Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

2 days later, and still pretty sore.  My quads were obliterated.  Next in line in order of soreness are the hip flexors, groin for some reason, hammys and shins.  Guess I didn't ever run fast enoug to hurt the calves.  I'm hoping to be able to jog a couple miles tomorrow, but we'll see.  It's gonna have to be on the treadmill thanks to the winter storm.  We have single-digit lows the next couple days, a lot of snow (for Texas) and windchills below zero!  I'm really not equipped for all that.

Not that it really means anything but I compared my relative gender and age group placings to 2010 results when they had better, more typical conditions and those finishers were in the 3:21-3:22 range.  Can't put too much stock in that though, but it is a nice sanity check.

So, thinking finally about goals and races for this year...  Maintain 50+ mile weeks and very slowly work my way up to 60s.  For this spring, I want to run a couple local 5Ks (inch closer to sub-20), the Capitol 10K in Austin if work allows (sub-43, it's a tough course), and either a half or a full at OKC (get below 1:35 or 3:20).  This summer will be base-building - too hot to race much in TX.  This fall, I would like to run either the half or full here in Abilene in October if they have it, and finally Houston in January 2012 where I hope I'm ready for a 3:10:59.  Probably need to be injury-free all year to pull it all off, so that is a goal as well.

Hit the TM because of the ice and wind chill, and walked for a half-mile, stretched, then ran 1 @ 6 mph and 1 @ 7 mph.

Since I'm normally in the habit of only showering after a run, it's been 3 days since my last shower.  Just thought I'd share that.

Another run, another shower.  3 on the TM @ 8:53 AP.  No soreness detected this time - really thankful to have made it through the race uninjured.  Gonna be stuck with the TM tomorrow as well, but I think a lot of the snow and ice will melt on Saturday afternoon.  The roads are still like ice rinks right now.

8:39 AP on the treadmill.  Picked up the pace a little at the end to see how it felt...felt good.  Should be able to run outside in the afternoon tomorrow.

Man that felt great, awesome day.  I ran after lunch, and it had warmed up to about 50 degrees, with a little breeze and blue skies.  I was out there sweating with shorts and a t-shirt and a bunch of snow on the ground.  Kinda wanted to just keep running, but I'm gonna play it safe the next week or so before loading up the miles again.  8:02 AP.

Another really nice day for running: 40F, and a little breezy.  I gradually picked up the pace a little on the way back home with the nice tailwind thanks to the north wind.  7:45 avg.

My R&R is now over and I go back to work tomorrow, back to the real world.  I think I'm going to set Monday as my day off, running-wise.

36F, winds 15-18mph, 26F windchill.  Wind felt a little stronger than that (was running 9:00-9:05 on headwind legs) but close enough.  Weather looks twice as miserable tomorrow though.  Today was my first early-morning run in awhile, I forgot how much I hate them.  8:17 AP.

This morning I woke up to a temperature of 9F, with the windchill at -9.  Soooo, I took some gym clothes to work; by lunch it warmed up to -4 windchill.  Soooo, I hit the gym treadmills but it was hot inside and I was sweating buckets.  Soooo, I sped up the last couple miles to get it over with.  7:42 AP.

Tomorrow morning looks ridiculously cold too, but the afternoon looks perfect; I will be back out on the roads tomorrow and maybe get in some better mileage.

Too cold in the morning, but I went out at lunch and ran on the county roads behind the base in Tye.  Perfect.  Mid-30s, and very little wind with clear skies.  Would love to repeat this running weather 365 days a year.  I liked the new route a lot too, the country roads were mostly paved and had no traffic.  I ended up with a natural progression in pace for the run, averaging 7:41 overall.

Then I had Burger King for the 3rd time this week.  Probably a trend I should try to curb in the future...

5 laps around the 1-mile track on base, 7:57 avg.

I took the Garmin and found out it's not measured exactly from the inside, probably closer to the center.  I ran twice on the outside and twice on the inside (the track is only about 6 feet wide but turns/winds a lot).  0.98 from the inside and 1.03 running on the outside.  Pretty nerdy thing to do to amuse myself but whatever.

I got the last pair of 1140s in my size on the internet (that are also under $50) in the mail, along with the next year's version (still outdated, and also less than $50).  Pretty happy about that.

Temp was about 26F, but very little wind again.  Did my 8-mile loop, AP 7:47.  I'm thinking about doing some HM goal pace tempo work tomorrow in my 12-miler.

Loving the weather lately - mid 40s this morning, 10 mph winds.  Goal for today was 7 easy, 5 @ HMP (7:10-7:15 target)

7 easy:  8:09, 8:19, 8:13, 8:05, 7:51, 8:02, 7:59 (8:05 AP)

5 fast:  7:12, 7:01, 7:03, 6:52, 6:34 (6:56 AP)

7:37 AP overall

So as usual I got carried away at the end but I was definitely due for a workout and it felt nice to let loose a little.  Next week, I'll be back to higher mileage (50s for me) and more tempos.

More tempo.  Must get faster before half marathon next month.  Actually, I felt pretty crappy today - big difference from Sunday's workout.  I did 6 easy, then 4 tempo (target 7:00-7:10).  The 4 tempo were 7:00, 7:02, 7:09, 7:12.  I actually quit after the 3rd mile and started jogging since it was getting way too hard but then I felt like a total wimp.  After about a minute of 8:30 pace, I sped up again and almost brought the last mile down to my target.  So a small victory on an otherwise "off" day.

