Doug's Running Thingy

Thirteen on the trails - pretty good work through ten, but the last three were a bit rough. 

Relatively eventful little run on the trails this morning.  Had a nice staring contest with a young buck that had little 3-inch velvet antlers sprouting - had to navigate a huge sweetgum tree that had fallen across the trail overnight - got swarmed over by the FSU cross country campers - ran with and chatted a bit with FSU track/xc coach Bob Braman.  Pretty good start to the day.

Lake Jackson loop plus 3-mile loop and a little tack on for the 8.  First time on Lake Jackson in a few weeks - managed the big hill coming up from the lake quite well.  Good run to get things going.  No deer, but three! armadillos - interesting.

Neighborhood roads this morning to try for an even pace.  First creaky mile and last uphill mile at 8:30, with the middle miles all between 7:43 and 7:53 at fairly well controlled effort.  Goal marathon pace on flat pavement is starting to feel quite comfortable.

Will run a 5:40 in the summer track 1600 this evening - he says confidently. 

Quite a bit of rain past two days left the mostly single track course slick and muddy in parts - fun fun.  The rain also left the weather coolish but humid - not too bad.  It was billed as 4.5 miles and likely was right around there - Garmin reported 4.58.  With the twisty turny slick course, I was quite pleased with the 8:25ish overall pace - much better than the over 9 min pace for the first race in the series a month ago.

I went out strong to escape the vibram/cross-fit crowd (not that theres anything wrong with that), and was only passed once during the whole race - always fun.  I witnessed only one bad ankle roll, and had no issues myself.

Long run of 16 on tap for tomorrow - off for a nap now.