Up and Down Shoal Creek [Entered 9/3/06]

Saturday, I set out with the gang for an abbreviated long run. The Chicago folks were going 20-22 miles, and we just didn't need that kind of distance. So, Emily and I banded together for a shorter run in the 12-13 mile range. We'd just choose a spot to turn around which gave us a halfway number that we liked, since the course was out and back. We started in a different spot, just off Robert E. Lee Dr., near the old Wilke parking lot, for a change of pace.

Anyway, we started with the Chicago folks at their 5:30am start time, and I was already on a sleep deficit due to a ragged night of sleep before. The weather was very humid and warm, as it has been, and so I decided to take advantage of all water stops so that I wouldn't suffer a dehydration bonk. We rolled along in the dark with a group of fall marathoners, including Brian, Jan and Brad, and were pleasantly surprised to find a water stop early at O. Henry. We all took advantage of water and Powerade, and moved on.

The chatter was fun, but I sensed that most of the people were being pretty focused since it was going to be a very long morning. Folks weren't quite as happy-go-lucky as they usually are early in a run. Can't blame them much. Up Exposition, then over on 35th, I was struggling a little. I just felt out of sorts, which probably was more due to sleep than anything else. My HR numbers were great, so it was more mental than physical, I think. Anyway, we reached the next water/Powerade stop just north of 35th on Shoal Creek, and we tanked up again. Richard, Thon, and Mike caught up with us at that point, and we took off from that water stop with the big crew.

By now, Emily and I had decided that 12 miles was just fine for the day, so we turned around precisely at 6 miles, to the derisive commentary of the full marathoners. We can take it, my friends! Feeling just a shade guilty, we turned around and enjoyed a nice downhill stretch, which explained some of my discomfort earlier in the run. We caught Mike on the way back, who had turned around about the same spot, but just earlier in time than we did. As we reached the Shoal Creek / 35th water stop one last time, our new trio of runners tanked up for the rest of the return trip home.

We were drenched, but already heading back, I was feeling better and better. Patrick's group of faster runners arrived as we were leaving (they started later than we did), and after a quick exchange of verbosity, we were off again.

We had some fun conversation, which took our minds off of the task at hand. Since we were pretty sure that there wouldn't be water/Powerade for the rest of the run, we made a stop at the Starbucks on Exposition, and they were nice enough to provide a frosty cup of ice and water for each of us. It was so cold that it gave me a brain freeze. Ouch! We were happy to finish up the rolling hills of Exposition soon after that, and grabbed one last drink of water at Mopac. Almost done!

We picked it up slightly for the final stretch, but didn't set any bigtime speed records on our way to the finish. As we finished at the parking lot, we ran up on some sort of musical presentation being filmed outdoors near Barton Springs. Only in Austin...

The numbers weren't inspiring, but we put the work in, nonetheless. Totals were 12.02 miles, average pace 9:21 running, but 10:10/mile including all the water stops. I'll score it as a decent effort.

Emily had to get going, so she headed out. I had plenty of time to wait for the marathoners, since it was just 7:45am, so I took my time. 6 nice striders restored my legs a bit, and then I gratefully consumed my post-run Endurox from my stash in the car. I hung out in the park for a while as they faster people started finishing the long run, and it was pretty relaxing, I must say.

Pete had a super fast run, going most of the way with Bernard, and as he rattled off his splits for the run, I just had to shake my head. Those fast guys are just wired up differently than we are. :-)

Gilbert told me to get the stretching underway, even though all the marathoners weren't back yet. They rolled in by the time we were 10-15 minutes into the routine, and it looked like they had had a pretty good day. Stretching was fun, except for all the little ants that decided to visit us as we stretched.

I joined Brad, Jan, Frank, Alex and Brian for the cold soak at Barton Springs, and it was awesomely refreshing. The total immersion entry into the cold water was, uh, inspiring, but it felt just great once I caught my breath. We laughed a lot as we soaked away, and even saw Rich, Christine and Banjo as they enjoyed the Springs as a family unit. What a nice finish to the day!

800's With the Thursday Peeps

This morning, I joined the Thursday Gazelles for speedwork. It's kinda weird running with another Gazelles group, even though there were some familiar faces in the other (faster) pace pods. I didn't know who to group up with after drills and warmup (I ran over to AHS with Amy and got caught up a little on her summer), and so it was awkward waiting for Gilbert to sort us out. After he got the faster people going (and there's a lot of people in the faster groups on Tu/Th), he finally called for "Jay's group," which I thought was funny. Here I was, a guest runner, and he fell into that habit. Anyway, it was just Amy, a new guy, Mike, and me, in my group. I suggested that we aim for 3:30 per 800m, and Mike and Amy seemed okay with that. And, I figured I'd go for 7 or 8 x 800m today, depending on how I felt. I had done 6x800m a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to do one or two more repeats this session.

Off we went. I led the first one, then Amy, then me again, and we were nicely in range after three. I did the third repeat a little quickly, getting caught up in a faster group that went around us, so Mike led us through number four. It was mostly good, and we seemed to recover pretty well in the 2:00 rest intervals. Amy and Mike did the pace work on number five, in excellent fashion. Amy ran her own pace on number six, and I ended up pulling away from the first, running a pretty comfortable but much faster sixth repeat. Finally, on my own, I did a seventh repeat while most of the people were doing their 200m striders. Gilbert didn't know that's what I was doing, so he barked out a command to "run fast, high knees!" I was able to block that out after a while. :-) Anyway, that last repeat was faster still, so I finished up pretty happy.

The numbers: 3:33, 3:31, 3:23, 3:29, 3:26, 3:19, 3:13. Avg was 3:25, and that 3:13 last repeat was pretty close to a PB for this workout. I was glad to end up with an average pace within a second or two of my best for an 800m workout, and also was glad to increase up to 7 x 800m today.

Amy needed to get back, so we sort of ducked the 200m striders, and ran back to RunTex together. More chatting about Life, The Universe, and Everything (apologies to the late Douglas Adams), and we soon found our way back at RunTex. The cooldown running was fairly aggressively paced, possibly due to the conversational topics. Who knew?

