Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured

Today was supposed to be one of my favorite Texas workouts - hill repeats at Oakmont Park.   There is a great hill that measures just over 1 mile up, climbing 150 feet and then you get 3/4 mile down.    Annette picked me up way to early (4:45) and we headed over.   We warmed up for a mile and the warm up felt much harder than it needed to be and I was feeling worse.  I was dehydrated and nauseated but I was there and going to get it done.   We did the first repeat and I ran it ahead and survived and stopped at the Quick Trip and bought a gatorade.   The next two, I ended up staying behind Annette and pushed, not quite race effort pushed but when thinking about if I was pushing as hard as I could, it was close.   We cooled down for a mile and ended up with a pretty progressive run and each repeat was faster than the previous.   Glad it is done.

Avg Pace 8:38

10 easy miles - 

1 mile to meet the group

6 with Annette and Saskia

3 on my own

I gave up checking the weather because it always says the same thing - never changes.

Temp: high 70's   Humidity: 80%+  Wind: 8-12 mph

So today when I started out, I thought it was actually cool.....In relaying this to Annette, she told me it was 76 degrees....Who would have thought that was cool at 5 am... I am losing it.   We kept it very easy and the legs were tired from yesterday and a big workout tomorrow.

Avg Pace 9:10

I had a very rough night and opted for 2.5 more hours of sleep and figured I would run at lunch and after work.  I did the 3 miles at lunch, but left work late and my son had ball, so a whopping 3 for the day.

I had originally not planned on running today, but woke up at 4 am and figured if I got out quickly, I could get a few miles in before I had to leave for the airport.   A little scary out alone at that hour but done.   Now I am in Houston at TCH and in between meetings trying not to fall asleep....not going well.

Avg Pace 8:26

Fun run in prep for El Scorcho.   

Tonight was are simulation run - timing and fuel - for El Scorcho.   We started at 9:00 pm with temps at 90 degrees and horrible humidity and headed out on the trail.   The plan was to do 18 and make it fun along the way.  The first 7 miles lived up to expectations and it was down hill from there.   We started out on the trail and ran north to downtown/7th street.  Ran past a concert in the park x 2 and 7th street was busy.   A pit stop at Sweet Sammies for an ice cream sandwich for fuel and then off again.   The botanical gardens set off fireworks and then we stopped and ran over the Land Rover mountain since there wasn't a car parked on it.  We hit the trail again just passed mile 7 and had great views of downtown all lit up and then the wheels started coming off.   It was hot, humid and sweating like crazy.   The park was dark and the crowd was suspect and Annette was slowing down, my IT band was bothering my and I was dying of heat.   We got back to the car and I asked Annette what she wanted to do and she was done - I was glad and we headed home.    There is no need to push at this point, the race is 25K and I will still have one more long run next week and I am too afraid of pushing to the point that the recovery will bleed over into next week and I will loose the opportunity for quality workouts.   12 miles is fine. 

While my plan to rest after work and fueling worked great, it was rough.  I am almost wishing we hadn't done this because now I know how rough it will be.   I had originally planned on MP for the goal, but now I am starting to rethink and just have fun.   It is a loop course that you repeat 5 times...agh!