had to keep pressing. It was still a solid half mile away, but much nearer if I could go hop that fence! I tried to pick up my turnover through the homestretch, and turned onto the sidewalk for that final ramp up to the track. There was pretty good crowd support here, and I turned right onto the track, with only some 200 yards to go. I may have caught one more person on the track, but I was sort of hazy by then. Driving to the tape, I finished in 22:12, with a final 1.11 miles at 7:19/mile pace. I guess I slowed up more than I had thought on that last mile, which isn't how I like to run a 5K. Still, my overall time was within 15 seconds or so of my PR, so I have to be satisfied with that.

I got my finishing card (56, I think), and turned that in to the timer folks. Percentage-wise, I think I ended up about where I do in Austin races, top 30-40%, so that was okay. They had a great post-race snack spread (Chick-Fil-A nuggets, Krispy Kremes, fruit, Cheerwine, water, cookies), so I scarfed a banana and an orange slice, and grabbed a cold bottle of water. Catching up with Andy and Jeff, we strolled away from the post-race hubbub, and started out on a cooldown jog. I estimate we covered 2.5 miles, but I didn't have the GPS watch on, so that was a guess. I felt better after the cooldown run, even though that course was tougher than the actual race course. :-)

We got back in time for the post-race raffle, but didn't win any prizes. Andy and Jeff both narrowly missed winning a trophy in their age groups. I discovered a locally produced soft drink while we were catching the awards ceremony, called Cheerwine. It's sort of like a cherry Dr. Pepper or a Big Red, but it was mighty tasty!

It was fun to chat with some of the locals that I recognized from last year's Polk 5K. Once that was over, it was time to get out of there for the rest of our day's travels. We visited a palatial YMCA to get cleaned up, and it was really a nice facility. The ladies at the front desk got all excited and took us on a tour of the place, too. As a result, I didn't have to pay a "day member" fee, which was nice of them.

We finished off the day with some hiking and a tour of Salisbury, a visit to the Dale Earnhardt memorial shrine in Kanapolis, some pizza, and some beer. All in all, a fine first day of vacation.

Gymtastic

For a minor taper for Saturday's 5K, I went to the gym today and cycled instead of doing an easy run. 20 minutes on the indoor cycle, and I think I've found the proper level to set the machine. Good warmup. A short bout of stretching, and then it was time to get on with the festivities.

Solid core workout with floor exercises and planks, then leg weights. Usual machines, but today I bumped up to 180 lbs on leg press, and it didn't seem all that different than 160. Summers, for me, are about building strength, so this fits right in with my program. Upper body stuff went well, too, and I did the whole full body workout, including cycle warmup, in 1:15. Fairly efficient.

The rest of the day included more cross training as I mowed the yard in the noonday sun, and various errands to get ready for my trip this weekend. I'll report from Asheville, hopefully, given the miracle of the Internet, so I'll see you (virtually) soon.

Zilker Mile Repeats [Entered 7/27]

Wednesday, we had perhaps the most physically demanding workout in the Gazelles canon, rolling mile repeats at Zilker park. Not the one I fear the most, just the one that seems the hardest. There was a tiny crew that showed up. As for Wilke, people tend to find good excuses to miss this one, and today it was really obvious. Gilbert was annoyed, mumbling something about how people won't improve if they pick and choose which workouts to do.

I had a nice warmup jog with the herd, and after drills, it was time to go. Gilbert wanted the first repeat nice and comfortable, with the second mile at least 20 seconds faster than the first, and he mentioned something about how the intent of this workout was to end up without having to gasp and choke at the finish. Then, he said he'd like us to be 2 seconds/mile faster, on average, than last time. We shrugged, and set off. My little gang was Richard, Brian, Emily, Marty, and Renee. Brian and I took the pace, and we ended up pretty slow, at 7:50 for the first mile. I messed up with my watch, so I'm not sure, but that's pretty close. That was too slow, really. I had hoped for 7:30 for the first "easy" mile.

A quick 2 minute rest, and we were off again. This time, Brian and I separated from the rest of the gang by a significant margin. We were running like we usually do on this workout, and I guess the other folks were sticking to Gilbert's plan of 20 seconds faster. Brian and I finished the second mile at 7:07, pretty much on target. Brian had to take a break, so I ran the third mile alone in front of the rest of the group, and clocked a 6:58 for my third mile. Gilbert said I could stop at that point, since I'm racing on Saturday (and I'm not doing a fall marathon). I felt fine, though, and I'm pretty sure I had another quick mile in me. My overall average of 7:18 was way off my usual time, but given the very slow first mile, I was okay with that. I'll be more focused next time.

Brian ended up doing four repeats, and did a fine job on his last two. The rest of the troops did each successive mile faster than the one before, so they did a good job on their four repeats. I ran back with Brian and Jan, and we had a nice chat.

This was my last Gazelles workout for a while, so I was pleased with how it went. I'm looking forward to cooler mornings in Asheville, NC, while I'm gone.

For the day, just under 7 miles total. I just did minor stretching today, out of laziness. Shame on me. :-)

Recovery Run & A Dust Up Afterwards [Entered 7/27]

Today started as a really fun outing with Brad, Jan, Alex, Emily, Shannon (and Teek) and me. We toured the standard 7 mile loop at a nice easy pace, stopping a couple times for water. Lots of fun conversation and we accomplished exactly what we should have for such a run. We even did striders afterwards, 6 of them, and I was happy with the way my legs felt. 7 miles at 9:40/mile pace including water stop time. That should have been the whole story.

However, I guess we did drift to three wide running on the biggest part of the trail along Auditorium Shores. There was plenty of room to go around us, but we did get to three wide. That was the only time all run long that we were anything other than two wide. That having been said, we had no issues with oncoming runners, and heard no requests from behind us to give room. Being extreme veteran consumers of the trail and roads, we are very aware of, and courteous to, our fellow runners. I've never bitched and moaned at people on Saturdays when I'm finishing up a fast finish long run, and I get stuck behind a big clump of walkers or people with strollers filling up the trail. I just wait a bit, and scoot around when I get a chance. No big deal. We're not being paid to run, so what is a minor delay, after all?

Having said all that, I was surprised when we got to the water stop at Auditorium Shores, and a guy decided to get all over us about blocking the trail. Now, again, he was ahead of us, so he got around us just fine, and never said anything at the time he went by, whenever that may have been. Anyway, it just hit the wrong note with me, and in a rare flash of temper, I barked back a little that we weren't blocking anything. He barked back, and at that point, I felt my blood boiling. I knew I had to get away, because on these rare instances, I can get nasty. I know it's hard to believe, for those who know me. So, as Brad was doing the right thing by saying, "Okay, thanks for letting us know. We'll try and be more aware of it in the future," I was walking away.