For the day, 7.25 miles, so I'm having a pretty solid training week. I had a good chat with Pete and a few minutes with Alex, as well. Alex had a burning desire to get in his "essential exercises," so he couldn't stay as long as usual.

I shortchanged the stretching, which was bad, so hopefully I won't pay too much for that later.

We're doing the Shoal Creek up and back long run route on Saturday, and those of us running shorter will start with the Chicago people at 5:30am, despite the fact that we'll be done way earlier than they will (it's 20-22 miles for them, 13-14 for us). I'm already looking forward to a cold soak at Barton Springs afterwards, though!

GymStuff

Today was weird, because it was a Wednesday in Austin, and I wasn't out there with my fellow Gazelles knocking down speedwork. Our family schedules required my presence in the morning here, so I took the opportunity to go to the gym instead. It's been a while since I've been, and I really needed to get back in the swing of things. I did a full body workout, and of course, some of the exercises gave me notice that I've missed for a while. Still, it was a refreshing restart to the gym work that is so important. I did 30 minutes of indoor cycling as a warmup, too, instead of a short run, and that seemed to suit the situation as well.

It was a fine workout, but I'm sure I'll be at maximum soreness on Friday as a result of it.

Tomorrow, I'll get to join the Thursday Gazelles for whatever speedwork they're doing (I think it's 800m repeats). Hope I can find a group to pace with!

Recovery Runnin'

I got a chance this morning to join my friends for a little recovery run tour of the Town Lake trail, and it was a nice time. I met up with Alex, Frank, Brian and Lou for a 7 miler, and we had some fun. Just one quick water stop at Mopac, and that was it. Solid running, just over 7 miles at around 9:23/mile pace, including water stop time. Weather was the same old story, but for this workout, it wasn't an issue, really. We told some tales and generally just enjoyed the ride today. We were good boys and did our 6 striders afterwards (Alex went for extra credit and knocked out 8 striders).

I got a chance to hang out with Sean once the Tues/Thurs crew made its way back from doing Zilker 1000m repeats, and it was good to catch up on what he's been doing.

That was the day. Wednesday, I won't be able to run with my usual crew, so I'll go out for another easy run on my own, and will join up with the Thursday bunch for 800m repeats instead.

Return to Pace Running [Entered 8/22/06]

Monday was my first pace run in a very long time. I've missed the others this summer for actual excused reasons, so I'd have to sort of find my way around this time. The marathoners were going the full 10 mile loop, 2 EZ and 8 at pace. I chose to go a little shorter, in the 7-7.5 mile range, with easy 2 and pace for the rest of the run. Instead of doing the I-35 loop, I went ahead and started out with the marathoners, going out to Longhorn Dam and then I'd cut the run shorter by crossing at the Pfluger bridge instead of going all the way to Mopac. How would it go?

It was a smaller crowd today for the pace run, but that's to be expected. We all started jogging our warmup miles when Gilbert stopped us at the Town Lake dinner boat near the Hyatt. That's the exact starting point for 10 miles even, I guess. He gave us a few words of encouragement and we were off. The faster folks weaved around us all within the first half mile, and I sort of settled in a pack with Amy (it was good to see her again after all her weekends of cycling this summer!), Thon, Carrie, Mike and maybe someone else... Anyway, the warmup miles were a little snappier than usual, 2 miles at about 9:12/mile average, but so far, so good. Everyone stopped at the water fountain right at the two mile mark, but I figured I'd go on ahead and get started. There were plenty of places to get a quick drink along the way, after all. I wouldn't be doing their pace anyway, and Amy said she was going to do the 10 mile version, so partly out of embarassment, I became a party of one for this run.

I got off to a little too aggressive of a start, which is to be expected, since I haven't done this workout in a while. Once I saw that first "pace" split, I backed off just a little from there. I got a quick drink at the Holly power plant, and moved on. So far, I felt okay, but the heat and humidity made this pace run a lot different from the ones in the cooler weather! Soon enough, I rolled up on Gilbert and the Powerade/water stop underneath I-35. While I was there, Mike, Carrie and Thon came and went by me. That's okay with me. I tagged along at a distance behind them after that water stop, but they slowly pulled away. My first mile after the water stop was slower, and my legs felt a little dull. Still, I chugged along, and crossed up the spiral ramp at Pfluger, crossed Town Lake, and headed for home. I got a little bit of a quick finish after two lackluster miles coming in, but I'm okay with my performance today. It takes a while to get back in the swing of this workout, after all. Next time, I'll do the full 10 mile route, modifying my pace on the faster bits so that I finish stronger.

The numbers: 9:24, 9:01 (warmup miles), then 7:42, and 0.66 miles at 7:52, (0:28 water stop, a "splash and go" in NASCAR parlance), 7:53 and 0.33 miles at 7:47, (1:07 water/Powerade stop), 8:11, 8:16, and 0.38 miles at 7:43 for a decent finish. 7.37 miles, 8:31/mile pace with the two quick water stops, 8:18/mile without the stops. My pace running was around 7:55/mile without accounting for water stops, 8:15 or so with the stops included. I'll take it.

Once I got to the water coolers at the zero marker, I grabbed a couple cups, and then did a nice easy cooldown lap around Auditorium Shores, which helped a lot. 6 striders after that, and it was a good day's work. I did the full stretching regimen with Lisa and chatted with Alex and some of the troops afterwards as well.

For the day, about 8.5 miles. Now, can I get going on the rest of the week's workouts?

Scenic Loop - Nice and Easy [Entered 8/20/06]

Today we were scheduled for 12-15 miles on the Scenic/Bonnell loop. Marathoners were supposed to do Bonnell, and the rest of us a regular Scenic loop. We got going a little late, just after 6:00, and soon enough, our pace pod had grouped up. Frank's people were off ahead of us, then Liliana with some people, and then us. I think we had Lisa, Susan, Leslie, Brad, Jan, Renee, Brian, Marty, Richard and me. Might have been others, but that's pretty much the list.