7:42 AP.

8:15 AP, anticipating some MP work tomorrow.

Computer said 60F, wind S 21-28 mph as I left to go run this morning...felt about right.  We were overdue for the stupid wind to come back.  Plan was 5 easy then 6 @ MP (target 7:35), but the conditions made doing any specific pace work kinda pointless.  MP was about a 6:45 effort going south and 8:00 effort going north.  So let's just say I ran 11 miles and moved my feet a little faster for the last 6.

7:59 AP overall.

1 weird thing happened - on the way back I was running on a sidewalk, approaching the driveway of an apartment complex.  Someone was driving out of the complex, and I made sure I had eye contact with him.  Then, looking at me the whole time, he continues out of the driveway and stops right in the middle of the sidewalk and I had to come to a quick stop to avoid running into the side of his truck.  Then he continues to just stare at me as if to say, "yep, that just happened...what now?"  A younger slowjoe would not have let it go so easily but I just trotted around and continued on my way.

8:08 pace.  Wind today?  Calm.  Would've been a nice day for a workout, oh well.

I did 8 at a 7:54 avg (sped up a little the last couple miles) this morning.  Then took the kids to go watch Danielle run a local 5k and get a ridiculously large PR.  The kids had a lot of fun watching mommy finish fast!

* So I was browsing the discussion boards and saw someone linked this article: http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/blog/2011/02/baa_announces_new_procedures_f.html

Basically the BQ time goes down 5 minutes for everyone for 2013.  If I were to qualify in Houston with a 3:10 in 2012, it wouldn't be fast enough because the earliest I could run Boston would be 2013 (needing a 3:05)!  Also, they will base when you can register on how much you beat your qualifying time.  So it looks like I will be working at this for quite sometime before I can run in the big one.  I'm thinking I'll need under 3 hours for sure, which will take years if I ever get there!  Turning 35 in 3 years will help, I guess.  Kinda disappointing, but in a weird way I'm excited that it is harder (more special?) and I'll be able to chase that now-far-away goal a lot longer.  I guess I was late to the party with the whole running craze.

62F, 80% humidity.  The forecast was calling for a lot of wind, so I had Danielle drop me off 14 miles from the house so I could do a point-to-point.  Naturally, the strong wind didn't really materialize but it was fun to run some new roads; hopefully I can convince her to do this more often.

I did a progressive run today (more or less), splits were 8:08, 7:57, 8:06, 8:00, 7:47, 7:49, 7:35, 7:33, 7:33, 7:36, 7:28, 7:19, 7:12, 6:54.

AP 7:38.

Interesting that I ended up averaging goal pace for the OKC full.  Felt a little too hard today.  I felt really hot and sweated huge amounts, but I better get used to it because this could easily be the weather for OKC (plus more wind).  May 1st is a little too late to have a marathon down south in my opinion, I wish it was sooner.  I might just be running it for the experience, which is ok too.

I ran on my off day...took the racing flats out for a spin and did a couple 400s at 5K pace.  It was too nice a morning to pass up.

31F, calm winds.  I got my confidence boost for the month today; probably had my best training run to date!  Goal was easy 5, fast 5, with the only requirement for the fast miles being under 7:15.

Easy 5 - 8:13 AP

Fast 5 - 6:44 AP  Splits: 7:05, 7:00, 6:34, 6:36, 6:24.

Overall AP 7:29

Breakthrough, I think.  I went to Garmin Connect to see what my last 3.1 miles was, and I ran it in 20:19.  So a really big 5K PR after already doing a couple tempo miles.  I gotta think I mighta broken 20 if there were a race today, and I was wearing the Sauconys.  I really needed this run as I had been feeling slow all week last week.  The temperature definitely played a big role today...I must really lose some spring in my step once it gets into the 60s (as it was last week).  Anyway, there's a local 5K in 2-and-a-half weeks.  I think I will be there.

8:16 pace.

Still happy about my run from yesterday.  Hopefully it wasn't too flukish and means I've stepped up a notch in fitness.

63F, 98% humidity.  Juuust about to rain, but I made it back in time.  Had to run super early this morning (5am) to catch a morning flight to Houston for an overnight trip.  You'd think that weather I posted was Houston, but no, I ran in Abilene.  Anyway, as expected, I melted out there; that's too hot and muggy for me.  I was able to eke out 3 MP miles at the end, and hated every minute of it.  I really gotta toughen up, since the running gods apparently have taken away spring and gone straight from winter to summer.

8:01 AP

7:58 avg, back in Abilene.

7:55 AP, perfect running weather. Should be about 25 degrees warmer tomorrow morning for my long run.

Start weather: 65F, 93% humidity, wind S 17-25 mph.  End weather: 71F, 70% humidity, winds S 25-30 mph.  I never knew it could be hot, humid and windy all at the same time.  Obviously not a fun running day, so I took it easy and just put miles on legs.

8:06 AP.  Out and back, averaged 8:24 going out, 7:48 coming back due to the wind differential.  I like to get the headwind out of the way first!