I don't know what the guy's problem was, but he just kept on and on, desperate, I guess, to get the last word. Finally, we all just got away from him, and I suppose he went on and enjoyed the rest of his miserable day. It took me almost 10 minutes to get my temper down, which is maybe a record for length of temper explosion for me.

Geez. That incident messed up my whole day, though. As I've told Alex, I saw at least four instances of crazy driving the rest of the day, darting right in front of me. Bad karma. I hope for better days to come.

Hollywood Circuits

Today was, uh, interesting. Gilbert was a little late arriving, due, in part, to a person following him around today with a video camera. He's being filmed for a bio feature on an unnamed national cable network, and we became a part of the story. Now, we knew about this ahead of time, and most of us were there in Gazelles shirts for the occasion. Once G got there, he sent us off for the regular (shorter) warmup run over to Austin High for circuit training. I suspect he changed the workout to circuits because he gets to be more "hands on" with us on that one. Plus, there's all the fun stuff after the circuits to film.

I ran over at a comfortable pace with Alex and some other folks, and per instruction, we started right into the circuits once we arrived. No drills today. We did 800m runs between circuits, and I ran each successive 800 faster than the one before, always a good thing. (3:55, 3:48, 3:36). Gilbert had originally told us to do two circuits, but called an audible when he saw we were moving through it fairly quickly, and most of us had to do the third circuit. I didn't mind. You certainly get winded and tired doing circuits, and it's hot and sweaty work, but compared to almost every other workout, this one is usually fun.

The camera was everywhere, and I noticed that several Gazelles had been singled out for face time and short interviews while we were working. At first, it was a little disconcerting to have her on the track, filming us as we ran towards her, but you soon got accustomed to her presence. Once we had knocked out three circuits, it was time for extra fun. We did the hopping, bounding, and form drills, followed by a lot of ab work, planks, and finally 2 x 1:00 of "fast feet." There was a lot of laughter during that stuff, always a good sign. At the end of the second plank repetition, I was called over for a quick interview on camera. I always think I'm ready for such things, but I fear that I looked and sounded like a doofus on film. I was totally hot and dirty by then, though I guess I smiled a lot when the questions were about Gilbert and the Gazelles in general. Who knows if any of this stuff will be used in the final product?

Once we were done, I scored a couple of cups of water, and then I had to get back to RunTex a little quicker so that Gilbert could sign some of his books for me. So, I didn't get to do the long cooldown. It was a quick little recovery run, though, with Amy and, geez, I forget who the guy was. Was it Richard? Sorry about that. We moved along smartly on the cooldown, but it felt just fine.

Gilbert knocked out the book signing duties, and then he was off with some of his fast guys for more filming back at Austin High. I hung out for a while talking with folks, as is my habit, including John, who is relatively new to the herd. He's running San Francisco this weekend, since he's on the Marathon A Month club for a while.

That's about it. A short 4.7 miles for the day, but some quality work nonetheless. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow on the recovery run. :-)

Tropical Grove Run

After doing the yard maintenance cross-training thing yesterday, complete with moderate dehydration, I joined the herd this morning for a long run on the Grove loop. It was warm and humid as usual, but today, the sun came out, and before the run was over, we were in the low 80's. It wasn't fun. But, I get ahead of myself...

Gilbert told us that this week was intended to be a recovery long run, so no fast finish was ordered up by Coach. I mainly wanted to do the full 13.5 mile route, at a nice solid pace, with a medium fast finish as an option. Most of my normal gang ran yesterday for a variety of travel or other logistical reasons, so today, once the initial shuffle was over, I ran with Rachel, Richard, Thon and Mike. The first 4.2 miles or so were generally trending up hill along Riverside, and we found Bernard with the rolling Powerade/water stop right at ACC on Grove. Rachel had us get through the water stop efficiently, and after a quick GU and a couple of cups of Powerade and water, it was time to get moving again. I figured that I'd drink more than usual today, owing to the heat, just to keep the machine working smoothly.

The journey through the quiet park at the end of Grove was nice as usual, and the conversation covered the standard widely disparate topics. Up and over Longhorn Dam, and we stopped the second time at Holly Power Plant for another quick sip of water. Off again, and soon enough, we found Gilbert at I-35 with the powerade/water. I took my second GU there, just because, and again grabbed a bunch of Powerade and water. I was feeling a little tired in the legs, and generally not as sharp as usual, but I wasn't wobbling or anything. On we went. Mike started pulling away from Thon, Rachel and me after that water stop, and ended up finishing ahead of us on the day. Richard cut the run a little short, still feeling the effects of his post-dental work medications. That was probably smart on his part. Another quick sip of water at the warm water fountains at Lamar, and we continued on.

It was that sort of odd place. I felt good enough to continue, knowing that I would have 3.5 miles to finish, but just bad enough that the thought of cutting it short by crossing Town Lake right there really appealed to me. Oh, well. Peer pressure kept me going. The sun was baking us by now, but in a mile and a half, we reached Mopac, for some nice cold water. That was really a life saver, and I also took advantage of the outdoor shower to douse my head with cool water.

Sort of revived, the three of us continued on, and although we didn't speed up, we didn't crash and slow down, either. Thon dropped back with a mile to go, and Rachel and I dragged each other mentally to the finish line. This was just one of those runs that saps you, with the heat getting to me for the first time, really, since the Capitol 10,000. Nonetheless, we completed our assignment in more or less adequate fashion. No fast finish, but it was decent running today.

The splits: 9:50, 9:11, 9:03, 8:53, 0.4 miles at 8:36/mile pace (Powerade/GU stop), then 8:51, 8:54, and .73 miles at 9:01/mile pace (water stop - quick), then 9:01 and .34 miles at 8:46/mile (Powerade/GU stop), 9:00 and .7 miles at 8:57/mile pace (quick water stop), 8:51, and 0.2 miles at 8:58/mile, finishing with 9:12, 8:55, and 0.2 miles at 8:14/mile (woo-wee, some fast finish!). Total run was 13.5 miles at 9:01/mile average running pace. With all the water stop time, it drifted to 9:30/mile pace. Given the conditions, I'll take this one.

I continued to drink plenty of water afterwards, and tried to recharge a bit. A friend of mine from high school days appeared as we finished, and we had a nice visit. He had to finish up his run, and I had stretching to do, so after 5-10 minutes that break was over. Now, I might have hallucinated that visit, but I'm pretty sure I saw Mark this morning. :-) I went over to do strides, and I guess I was moving so poorly, it caught Gilbert's attention. He told me that if I couldn't do the strides at more or less normal to quick running pace, that I wasn't helping myself, so he shut my striding down for the day. Thus, only 2 striders, and I never really felt all that great doing them today. Oh, well.

