Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

73 degrees, ran before the sun came up.

I want to start running a lot of 7:15 miles since that is my BQ pace.  I'm realistically at least a couple years away from being able to hold that pace for a marathon but I figure it's 10K pace now, and maybe HM pace by the end of the year if I can keep running uninjured.  So I set out to do just 2 today and failed already!  I could tell by my out-of-breath warmup miles it wasn't my day, but I still gave it a go and started to lose my form around 1.2.  The old me would've pushed through it but the new me now knows that running like that causes injuries.  That, and I'm lazier.  Anyway my stamina is clearly in the toilet after the injury layoff so back to the grind of easy miles for awhile.  Overall pace 8:23 for the 6 miles.

Temps in the mid-70s and muggy, but with 100% cloud cover.  I just slogged/shuffled through 5 miles at an 8:43 avg pace.  Last night I ate chili-cheese fries for dinner.  The styrofoam container it came in, with all its contents, probably weighed a good 2 or 3 pounds.  So good.

For my last run tomorrow I'll try to make it 8 miles or so.

Ditto the weather from yesterday.  I took it nice and easy to maximize the enjoyment.  That, and I haven't run this far since April so I wanted to finish!  I kept it solidly in the 8:40s for the first 6, then threw in some bursts of speed in the last couple miles.  8:37 pace overall.

Fun day planned with the family today, then I'm outa here tomorrow.  Hopefully I will have some miles to blog by the end of next week.  Have a great holiday all!

Well, I eventually made it here. It was 115 when I got off the plane in Baghdad...ouch.  The low tonight is 91.  So I sought out the gym and did 5 ez on the treadmill @ 7mph (8:34 pace).  Didn't feel too bad considering the lack of sleep I've gotten the past few days.  I guess I'll be makng friends with the cardio room; they can't cool it down quite enough, but it beats running outside for now.  I only hope I can stomach longer distances on it - I think the 5 today was a record for me but I'd like to eventually do 7 or 8 a day until I can start running outside in a couple months.

Just 4 miles in the torture chamber today - I cut it short.  The treadmill I was using instantly felt faster at 7.0 but it could be my imagination.  I even slowed down to 6.5 for the last mile.  Felt brutal the whole time...I need to run outside - is it October yet?  If I have the same problem on a different TM, I guess I'm gonna have to slow it down to get in the miles.  To make sure I don't cut my run short tomorrow, I will declare here, for the record, that I will do a full 6 tomorrow.

I did 1@ 6.8, 1@ 6.9, 3@ 7.0, 1@ 7.2.  AP somewhere in the 8:30s.  The running gods were even conspiring against me - the treadmill I was using kept going to cool down mode by itself in mile 4.  I finaly had to hit stop and start it from scratch to make it hold speed.  Now I'm pretty sure I just got a fast TM yesterday unless I was really having a bad day.  Now if I could find one that's accurate and can last more than 30 minutes...

6 more on the TM, mostly 7.0mph.  Overall pace: 8:32.  I think running on the TM might be getting more bearable.  I'm not going to fully commit to that statement but I can see the beginnings of a truth to it.

Anyway I found out they have races here - a lot of them.  Of course they all start around 5am because of the heat but there are plenty of 5 and 10Ks.  I'm thinking about doing a 10K as just a training run, maybe a bit faster than my TM jogging pace.  Out of curiosity I checked what the temp is tomorrow at 5am - it's 97F (ouch).  So I'd be doing it less for the race aspect, and more just to say I did it.  We'll see, I'm not committed to that idea either; plus it could be trumped by my work schedule on many days, so I'd have to get lucky that my dynamic work schedule pops out a late show on race day.

I walked to the gym at 4pm today (it's a half mile from my room) and it was the hottest day since I've been here: 122 (in the shade) when I left.  We have a thermometer sitting in the sun that said 136.  It feels like when you open the oven to get out the food you cooked, and that blast of hot air hits you.  Only with a little breeze it's constant.

On to the running:  I did 3@8:41,  2@7:30 and  1@8:57.  The last cool down mile was actually the hardest part as I never felt I caught my breath, though the 2-mile tempo got my lungs moving up and down pretty good as well.  It was pretty tough getting through it on a TM for me.  On the walk back, the wind had kicked up enough to get the sand and dust blowing so it was actually almost like shade, and a nice relief; I could barely see my shadow.

I signed up for a 10K on Friday morning at 5:30.  Whether I will make it or not depends on my schedule; I won't know if I'm running it until Thursday.  But it's free to sign up so why not?

