Running South

Today we started at NW Park.  As always hot and humid was on the menu.  My shorts were dripping by mile 6.  Ran with Karen, Brandon, and James.  Everyone in our group is carrying hand held water just to survive between the water stops.  Ran past Team Rogue on Duval.

Uneventful run for the most part but I chose not to pick up the pace on the last 2 miles today as Brandon was really suffering and I felt it smarter to make sure he made it back in one piece.  So a little slow today but I felt comfortable the whole way.

Interupted sleep

Jeez, I make every effort to get a good nights sleep only to have
meesha galloping around all night meowing. Eventually I got up and
tossed her outside. That lasted an hour and then she's scratching on
the door wanting in. I think she was hungry and not willing to eat
what was left on her plate. I am not about to start feeding my pets in
the middle of the night. She has unbelievable energy for a cat that is
losing about 1/2 a pound a month no matter how much she eats. Right
now she's napping so she will be all rested for a repeat performance
tonight.

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Surprise

I had planned to try and get to the AM run today since it was going to 105 degrees today.  Unfortunately that plan fell through as it was too busy at work and we were down one nurse.  I figured it would be another death march like Tuesday.  Karen sent out an email starting the run at 6:30 instead of 6:15.  Temps were 105 with 25% humidity at the start.  Started out at an easy pace up North Hills.   Let Karen, Debbie and Jim go ahead and tucked in with James to maintain an easy pace.  Mile 4 involved a long gradual up hill - I settled into a conservative pace and let James go.  Mid way up the hill, my climbing legs kicked in and I passed James and started gaining on the other 3.  Tried to be patient as we were only half way through the run.  Passed Debbie with authority on North Hills and let Jim and Karen hammer to the mile 5 water stop.  After a quick refill of my water bottle we headed back out up North Hills.  I was patient and put a little hurt on Jim as we neared the top.  My overall goal was to have the last 2 miles be my fastest 2.  Granted the last 2 miles are flat to downhill but if you're trashed, you're trashed.  Jim caught back up on Greystone and every time I picked up the pace he was right there.  I checked my garmin and I was right where I should have been so I locked into my pace...I did not let myself get sucked into a foot race and let him go.  Last 2 miles 8:02 and 7:57.  Woo, hoo!!  Did my strides and core workout.  Feeling great!!  Oh yeah...it was 99 degrees as I drove home at 8:30.

Drained

Ran our 8 mile group run this afternoon. I started slow and continued slow for pretty much the whole run. I ran from shady patch to shady patch and carried water. I crawled up the one long gradual hill. I am a little worried about the 8 mile climb at 6500 ft in New Mexico in September. At least it will be in the 50's...or so they say. In the end, I managed to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles and turned a shamefully slow run into a slow run with a decent finish. I was so beat at the end, I could barely enjoy my popsicle or do the core workout. My heart rate was still in the 80's at 9:30pm and my BP was a little low. I'm working on hydrating but I'm not hungry or thirsty. I need an IV. It is interesting in how on Tuesday and Thursday evenings it is a survival run with a lot of people running on their own with earphones. On the cooler Sat AM's, more people run together and seem chattier.
AM going to try and run 40 min when I get home in the morning to avoid another 100+ degree run. Try is the operative word.

Saturday run

Started from our new location again today.  Karen has started adding in hills again.  Nothing major but some steep downs and long climbs up.  It was warm and humid but managable because there was good cloud cover.  Ran 16.3 miles at 8:30 pace.  Able to push the pace at the end although I opened it up a little soon and we had a couple of steep ups that are a huge disadvantage for me.  However, gradual downhills and flat are my friends.  I felt strong and smooth on those parts and was able to drop the pace significantly towards the end.

Ran with Karen the whole way as she believes I can create pace control for her at the start.  Our first 2 miles were 8:35 and 8:18 so I failed.  She was also grumbling by the end so next time I'll slow down more at the start and open it up at the end.  However, she has to slow down when I do or it's pointless!

Concrete or not, I am looking forward to Houston...I think it will be a good race for me.

coincidence??

I think not.  I don't know anything about computers or broadband but I have quite a bit of trouble with my broadband service out here in the sticks.  Just this morning and for the last few weeks, I have had no service hence the number of posts via iPhone.  So I called and grumbled today.  They said something about a service fee and since I don't pay for this service I said I would have to check with my landlord.  Turns out she was in Dallas all day so likely didn't get the email  Strangely enough, with no actual physical intervention on the broadband people's part, I seem to have great service now.  Let's see how long it lasts.  

My version of...