Stretching was lively, and except for some dizziness getting up off the stretching mat, it was very therapeutic. Conversations after stretching were amusing, as I caught up on some of the sights that others saw on the trail today. I won't say any more than I'm glad I missed this one. :-)

I wished Frank a happy vacation and cruise, and headed home to catch the finish of the Tour de France. Floyd Landis completed his improbable race, and has the maillot jaune all but locked up for the ceremonial finishing stage into Paris. Awesome!

For the week, 28 miles. Now, you must excuse me, for I must continue my aggressive hydration therapy for the rest of the evening. I think I'm still low about a quart. :-)

Let's Cruise to Recovery

This morning, I met up with Frank, Anne and Amy for a nice and relaxed 7 miler around Town Lake. Although we're getting a little burned out on these routes, it makes for safe and comfortable running, and we had some fun out there. Anne likes going a little faster than our normal recovery pace, but it wasn't awful or anything. I ran with Amy for the first 3 miles or so, at which time she dropped back to shorten the run to 5 miles (she's triathlon-ing on Sunday, after all). From there, I scurried up to try and catch Frank and Anne. They had held up at the water stop at Lamar to see if we got past a sort of crazy guy running along the trail in his jeans a half mile or so before that. He was a little creepy, but short of muttering something to us as we went by, he didn't do anything in particular. The three of us finished off the run in solid fashion, with one last stop for cooler water at Mopac. We ended up with a lot of world and running problems solved (we covered a lot of conversational ground), and we even did 6 striders once we finished. I was stiff after the run, but the striders really helped me out.

It was 7 miles almost on the nose, 9:40 type pace with the two water stops included. A pretty relaxed 9:13/mile actual running pace. I really needed this run today, and it was nice to be able to have some friends join me to share the morning.

After we got finished, I hung out and stretched a little while I chatted with all sorts of Gazelles as they finished up their 1000's. It's been a while since I've talked with Margaret, and I think it's been over two weeks since I've chatted with Shannon. Good times. Finished off the morning by hanging out with Alex while the rain drizzled ever so briefly in the RunTex parking lot.

Tour de France Update

Once I got home, I saw the last hour or so of today's amazing stage of Le Tour. Floyd Landis rode like a man possessed, and somehow has overcome his classic bonk from yesterday to come back from 8 minutes down in the standings to third place, just 30 seconds from yellow. We might have the Maillot Jaune stay in America for another year after all!

And now, Today's 1000's

And finally, I get to the current workout. Today, I rejoined my herd for speedwork, my first fast running since the end of the Scenic run some 10 days ago. I was a little worried that I'd be dragging once the fast stuff began, actually. At any rate, the weather was as expected, so that was a fine how-do. I was surprised to see our long-lost Gazelle, the world traveler, Sean, in attendance this morning! He's been touring Europe and Great Britain (I know, GB is maybe part of Europe, but humour me) for 2 months or so, and is finally back in the States for a while. It was also fun to check back in with the Crew and to hear some of their stories of workouts that I missed while in Mississippi. I'm not sorry that I missed Wilke, but the Tempo Race might have been amusing, in a sort of gasping way, and the Bonnell Over and Back run was probably pretty entertaining.

Anyway, the warmup run to Austin High was a true warmup effort today, with Alex joining us for the first half mile or so, and those of us going slower (Brian, Rich, Rachel and Emily) were rewarded with being nearly the last people there. We split into two groups for drills, with us going to the other side of the track for our gyrations. A quick cup of water and it was time for Gilbert to lay it on us. He took pity on the collected masses, noting that he thought that everyone was tired after the pace run on Monday. I was the beneficiary of this largess, of course. He asked us to run the 1000's a bit easier than usual, offering the example of taking our mile repeat pace from the last such workout, splitting it into 400's, and then adding 5 seconds per 400 (12-13 seconds per 1000), as a pace. Let's see...we averaged something like 7:05/mile last time, which would be 7:25/mile using Gilbert's example, or 4:35/1000m. That's a good bit slower than we did this workout last time. The recovery was a slow jog back around to the start/finish line, 200 meters.

After some further confusion about who was in what pace group, we slowly got underway. My group turned out to be Rachel, Emily, Sean, Jessica, Renee, and new guys Steven and Marty. I figured we'd shoot for a consistent 4:30/1000m, a bit slower than last 1000m workout. A variety of pace leaders took us through the first 3 repeats in a very solid 4:30 average. Right on target. Renee and Jessica took us through a fast fourth repeat (slightly faster), and then Gilbert told us that "you know what to do on this last repeat." Yep, we do. Crank the last repeat. Our 200m trot complete, we blasted the last repeat pretty well. We stayed together until the last 400m, and slowly split apart under the stress of everyone's final kick. I managed to pull up with a couple of the guys at the end of the repeat, which was a good feeling. Turned out to be an excellent set of repeats, especially after my speedwork vacation last week.

The numbers: 4:31, 4:29, 4:30, 4:27, 4:18. Average 4:27, just a couple of seconds off our personal best for this workout. Good one.

Of course, we weren't done yet. Gilbert personally supervised our 200m striders after that, sending us off in pairs so he could critique our form. I did 4x200m striders, which always feel harder than the regular speedwork. I did not time the 200's today, but I guess they were in the 48 to 50 second range. I'm probably wrong.

That done, we were asked to do 100 real situps, the kind where your feet are tight to your butt. These are a lot more difficult than crunches. I was able to do 60 of them (a set of 40, then a set of 20). I don't think too many people finished all 100.

The nice and slow recovery/cooldown jog back to RunTex was once again on target for a change. On both the warmup and cooldown, we were in the 10:00/mile range. Nice. For the day, 7.4 miles.

I hung out and chatted with Sean, then Rich, for quite a while after the workout. It just seemed like there was a lot to catch up on today. After that, it was time for Le Tour, which turned out to be a crazy, but disappointing day at the races (it looks like there will be no American on the podium this year for the first time since Lance's reign began). It's nice to be back.

And the Return Trip to Austin (7/17-18)

Monday, we dropped Mary Anne off at Jackson International Airport, and the kids and I cruised across Louisiana and down to Lufkin. It was an easier trip, mainly because you can drive 70 mph on I-20 across Louisiana. We took our time, because we could, and even stopped in Nacogdoches for a visit with my friend Bob at his sign shop. The kids got a kick out of Bob and his stories. That was pretty much the highlight of the trip, sadly.