Anyway, some of the gang stopped for water at Mopac, but about 5 of us kept going, since Gilbert had put out stuff ahead of us at about the 4 mile mark. At least that's what he said he did. I got a little nervous when the drinks weren't at Red Bud, but relief settled in when we saw the stuff near the boat docks. We tanked up on Powerade and water, and moved on. At that point, the lead pack that I had run with moved ahead, and I ran to the dry cleaners through Scenic with Brad, Jan, Marty, Richard and Brian. We had some fun conversation through the Scenic hills, too. Brad and Jan revealed their evil song selections ("Short People" and the Ooompaloompa song), and I countered with my songlist, which featured, uh, the loneliness of being alone. You had to be there...

When we reached the dry cleaners, Richard and I peeled off, since we were doing "only" the Scenic route. We took on more water and a GU, while the others went off to conquer Mt. Bonnell. From that point on, we were running as a duo, and we enjoyed the rolling hills of 35th Street and Exposition together. I was running pretty relaxed today, and despite the temperature, it didn't feel all that terrible out there. We passed Will and some Galloway people on Exposition, and then we got that last dose of water and Powerade at O. Henry.

Susan and Lisa caught back up with us at the water stop, or were there when we got there, and we started the last 3 mile portion of the journey with them. We pulled away just a little on Lake Austin Blvd, not really starting a fast finish, but picking it up a little. Richard was going to get a last quick cup of water and a dousing under the outdoor shower at Mopac, so I went on ahead there, and commenced a fast finish. I didn't think I had picked it up all that much, but it turned out to be a nice little acceleration for the last 2.3 miles or so. There was some traffic on the trail, as expected, but it wasn't a big problem. I'd like to thank the guy pushing a stroller who I passed with one mile to go. As I went by, I heard his kid saying "We're going to chase you!" That gave me a good laugh. Good finish to the day. Richard pulled in about a minute behind me, so he had a good finish as well.

The numbers: 10:08, 9:30, 9:25, 8:49 (got in with those friskier runners), water/Powerade, then 9:47, 9:29 through the rolling Scenic hills, water/GU at the dry cleaners, then with Richard 9:24, 9:08 down Exposition, water/Powerade at O. Henry, and fast finish at 8:46, 8:08, 7:42, and 0.2 miles at 7:00/mile.

Overall, 11.35 miles at 9:45/mile with water stop time included, more like 9:04 without. Good run. The fast finish was quite good, 8:08/mile pace for the last 3.2 miles, and that's what I like to do on these longer runs. If you can pick it up at the end, then you properly paced the first 75-80% of the run. At least that's my theory. We're running slightly easier in the heat, but that's probably a good idea. I know for sure that the water stops are longer in the summer. Won't it be great when the weather breaks in, oh, October? :-)

Richard and I did 6 striders, and they felt fine today. The stretching was fun, but Gilbert was not in a mood for goofing off, and told people to leave if they weren't going to focus on the task at hand.

I hung out for a while afterwards, catching up with Pete, who just got back from 7 weeks of summer altitude training at his vacation home in Taos, and then talking with Brad, Jan, Brian, Alex and Frank. It was a really nice day of running with the peeps, another day where we laughingly "only" ran 11-14 miles. Now, I need to get back on the full schedule of workouts next week. I've been slacking a little on the gym and recovery runs, and that must be fixed.

Just over 24 miles for the week, which isn't awful since it was all quality running, but I need to get back up over 30 miles per week at a minimum.

2000m Zilker Repeats

I'm finally blogging on the same day as the workout. Again, I make the vow to myself to not get behind on the updates anymore. I will break that vow, of course, but it's fun to make those promises to oneself. :-)

Today, another steamy morning, a huge crowd of Gazelles gathered for the 2000m Zilker repeats. Gilbert was pleased with the turnout. I hope he doesn't take the idea to list a dummy workout on tempo race days to trick people into showing up for that workout in the future! Alex joined us again, and I did the warmup run with him and Leslie, Brian, Rachel and Emily as we made our way over to Zilker. It was quite something to see all of those folks doing the drills. This huge mob weaved this way and that as we did the drill choreography. Without any crashes or falls, we counted ourselves lucky, and finished up our strides up at the top of the Zilker course where Gilbert had set up the water/Powerade station. Gilbert told us that we should do one more repeat than last time, with the first repeat being relaxed, sharpening the pace as we moved through the workout.

We were the third group sent out, and we had a ton of folks cruising along, including Richard, who was back in the fold this morning. That first repeat turned out to be slower than usual for a first repeat. Since I led that one, I have to blame myself. The funny thing was, everyone thought I was going too fast on that first repeat, so we were all off, I guess. 2 minutes of quick rest, and we were off again. Leslie led that second repeat, so I got to follow for a change, which was nice. We picked up the pace on that one, always a good sign. The group was stringing out a little by now as we started repeat number 3. I thought Leslie was leading that repeat, too, but as we ran side by side, she told me that she was following my pace. I think we ended up sort of pushing each other along, and our third repeat was faster than the first two. Nice. We lost a few folks there after the third repeat, but pushed onward for that last loop. It was time for the "run how you feel" lap, and I found myself running on dead legs for the first half mile or so. Brad and Leslie pulled ahead of me, and I was rolling along in third place. I felt better after that, and just locked into Leslie's pace for the rest of the last repeat. I figured that Rachel was probably right on my heels, and didn't want to get passed by anyone else, so I pushed all the way to the finish, glad to be done. Celebrating with water and Gatorade, it was a good set of repeats.

The numbers: 9:01 (7:32 mile pace), 8:44 (7:17 mile pace), 8:33 (7:08 mile pace), and 8:37 (7:11 mile pace). Average repeat 8:44 (7:16 mile pace). Not record paces today, but it was a solid workout in the conditions. By the way, the distance is really 1.2 miles, just short of a true 2000m, so my calculations are based on the true distance.

Gathering up the troops, we had a pretty swift little "cooldown" run back to RunTex. I finished up with Alex, and it was good to talk with him as we ran along. I stuck around for most of the full stretching afterwards, and I had some stiff and sore muscles remaining from the circuit workout on Monday, I think. The running today took a lot of the stiffness out, and the stretching helped finish the job.

