Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Day off today, which works out since it's raining.

I think I may have found a half-marathon to try - Oklahoma City on April 25.  It's a 4-hour drive, but it'll be my last chance before it gets too hot for a race like that.  I think I can get in a few decent long runs by then including a couple 13-milers.  Cons are that it's 2 weeks after my 10k, and it starts at 6:30 am but I really don't want to wait until October (7+ months) to run my first HM.  Don't know if I'll be ready for 1:45 yet but it's worth a try, right?

**Did some research - one of the few cities that averages more wind than we get here...Oklahoma City!  Apparently it was brutal last year and the 5 miles coming back are usually into the wind.  I hate wind!  I wouldn't decide based on that, but maybe temper my expectations.

Pre-dawn run, no caffeine, not feeling it today.  But I managed to finally move my legs toward the end and average HMGP over the final 2 miles.  That brought the overall pace down to 8:18, not bad at all.

Early morning run, but I felt good today so maybe I'm getting used to running right after waking up.  Usually I'm dying by the time I get 3 houses down.  Did an 8:20 warmup followed by 3 @ HMGP (23:50/7:57 avg).

Oh, forgot to mention I'm officially signed up for the OKC HM (thus the focus on goal pace miles).  Got the hotel too, and  now my wife might run it (her first HM too) while we leave the kids with her parents - sounds almost too good to be true!  She'll decide this month as she tries some longer runs.

Plan walking out the door was 1 easy, 3 @ HMGP and 1 easy.  Splits were 8:23, 7:44, 7:32, 7:37, 8:24.  I started out too fast and didn't feel like slowing it down so I held pace...why not.  7:56 overall for the run.

I looked at some half-marathon training plans to get an idea of what to do but I think the best thing is to keep slowly stepping up my long run distance and weekly mileage while throwing in more HMGP miles to get used to that pace.

My 4th super-early run this week.  I'll quit mentioning it after this, I'm just so surprised I've been consistently doing it, so to speak.  Anyway, 4 miles @ 8:24 pace, all easy miles for the first time since Sunday.

Tomorrow I get revenge on the 12-miler that crushed me 2 weeks ago.  I'm dorking it up and bringing a hydration belt w/ Gatorade and a Gu, as well as carb loading today.  You can lauugh, I know it's overkill for 12 miles but I'm paranoid now.

I managed to even the score today against the 12-miler with all my fuel (although I forgot caffeine!)  Conditions were pretty good, overcast, about 55 degrees and a south wind steady around 10-12 mph which is about as calm as it gets here mid-morning.  So miles 1,2,3 and 7 were a tailwind; 5, 10, 11 and 12 were a headwind and the rest were a mixed bag.  Splits: 8:16, 8:14, 8:25, 8:32, 8:46, 8:37, 8:11, 8:26, 8:26, 8:24, 8:09, 7:56.  Overall pace - 8:22.  Obviously I stepped on the gas a bit into the wind for the last 3 and actually started fading pretty fast on the last half-mile.  I watched my mile 12 pace slide from 7:30s to 7:59 and had to dig a little to keep it under 8.  I'm limping around a bit but I'm pretty pleased overall, so I'll allow myself to try the half-marathon distance next weekend.

WM - 38.0

5 recovery, 8:30 avg.  I'm a little sore today mostly in the hip flexors, but it felt great to jog it out.

My wife officially signed up for the Half in OKC and her parents agreed to watch the kids, so we're gonna have fun by ourselves!  This will double our driving time but also ensure that we get some sleep in the hotel.

My legs were fresh off the rest day and I was feeling as injury-free as I have in awhile so I figured it was time for some light abuse.  I'm planning on running a local 5k on the 20th this month to check my speed and I estimated 7:00-7:10 pace should be about what I can do.  So with that in mind I wanted to do 4 x 800 repeats at that pace (3:30).  So the workout would be 2 easy miles to the university track, then the 800s with a slow 400 in between each, then 2 easy miles home.  It was already windy (15-18 mph by 5:30 am) but I figured that wouldn't matter much at the track.