Tuesday, after watching the Alpe d'Huez stage of the Tour, we finished off the long journey by heading back to Austin. We were glad to be home, and except for the pile of mail and virtual pile of e-mail, it was pretty painless. Home again, home again! We picked up Ranger and Mittens, and they were both very happy to be out of the kennel and back in their house.

Serious Food and the Long Run (7/14-16)

Once Mary Anne and Dad arrived, the dynamic of the visit changed. For the better, mind you, but it was still different. Dad was the Gentleman Farmer and messed with his tractor and the other machinery there, and Mary Anne got to play with the kids while I did a little more mowing and assisted in Dad's shop. We cooked chicken fajitas on Thursday night on the grill, had some serious steaks and baked potatoes on Friday night, and enjoyed the fine catfish restaurant in Hazlehurst on Saturday night. Now, the catfish wasn't my usual ideal pre-long run meal, but it was awfully good on Saturday!

Sunday morning, I rolled out bright and early (well, when the birds started chirping, of course) for a longish run. I planned on touring the countryside for about 90 minutes, just to get the legs moving. No fast finish today, just fun running. It was glorious outside, albeit warm, and I covered a lot of ground. Almost all the way down to Pete's store (Pete's store is no longer occupying the building, but it is still called "Pete's Store" by everyone around) and back on Browns Wells Road, and a quick side trip to check out the new gas drilling rig on the property. We're hoping that sucker hits it big, of course! I even managed to include a visit to the pine trees planted on the old airstrip, running up and down a bunch of the long rows of trees. It was sort of spooky, really, going up and down the tree rows, but I managed to put my Stephen King flashbacks out of mind in time to enjoy the rest of the run. Ended up with 9.6 miles, at a leisurely 9:15/mile pace. No GU needed, but I was packing the old CamelBak for the first time in a while. For the week, 30.6 miles, which was pretty good for a vacation trip week.

The rest of Sunday was spent on a trip to Vicksburg to visit with my brother and his wife, who are expecting twins in September. She's on bed rest, so I think she was happy to have visitors to her little gilded cage. They're very excited about the upcoming births, as are we all. It was fun to see them both, and after a lot of family stories had been shared with the kids, we headed back to the 'Wood. More dominoes, (I won, for a change), and that was the last day of the Kaywood adventure.

Weekdays at Kaywood (7/10-13)

During Monday through Thursday at Kaywood, we immediately fell into the very different rhythm of life in the country. I mowed all over the property, using the really cool zero clearance mower that Dad has purchased for those chores. That thang cuts a 5 foot swath through grass that would stop my Lawn Boy home mower dead. I used some shooter's earmuffs that I found to create an acoustic isolation chamber, and that allowed me to listen to hours and hours of music while I worked. I guess I mowed 16-18 hours over those 4 days, and I got all of the work done that that mower is capable of around the property. Once you get the hang of the controls (you have a left and right control, sort of like driving a tank, and you push one or the other hand forward or backward to steer the thing. I only bumped into the deck of the house once while I learned to steer on the job.), it's a lot of fun. It was hot work, and thirsty work, but not too bad otherwise. It is sort of hypnotic out there, rumbling along, listening to tunes, watching the patterns form in the mowed grass.

The kids got to swim, help their grandmother with chores and shopping visits in town, and drove the 4-wheeler around and around the property. For city kids, they fell right into the particular enjoyment of country life. We played a lot of dominos (Mexican Train is our favorite game, but the kids like "Chicken Foot" too.) and watched very little TV, except for the Tour de France. After all that sun and fun, we were all crashing to sleep pretty early.

I planned on running 3 or 4 days during the week, so I set my alarm each morning for 7:05am. Not once during the trip did I have to rely on that. Why? Partly because all those 5:45 and 6:00 am runs with Gazelles have reset my internal clock. Mostly, however, because of the seemingly zillions of birds that commenced their chirping and songs at 6:20 every day. Since I was up anyway, I managed to get out and run on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Those runs were all of the relaxed variety. I had thought I'd do some fartlek type runs, similar in a way to some of Gilbert's pace runs, but I just didn't get inspired to blast the pace on my own. The weather wasn't bad, in the lower 70's, but I still kept the runs around an hour's length. The courses were on the property for the most part, going all over, exploring the grounds, but I did add some miles on Browns Wells Road and Cane Road for variety. It was nice to be able to run without a serious agenda, just checking out our little corner of the world on foot as the countryside woke up. I got chased by 5 different dogs, for varying lengths of distance, but they really weren't interested in biting too much. The folks going to and fro on the roads were friendly enough, although I suspect that I was an odd sight in those parts. Not too many runners in the countryside outside Hazlehurst, MS, I'd say. :-)

I clocked 6.9 miles on Monday, 7.4 miles on Wednesday, and 6.7 miles on Thursday. I averaged around 9:10/mile for the three runs. It was all about enjoying myself and kicking off my days in a pleasant fashion, and I succeeded on that front. The Garmin worked great in the countryside, under heavy tree canopies from time to time, which was good to see.

I had an interesting visit on Tuesday with a local merchant in Hazlehurst. The mower developed a strange symptom on Tuesday morning, failing to start very well, and stalling out. After much differential diagnosis, we discovered that a fuse controlling the "Dead Man's" safety switch had blown. I checked with Mom, and she directed me to Lamar's auto parts emporium in town. I asked about Wal-Mart instead, but she insisted that I would be amused by a visit to Lamar's. With the admonition to introduce myself to him, and with some shaky directions, I was off. I found the store without too much trouble, and went inside for my adventure. Lamar himself finished off a phone call as I came in, and asked me how he could help. I held up the fuse, and he correctly identified it as a 20 amp fuse from a distance. I asked him for three of them, and he went into the racks behind the counter to search. First, he had to turn on the lightbulb hanging on the row. Next, he located the box of 20 amp fuses, and last, he selected three for my purchase. Turning out the light on his way out of the row, he did some "figurin' " on his adding machine (no fancy computerized register in Lamar's place!), and announced $2.18. Correctly figuring that Lamar was a "cash preferred" guy, I made my purchase.

