Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

AM:  53F.  6 @ 8:47 AP.  Should still be decent tomorrow, so I'll squeeze in a LR.  Next week we're back to crap weather.

PM:  79F.  5 @ 7:51 AP.  6 x 1 min @ 3-5k pace on the way back.

AM:  56F -> 62F.  22 @ 7:11 AP.  Fast Finish long run today.  Ran 17 easy then the last 5 @ 6:26 AP (6:25, 6:23, 6:34, 6:26, 6:20).  Felt really good today.  After 8 weeks of high mileage I finally have a little spring in my step again.  I thought it would only take 3 or 4 weeks, but whatever.

PM:  79F.  4 @ 8:31 AP.  4 mutt miles right after sunset.

AM:  68F, 90%.  7 @ 8:06 AP.  I think my t-shirts can go on vacation until October now.

I put together my running history over the last ~2 years, have a look:

It shows my mileage each month, converted to a weekly number, which makes more sense to me than a monthly amount.  Definitely clears up why my last couple marathons were not great.  At times over the past 2 years, I have been in better shape than the guy who ran 2:58 at Boston in 2013...it just has not come together for me at the right time.

Plan is to run high mileage for the next 6-8 months, continuing what I did last month, run a couple ultras, then a solid January to April marathon training block, and run 2:50-2:55 in a spring 2016 marathon.  If everything goes right and I still run a 3-hour marathon, I will retire to ultras or curling.

PM:  no way on free time today, but I ran the last mile kinda fast this morning...was hoping that would count for something 

AM:  69F, 91%.  8 @ 7:42 AP.

PM:  74F, 74%.  5 @ 7:45 AP.  Short strides (the 8 x 30s variety).

AM:  72F, 91%.  10 @ 7:57 AP.  Swampy morning.  I thought maybe if I felt like it, I'd do a few tempo miles.  I did not feel like it.  This is a just-get-in-the-miles week.

PM:  81F, 63%.  4 @ 8:17 AP.

AM:  72F, 93%.  10 @ 7:48 AP.

PM:  80F, 73%.  5 @ 8:18 AP.

AM:  74F, 92%.  6 @ 8:37 AP.

PM:  76F, 85%.  5 @ 7:30 AP.  Long strides (6 x 1 min).

74F, 95%.  10 @ 8:18 AP.  Stayed up too late drinking beer and watching the stupid Rockets.  This run felt bad.

AM:  76F, 91%.  6 @ 7:58 AP.

AM:  68F, 89%.  10 @ 7:46 AP.  ridiculous work week... A couple of 4am runs is all I've had time for and probably nothing tomorrow.  I need to become a professional runner...just need to drop an hour or so from my marathon PR - should be doable.

AM:  71F, 98%.  10 @ 7:37 AP.  did my workout for the week - 1 x 2 min @ vo2 max.  sad.

PM:  78F, 78%.  I had a double cheeseburger combo for lunch and hit the trail 10 minutes later.  Ow.  Ow.  Ow.  Ow.  Ow.  Mercifully my Garmin ran out of battery but it was my 4-mile route.

AM:  Lots of lightning so I did 11 on the treadmills at work this morning.  It was probably a good thing because I ended up getting in a workout instead of another 10 miles easy.  I did 8 x (3 min on / 1 min off).  The on's averaged out to around 10 mph (started slower, finished faster) and the off's were 6.7.  So at least I accomplished something this week with running...next week I should be able to hop back on the horse and get in more runs.

AM2:  69F, 91%, raining.  5 @ 8:13 AP.

AM:  Not sure on the mileage but it was at least 13...  One of my running nightmares came true - my car key must've fallen out of my shorts somehow and I was locked out of my car.  I frantically looked up and down the trail for it and finally ended up jogging to Walmart (shirtless) and asked a mechanic if I could use his phone, and my wife brought the other key.  So lots of extra miles running/jogging/walking back and forth.

PM:  88F, 63% (HI 96F).  4 @ 8:15 AP.  Going to start tracking heat index for these PM runs now that it's getting hotter.  I think I'll be ok throughout the summer as long as it's just 4-5 slow miles, but we'll see.  I think trying to suck it up and run in the heat will have some benefits, even if it just makes the morning runs comfortable by comparison.