For the day, right at 8 miles total distance. This is always a draining workout, and today was no exception. Now, all we have to do is run two of these loops in succession for each leg of the Fila Relays coming up on September 1st. Oh, boy! :-)

Circuit Training, All Jacked Up!

This morning, a large crowd of Gazelles gathered on an exceedingly muggy morning for a circuit training workout that Gilbert thought we needed because our "...core is weak!" He's probably right. Since he had so much fun stuff in mind, he sent us over the shorter way for a warmup. I ran with Alex, and it was fun to catch up a little with what's been going on in GazellesWorld since I was on the regular schedule before Swannanoa. After everyone else arrived at the track, we took the assembled masses through the drills, and were ready to go. Gilbert told us he wanted at least 4 circuits each, with faster/more advanced people doing up to 6 circuits. Just 400m repeats between each circuit, so it was obvious to me that he was much more interested in the exercises than the running today. He also said we didn't have to blast the 400's.

So, already deeply drenched, we set out to be circuit peeps. I slowly picked up the pace for each successive 400, but that first one was really slow. The circuits were the usual stuff, alternating the leg throws and regular crunches, and alternating jumps with the fence squats. Just as I was finishing up with my last (fourth) circuit with my lunges, G called us over for his idea of "fun stuff." I grabbed a quick cup of water, and joined the mob.

We did a long stretch of hopping around on one or two legs, and I'm not sure anyone lasted the whole time on that stuff. Then, we did some new hurdle jump-through deals that ate me up, too. Of course, we also did the static leg lifts series, 2 x 1:00 of "fast feet," planks, and maybe something else that I'm forgetting in my post-exercise delirium. It was a monster workout, as far as I was concerned.

I must have chugged 4 cups of water or Powerade after we were done, and then ran my cooldown with Brian, Colleen and Emily. I stuck around for a good stretching session that was much needed, as well. Even saw the Guv arrive for his morning run with all his assorted bodyguards and bike patrolman. Another typical day at RunTex.

It was a typical low-mileage, high intensity day at the circuits, but as a shared exercise with my running friends, it was really not a terrible thing.

For the day 4.75 miles. My 400's were 2:06, 1:59, 1:59, 1:55. I told you they were relaxed! :-)

Tour d'Austin: Long(er) Run [Entered 8/16/06]

Ah, yes. An early start to the day on Saturday for what was scheduled to be about 13.5 miles of running along the 2006 Freescale Marathon course. My subgroup met down at RunTex at 5:30am, and we had quite a crew. We had a total of 8 people in my truck for the trip up to the start of our run. The Chicago people had left 15 minutes ahead of us, to start some 3 miles further up the track from us, and they'd add more distance at the end as well for something like 20 miles. We figured that by timing it like we did, we'd catch the water stops provided for the Chicago folks, and it looked like, on the course map, that we'd end up with the aforementioned 13.5 miles of easy running.

We had Rachel, Emily, Sally, her friend Emily (the "Other Emily"), Patrick, Liliana, and Ward, a new Gazelle. It was nice to have such a big crowd so early in the morning. We made it up to Gateway without incident, and started running about 10 till 6:00am. Bernard came up behind us to set up their first water stop within our first half mile, but we just kept on moving. Too early to stop, we thought. My first miscalculation was probably in that first mile, because I think it was an extra half mile to get to the 2006 course. Oh, well.

The weather wasn't bad at all today. It was moderately warm, probably 76 degrees, but it never got awful, and I think the humidity was down quite a bit, which made the biggest difference. Nevertheless, proper hydration was firmly in our minds, and we would take some extended water stops today. Better safe than sorry.

We made it through the stretch along Burnett safely, and wound through the industrial park and under 183, onto Shoal Creek. The water stop wasn't where I thought it was, but it was located at the second possible place, so we didn't worry too much. We were still a tidy little mob as we arrived at the water/Powerade stop, and took our time chugging down ample quantities of stuff. I took a GU there, because I could. Some 3:30 later, we were off again. So far, we were taking it easy, and we were all feeling pretty darned good.

Splits miles 1-5.2: 9:58, 9:34, 9:27, 9:13, 8:57, 0.18 at 8:35/mile.

The next stretch went along the railroad tracks, and back onto Shoal Creek, turning onto Hancock, and up those modest little hills that took their toll during the marathon back in February. The second water/Powerade stop was across from Amy's street, like usual, so once again, we didn't have to worry too much. It seemed that we were in the perfect spot for water, just ahead of most of the runners. We saw a bunch of other training groups looping around during this portion of the journey, including some Team In Training people and some Rogue people. I sprung my Song For The Day on the crew in here, The Knack's "My Sharona," but it apparently was too good of a song for it to be annoying to them. I'll try and do better next time. :-) Gilbert's group of superfast Gazelles rolled through us at that second water stop, and he was quite the taskmaster with them, only allowing them a quick drink before moving on. We took our time, and didn't even feel guilty. I took my last GU here, and was already getting nervous about what the final distance would be today. We were already at over 9 miles, and I knew we had 5 miles to go, at least. Best laid plans and all that...

Splits miles 6-9: 9:19, 9:17, 9:12, 9:10. We took a quicker 2:44 water/Powerade/GU stop here, but it was still pretty relaxed.

When we reached Lamar, Sally and the Other Emily headed south to try and cut off some distance for their day. And, Patrick and Ward finally tired of our relaxed pace and pulled away from us heading over to Duval. So, that left Emily, Rachel and Liliana with me for the rest of the morning. Not a bad crowd to be left with, that's for sure. We took turns leading through the long downhill stretch of Duval, and again saw some TnT runners flooding up Duval. It was a busy morning of training groups. We laughed quite a bit as we rolled along, but I was increasingly worried about the distance we were accruing. As we went through the UT campus, we shared our marathon stories. That's the spot in the course, right about mile 20, where you start questioning your ability to finish in style. Anyway, we turned out of campus, and found the last water stop precisely where we thought it would be, just south of MLK. We tanked up one last time, and we even took a Clif Blox or two. By now, we were certain we were going over our planned 13-14 miles, but to everyone's credit, they didn't whine, but instead figured we'd cruise it in, and enjoy the ride. I appreciate the fact that no one was yelling at me about my miscalculation on the promised route distance for the day. :-)

Splits, miles 10-12.7: 9:20, 9:09, 9:26, 0.73 at 9:20/mile. Our last water/Powerade stop was 2:27.