Now, it was going to get interesting. I took that opportunity to introduce myself as "June Sanders' oldest son, Jay," and he commenced to talking. Mom had warned me that this might happen, but I had no idea. People say that I get carried away with talking, but Lamar must hold a black belt in Conversation. :-) He talked about knowing Mom when they were kids. He talked about Mom's brothers and her late mother. That brought up the story of Lamar's adoption from the Children's Home that my grandmother supported in a big way. And that brought up the story of him locating his birth mother after all these years (Lamar is 71 on July 27th, as he told me), through a chance reading of an obituary in the Copiah County Courier. His wife (his second wife, as I soon learned) noticed that a fellow shared a last name that matched the name that appeared on Lamar's birth certificate (it was handwritten, so it was hard to read it clearly). Further investigation involving the post office, long-distance phone calls, and various snail mail correspondence finally got him in contact with his long-lost half sister and two half-brothers, as well as his birth mother, now living in Houston. And, yes, we heard the tale of him travelling to Houston to visit with his newly discovered relatives. All this, and I wasn't really helping out the conversation much.

We finally covered what I thought was the Conversation (there was also mention of his attendance at Dad's 70th birthday party a year ago, Dad's Montana trip, and various other items that I didn't know that Lamar knew). I shook Lamar's hand one last time (I thought), and took the kids out to the car to head back to Kaywood. At that moment, Lamar's wife rolled up with his lunch. Oh, sweet Jesus, no! But, yes, Lamar stopped his wife (Jake and Sarah had disappeared into the car by now) and insisted that she guess who I was. She tentatively said that I didn't look like one of the Russells, and then I was allowed to bail her out. She then commenced with her own conversational barrage, covering Dad's birthday party (again), an invitation to their house while we were in Mississippi (it's the second street after the chicken processing plant, and the second house on the left), and the town orthodontist, who lives in Gallman, just up the road. She finished her presentation by jerking open the door to the truck, scaring the Bejesus out of the kids, who looked at her with goggle-eyed stares as she cooed over them. Impressive.

Finally allowed to leave, my simple 30 minute trip to town had turned into an hour, but it was certainly entertaining. I actually pondered places and people like Lamar in light of Wal-Mart's pervasiveness in small-town America as I drove back to Kaywood. David Wilcox's song "East Asheville Hardware" rang in my head, and I thought about how places like Lamar's were disappearing all over America as those older owners closed shop at the end of their working lives. Hard to compete with all that purchasing and advertising power, but Lamar's store, like so many others like it, are great places to shop. The price was, I'm sure, very competitive, and if I had needed advice on machinery or repairs, Lamar would have given me accurate and useful information on how to proceed with my problem. That wouldn't happen at your typical Mega-Mart. Anyway, it was a very interesting Tuesday!

Tuesday night, we drove down to the bustling city of Brookhaven (pop. 10,000 approx.) to take in a movie. The four of us saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," and it was big fun. It's the first time I've been in a movie theater that was not stadium seating in quite a while, but the popcorn and movie were good, and we had fun. The place was packed, by the way. If the theater in Brookhaven, MS, was full on Tuesday night, then no wonder this movie has made $200M in a flash!

Thursday, my dad drove over from Lufkin, having returned from his annual Montana fly fishing trip, and I went up to Jackson, that thriving metropolis, to pick up Mary Anne at the airport. Dad gave me an "attaboy" for the quality of my mowing skillz, and he even approved of the way that I had taken care of his mowing toy. I'm not allowed to drive the real tractor, which I don't mind, by the way. :-)

So far, so good. No sunburn, no injuries, no bug bites or stings. Success!

Let's Drive to Mississippi (7/8-9)

Last Saturday and Sunday, July 8th and 9th, I drove first to Lufkin, then on to Mississippi with the kids. They got a pretty good deal, being able to ride with all possible entertainment options in the back of the Tahoe (DVD, video games, Game Boys, iPods), while I got to do all the driving. Yee haw. I did conduct an impromptu edition of "Daddy's Music School" on the Austin-Lufkin leg of the journey, though. For some reason, they asked a question about some song, and from there, it was time to tour Daddy's iPod for a continuing string of related music for some two hours. It was pretty funny, because I only came up with two songs that I wanted to share with them that I didn't have on the iPod (I wanted to play them Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" to show where he used Van Halen and Foreigner samples to build those songs. I had previously played the original source music for them.). They were pretty attentive, even when I played them the four (or five) different versions of "All Along The Watchtower," starting with Dylan's original, then Hendrix's amazing cover, then Michael Hedges' solo acoustic, U2's cover and a Dave Matthews Band cover. They agreed that Hendrix really was the real deal. I was a proud father that my children are so perceptive. :-) I think they really decided Jimi could throw down when I did the A/B comparison of Cream's original and Hendrix's cover of "Sunshine of Your Love." The original is great and all, but Hendrix takes it somewhere amazing. Perhaps the most fun was when I got into the 5 or 6 versions of the Mission Impossible theme song that I had available. I guess that's getting way too esoteric, right?

Sunday we made the 6 hour trip to my mother's ancestral homeplace, Kaywood, in central Mississippi. We try to get over there a couple of times a year, and the kids really enjoy it there. Except for the interminable 55 mph drive across Louisiana's state highways, it's a pleasant trip. I caught up on a bunch of Podcasts that I had downloaded on this part of the trip, and the kids ignored that as they turned inward back there in the aft portion of the cabin. Would I do any of the planned runs while I was in the farm country? Stay tuned...

Scenic Loop (7/8/06)

It's time to catch up the Blog after my Mississippi adventure and vacation. The Saturday before I left Austin, I joined the happy herd for the Scenic loop. I had thought that if I felt really sharp, I'd go ahead and do Bonnell. That didn't happen today, but I still had a good run. It was a good crew, and we had some fun over the first 6 miles to the dry cleaners. It was overcast again, which helped with the temperature. Again, without the sun beaming down, the temperature didn't rise too much, but it was still muggy and warm. Oh, well.

We probably had 20 people in tow through that second water stop at the dry cleaners. The Bonnell people peeled off then, leaving us with still 15 people or so. I was the last guy to get water from the dry cleaners, and by the time I finished, everyone had scurried off. Thanks, guys. :-) No runner left behind? I took off after them, and tried to slowly reel them in. We had done a good job on pacing through 6 miles, and I kept the pace about the same for the 7th mile. After that, though, I decided to put the hammer down a little and try to catch the pack. I passed Amy during that span, and ended up with a nice mile or so down Exposition as I closed on everyone else. Of course, when I caught up to them at the last Powerade/GU stop at O. Henry, they were finished and were leaving.

After a cup or two of refreshments, I set out for the fast finish. Gilbert had again requested a FF from O. Henry, and I meant to comply. The first mile is mostly downhill to flat, and although I picked up the pace, it wasn't a super effort to get down to 8:00 pace. From the Mopac bridge, though, it was more serious. I picked it up a little more, and slowly caught up to and passed the rest of my crew (except Leslie, who was ahead of everyone else). I expected others to tag along as I went by, but no one seemed interested in pushing any harder. I'm sure they were moving along quite nicely, thank you, but they weren't into chasing anyone else. I kept chasing Leslie, and finished just a short distance behind her at Auditorium Shores. Job done.