2 miles to the track @ 8:57 pace

800s were 3:24, 3:19, 3:17, 3:17.

2 miles back home: 8:30, 7:54 (HMGP on the last)

Overall pace for the 7 miles: 8:04

Obviously overshot the pace a little on the 800s but I held up ok, though I started losing my form a bit on the last 400.  It was kinda funny because the girls' track team was there doing 800s as well and although they stopped to rest after each one, they all crushed me pretty bad even though I was doing great by my standards.  Overall, I'm quite happy with the workout and my knees are no worse for it.

8:16 pace, last mile was HMGP.

I wanted to try one of those progressive runs that I've seen people do, even though I just had 6 miles today.  I probably was looking at my watch too much to tinker with and manage the pace but it was fun and it kept me engaged and focused the entire run, which was a nice change.  I decided around mile 5 that I'd burn off the 0.21 miles at the end to hit a full 10K.  Splits were 8:32, 8:18, 8:06, 7:54, 7:41, 7:07, 1:19 (for the last fraction of a mile).  Overall 7:53 pace (48:59).  I think I should be able to shave a couple minutes off that total to hit my goal when I race this next month.

EZ 4 @ 8:37.

Off to the in-laws' this afternoon, about a 5 hour drive.  I'll get to do my long run tomorrow (13 mi) on a nice paved running trail they have there that's about 2.5 miles long and just go out and back a few times.  They don't really have anything like that here.

It turned out to be a great day for running in Longview, without the nasty winds that we get in the western part of the state.  A nice 45-50 degrees or so at the start.  The trail I was running on had some nice hills too, steeper than the highways I've been running on, but only 20-30 foot climbs/descents for the most part.  I took along 20 oz. of Powerade, and tried out a Gu and a Clif shot in miles 5 and 9.

Splits - 8:18, 8:20, 8:32, 8:22, 8:25, 8:23, 8:21, 8:26, 8:26, 8:22, 8:15, 8:09, 7:53 and 31 sec.  Avearge mile 8:19, total 1:48:45.  Garmin measured .07 miles for the last chunk.  The trail is marked every quarter-mile and was pretty accurate but I was running an extra .01 or so every mile for the first few.  So I practiced runing the tangents and actually made up ground which is why I got 13.07 miles on the watch - pretty cool.

Anyway, it was a nice confidence builder, although I'm fairly sure I'm going faster than I'm supposed to for a casual long run.  I'm always pretty wasted at the end.  Hopefully I can shave off 20 seconds per mile on race day!

WM - 40.3!  (first 40 mile week)

I took Sunday off instead of the usual Monday so I could go fishing with my father-in-law.  This morning I did 5 more on the running trail @ 8:20 pace before we drove home.  My left knee stung a bit through the whole run this time; they usually calm down after a couple miles (and it's usually my right knee).  I think it's the steeper hills on that trail, coupled with the fact that I'd never done 13 miles before.  So I'm really thinking the knees just need a week of complete rest to heal, and they will get it - in May when I'm done racing for awhile.  For now, I'll scale it back to 30 or so miles this week and keep the pace slower until the 5k.

I love running in the afternoon - first, I get to spend the day dreaming up a workout but mostly I'm just plain faster later in the day.  My knees were feeling great - not saying I could go do wall sits but I knew my easy-run-plan for this week was out the window.  I have no self-control.  The workout I decided on was a pyramid - 1 mile each @ HMGP, 10KGP, 5KGP, 10KGP and HMGP.  So after a 1-mile warmup it should look something like 8, 7:30, 7, 7:30, 8 for the pace.

Splits: 8:14 warmup, then 7:54, 7:29, 6:44, 7:09, 7:43.  Average was 7:33 for the entire 6.

I was nervous about even being able to hit the planned splits so it was a nice surprise.  The final 10k mile was a bit of a breakthrough because I should have been wiped out after the sub-7 mile and the last 10k mile was uphill but my breathing was actually recovering.  The last mile felt easy.  I should do more of these target-pace runs because they really keep me interested and engaged - and I go faster.  But only in the afternoon!

