M'kay

13.1 in 1:36:02, 7:20/mi, HR 175. 

Another hot weather race with hills.  Went into this race with fewer expectations than normal since I'm just getting back into base building after May's marathon.  I figured I'd at least beat my time here last year although this year's route was brand new.  As it turned out, I ran slower than last year but I think the course was harder and the temps were definitely higher.  Start temps were close to 70F and warmer at the end, with much of the route exposed to the sun.  I actually ran pretty well the first half, which was the flat half, but the second half cooked me and the hills and then the heat reduced me to walking in spots.  I'd hoped this would give me some confidence going into the Northwest Passage Relay but instead I'll just be praying for cooler weather.

Adrenaline 8 - 278.94 miles.

5.5 miles in 44:17, 8:03/mi, HR 160.

Hot again today...77F in the shade.  Pace slow, legs tired, and still felt drained by the heat at about the 2 mile mark.  Slog to the end.  Instead of moving my runs to the morning, I'm going to continue to run in the hotter part of the day for a while to attempt to acclimate.  Unfortunately, I've never been a fan of hot weather, and hot to me is everything above 70 when I'm standing still, 50 when I'm running!

Adrenaline 8s (Blue) - 47.29 miles.

6.25 miles in 49:52, 7:58/mi, HR 157.

I decided yesterday to get some consistent hot weather running in for a while so what happens....the weather cools significantly.  Only 65 or so when I went out although the sun did finally break through to warm things up a bit.  Decided on a hilly trail run, with four loops up a ~150' incline over 2/10ths of a mile.  Felt pretty good all things considered.  Got some core work in afterwards.

Asics GT 2120 - 442.23 miles.

7.5 miles in 1:01:13, 8:09/mi, HR 160.

Ankles definitely got a workout yesterday from the rocky trails.  Legs a bit fried too so I vowed to take today's run easy.  Warmer today with the thermometer reading 76F in the shade and 96F in the sun.  Last few miles were a slog...could tell I overheated and started feeling like I had at Sunday's race....wanted to quit and walk, tired legs, etc.  Lost 3.2 lbs to sweat so I guess it's time to start carrying some water along on these runs.  

Adrenaline 8 - 286.44 miles.

9.32 miles in 1:10:00, 7:30/mi, HR 161.  22:30 warmup, 2.66 mi, 8:26/mi, HR 148.  25:00 Steady State, 3.67 mi, 6:48/mi, HR 174.  22:30 cooldown, 2.99 mi, 7:32/mi, HR 159.

Thunderstorms rolled in overnight.  Unfortunately, one of our dogs is scared of thunderstorms and while she's gotten better in her old age, the big booms still scare her which causes her to bark and whine, so sleep last night was fitful at best.  Power went out at around 9am this morning, so I decided to get run #1 done.  Good SS miles over my normal hilly route.  Slower than last week's SS on flat terrain but overall I think the effort was pretty close to the same with the time increasing by 10 minutes.  A cool 60F and cloudy but near 100% humidity, so I lost 3.2 lbs again on today's run.  Later today I intend to go for another 3.5 miles.

Adrenaline 8s (Blue) - 56.61 miles.

3.5 miles in  28:44, 8:12/mi, HR 146. 

VFF run while wearing Injinji Tetrasok microcrew socks in an attempt to spare my feet the beating they take in VFFs.  It worked as this is the first run in them without blisters afterwards.  Calves felt pretty good too, probably because I changed course and ran the first mile downhill.  I think running uphill immediately without a good warmup overstressed my calves/achilles in previous VFF runs.  At least I'm learning.

Bad news....my Forerunner 305 died.  It started scrolling uncontrollably towards the end of the run.  I managed to get the workout downloaded before it shutoff completely.  When I turn it on, I can tell the screen has power because the pixels light up, but they it basically just changes the shade of the screen.  So now I'm faced with the decision: 

1. Repair my current 305.  $99 + shipping costs + insurance.  90 day warranty.
   
2. Purchase a new 305.  $210 + tax.  1 year warranty.
3. Purchase a new 405.  $300-350 + tax.  1 year warranty.

One other minor factor that affects this decision is the fact that I can't find my wall charger for my 305.  Hmmmmmm.......

Vibram Five Fingers - 21 miles. 

7.5 miles in 59:46, 7:58/mi.

Oops.  Somehow I managed to mess up how long I was supposed to run for and wound up going for 60 minutes.  Dang it....I didn't have my Forerunner 305 to keep me straight for today's workout.  Oh how I depend on technology.

Technologically deprived, day 1.  Garmin still broke.  Had to find my watch before running and during the run realized how much I distracted myself looking at things like HR, instant pace, avg pace, etc....60 minutes seemed like 3 hours today.  I don't think I can wait the couple of weeks sending it in for repairs will take.  I'm not sure I can wait until tomorrow.

Oh, and some minor pain on the outside of my left foot, undoubtedly resulting from the VFF run yesterday.  I'm beginning to wonder if the risks outweigh the benefits of running in them, at least for me.  Perhaps if I could find some grass to run on instead of the asphalt road...

Asics GT 2120 - 449.73 miles.

15 miles in 2:00:25, 8:02/mi, HR 153.

Good solid uphill outbound climb into the state forest lands for 7.5 miles.  Elevation gain about 1150' overall with some rolling ups and downs intermixed.  The last bit to the turnaround point was pretty steep but everything else wasn't too bad.  Return was a nice downhill where I could stretch out a bit. 

So I bought a 405 yesterday at REI in Seattle (completely fixated, I bounced from Ft. Lewis to Tacoma REI to Seattle finally before I found one).  So today was my first run with it.  Acted pretty good until just after the 13 mile mark when it decided to freeze, wouldn't let me navigate using the bezel, didn't show any data, and just plain wouldn't respond, other than allowing me to use the push buttons to pause/start the time and to trigger a lap.  Got it back home and managed to get it to sync using the USB power cable (not the wireless) and now it seems to have reset itself.  This doesn't bode well.  Hopefully this glitch was random and temporary.

Tired from being up late last night.  Every 4th of July Dianna goes out to the barn to watch the horses and make sure nothing happens with the fireworks going off in the surrounding areas.  Since she accompanied me on my 405 quest today, I went with her last night.  Now she's told me previously about the quantity of fireworks that get set off in the area, but I had no idea.  For about 90 minutes, I felt like I was in the final bridge scene from Saving Private Ryan....I don't know how the horses managed to stay as calm as they did.  Only a couple of the more hotheaded ones got a bit worked up, but fortunately the old "feed them" trick worked long enough to get thru the worst of it.  By the time we got back home it was after midnight and I woke up feeling pretty tired this morning.

Adrenaline 8 - 301.44 miles.