...you won't get it if you don't ask. I was at Pet co. buying cat and
dog food and I see on one brand (Wellness) if you buy a 12lb bag of
dry cat food you get 6 cans of high $ catfood free. My cat doesn't eat
Wellness brand dry food but my dog does. So I ask the manager if I can
have the free cat food anyway since I'm buying the dog food. She says
sure. Yay, free cat food.

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Wednesday and Thursday

I was too tired to face running in 100 degree temps on Wed. So I
didn't. Slept extra instead.
Thurs I left work 2 hrs early and did the 5:15 am run. What an amazing
difference. My legs felt like the had turbo boosters on them. I
carried water with me and other than a very quick potty break at mile
5 did not stop. Ended up with a nice solid 10 miles with a speedy last
1/4 mile. What I did learn was how I feel at that effort. On the days
I have to run in the heat, I will put out that amount of effort.
Now I'm waiting on getting my monthly massage. I'm tired so it will
probably end up being a nap.
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Tuesday run

That is the temp gauge in my car on my way to our lovely 6:15 pm run
on Tuesday. It sucked. What is remarkable to me is that apparently
some people are immune to triple digit temps and can run well when it
is super hot.

Oops

I finally got my macro schedule for the summer...problem is, I can't seem to read the numbers right. Did 12 miles on Sat only to find out when I got home, it should have been 14!
We started from a new location and had a great run up around Duval, Jollyville and all the nice shady neighborhoods in that area. It was very humid but after running in the afternoons all week, the heat wasn't really a factor. I ran smart - ran strong for the first few miles and then settled into a more conservative pace for about 3 miles and then picked up the pace for the last half. Felt really strong all the way to the finish.
Went for breakfast tacos afterwards and then enjoyed a lengthy nap! I have noticed that a significant portion of my days off work are spent sleeping now that I am back in the groove with the running.

Thinking

Ran 8 miles in 95 degree heat and 55% humidity yesterday. Karen has
started adding hills. I was out of sorts a little. Tired, not making
great food choices (a bowl of cereal and a veggie breakfast patty
doesn't seem right) and slightly cranky. I felt good until about mile
5 and then it turned into work. I am still happy with my overall pace
and sucked it up when I wasn't having a great run at the end. I am
doing well with the hydration. Already on 2nd liter for the day.
Averaging 4 liters every day.
I am enjoying reading the triathlon blogs. I'm thinking - could I do
one? I know I can but do I want to? Not sure an ironman is in the
cards at this point due to time constraints. A half - absolutely. May
make the longhorn half my goal race next year.

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Heart rate

So to entertain myself, I am going to run with my heart rate monitor and keep track of variables such as temp/wind/humidity and my average heart rate and pace. Tuesday I did 6 miles on a relatively flat course. I was not wearing my heart rate moniter but I guarentee you my heart was way higher than it should have been. My pace was 8:24/mile. It was about 95 degrees with no wind. Wednesday I ran 30 min with the monitor and tried to keep my heart rate below 150bpm. At the end of the run the average pace was 8:48 and average HR was 149. It was 95 degrees or so and quite windy. I will wear the monitor on Thurs PM and see what happens when I run in a group. I expect the conditions to be similar.

Today one of the buttons on the stupid wrist band broke and although I can still make it work, it pushes me closer to buying a Garmin with integrated HR monitor.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good on the runs and am determined to try not to fall into the same rut I was in last year. Not sure if I can but I'll try.

Have a couple of conflicts with the long runs this summer but I think I will sacrifice one long run and one morning of a horse show. Will talk to Karen about it so she has no reason to get bent out of shape.

Butt kicking

It appears Karen surfs the net in her idle time. She sent me a nasty
little email about the evils of even running a slow 5K during base
phase. It irritated me little. I know why she doesn't want us doing
extracurricular activities like that but I haven't received a paycheck
from her or Rogue yet and I'm an adult.
Probably woundnt have bothered me as much if I wasn't feeling like I
was on the verge of being screwed by my work as far as my schedule
goes as well.

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Fun times

Today I ran the Run for the Heros 5K.  I work for the Travis Co. Sheriffs Dept so I ran representing them and Rogue.  Since we are in base phase, I took it easy and ran HMGP.  The race was at SouthPark Meadows and in my opinion it was not that great of a course.  Way to many turns.  However, the race was secondary.  I wanted to support the Sheriff's team and APD who put on the race.  The race was won by Allison who works at Rogue.  I ended up 3rd open woman.  The Sheriff was pumped to see one of his people  get an award.  I think I posed for more pictures than Kara Goucher did at Boston!  Actually lots of TCSO people did well over all.  I talked with the Sheriff about the marathons and he actually asked more than once if I ran the whole way.  I'll give him bonus points for knowing how many miles are in a marathon.  He seemed motivated by the performance of his people to step up his training.  Overall good times.   Ended up doing around 5 miles total.

