Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

I was gonna take the day off but I changed my mind after breakfast and decided to do a couple laps around lost lake with 5 pounds of food digesting in my stomach, in order to hit the mileage I'd originally planned for the week.

Ran 2 easy, then a half-mile in 2:50 (1:31, 1:19) then 1.3 easy.  For the half-mile I ran a smooth first quarter, then gradually accelerated the next quarter with the last 5 seconds or so pretty close to an all out sprint.

Then I ate a donut.  Happy new year.

7:55 pace, last couple miles ended up being MP.

This week I'm moving my runs around a bit - long run will be 20 miles, but take place on Wednesday.  This is to accomodate the Disney half marathon satellite race taking place on Saturday.  Should be kinda cool, it's taking place at the same time at the race in the states and will have a video link between the starting lines.  The bad news is that makes it a 2pm start here, which is pretty much the worst possible time for me and my night-shift schedule.  Gonna just suck it up though, and do it.  I'm going to pace an Army buddy as he tries to PR.  He wants a 1:45 but will be happy with 1:50.

Felt pretty good on this run.  No specific workout really, just sped up a bunch on the way home.  Averaged 7:59 for the first 4, then 7:26, 7:13, 6:59, 6:09.  I don't have a mile PR, but I'm quite sure that last mile would qualify as the fastest mile I've ever run.  Didn't really intend to do that but the speed felt good and smooth, and wasn't knocking me out like it should have, so I let 'er rip the last half mile.

AP was 7:27 for the run.

8:20 pace.

Why did I name these shoes "new" blue asics?  Not a lot of foresight.

I saved the best 20-miler for last, I guess.  AP 7:45.  Yeah, marathon goal pace for a 20-miler.  Who does that?  Probably kinda dumb, but good for the confidence anyway.  Here are the splits...

First 10 -- AP 8:02 -- 8:12, 8:10, 8:05, 8:00, 8:06, 8:03, 8:04, 7:56, 7:46, 7:55

Last 10 -- AP 7:29 -- 7:46, 7:40, 7:40, 7:52, 7:44, 7:39, 7:23, 7:15, 7:01, 6:48

My last 13.1 was a sub-1:40, which PR's me for the 3rd time in a training run.  I just kinda ran whatever I felt like doing today and ended up getting a nice progressive run out of it.  I also caused the runner's knee to flare up a bit, but I think it's pretty manageable.  Hopefully I can still pace my friend in the HM this Saturday, and hopefully he's not a lot faster than he lets on.  Would it be bad if I couldn't keep up with him?  I'm hoping a day off tomorrow and a short, slow run Friday recovers me enough.

If everything stays on schedule, I have basically 1 more week of training in this country.

7:56 avg.

The race tomorrow should finally put me over 60 for a single week.  One day, I hope me and High Mileage will be best friends but we've had a rocky relationship so far; if we don't take it slow, someone gets hurt (me).

8:04 AP.  Ran the simultaneous Disney half from Iraq with my friend today.  He did really well, clocking just under a 1:46 for 13.1, but the course was quite a bit long; we still finished the 13.5+ miles in 1:49.  We were under 8-minute pace until the last 5k.  I think I was actually a pretty decent pacer though.

I've now gone 24 hours with no sleep and it's time to go to work...awesome.  Still say it was worth it though.

After work I was sitting at 36 hours with no sleep (still not a PR though) so I took a 2-hour nap and woke up to get in a little run and go eat something.  Now I can sleep for real.  8:31 AP.

7:40 avg pace.  3 easy + 8 GMP.

3 easy @ 8:01

8 GMP @ 7:32 (splits were 7:35, 7:34, 7:37, 7:32, 7:26, 7:31, 7:32, 7:31)

Lately I've been doing my GMP runs a little faster -- having delusions of grandeur thinking I might be able to crack 3:20.  I keep hoping this pace will feel like MP.  Still not quite.  I'm sure I can hold it for a long time, 2 hours no problem...maybe 2.5...but more than that?  Don't know.

Looking at McMillan equivalent paces it seems like I should be right on top of it:

--5K @ 6:36 pace?  Basically did it my last race.

--5mi @ 6:48 pace?  Did 5mi tempo recently @ 6:54...at the end of an 11-mile run.

--HM @ 7:15 pace?  Ran 7:26 pace on what was supposed to be a 13.1 MP run but got carried away, just messing around.

Still gotta think about it awhile since 3:20 doesn't really hold any significance for me, and I'd like to just have a good time with the race.

8:17 pace on a foggy morning...didn't expect that.

7:58 AP.  Mostly kept it between 8:00 and 8:10, then did the last 3 in the 7:20s.