Recovery @ 8:32 pace.  I guess there will be no sunshine on my morning runs for awhile - stupid daylight savings...

On the bright side, no soreness from yesterday, knees doing so-so.

Goal-pace run (HM) this morning @ 7:51 pace. I kept all the splits between 7:45 and 7:55. Once I got settled in after a couple miles it started to feel almost comfortable...almost.  So on race day, I may be able to pull it off, we'll see.

Also, I checked the weather forecast at racetime for my 5K on Saturday - looks like 22mph steady winds, 28 degree wind chill and 40% chance of showers.  Great.  The half is still my focus though, so no big deal; it just would've been nice to have more comfortable conditions.

EZ 4 @ 8:38 pace.

They took away most of the rain chance for Saturday morning, which is great news.  Winds will still be 22 mph steady (plus gusts) and cold at racetime.  Maybe I can find someone to draft behind, does that actually work?

The weather ended up being 31 degrees, winds 22 gusting to 35 from the north, ~18 degree wind chill.  But I already paid, and I've never run an actual 5K so I never thought about skipping it.

The race started out going north so the first mile was almost all direct headwind, the second mile was about neutral overall and the last was a tailwind.  I was happy at first that we would get the brutal headwind mile out of the way first but it ended up being my undoing.  Splits were 7:09, 7:24, 7:20, then I never stopped the watch.

The race was small (guessing 50 people or so).  After a minute or so, I was in 4th place, where I would stay the entire time (like I said, small race).  I knew I needed 7:05s to break 22 but I shouldn't have tried to get it on that first mile into gale-force winds!  Anyway I was jelly after that.  The last two-thirds were total misery but I still gave it everything.  I remember taking my gloves off and holding them in the last mile and it felt like my hands barely had the strength to grasp them!  I'm not sure what kind of effort that 7:09 was worth into that wind but it was obviously more than my fitness allowed - I guess it was like sprinting a mile and then expecting to race 2 more right afterward.  I've run 3-mile tempos at a faster overall pace than my race today - oh well, lesson learned!

I don't even know if they're even going to have official results online but if they do I'll update; I think I got 1st or 2nd in my age group but I didn't hang around; it was a bit cold anyway.

**Right after lunch (ouch) I did 2 lazy TM miles to get to 30 for the week.  Still kind of disappointed about that time but now that I've thought about it maybe it was just dumb racing instead of bad fitness.  I shouldn't have tried to stay on goal pace running into a brick wall of wind and expect to recover.  Ah well...  I'll be smarter for the 10K next month.

***Last update - they posted results and the 22:32 was correct.  I was #1 in my AG...out of 2 total!  #4 of 44 racing that day.  There were 21 no-shows, maybe the horizontal sleet scared people away.

7:56 average pace.  Started out just trying to do an easy run today but after 3 miles I decided to go catch the "8-minute girl" as April says.  Yes, my invisible pace person is a girl.  Anyway, caught her at the 6 mile mark and dusted her off with a 7:30 to finish.  That'll teach her.

Stamina day.  2 mile warmup, 4 tempo miles @ 7:30 target (10KGP), 1 cooldown mile.  Thought it would be tougher as I haven't done 4 miles @ tempo before but it was fine.  Splits were 8:28, 8:33, 7:28, 7:17, 7:17, 7:00, 7:47.  7:15 average for the tempo, 7:41 for the whole run.  I didn't notice I had a chance to break 7 in the last mile until there was only .05 left so I took off but it was too late to get it.  Also, it was unplanned, but I ended up doing the cooldown @ HMGP to simulate mile 10 or 11 of the half.