The last couple of miles started with that nasty little climb along the side of the Capitol grounds. We skipped the loop around the Capitol, because we had plenty of miles without that. We decided that the shortest possible route to the finish was to cross Town Lake on the Congress bridge, and then to cut across the Hyatt and Chamber of Commerce parking lots, so that was our path. It worked out great, and I was actually feeling pretty good as we finished up. So, a successful morning of running, and it didn't even turn into a death march. Awesome!

Splits miles 13-14.7: 9:18, 0.82 at 9:08/mile.

Overall we scored 14.73 miles, at an average running pace of 9:19. That overall pace slowed to 9:54 with three long water stops, but given the time of year, this was a nice run. I hadn't run long in 3 weeks, so I was pleased that it worked out comfortably for me, too.

I grabbed my post-run stuff out of Liliana's van, and went on over to Auditorium Shores to do some strides before I changed my mind. 6 strides later, I felt pretty good. My legs were tired, but I wasn't horribly stiff or anything.

The stretching was fun, and I really needed it today. The Chicago folks arrived right as we were starting the stretching session, but I guess they mostly decided to skip the stretching today. They all looked pretty good, considering the distance they covered.

Stretching done, it was time to pack it in for the day. Liliana took Erine and me up to Gateway to retrieve my truck, and then I took Erine on up to Spicewood Springs to get his car. Sort of like a booster rocket, I guess. It was good to see Erine again after his long post-Grandma's running vacation from the Gazelles.

Well, I got in a speedwork session and a long run, but I wasn't so good at getting the other workouts done this week. I'll try to do better next week.

Return to the Herd - 800m Repeats! [Entered 8/15/06]

On Wednesday, after all my baggage claim adventures, I finally returned to the Gazelles Herd. It wasn't too bad out, with the humidity being a little low for a change, and it was great fun to see all the crew again. A nice warmup run started things off, and after drills we were ready for the word.

Gilbert assigned us between 6 and 8 x 800m repeats. 8 for fall marathoners, 6 for the rest of us. He said that we shouldn't be gasping after every 800, except for the last big effort repeat. I had a pretty big crew making the rounds with me. Brad, Emily, Rachel, Renee, Leslie and a new guy...was it Mark? Anyway, we took turns leading, so I did a lot of pacing behind the others. We were aiming for an overall average around 3:30. The laps bounced around a little, but I think we were all fairly comfortable until it was time to blast the last lap. I thought I was way out front on the last (6th) 800, but Brad tracked me down with 200 meters to go and left me in his wake. Still, I scored a PB on the last 800, which was very gratifying after my casual trail running week and Swannanoa vacation. My overall average for 6 repeats was also a PR for this workout, so that's good stuff all around.

The numbers: 3:34, 3:24, 3:29, 3:27, 3:23, 3:08. 3:24 average for 6 x 800.

Gilbert had us do 2 x 200m striders after we were done, and they did help to loosen us up a bit after the hard work. I waited on Frank to finish up his 8x800m, and we ran back to RunTex together. I counted 7 miles for the day. It was nice to be back.

Fly, Fly Away [entered 8/13/06]

Sunday, and it was time for the fun visit to North Carolina to end. We took our time getting going in the morning, and after getting a solid 8 hours' sleep for the first time since last weekend, I felt a lot better. We scored some excellent bagels on the way out of town at a bagelry (was it Brueger's?) near the Biltmore Mansion, and then meandered back towards Charlotte. There were a lot of different ways we could make that journey, but we took the Roads Less Traveled, I think. It was through the hills of Carolina that we went, making a stop in Tryon, NC, for a cool drink (no beer today, please!) and a tour of that friendly little town. "Friendly," indeed. They actually have that on their City Limits signs, "The Friendliest Town in Carolina." While we were waiting to cross a fairly busy street, a car actually stopped and waved us across. There wasn't a pedestrian crossing sign or anything...the driver just was being nice.

That brief walking tour revived me a bit, and then we continued to Charlotte. I got a call on the cell, though, from Delta, and that changed my mood a bit. Seems that they cancelled my scheduled flight from Charlotte to Atlanta. Right then. Grrrrr. They rescheduled me on flights leaving at 6:00am on Monday, arriving Austin at 10:30am, through Cincinnati. Uh, no!

Some muttered expletives later, I got on the phone with friendly Delta representatives while I quickly packed away my guitar in its travel case at Jeff's house. The guy from India was only able to tell me about the Monday flights and couldn't help me figure out a way to get home on Sunday, so he handed me off to someone presumably in this country. After quite a bit of discussion, I made it clear that Monday was far and away my last option. I wanted to try to get home Sunday. He finally was able to get me on a flight out of Charlotte on US Airways, which would arrive at Hartsfield in Atlanta about 20 minutes before my scheduled Delta flight that I had already booked. Even though that would be a tight connection, I was willing to take my chances. Hey, I'm a runner. Surely I could get from one concourse to another in that sort of time frame?

Ah, but it gets better. Jeff and Andy dropped me off at the airport about an hour ahead of my new flight time from Charlotte. I rolled in my guitar in its flight case, along with my other luggage, and joined the long line waiting to check in at US Airways. Charlotte is a big hub for them, maybe even their headquarters airport. I wasn't worrying, yet, because I had plenty of time. After 20 minutes or so, I was the next up, but the gate guy said that I had to be treated specially because of my oversize luggage (the guitar). He asked me my name, and sure enough, found my new reservation. He tagged my bags, including my guitar, and then I discovered, after the bags had disappeared into the luggage carousel, that I only had my ticket to Atlanta. No additional ticket from ATL to Austin. Now, I was alarmed, because my bags were going one way to Atlanta, I had only scant minutes to do anything in ATL, and I also didn't have my connecting flight boarding pass.