6:17

Thats the time I woke up.  6:30.  That's the time the run started.  I've done this before so I didn't panic, made a call so I would have turn by turns available, took care of Silver dog and drove down to the start.  Today breakfast consisted of 12oz of Accelerade.  I was only running 10 miles today but i took a GU just in case I got a low blood sugar attack.  Started with an easy first mile and then busted the run out.  Averaged 8:17.  As Karen said afterwards: perfect.  The last 2 miles were a little uncomfortable but I was able to maintain my form and slowed up just a little.  Did our new core routine and stretched.  Amazing how pleasant it is doing this at NorthWest park in the sunshine and warmth compared to chilly windy winter days.

I'm looking forward to next week when I'll run with the group.  As for today, I'm going to buy an alarm clock that works :) and visit a friend who essentially is my adopted grandmother.  She is the mother in law of the person I take my jumping lessons with.  She took care of Riley while he was laid up.  I just heard she is back to riding some horses around her ranch!!  Great news.  She is 80+ years old, has emphysema and is blind in one eye.  I hope I can still ride when I'm over 80.

It's not easy but you can do it!

I just finished reading Priscilla's blog.  Here's my version of "if I can do it so can you...".

I ran in high school and college - wasn't great but I got it done.  After college I did mountain bike and road racing for a mind numbing 10+ years.  Then I sat on my butt and got fat while riding horses.

When I decided to lose weight I knew I would have to exercise.  I figured my running days were over but surely I could walk.  Walked 3 then 5 then 7 and finally 10 miles at Town Lake.  Just like Priscilla, I'm not a fan of the trail.  Then I decided walking took too long.  So I tried running.  First 30 seconds and then slowly but surely building up to 3 miles.  By the time the summer was over, I could run 10 miles slowly, I had done a free Rogue program for the Lance Armstrong 10K and joined Rogue to do the AT&T marathon.  

I had no idea what I was getting into and after we did the 2 mile time trial and my predicted time was 3:50 (my BQ time) I decided no matter what I would qualify for Boston.  Tons of people said no way.  When I finished Steve promptly said "beginners luck" - this was about 10 seconds after I crossed the finish line.

At that point, I had no idea how hard qualifying for Boston was for a lot of people, I figured that if I could, it couldn't be that hard.  I have developed a huge respect for those people because I have tried 3 times to break 3:30 and haven't done it yet.

Today, I was picking up my race number for the Run for the Heros and I was talking to a lady who had run the Austin Marathon 2 years ago.  We talked about Boston and she said there was no way she could qualify.  I told her that it would not be easy but that if she worked at it, some day, she too could qualify.

Another amazing thing happened today.  I ran Tues, Wed and Thurs this week - had an excellent run yesterday.  I felt great today - positive, limber and rode my horse better than ever.  This was after 6 weeks of dreading starting back up.  Right now, I'm looking forward to each and every run and will take the crappy runs with a smile instead of beating myself up.

Cooler

Surprising what a north wind does.  It was cooler for our PM run yesterday...quite nice out actually.   I ran 6 miles with Karen and Jim.  Best part - Karen had to repeatedly tell me to slow down in the last few miles.  Averaged 8:02.  I'm feeling good and karen actually wants us to go just a hair slower so that is good.  Used my heart rate monitor and even when we were running 7:50's my heart rate was 148-155.  Better than I thought.

Riley looks like he is losing some weight - likely because it's hot and food is his lowest priority.  He likes grass and that's about it.  You just can't live on grass in this part of Texas.  Slight possibility he has a stomach ulcer so I am going to try him on an antacid.  If he does better he will get the high dollar ulcer treatment and then stay on antacids.  However, he doesn't fit the profile of  a horse with an ulcer.  He lives outside, has hay/grass available 24/7, eats very little grain and generally lives a stress free life.  Oh well, I may just have to have a skinny horse over the summer.

100 degrees

Whew. It was too hot today for the run. OK in the shade but unbearable
when the sun was beating down on my head. Thankfully we only had to
run 6 miles and my Garmin said 5.59. Worked for me. I felt a little
nauseous and lightheaded but got the run done at a respectable pace.
Did 5 strides and a new core w/o which I am going to have to work at
at home. Got some motivation from the group today which is good. Need
to readjust my food and sleep to running.
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