9:00 AM. Clear, 80 - 90 degrees. LPT/Fairground/Glovers Lane loop.

So much for a long run. It just wasn't in me today. Again, I couldn't get to sleep last night. My alarm went off at 430 AM, and at that point I'd gotten about 4 hrs of sleep. So I went back to sleep. I finally got the run started at 9:00 AM, 80 degrees, 90 by the time I finished. It felt hot but I figured I'm somewhat acclimatized so it shouldn't stop me from running 20 very easy miles. By mile 9 I knew I was done so I headed back to the car thinking if I felt better after refueling/resting a little, maybe I could do more. Nay. My demise today was probably due to several factors: poor sleeping the last little while, heat, accumlative stress over my dad's health issues, a general lack of conditioning. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet for TOU, but if I don't have some kind of physiological epiphany soon, I may not be able to get in the training I need. I'll just keep plugging away I guess.

Still had a lot of fun out there today, in spite of my heat/fatigue induced pace. Found a new suburban trail called "Buffalo Ranch trail" and look forward to hittin' that again and seeing where it goes. Near the fairground I passed a guy who was doing some work in a creek that runs through the area. When I came back that way an hour and a half later, he was still there and the creek was transformed as he had built a small eath/rock dam that slowed the creek and created a little pond. Just him and a shovel was all it took.

5:30 PM. Clear, light breeze, 93 degrees. Mystery field.

Over the last year I've noticed this field, with an asphalt track around it, from the Legacy Parkway Trail, but I never knew how to access it until last week when I stumbled upon it during a road run. It has a huge parking lot, but no signs indicating I should stay out. Easy access, no locked gates, and I've never seen anyone there. So today after work the dogs and I went over to the "Mystery Field". Thusly named because I have no idea who owns it, what it's used for, or how it got there. Maybe it only exists in my head! Anyway, it turns out the track (about 5 ft wide) is a half mile long. Sprinklers were going on the east side of the field, and they bled over onto the track, so every half mile I got sprayed by a couple of different sprinklers. That, and the breeze kept me cool during the run.

After 5 miles, I ran a 1/4 mile barefoot on the asphalt. Quite a bit slower as this was my first barefoot experience off grass. Very different foot strike of course, and much slower. The only discomfort was the bottom of both my big toes got very hot. I can still feel it, like a blister, but not.

5 miles/42:44/8:33 avg.

.25 mile barefoot/10:12 pace.

6:03 AM. Clear, 67 degrees. From house/Lagoon trail/LPT.

Easy 8.

5:12.39 PM. HOT. 3 more on the track, easy, while catching up with my brother who's in town from California. He's a triathlete.

Got out late (7:15:37 AM) so just ran 4 around the hood. 74 degrees. Sweating buckets. Scaring walkers. More miles later...

Early lunch (10:58:49 AM).  Easy 8. Frickin' hot! Bluff trail. Probably the easiest pace I've run in a year..

6:07 AM. Clear, 73 degrees. From house to LPT out and back.

First time in shoes that were not manufactured by Asics. Getting out of my comfort zone; really thinking outside the box...I'm a renegade!

5:52 AM. Partly cloudy, temps start 78 degrees end at 82 degrees. The intermittent cloud cover was a big help. Ran from my house, meandered to the fairground/glovers lane loop and back. Mile 15-18 were at the Mystery Field.

20.4 miles/3:15:02/9:34

I've been dealing with a lot of niggling little injuries the last few weeks, and some fatigue issues. I'm really glad to have gotten this long run in but I know I can do better. So, although my pace was slow here's the splits:

Miles 1-7 avg. was 10:12 per mile. I wanted to start real slow and make sure I could go the distance today.

Miles 8 & 9 were MP 8:31, 8:25 (8:28 avg for the 2).

Mile 10 & 11 9:31, 9:59

miles 12 & 13 were MP 8:44, 8:38 (avg 8:41, about 10 seconds off).

Mile 14 & 15 10:05, 9:53

Miles 16 & 17 were MP 8:22, 8:10 (avg 8:16 for the 2).

Miles 18 - 20.4 avg 9: 43.

Probably drank around 40 oz. of water. Had gu at miles 14 and 18.

So, there it is...

The bad: I'm slow, especially lately.

The good: negative split of  4:12 for the run.

My six miles of intervals (3 x 2 miles with equal recovery) averaged 8:28 per mile, my goal marathon pace is 8:30.

My last 2 mile interval at miles 16 & 17 were good splits for me, and felt good to do them that far into the run.

I finished feeling great, the run didn't wipe me out.

My weekly mileage for Saturday through today is 71 miles!