THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

8:46 AP.  Early morning run through the campsites so it was nice and cool but I was still creaky and sore from Saturday's run plus all the battering from tubing and it took a while before I even ran any miles underneath 9 minutes.  I'm glad I ran though, my weekend dietary sins were numerous.  Eggs and pancakes from the campfire every morning, grilled meat and chips at lunches and dinners, and a shameful number of smores.  I don't even want to think about how many of those I ate!  The kids and us had a BLAST though and everyone is sunburned and worn out and has lots of stories to tell and adventures to rehash!

8:13 AP.  I got my treadmill today, finally, and....since they didn't have the one I ordered in stock, they gave me the upgraded version with the bigger motor!  SWEET!  So, I got the treadmill I couldn't afford haha!  I forgot how hard treadmill running was.  I broke it in using various paces to see how they felt.  8:30 pace was alright but felt faster, 7:30 pace felt harder than it should, 6:40 pace was downright exruciating, 6:00 pace felt like a dead sprint.  Doing speedwork on it will definitely challenge me but I am up for the challenge!  If it will make me fitter and faster than so be it!

8:25 AP.  Decided to try out some heat running tips I read about online.  I wore: loose orange shorts, long-sleeved loose white technical t-shirt(the long sleeves seem very counter-intuitive). pink hat, sunglasses, and red bandanna with ice cubes in it tied around my neck.  Off into the heat of the day at 1:00 I went at 88 degrees and  49% humidity.  I am sure my get-up turned some heads. Ran 5.42 at 8:26 AP.  While I would not call this run comfortable, I was surprisingly not as miserable as I have been in the heat.  I ran straight into the house, stripping down to top and shorts as I went, and stopped to chug some water before hopping onto the treadmill in my cool basement for 4.4 at 8:24 AP.  Geez treadmill running is mentally taxing.  Sprinted the last bit at 6:00 pace imagining myself crossing the finish line of a marathon in 2:59.  I am a total dork.

8:16 AP.  Only 72 degrees this am, but a stifling 80% humidity.  I decided to do a little tempo and speed anyway, since it is still better than 88 degrees at noon. I went based off effort and tried to be concerned about the less-than-optimal pace results. Within 10 minutes of starting the sweat was pouring off of me and it felt like there was a layer of syrup on my skin. I will probably whimper and whine in my blog all summer long about heat and humidity.

2 miles warm-up 9:19, 8:49 nope it's not going to be a fast day

2 miles fantasy Houston marathon pace effort 6:59, 7:01

2 miles easy 8:45, 9:03

.26 at 6:01 pace

.23 recovery 9:43 pace

.29 at 6:00 pace

Alright had enough need water bad

1.22 cool down sloooow

I am thinking of structuring my weeks something like this for a while:

MWF easy miles, more or less 10 a day; Tuesdays hills or speed, speed is my week point, time to smell the roses and make myself do it, Thursdays FHP(fantasy houston pace) or some other form of tempo or steady state running, Saturday is long run day.  I figure as time goes on and I at some point get close to January I will start a more focused and rigorous marathon training plan

pm--5 miles easy on the treadmill at 8:44 pace.  I just had to know if speedwork would throw me off the back though.  I did a few .1 to .2 sprints at 6:00 pace, then got brave and did a brief run at 5:27 pace and stayed on, so then, I finally cranked it up all the way to 5:00 pace and did not get thrown.  Good to know.

8:56 AP on the treadmill.  Nice and easy shake out jog before the trail race tomorrow while I watched my husband and a few kids do a military workout video.  It looked pretty tough.  The course tomorrow has supposedly gotten really muddy and buggy and it is supposed to reach 96 degrees, although it should only hit about 80 during the race, but the humidity will be thick all morning.  Glad it is only 13.1 miles--thinking of Julie doing 50 tomorrow!

Yowza!  A tough course but I knew it would be, so planned accordingly to just have fun with it and enjoy nature.  In the spirit of it all I ran without watch or mp3 player.  I started way in the back of the pack.  It started right on the trail so I had to run slowly for about a quarter mile before we hit the dam, and stormed it--right up the side, steep!  After  what felt like a near-vertical climb we hit the top of the dam and I was able to reach comfortable cruising speed and pass some folks.  This didn't last long.  We hit the horse trail--just a swathe through the praire out in the baking heat and humidity and the holes, oh the holes.  A girl biffed right in front of me.  I stopped and made sure she was okay and got up before moving on.  Not too much later somebody fell and was crying pretty far behind me--rumor has it she broke her ankle but I don't know.  Anyways we all struggled in the holes; whenever I passed someone I wished them happy ankles--we were all in the same boat here.  There where places where the trail would smooth out a bit and I would try to make up some time.  At each aid station I stopped, dumped water over my head, drank a cup of gatorade, thanked the volunteers, and then moved on.  It was super hot but I didn't get crampy or nauseous so I was happy.  Finally, toward the end, we hit concrete for a while.  I saw it and thought it would feel good to get on the smoothness, but oh no!  It hurt.  My legs and feet were pulverized and the concrete was too hard.  Finally we turned into the last wooded portion with shade(ahhh) and soft trail, real trail, not horse trail.  Now this I liked!  It was very narrow and it ricocheted up and down but no horse holes and I got to jump over some logs.  Then we came out of the woods, ran through a campsite, and then down a track of grass to the finish.  Good workout!  Ran a personal worse as far as a half-marathon time but totally acceptable with the nature of the course.  I will be sore from this one!  I'm totally glad I ran it without pressure or need to race or place and just enjoyed it!  I am thinking about a 50k, a real trail run, pycho wycho, in July--this is kinda fun!