Turns out, I had a pretty spectacular finish! Don't know where these late bursts of speed are coming from, but it's cool to get some results like this. The numbers: 9:39, 9:00, 9:10, .39 miles at 9:06 pace (2:06 Powerade stop), then 9:04, 8:58, and .65 miles at 8:49/mile pace in the Scenic hills (2:27 water/GU stop), 8:50 and 8:18 on Exposition (2:00 Powerade/GU stop), and 8:00, 7:29, 7:33 and 0.21 miles at 7:18/mile pace for a fast finish. Overall, 11.32 miles since they've opened up the old trail (this route was a tenth of a mile longer with the Zilker detour). Average pace 8:36/mile running, 9:12/mile with water stop time included.

Once we got some water at Auditorium Shores, I knocked out 6 striders, and they didn't even suck. Gilbert got all excited then, and we did lots of hopping, balance drills, and other fun stuff before commencing stretching. I think I almost fell asleep a couple of times while stretching, especially when we were doing hamstring stretches with the ropes. For the record, I'm pretty sure my stretch counts were still accurate. :-)

It was a fun day running with friends, and after that, it was time to get home and then start the Mississippi family trip. For the week, 28.7 miles running, and decent gym compliance.

And the Gym...

I didn't have quite as much time as usual, but I still managed to get most of the important stuff done at the gym. I did the core floor exercises and then the plank series. I did 60 seconds on each different plank, 2 sets of each. I'll feel those tomorrow! Since my legs had seemingly gotten increasingly sore and stiff on the drive up from RunTex, I took it easy at first on the leg weights, sticking with 40 lbs on quad extensions and hamstring curls. After that, I did the usual weights and reps on the two different calf raise exercises and leg press. I could tell that my legs need the full day off on Friday, so that I feel great for the long run on Saturday. It was a pretty good workout. Tomorrow is a gym day only, with maybe some easy indoor cycling to warm up. Yee haw!

Welcome to the Jungle

This morning wasn't bad, temperature-wise, but it was maximum humidity time. So, it was a little steamy and jungle-like for our little 7 mile recovery cruise. Nothing new, but it's still special to finish off a run looking like you've run through a sprinkler. :-)

Anyway, Richard, Thon, Frank and I met up at 6:00 for the I-35 loop. After being all excited yesterday about how good I felt after the race, the second day delayed onset soreness jumped on me with a vengeance this morning. That should teach me, huh? I felt fine after a mile or so, but it was a slow start for me. We had fun chatting away, and took a quick stop at Mopac for nice cool water. After that stop, Frank and I found ourselves running away from Thon and Richard for some reason. We weren't intentionally pressing the pace or anything, but it was just a case of folks finding two different versions of what a recovery run was today. No worries.

Frank and I covered all the usual important topics of conversation while we rolled along, and our pace slowly improved all the way to the finish. We didn't blast out any crazy miles, but our last one was 8:39. With the water stop time included, we had a comfortable 9:22/mile pace for the day, right on target. I persuaded Frank to join me for striders, and we did 6 of those. I needed them today to loosen up my legs a little more after the run.

We saw the regular Gazelles returning from their circuitry, and soon caught up with them at RunTex to find out what new tortures Gilbert had dreamed up for them. They were all a little weary after some new circuit items. We got off lucky yesterday with Kenny! After chatting away with the peeps, I took off for the gym. For the day, just over 7 miles.

Fartleks...no, wait...Recovery Run...no, uh...Circuit Training!

There was quite a bit of confusion about this morning's Gazelles get-together. First, Gilbert and Bernard were out of town. Second, I guess Pete, the usual stand-in, was out of town as well. So, Kenny was nice enough to get up early and help our little crew out this morning. Now, on the website, there were two different workouts listed. Originally, the workout was supposed to be fartleks, always fun, with 10 x 3:00 accelerations with 1:00 recovery. That would have been fine, but it was not to be the workout. David told us that Gilbert said on Saturday that if we raced on Tuesday, the workout was a 5 mile recovery run. Okay. And, a second workout on the website (and third possibility) was circuit training at Austin High.

With all that, we also had a very tiny group today. Most of the relay racers were taking a day off, and a lot of people presumably had vacations this week. There might have been a dozen runners. Richard was there along with Colleen and Anne, along with some brand new Gazelles (I think they were, anyway), and a smattering of the usual crew. Once Kenny got there, he announced that the workout was circuit training. All right, I suppose. I could get behind that the day after a little 5k workout. Richard and I were sort of looking forward to fartleks, but we went with the announcement. As we cruised over to AHS, using the short route, I noticed that David and some of his peeps did the recovery option anyway. Good for them.

We got to AHS after a very reasonable warmup, and I was feeling great. No aches or pains, so again, I guess I didn't run hard enough yesterday. :-) Drills drilled, Kenny gave us the workout. We were to do 3-5 circuits, with 400m runs between. I couldn't get around to asking if the more veteran members should do 800's between, so instead, I just went with it again. I did the first couple of 400's with Richard, and then we got off synch for the last two. No worries. The exercises are pretty easy nowadays, and even the lunges weren't too bad today. I had okay pacing on the 400's, somewhere between slow and moderately paced. The 400's were 1:51, 1:58, 1:50, 1:52. Adequate for the workout.

After 4 circuits, we grouped up for 2 x 30 seconds of fast feet. Kenny didn't get the memo that had the beginners stop at 30 seconds and have the rest continue to a minute, but again, it wasn't worth fussing about. I was really drenched upon completion of everything, even though it was overcast and not too hot. That's what mega-humidity will do, I guess.

Richard suggested the long cooldown run, and Colleen and I thought that would be just fine. We had fun chatting on the way back. Now, after we were done (2.73 miles on the return trip), I tried to read my workout history to get an idea of what our pace was coming back. I think my eyesight is failing me a bit, because I thought it reported that we ran at sub 8:00 pace on the cooldown. I got excited at the time, but the more I thought about it, and the fact that we were talking the whole way, I knew something was wrong. It certainly wasn't the watch's fault. :-) I was reading the time of day for each lap (7:12 am, 7:21 am, etc.) as a pace. Oops. It was more like 9:21, 9:01, and .73 at 8:48/mile. That's quite a bit different, right?

Any way you slice it, it was a fun little workout, albeit somewhat easy-going. Ended up with 6.2 miles for the day with all the different bits. Tomorrow, I'll get out there for the recovery 7 miler with the usual crowd, and Saturday will be my last Gazelles workout for a week or so, so I'll try and have fun with something in the 12-13 mile range.