I'm afraid that I let some choice expletives fly at this point. Mainly, I was concerned that my bags, including a valuable guitar, were going to hang out in ATL until someone came and stole them. Or, worse yet, they'd be lost forever. Plus, the US Air guy was making noise like I'd have to somehow go all the way over to the Delta kiosks to get my other ticket. Blood pressure rising, I waited as my US Air guy and his supervisor tried to figure out how to reticket my bags (they called down to US Air luggage and allegedly had my bags caught and retagged), and how to get my boarding passes printed. The clock ticking away, I got more and more frustrated. With 25 minutes until my new departure time, I finally had my boarding passes, and I darted off for security. I had time, provided there were no further holdups.

But, of course, there were some of those. The security line wasn't awful, but it was still about 20 minutes to boarding when the TSA lady told me to get in the middle line. Some other guys cut in front in that line, so I decided to go to the shorter line to my right, but she changed us back for some reason. That reason? I had been "randomly selected" for the extra attention treatment. They put me in the clear glass box as they checked my bags with the x-ray machine, and then I had to be wanded, and my bags were hand-checked again and tested for whatever they test for. Now with only 15 minutes to my scheduled departure, I was finally set free. Now, where was gate E18?

Uh, that would be the furthest gate at Charlotte's airport. I ran, I dodged, I ran on people mover sidewalks, I darted down steps, I ran some more, and finally, with less than 10 minutes to departure time, I arrived at my gate. Winded, yes, but just in time to avoid being bumped for standby passengers. I settled in as best as I could on my flight, and tried to relax. I talked music on that flight with my college-aged seatmate, so it wasn't awful. But, I was getting prepared for the sprint through Hartsfield Airport and my 20 minute connection window there. Plus, I was already worried about my luggage making the trip with me.

Miracle of miracles, we got to Atlanta 5 or 10 minutes early, so we got to the gate slightly ahead of time. We all stood up to depart, and things were going okay. Then, a next good thing happened: The flight attendant called out that a military passenger had a 17 minute connection window and needed to get out of the plane's rearmost seats. The people ahead of me parted like the Red Sea, and I took that opportunity to zip out myself, since my connection was about the same. Awesome.

Still, I had just those 20 minutes, and since the ATL-Austin flight was full, I really only had 10 minutes to get to my new gate. That meant getting from Concourse D to Concourse B, quickly. So, it was open field running again, dodging, darting, down an escalator, onto the interterminal underground train. Zip, zip, zip. Bursting out in Concourse B, I ran up the escalator and found my gate was the fourth gate on the left. Panting a little, I got there and saw that the flight was delayed, so I actually had extra time. I had arrived in time to have made my original departure time, though. I made a point of checking in with the gate person, and armed with my clean Delta boarding pass, I made a few calls to tell my peeps that I was getting home tonight. I wouldn't have time for a real dinner, but I grabbed some snacks and gobbled down some quick nourishment while I waited to board.

After all that, that flight was pretty quiet. Except for my worries about my luggage, I at least knew I'd be home more or less on time. I got to Austin about an hour later than scheduled, and made my way down to baggage claim. Uh, no bags. I waited. Still no bags. With the carousel stopped and the oversize luggage belt empty, I checked in with Delta. They, of course, had no record of my bags, but assured me that they'd work with US Air to track my stuff down. Sigh. With visions of hassling and insurance claims in my head, I left the airport and made a rendezvous with Mary Anne and the kids. That worked smoothly, at least.

So, it was a hectic ending to my trip. The much shorter end story is that they found my bags late on Monday, after only four calls to the baggage claim center by me, and they arrived at my door via courier on Tuesday morning. No damage, no nothing, they just took a while to be located and returned to me. There was a happy ending after all! My plans to return to Gazelles on Monday morning were wrecked, but I could deal with that. What a trip! But, I'm still looking forward to going back to Swannanoa in 2007. :-)

Swannanoa Gathering, Part Deux (8/3-8/5) [Entered 8/13/06]

Thursday, I got back out on the running trails with Jeff. By this time, I was realizing that a couple of nighttime beers weren't necessarily a terrible thing. I won't keep that up when I go home, but it wasn't killing my morning runs. :-) We did another two-loop Suicide Ridge run, 4 miles, coming in at 40:36, a one minute improvement over Tuesday. PR! The funny part about the Thursday run was that on our way up the trail to Suicide Ridge, we saw "Michigan Tom" ahead of us. We were breathing pretty hard, and weren't exceptionally stealthy, but Tom was lost in his iPod and didn't know we were stalking him. It was priceless when I tapped him on the shoulder at the top of the entry trail to let us by him. He jumped pretty good for a guy that had just climbed that trail! Tom tagged along with us for our first loop, but ended his running day at that point.

By the way, the Garmin worked flawlessly on all the trail runs, even in the deepest foliage. It tracked dead accurately all the twists and turns of the trail, and I got the same numbers every trail lap. Awesome piece of technology, and I can now recommend it with no reservations. Garmin Forerunner 305. Ask for it by name. The 205, without HR functions, also has the same abilities to track even in the woods. Save your pennies and get one!

Thursday night, we went to the Folk Week Open Mic (night Two of that event), and saw some of our friends perform. The ukulele girls backed up Lorraine, a girl that I met my first year at Swannanoa (this is my seventh year). It was a big hit, needless to say. The mix of songs that I heard during my visit to that Open Mic was pretty balanced. Some funny songs (including a song about "Bob, The Crocodile" that featured some children doing choreography), some gut-wrenching songs (a guy sang a song about his brother flying across the country to "save his life with a guitar" while he was undergoing bypass surgery), and some pretty standard folky stuff. I heard about 10 songs, I guess. Then, I grabbed my uke, and joined the Uke girls and Del for some jamming. We had big fun, roaring through a ton of songs. I'm still learning some of the more exotic chords on the uke, so I was a step behind them at first, but after two hours of playing, I was a lot better at it than I could have expected. This was Lesson 2,134 that Practice Helps. It occurred to me at this point, I'd played more ukulele during this Swannanoa than guitar. Was this a sign of the Apocalypse? Or, just a sign that I was having fun? I'll go with the "fun" option, if you don't mind. I joined in with some singing, too, but closed out my night around 2:00. There was still a lot happening, but I needed a little rest. Just a little. :-)