7 miles on an airbase in Qatar, avg 7:51.  Picked it up the last half-mile or so.

Looks like I'll be stuck here a few days.  As a rule, getting home from a deployment always has to be more complicated and time-consuming than going the other way.

7:51 AP.  It's a lot warmer here than in Baghdad (during winter) - it was 70F by the time I finished around 9am.  So, a pretty solid effort.

I'm realizing yesterday was my first day off work since July.  I almost did a double yesterday out of pure boredom, but first I counted the number of clean boxers in my overnight bag and decided it wouldn't work out.

8:17 pace

8 miles on a windy Abilene morning.  My first run back just wouldn't have been right without a steady 20+ mph south wind blowing...good to be home.  7:54 avg.

Wind out of the north, 25-35 mph today.  Yuck.  I decided to run an out-and-back with the first 7 mostly headwind, and the last 7 mostly tailwind.

Splits going out were 8:11, 8:18, 8:36, 8:43, 8:30, 8:14, 8:31.  Then 7:26, 7:19, 7:21, 7:21, 7:26, 7:33, 7:39.  AP 7:56.

I guess with the ridiculous wind it was ok (some of the headwind legs were almost comical when the big gusts hit), but I was actually falling apart a bit the last couple miles, which I don't think should've happened.  Oh well, I think I just need to get used to not running in perfect conditions anymore.

That was my last tough workout so I'm just hoping I did enough...we'll see!

8:24 pace.  Feeling a little slow/sluggish and out of sorts the last few days of running.  Hopefully just some of that "taper madness."

5 easy, 2 fast (6:59, 6:57), then a short cooldown.  8:02 AP.  Still very slow and sluggish.  The 2 fast miles felt awful, way worse than they should've.  Could be the different diet, routine, etc, but I hope I'm back to normal soon!

Good news is Houston weather is looking pretty nice on the extended forecast so far.  Overnight low in the low-40s for the start and 6 mph winds.  Those are basically the same conditions I've been running in the past couple months.

8:09 pace.  Nothing special, but the pace and the effort finally matched up a lot closer today.  The last 3 or 4 runs 8:00 pace felt like 7:30 effort.

Tomorrow I'll do 3 MP miles and hopefully determine that I'm back to normal.

5 easy, 3 GMP.  I felt great today, back to normal.  7:51 AP for the run, last 3 were 7:32, 7:33, 7:24 (faster than I will go on Sunday, but felt nice).  I even noticed once in my warmup, abaout a third of the way through the mile, that I was already at MP...good sign.  Whew, glad the race wasn't last week.

I feel pretty injury-free as well, just the standard tightness in my left hip flexor/groin that I've had most of the year - doesn't ever seem to affect anything.  The tendonitis took a couple months to go away, but it mostly has.  Both my tendon injuries in training for this marathon have actually been cured by not listening to my body and chowing down pills instead, while running through the uncomfortableness.  Not many people advocate that method.

Here are a couple homecoming pictures I've been meaning to post.

3 easy, then 7:34, 7:10, 6:45 (an optimistic MP, HM, 10K pace).  7:33 AP.

6 easy around my sister-in-law's neighborhood in Austin this morning, 8:10-8:20s.

We're now in Houston after spening the night in Austin.  Checked the forecast, and it's looking pretty crappy.  Warm and rainy.  I haven't run too much in the rain so I'm not sure what it does to performance - hopefully it's not too bad.  Maybe it'll even cool us off a bit?  Anyway, nothing I can do about so might as well suck it up.

Taking tomorrow off, then a short run (maybe in the rain?) on Saturday.  Race Sunday.

Last 3 miles of matathon training before the race, mile 2 was at GMP.  3 miles really goes by in the blink of an eye now; a year ago that was probably my median distance run.

Weather check - 50% chance rain with scattered T-storms.  Temps in the 60s, winds 8 mph.  Not a lot to like except the wind.  As long as the lightning stays away though, and they have a race, I'll be happy - just looking to give a good effort and complete my first marathon, don't think there will be any 3:20 in the works or anything crazy like that.  Still hoping to beat 3:30 though...

Bib # is 1682 for any who want to look up results; I'll probably have a report up sometime Sunday night.

Great day.  My first marathon was a success, and I beat my original goal of 3:30 by 4 minutes.

Night before – Danielle and I met April, April’s sister, and her friend for a carb-loading dinner.  It was awesome to meet April and pick her brain a little.  Mr. and Mrs. Flatlander also stopped by for awhile; it was great to finally meet Mark in person as well and talk a little running.  Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of these fellow FRBers in the future.