Silicon Labs Relay

Happy Fourth of July! This morning, I ran as a part of a marathon relay team in the Silicon Labs Relay here in Austin. We did this last year, too, and it looks like it may stick as a tradition with us. The team was basically the same as last year (Frank, Amy, Jan and me), with Alex substituting for Patrick this time. Frank had retrieved all the packets and race numbers ahead of time, so we met at 6:00am to distribute those amongst ourselves. After packing our stuff across the Mopac bridge and over to Austin High School, we set up our tent between the school and the track, with a fine vantage point for the whole scene. This year, we had less trouble than last setting up Jan's shade tent, which was a good sign. Frank went to start his warmup with Shannon (who was running on an all-woman's team), and I went over to pick up the timing chips.

The pre-race scene is pretty fun, with all the tent city going up on the football field and around its perimeter, and all the runners milling around or warming up, depending on when their leg was coming up. We got the racing bibs properly distributed and chips handed out, and settled in for a long morning of running and waiting (or waiting and then running, depending on your racing leg). With the sun coming up, but blocked by overcast skies, we were ready to race. There was a really great National Anthem sung by a 13-year old singer (I think I heard that right), and then we all moved to the fence to watch the 12K runners take off. We caught Frank's eye and gave him the old "Go Get 'Em," and at the horn, the relay was on. Noting the time, and Frank's 50 minute estimate for his finish of that leg, we wandered back to our tent village. Shannon's team (with Leslie, Susan, Kim, and Tonya) and the team with Rachel, Brian, Rich, Brad and Michael (a ringer!) had set up camp on either side of our compound, so we had a nice crew surrounding us as the morning wore on.

The relay had 5 legs, a 12K, 10K, 10K, 5K and 5K, in that order. Frank, Shannon and Rich were the leadoff runners. Our team ran about 3:20 last year, so we were hoping to better that this time. We finished 13th in our division (Mixed) last year, and hopefully, we'd sneak up the ladder, there, too. Rich's team was in the Odds and Ends division, which was any grouping of folks not fitting within Men's, Women's, or Mixed (3 men, 2 women). So, at least we wouldn't be directly competing with either of our friendly neighbors!

With lots of time on our hands (especially for those of us running the final 5K leg), we hung out, munched on fruit and snacks, drank water and/or Gatorade, and waited to do our part. As I reported last year, it's strange to be in a race where you don't know exactly when you're starting, so you have to play your pre-race routine by feel to get you to the start line ready to run. Each runner was responsible for knowing the approximate finishing time for the runner ahead of them, so as to be in line for the handoff. It worked just fine today. The race organizers made great improvements this year in the course design, and the handoff routine was much less confusing than last year. That took away a lot of pre-run stress!

I pinned my number on the singlet, and just hung out, chatting away with everyone, and hoping that the cloud cover would stay with us (or, better yet, drizzle or rain for the later legs!). It was steamy for the 12K runners, but mercifully free of blazing sunshine. Christine showed up after a while with Banjo, waiting for Rich to finish. She brought donuts, so she was a popular visitor! Soon enough, Rich, then Frank, then Shannon, all finished their legs in fine fashion, and the first 10K runners were off. Brad and Jan both ran that first 10K leg for the respective teams. Those 12K folks diligently did their post-race cooldown and strides, which was impressive to those of us yet to race. I continued to chug down my quart of Gatorade after my pre-race banana and pineapple, and I was feeling pretty good. A little nervous, because it was a 5K ahead of me, a speedy race, but all in all, I guess I was pretty relaxed.

Alex started his warmup, and we moseyed down to watch Jan finish. The sun was trying to peek through, but the overcast was mostly holding out for us still. My fingers were crossed! Alex was ready for Jan when she cruised across, and took off for our speediest leg. Amy started her warmup routine, and I finally got my running gear on as well. Depending on how Alex did, we had a good shot at a team PR in this event, so we all hoped he did what he expected. By now, the sun was more determined to come out, and I resigned myself to a hot time on the old race course. I was plenty hydrated, so it was mostly a question of plain old discomfort for me. Not as hot and awful as last year's anchor leg, but still pretty tough conditions.

After my last rest period at the tent, it was time to walk down and watch the Alex-Amy handoff. Just before Alex got there, the winning team's anchor runner crossed the finish line. They were only an hour ahead of us. The handoff went great, Amy took off, and with that, I had about 20-24 minutes or so to warmup and get in place myself. I took my pre-race GU, grabbed a water from the post-race area, and went out on the trail to escape the hubbub of the start area for my warmup. I ran about a mile or so, nice and easy, and then on my way back to the start area, I did some strides, sipping on that water in between. A little bit of stretching, a few more strides, and I was as ready as I was going to be for the 5K to come. I moseyed into the corral with the other expectant runners, and saw Michael. We talked a bit, stretched a bit more, and pretty soon, Brian came steaming across and Michael was off. With a few minutes to kill, I spent them getting nervous. :-)

The announcer called out our team number after a bunch of others, but Amy outran those people and I got the handoff ahead of those other folks. Excuse me, pardon me, my teammate is RIGHT THERE. A click of the watch, a grab of the team wristband, and I was away. I ran the race in my new Fila Providence shoes, which are way lighter than my long run Mizunos. I figure they'll be good for shorter races and speedwork, leaving the heavy long run work to the Mizunos. They certainly felt great today! I tried to settle in quickly, with a goal to count all those people that I passed (and those that passed me). That mental work would keep me amused during the anchor leg to come. The sun was beaming down, but what the heck, I could deal with it for a little over 20 minutes, right? Although my legs felt a little rubbery in the first half mile, I soon started passing folks. By the first mile, I had caught and passed 16 runners. I don't know how many were also running the anchor leg (probably not many), but it was fun to pick someone, chase them down, and reload. I grabbed water at the stop, but just poured it over my head.

Mile two was around the CSC buildings, up and around 2nd Street, and then back down Cesar Chavez. This was a loop that is apparently required to appear in every race course in downtown Austin, so there were no surprises today. I caught runners in bunches by this point, given that it was the halfway point of the 5K legs, and mile 4.5 (approx) of the 10K legs. Those that went out too fast were breaking down then, and I was just getting started. Back onto Cesar Chavez, and I was up to 35 runners passed. The course was slightly downhill to flat from there, so I just kept my effort consistent, and rolled along. Another cup of water to cool off my head, and I found new targets. Mile two came and went, and it was time to push for the finish.