Friday, I just wasn't fired up about running, so I skipped. Jeff went out, though, and did our 2-loop Suicide Ridge run. He said he ran about 8 minutes slower than we did together, so I felt a lot better about how I'd run earlier in the week. Did I feel guilty about skipping the run? Well, maybe, but I got over it about the time I strummed my first chords in the uke class. :-)

It's always sad to have those last classes on Friday, and this year was no exception. Jeff and I practiced our song for the Guitar Week Open Mic that evening (we did John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" this year) during our break times. I did a three-song performance for Performance class, which was well-received. I didn't even suck. The now-traditional luau came just after dinner, and I joined my fellow ukulele gangsters for a four-song set there. There were probably 80-100 people milling about, so it was fun to show off our new skillz for the assembled mob. The highlight was when we did a traditional bluegrass mandolin song for the people, called "Jackson Stomp," or something like that. It cracked up the mandolin people who were in attendance. Hearing that kind of music played by a squadron of ukulele players was pretty funny. After that, I dashed over to the Guitar Week Open Mic for our performance. True to form, it started 30 minutes late. That's okay with me. Jeff and I played fourth, and we did a good job, I think. By now, I don't get nervous at all at something like that. The audience is largely fellow students, and they all are rooting for you to perform well. You couldn't ask for a better crowd. There were some great performances, and once again, you see how much musical talent there is out there, that you'll probably never hear on the radio. The Bossa Nova Guitar class did a group presentation of two tunes, and that sound was awesome. If they offer that class next year, I've probably got to find a way to take it!

Friday after the Open Mic, we tried to find excuses to stay awake all night, but by 2:30, I was done. It was quieter than normal, and some of the prime late-night instigators had used up their precious stores of energy earlier in the week. Not to worry. For the first time ever, I was going to finish a Swannanoa without blistered fingers or a shredded voice. I have to give that a "thumbs up!"

Saturday, no running. Please. We did make it over for breakfast before the cafeteria closed, though. We said our goodbyes to everyone as they sadly packed up and drove away. Then, since we had some time, we did some hiking down to the Swannanoa River and around campus. Why not? While we waited for Andy to arrive with the Jeep, we took the opportunity to read through a stack of the evaluations that we all fill out at the end of the week. It was funny and interesting to go through those. Amazing how differently, but at the same time similarly, we all viewed the week's activities. Andy got there around noon, and we loaded up our stuff, and left campus. Jeff and I were pretty tired by now, with the end of the week crashing down around us. We went into Asheville and checked into our hotel, and then hiked around Asheville for a bit, including a visit to a great local bookstore for an afternoon pastry snack. We visited the Thomas Wolfe museum and home, too. Wolfe wrote some Important Books, including "Look Homeward, Angel," that we read last year before Swannanoa. Asheville was his homeplace and the thinly veiled setting for most of his writing.

I dozed off a couple of times during the short film on Wolfe's life, and I think every time we stood still for more than 30 seconds, I started dropping off, too. The tour of his home was actually pretty interesting, and we had a great tour guide. The guy really knew his stuff. We quizzed him afterwards on a variety of topics, and I think he was excited to find some people who actually knew the book.

Running on fumes, we went to Barley's Taproom, which is a great pub and pizza place that we usually visit while in Asheville. Jeff and Andy had their usual 4 ingredient creation, and I had a couple of huge slices of jerk chicken pizza. That's good eats, my friends! I had two or three increasingly dark beers, ending with an Oatmeal Porter. Feeling pretty buzzy, I figured we were done. Oh, no. Jeff ordered a round of Trappist Ales to finish off the evening. Those bad boys were 10% alcohol content as opposed to the 5% that the other beers featured. And, the flavors were so complex that it's hard for me to describe them. However, it was a great LAST beer. You would almost waste it if you started with such a drink. Given our fatigued state, it was a good thing that our hotel was in downtown Asheville. No driving for us!

We strolled around downtown, took in the sights and people-watching, and after a while, it was time to crash and burn. We were all asleep within, oh, 30 seconds of hitting the bed. It might have been as late as 11:00pm, but that would be a maximum. We slept the sleep of the just and the overly served. What a week! :-) Post-Swannanoa Depression Syndrome (PSDS) had set in, but we were delaying its full effects by not leaving Asheville right after camp was over. Crafty strategy, that.

Swannanoa Gathering , Part I (7/31-8/2) [Entered 8/13/06]

Man, it's hard to explain how much I love coming to the Swannanoa Gathering every year! For a full week, I get to hang out with people who love music as much as I do, with dozens of possible playing partners and harmony singers lurking behind every corner of the campus. We take classes during the day, four of them each day, and get to immerse ourselves in some sort of acoustic guitar (or other instruments, as you shall see) classes for a full week. You take your meals on campus at a pretty standard college cafeteria, and at night, you have a variety of concert events and open mics to sample. Plus, you can stay up as late as you can stand it, to listen and play all sorts of music all night long. Awesome.

Jeff and I try to get in some trail running to start our days, though. Let the record show that most of our fellow campers aren't even awake by the time we get back to the dorm after a run. They look at us like we're aliens or something. Maybe we are? :-) The trail we like the most is called Suicide Ridge. Now, it has its ups and downs, but "suicide?," I'm not so sure it was aptly named. The toughest part of it, really, is the rather steep and nasty climb up a series of switchbacks to get up on the trail proper. Once up there, we make some number of loops of the Ridge trail itself, before calling it a morning, and heading back to campus.

Monday, we were out the door at 6:30am, and started out with a short loop around the campus. Then, across the nice bridge, over to the other side of campus, around the chapel, past the President's house (College President, not "W"), down a little road and some little houses, finally reaching the trailhead. I was interested to find out how the new Garmin would do in the deeply forested woods and the twisty trail. We've always just guessed in the past as to how far the run was. This year, I hoped to nail it down a little better.