AM:  75F, 94%.  14 @ 7:47 AP.  this is my make-up week for the crummy last week and a half.  I had 8.5 good weeks in a row then 1.5 not so good...still altogether solid I guess.  Hopefully life will allow an uninterrupted high-mileage block from here to our summer vacation in early July, which will probably be the next little recovery period.

PM:  84F, 67% (HI 90F).  4 @ 8:23 AP.

AM:  73F, 91%.  6 @ 8:40 AP.  Decent amount of sleep last night, almost 8 hours.  I thought if I went to sleep during last night's game that the Rockets would pull off the win, as they usually do when I miss the game, but no luck.  Now I don't know what to do next time...stay up or go to sleep?

PM:  83F, 67% (HI 88F).  4 @ 8:17 AP

AM:  67F, 91%.  7 @ 8:34 AP.  Treated to some cool post-thunderstorm weather.  Ain't no sunshine in SA lately, but I'm ok with that.

PM:  74F, 68%.  5 @ 7:52 AP.  short strides.

AM:  65F, 96%.  12 @ 7:12 AP.  Every once in awhile you can cherry pick a decent morning for a workout this time of year.  I did 5 ez, 5 mile tempo in 32:00 (6:24/mile), and a 2-mile cool down.  Good effort given the high-mileage week and humidity.

NOAA just released their latest summer forecast...looks like Texas may be getting cooler-than-average weather this summer (everyone except Flatlander in Houston - the one white spot) but we'll see...

PM: 78F, 75%.  4 @ 8:05 AP.

AM:  75F, 95%.  5 @ 8:31 AP.  ow, my calf hurts.  What the heck...

AM:  73F, 87%.  10 @ 7:38 AP.  Found the thigh-deep water in mile 1 today, that was fun.

2 days off for my calf - it started out fine but I felt it more and more as the run went on...possibly with the natural increase in pace.  I first aggravated it after a workout so the message is probably to keep it at a shuffle this week.

PM:  84F, 69% (HI 90F).  4 @ 8:06 AP.  I think I'll just try to repeat today's runs every day this week, but probably even slower.  Stupid calf.

AM:  76F, 95%.  10 @ 7:56 AP.  I tried Jake's heat wrap idea and kept the pace pretty snug around 8 minutes...that combo helped the calf out a lot this morning.  I'll start mixing in workouts when I'm pretty sure the calf won't be a factor anymore.  I'm in a long base phase right now anyway...miles first, workouts second.

PM:  86F, 59% (HI 91F).  4 @ 7:59 AP.

AM:  75F, 92%.  10 @ 8:08 AP.  Tired, hot, creek levels still high so a back-and-forth route...  Just punching the clock today.  Almost stepped on a baby possum though.  Most critters move out of my way but this little guy just stared innocently at me as I made a last-minute move to avoid him...where was mama possum on that one?  Probably digging in someone's garbage can.

PM:  85F, 69% (HI 92F).  4 @ 8:22 AP.

AM:  65F, 90%.  5 @ 8:25 AP.  Legs felt all bogged down yesterday so I decided on a cutback day today.  I was a little pissed when I saw it was 65 degrees though (~10 degrees cooler than forecasted).  Some more thunderstorms had come through last night to cool everything off.  I think I would've structured my week a little differently had I known this opportunity would be available, but maybe I'll luck out tomorrow morning and it'll be decent (long run day).

PM:  82F, 59% (HI 84F).  4 @ 8:25 AP.  Still tired.  But on the plus side, I'm getting a sweet watch tan from all these lunch runs.

You can actually see the notches...ridiculous!

AM:  73F, 93%.  20 @ 7:36 AP.  After 3 Weekend Fails in a row, I finally got in a decent long run.  Felt pretty good too, with a DP in the low 70s.  I'm going to try to do these every weekend, but even if I only pull it off once every 2 or 3 weeks, I'll still be ahead of years past.  There are so many benefits to the LR, I'm not sure why I always thought it was ok to stop doing them for 6 months out of every year just because it was a little warm.

PM:  Daughter's last bball game.  They only won 1 game during the regular season but every team makes the playoffs, and they won both playoff games somehow so they got the big trophy.