Mile three was pretty cool because Woodie was playing guitar under the Lamar bridge. It was nice to see a familiar face when I was feeling the effort of the race. More runners caught. I finally did get passed by a guy in that last mile, but that was the only one. Around the dog pound loop, I only had to hang on for a couple tenths of a mile. A girl stopped to walk, and a guy coming up behind her (and just ahead of me) told her that it was just around the corner, and the girl started running again. That was encouraging to me. Didn't stop me from going around both of them, though. Three seconds of shade under the Cesar Chavez overpass, and then that last hard right hand turn to the final curving path to the finish. I threw down at that point, with just a tiny bit left to run, and set my sights on one last person ahead of me. Just as I was catching her, my teammates and Rich's team were screaming at me to "Go, Go, Go!" With that, I guess I had to finish strong, so I kept the hammer down all the way through the tape. Done! Passed 53 runners, caught by only one.

It was an excellent run for me. I was just a few seconds off my 5K PR, under tougher conditions than that PR race back in April. The splits: 7:20, 7:11, 7:03, and a last .1 kick of 0:35, 5:36 pace! Who knew I could run like that? :-) The team finished in 3:16:14, a 5 minute improvement over last year. Personally, I ran a minute faster over 5K than last year's anchor leg, so that was a big improvement for me, too.

The post-race ice-cold towel that the volunteers draped across my shoulders was totally wonderful! I felt much better within seconds of that post-race treatment. Ahhhhhhh. Made me forget the tough 5K pretty quickly. Scurrying through the food tent, I scored a couple of handfuls of goodies. Oreos, banana, Powerade, water. Yum! After meeting back up with my peeps, it was all smiles. I felt really good afterwards, no big aches or pains, so either I didn't run hard enough, or I ran just right. Either way, I was happy with my day.

We ended up finishing 6th this year in Open Mixed, a big improvement over last year. Shannon's women's team finished 3rd in their division, and Rich's Odds and Ends team finished 2nd in theirs. Nice. After some post-race cooling off and a bunch of snacks, our day was ovah. I didn't do any cooldown in particular, so the walk back to the cars shall count as that activity.

It was another fun day of running, and as always, it was great to share a bit of the holiday with my running friends. Kudos to Captain Frank for getting us organized!

Tour d'Lufkin (Again) - [Entered 7/3/06]

Sunday, after yesterday's travel day, I got up and left the house in Lufkin at 7:00 am for a little running tour of my hometown. I figured I'd go about 90 minutes, wherever that took me. Armed with the iPod and a water bottle of Gatorade, plus a GU, I was off. The GPS synched up quickly, with none of that "Have you moved more than 100 miles from your last location?" stuff. Since this was a visit home, my nutrition wasn't ideal on Saturday, but that didn't end up bothering me too much.

Heading out from my parent's house, I passed that telephone pole that marked the end of the first run I did after returning home from college my sophomore year. I had, uh, issues, and I turned to running to help me work things out. I counted my runs for the first three weeks by how many telephone poles I could run before I had to stop. It was a tough process, but it was not the last time that running has come to my rescue in time of need.

I toured the neighborhood, and then crossed over the loop into the more central parts of Lufkin. The first mile was nice and relaxed as I sort of found my running form, and by the time I had crossed over the loop, I was running well. Today, I kept a casual eye on HR, and just backed off ever so slightly when I was creeping over my low-end long run HR number.

The morning was pretty humid, but it seemed a little cooler than Austin. It was sort of nice for July. Through Chambers Park, up to the old Junior High school, and eventually, I took my one Gatorade/GU break behind my Dad's office. A quick minute later, I was off again into Downtown Lufkin.

As usual, I went by the newspaper, the old library, and checked out all the new businesses or other establishments that have found residence in the quiet downtown shopping district. It's certainly changed since the 70's when I was growing up! I had the streets to myself this fine day. Passing First Baptist Church, I saw the guy unlocking all the gates to the complex, preparing for Sunday services. The marquee at the Civic Center advertised a little concert in a week or two by a host of artists unknown to me. Around the feed stores, past a host of law offices, and around the courthouse, and I was heading back towards home. I noticed that the old hobby shop where I got all my supplies back in the day is now a law office. Sad, that. What a cool store that was for a 10-13 year old boy! Model rocket kits, lanyard stuff, model paints, and all manner of X-Acto knives for building and carving stuff...it was a more innocent time, that's for sure.

Anyway, by the downtown bus depot, and then I noticed something that I should have seen before today. For the first time, I looked up at a building on the corner across the street from the Angelina Hotel (now the Angelina Arms residences), where one of the jewelry/china stores was. I had never noticed that it was also the old Masonic Lodge, apparently on the third floor of the building. It's since been moved, but it's amazing what you see when you're on foot and not driving down the street!

Back by the Lufkin Industries complex, by the tennis courts where I took lessons years ago in the park, and then down Pershing. I had a flashback of the time I had a bicycle/car collision (I was riding the bike) at the intersection of Southwood and Pershing when I was about 13, but shook that off. There's an "e-Cafe" where an ice cream place was, next door to the Lemon Tree hair salon. An Internet cafe in Lufkin? The sign at the old gas station on the other corner there (now a brake place) still shows a gas price of $1.49/gallon. That seems ages ago, doesn't it?

I turned down by Russell's old house (on Russell Street, no less!), remembering his sister practicing her twirling in the driveway with a little cassette player blaring distorted music. No, I had no prurient interest in her...I just remember Cindy out there, with her mother watching over every twirl. And on I went...past the old elementary school. It's expanded now, but that field where our friend Stacy beat all the boys in P.E. footraces is still open for business.

Zig zag, zig zag, past houses of friends and acquaintances innumerable. Lots of those families still live in those homes. Small town life. By this time, I had picked it up a little for a modest fast finish, and cruising up that last hill on Copeland, I was finally having to focus a little on form. Not too much, but a little. A last sweeping turn, and I touched the mailbox for the finish line, as I always did when I lived in that house a lifetime ago.

I took a few walking laps of the two circle driveways across the street from one another, dropping off the Chandler's papers at their front door on the way. It was nice tour of a sleepy town on a sleepy morning. I felt great, and it was the end of a good running week. For the week, 38 miles.

The numbers: 10:00, 9:18, 9:05, 9:00, (Powerade/GU break here), 8:52, 8:56, 8:58, 8:43, 8:23, 0.6 miles at 8:26. Overall pace 9:00 without water stop time, 9:06 with. 9.6 miles. HR numbers were great, too, which was probably the best thing about the run. It felt easy the whole way except for a slight push at the end. 25 songs heard on the iPod.

I'll take Monday off, just because I can, and then it'll be time for the big relay on Tuesday! I hope I hold together for that 5K anchor leg. :-)