So, yeah, the pace was faster in my 4 mile tempo today than in my 5k race...what a dummy.  Today the wind was from the south @ 15mph.  So I paid close attention to the pace on each leg around my university loops and tried to maintain an even effort.  Going south I was running 7:45s and going north 6:55s.  The crosswind legs were about 7:10.  So, doing the math I came up with an approximation of the effect of wind on distance running.  Looks like +2 sec/mile for every 1 mph of direct headwind, and -1 sec/mile for every 1 mph of direct tailwind.  So for example, if you're running directly into a 10mph head wind, your pace will be 20 sec/mile slower.  Let me know what y'all think of the accuracy of that with your experience.  My guess is that there is not an exact linear relationship like that formula would imply; it's probably somewhat exponential, similar to a gas mileage curve which shows you getting dramatically worse gas mileage after 50 mph or so.  But my brain isn't big enough to work that into a formula for running.

Applying that linear relationship to my Saturday disaster, my first mile would've been in the 6:20-6:30 range with no wind, probably close to a 1-mile PR for me.  Makes sense that I was unable to move it for the last 2 miles of the race.  Now that I feel like a complete nerd, I'll end the entry.

EZ 5 @ 8:20 avg.

Couldn't come up with anything interesting so I decided to do 3 fast half-miles at the end of miles 2, 3 and 4.  I figured out how to set the Garmin auto lap to 0.5 mi which was a feat for me (it still took me 5 minutes to find that option).  Anyway, the fast half-miles were 3:27, 3:13 and 3:06.  The first was into a headwind and the other two were tailwinds.  The rest of the run was 8:40s pace and the average for the entire 5.0 was 8:06.

I'm always surprised at how long a half mile is, and in each one I had to slow down because I was tired.  Still need to build a lot more stamina.

EZ 4 @ 8:17 pace.

Naturally, for my long run tomorrow "extreme winds" are in the forecast.

According to Weather.com, the winds were from the west, 24-39 mph, though it didn't feel quite that bad.  Temperature was 60 when I left and 69 by the end.  The good news was that I could use my favorite north-south highway to the lake and hopefully get mostly crosswinds.  My splits were 8:21, 8:08, 8:21, 8:18, 8:18, 8:18, 8:37, 8:14, 8:26, 8:23, 8:28, 8:28, 8:40, 8:39.  I hit the HM in 1:49:4x and total time running was 1:57:39 (8:24 avg).

I don't know why I can't start these runs a little slower.  I should probably be doing them at 9:00 pace so I wouldn't be so wasted at the end.  For the very last mile, I tried to speed it up to 8:00 (HMGP) but at 13.5 the needle went to empty and I crashed to almost 10:00 pace for the last half mile.  Whoops.  I'm starting to get too familiar with that feeling.  Next week I gotta slow down a bit so I can finish stronger.  This time I think dehydration played a role too; 20 oz must not be enough for me to do a 2-hour run when it's almost 70 degrees because my pee was an interesting color.  But I probably wouldn't have sweated so much if I had gone slower at first.  What feels like an easy long-run shuffle at mile 2 is an impossible sprint at mile 12.

Anyway, I think I got good training out of the run but it's a step backwards in my confidence level at breaking 1:45 next month.  Next week I'll focus on longer mid-week runs and only go 13 on Saturday, at a slower pace hopefully.

WM - 42.0

8:35 avg, evening run.  My left knee was sore this morning.  The only other soreness was my left calf down toward the achilles but I'm sure it'll be good after my day off tomorrow.

Goal was 2 warmup, 4 tempo @ sub 7:30, 2 HMGP.  Splits: 8:29, 8:22, 7:29, 7:17, 7:21, 7:08, 8:08, 7:47.  Averaged 7:45 for the entire 8.

This run was basically the same as 1 week ago with an extra HMGP mile at the end.  It was a bit windier which might be why I couldn't quite equal the tempo times from last week (could not even manage 8:00 pace into the headwind this time), but I still hit the overall targets there.  I also did not quite meet the HMGP on mile 7 as I was pretty wiped out, but managed to make up for it on the last mile to average out to sub-8 recovery miles.  I was definitely relieved to hear the beep at 8 miles today, so I know I got good training.

Recovery @ 8:33 avg pace.  It was really windy again, but I saw a fox on the way home.  So that's something.