We ran side by side to the trailhead, and then Jeff "let" me lead on the trail proper. I've always suspected it was so that my taller frame would take down all the spider webs on the trail. Jeff is a faster runner than me, so I'm sure I wasn't out in front to set a solid pace. :-) The campus is at about 3000 ft elevation, so I'll count these runs as "altitude training." Up the trail we went. I set a good pace, and this year, I didn't even walk on this part of the trail. Good for me. Maybe I am in better shape this year? Huffing and puffing a bit, we reached the top of the entry trail, and turned onto Suicide Ridge proper. Jeff dropped back once we got on the main loop up there, presumably so that in case I fell, he wouldn't crash, too.

It's really beautiful running on these trails, away from everything, with nothing but our footfalls, our breathing, and the sounds of the forest waking up to break the silence. I sailed along, having fun, as we carefully zipped down the twisty backside of the trail, then up and down, and finally up a steady uphill finish to the end of the first loop. Jeff showed no desire to lead the second loop, so after a quick conference to make sure we were doing another, I led out on lap two. More of the same, really, but when we got to the end of that loop, I needed a quick breather. Jeff was looking to put in more miles than I was on Monday, so he went on for lap three.

I took 30 seconds to catch my breath, and then, mainly because I felt a little silly about stopping, I ran "backwards," or clockwise, on the trail. I turned around after about a half mile, and finished up my third lap just ahead of Jeff as he came around. He continued for lap 4, and again, after a brief rest, I headed backwards on the trail for a hill repeat or two. After a couple of those, I waited on Jeff to finish his last lap.

Soon enough, he appeared through the darkness of the forest primeval (ooohh, poetic, huh?), and we headed down and back to campus. Retracing our steps, we finished by cruising up the hilly loop around our dorm. I scored about 5.2 miles for the day, at an average pace around 10:00/mile. Considering the terrain, that's probably about right. I was certainly working hard. Jeff had just over 6 miles for his day.

With the rest of campus stirring out of its stupor, we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I hoped to get three runs in during camp, four at the max. So this was a good start.

After a huge breakfast (why is it that I only eat a substantial breakfast when I'm not at home?), we made our way to the morning classes. My first class was the one I was most excited about, Fingerstyle Ukulele. Yeah, I know. Isn't the uke that goofy little strummy instrument that Tiny Tim played on "Tiptoe Through the Tulips?" Yep. But, you haven't heard what Del Rey, our teacher, can do on this tiny package of musical fun. We had 10 people in our class, some of them armed with more than one uke. Serious ukesters, it seems. The first day of class was huge fun. I mean, how can you be in a bad mood when your day starts with the sound of a class full of ukulele players? Songwriting was the usual deal. Part group therapy, part literary soul-searching, and part "search your feelings." We didn't have anyone in the class with obvious psychotic tendencies, so I felt good about the week there. Believe me, this isn't always the case with a songwriting class. :-)

Lunchtime was spent with Jeff and some of our old friends at Swannanoa, and after a quick visit to check e-mail, Jeff and I practiced some songs together during the rest of the lunch break. My afternoon classes were Swing Guitar Improv and a Performance class. Swing guitar was fun, as usual. I just love playing those chords. The Performance class would spend the week talking about stage fright, repertoire, set lists, and we'd get to perform in front of our fellow classmates before the week was over. The teacher was a laid-back sort of guy, so I felt good about that class, too.

Dinner, and then it was time for the Guitar Week staff concert. Our teachers only got one song each to show us what they do in a full concert setting, but there was some spectacular playing on stage! The highlights were many, but my favorite moment was when my ukulele teacher, Del Rey, and her musical pal showed off their act. She was just shredding on the uke while Steve James, a fine blues guitarist and singer, pounded out the rhythm behind her. It was just great!

Anyway, we mostly hung out that night too, after the concert, had the usual beer or two (I stuck with Gaelic Ale on Monday), and again, checked back into the dorm around midnight. Amazing restraint, I'd say.

Tuesday morning, Jeff and I headed out again for Suicide Ridge. This time, we only did two loops of the Ridge each, and finished the whole run together. Jeff said that I was running plenty fast, so that was an encouraging thing to hear. We scored almost exactly 4 miles on Tuesday, just over 41 minutes. Our last mile was 8:45 pace, though, so you can see what the trail running portion must have been like. While out on our first loop, by the way, we passed Tom, a guy from Michigan, coming up the other way. We'd see him again later in the week...foreshadowing. :-)

Classes on Tuesday were about the same. I felt pretty frisky all day long, except for a short sinking spell after lunch settled in. I managed to snap out of my mini-slumber before it was a problem, though. Tuesday night didn't have a scheduled staff concert, so we had the evening to ourselves. The ukulele girls (my classmates) were jamming away that night, and it was funny to watch them draw fellow campers like moths to a flame. We did some singing that night and some playing, but again managed to get back to the dorm by 1:00 or so.

We took a scheduled day off of running on Wednesday, and interestingly enough, I felt more sluggish that day than the first two days. Could there be a link? The ukulele girls (I can't print the name that they gave themselves, but it was funny) were hurting in class on Wednesday. They all wore their shades, inside, for the whole class that day. Funny. Jeff and I performed for a class learning Orkney tuning, with an arrangement we did in that tuning for two guitars and two voices. That teacher, Steve Baughman, is a pal of ours by now, and he always invites us to sing for his class to show some of what you can do with that tuning. It's always a pleasure to be able to do that, to sort of be a Stunt Guitarist for a brief moment. (For you Guitarists, that's CGDGCD, tuning big string to little string). That night, we had the Folk Week (singer/songwriter) staff concert, and although it was pretty good, there weren't as many "Wow!" moments as in past years.

We turned in again before 1:00, deciding to intentionally avoid the manic late-night jam-a-thon that was building before our ears.

So, midway through Swannanoa 2006, my fingers didn't hurt, I hadn't lost my voice yet, and I wasn't a walking musical zombie. Was this a Good Thing, or a sign that I'm becoming a fuddy-duddy? The jury was still out on these questions... :-)