Race day – Weather predictions were all doom and gloom the night before, but the thunder and lightning stayed away on race day.  It rained off and on the entire race, soaking us to the bone, but at least we had a race.  The bad part was the unseasonable warmth.  The temps were in the mid-60s the whole time, with about 90% humidity.  I decided I better start slower; I even told Mark last night I would run 7:40s and 7:50s in the first half because of the heat.  I guess I lied.  Miraculously, we bumped into April before the race among the 20,000 participants and made our way to the starting line.  The mile splits below are from Garmin.

Miles 1-5: 8:02, 7:34, 7:36, 7:42, 7:42.  The gun went off and April and I started together.  I ran with her for about 3 steps and she was gone, picking her way through the crowd.  The first mile was really clogged up.  I noticed about an 8:30 pace about halfway into that first mile, but didn’t panic, and used it as a nice warmup.  Obviously it opened up a bit after that because I was in the 7:30s pretty quick.  5K was 24:04.  I focused on shortening my stride to keep the pace slower but I felt really great.

Miles 6-10: 7:33, 7:30, 7:39, 7:37, 7:36.  Whoops.  I started running by feel.  It felt so very easy, so I threw the conservative plan out the window and listened to my body.  That probably would’ve worked if it was 20 degrees cooler, but not today.  10K was 47:55.  I saw my dad around mile 8, which was awesome.  The crowd support was unreal – people lining the streets in the rain all 26 miles.  Here's a picture my dad took about 8 miles in:

Miles 11-15: 7:28, 7:35, 7:35, 7:38, 7:40.  Still feeling ridiculously great.  My plan was to hang around 3:20 pace just in case, and I was still right on it.  In mile 13, I ran right by my childhood best friend’s house and saw his mom out there – pretty cool.  I went through the half in 1:40:22 (nearly a PR) but was still breathing really easy and didn’t feel a big toll on my legs yet.

Miles 16-20:  7:37, 7:36, 7:50, 7:35, 7:49.  Ok, doubts started to creep in mile 18.  30K was still a great split, 2:22:51 (7:40 average so far).  I slowed down as the legs were starting to burn a bit in 18.  Then I inexplicably sped up in mile 19, feeling strong again – maybe I shouldn’t have done that.  By mile 20, I was giving more effort but the pace was starting to bleed out for good.

Miles 21-26.2: 7:55, 8:04, 8:19, 8:39, 8:58, 8:43, 2:27 (0.33 miles on garmin).  Cue death march.  Looking at the splits now, I thought it would be worse (wasn’t looking at my watch much at this point, but every time I did I thought I saw 9-something).  I saw my dad, brother and his fiancĂ©e at mile 23 (brother lives in an apartment right on the course).  I faked a smile for them, and then went back to pathetically staring at the cement 3 feet in front of me.  My lovely wife had finished her half marathon and was there cheering for me with about a tenth of a mile to go!  I saw the clock, and put on a furious sprint (8:00 pace was a sprint) and officially beat 3:26 by a second to get a 3:25:59!  I think the bonk should be mostly attributed to going too fast in the early miles on a hot, muggy day.  Still, it wasn’t an aerobic wall – I actually caught my breath a little but just could not will myself to pick up the pace.  So, I gotta think part of it was also mental, but maybe part fueling?  I had a total of 5 gu and took Gatorade pretty much every stop.  Weird to think that wasn’t enough, but my stomach felt fine and I could probably tolerate more; I really think I was burning fats at the end, but I’m not experienced enough to know for sure.  A real learning experience, but I’m still really, really happy with the time given the conditions.  Here's the smile I faked at mile 23 - looks like I am barely moving!

After the race I very slowly went to meet Danielle.  It was then that I got light-headed and she told me to sit down.  I obeyed, and started to feel a bit better.  When April and company found us (April looked much more lively than me, after her awesome PR), I managed to get up and sorta tried to pretend I wasn’t as exhausted as I was, but I still looked terrible I bet.  It took me awhile but I am feeling better now.

Some stats from runpix – I finished top 6% overall, top 8% of men and top 12% of my age group.  That also feels pretty good, because it lets me know everyone struggled as well.  First half was 1:40:22 (7:39 pace), second half was 1:45:37 (8:03 pace).  My first 20 miles was 2:32:54 (7:39 pace).  Last 10K was 53:05 (8:32 pace).  So there it is.

Anyway, definitely a successful day.  I would love to make a run at BQ at this race in 1 year, so back to training.  Danielle and I are hoping to run Oklahoma City again in 3 months if work allows.  Not sure yet whether I want to do another full already, or maybe just the half.  But Boston is officially on the brain now!