Another 6 on the TM, 8:41 avg.  I'm actually a litle sore from yesterday, but only on one side.

6 @ 8:34 avg.  I found the treadmills that don't shut off after 30 minutes so I'm happy about that.  It still sucks trying to get through 6 miles though.  I just get so stuffy and hot.  I'll probably keep it at 6 for a couple weeks, then try 7, and so on...

It's looking like Friday's 10K will be a no-go for me as I'll probably have to be at work before the race even starts.  I think the stars would really have to align for me to get free one morning that happened to have a race, but I'm ok with that.  Base building is what I need now anyway.

Tomorrow, I'll rest as this was my 4th day in a row.  Next comes 5 days in a row, then 6, and I'll be back to running 6 days a week.  Feeling pretty good about my plan and feeling good physically, so I will definitely be entering the lotto for Houston when it opens.

My day off must have helped me because I felt good running today.  Like, ridiculously good.  I intended to just do 6 easy miles but it was feeling so aerobically easy by mile 4 that I didn't want to waste it.  So I did 4@8:41, .5@8:00, 1@7:30 and .5@6:58.  AP 8:18.  Just felt smooth and easy the whole time (even at the end), nothing like when I did a 2-mile tempo earlier this week.  In fact I felt like I could have kept going for a couple more miles at 6:58 today (decided now was not the time to be a hero).  Anyway, I'm pretty sure the magic goes away the next day as I've had these weird anomalistic Superman days before.  Easy run tomorrow for sure.

6 ez @ 8:38 AP.  I should have thought about my shoes more - I'm alternating between a somewhat new pair and one that already has 500+ miles.  Once I start running outside I probably shouldn't run on the old ones, so I don't think I'll last until January with these 2 pair.  Guess Danielle will be shoe shopping for me later!  She loves sending me all the stuff I forget to bring every deployment.

6@ 8:41.  Last mile was 3.5% incline (held speed at 8:41) which was tougher than I thought it would be.  It ended up just being a 185' climb but I predict some soreness from it which is probably a good thing since I've never really run much on hills.  Need to build those muscles..

Started at 6.8mph (8:49) and added 0.2 after each mile with the last at 7.8 (7:41).  Average came out to 8:13.  Changing things up a little (something different every mile) helps me get through the 6 TM miles easier, I think.  Soon I will be up to 7...soon...

The Army guys at the gym (I'm at an Army camp) all seem to like to hop on the TM, sprint until they're red in the face for 10-15 minutes, then get off.  I had like 3 of em use the TM to my right in the 50 or so minutes I was on.  I think they probably like to show the slow Air Force guy how it's done - we have to wear PT clothes that represent our branch so I stick out a bit.

Felt good again today - I definitely run hot and cold a lot lately and never know how I'll feel until a couple miles in.  Maybe it's mental?  Anyway AP was 8:10 today.  Last mile was 7:10 (0.75@8.0mph and the last quarter-mile at 9.5mph).  I figure I'll keep taking advantage of the good days with speed, and just chug slowly through the bad ones instead of planning out specific speed days like I did before (and then forcing things when it clearly wasn't my day).  Maybe things will dampen out a bit after I get a solid base under me.

Guess what, I ran on the treadmill today.  I'm willing to run outside in mid-upper 80s in the morning but I have to be at work too early.  You can't really run here before the sun comes up because nothing is really lighted; it's pitch black and I would definitely fall down a lot considering I'm already a clutz and don't know where I'm going anyway.  The good news is I think I'll be changing jobs in a month or so and could show up a couple hours later, we'll see.

For my run I did 3.5 mile warmup @ 8:39 avg pace.  Then a tempo, 2.5 miles @ 7:12 avg pace.  The tempo was broken down into 1.5 @ 8.0mph;  0.75 @ 8.6mph;  0.25 @ 9.5mph.  The whole run averaged to somewhere around 8:00 pace.  Crunching the numbers, the last mile was 6:48.

ez 6 @ 7mph.

AP was 8:14 for this run.  Started at 7 mph and started increasing it bit by bit after about 3 miles, out of boredom.  Last mile @ 7:30 (which I'll arbitrarily log as "fast") included a quarter-mile with 3% incline.

Another 36-mile week in the bag, so I'll start sprinkling in some 7-milers next week.

Another impatient get-it-over-with, speed-it-up TM run, but 7 miles this time!  I got bored with about 2 to go and started adding speed every half mile.  The last mile came out to 6:58 thanks to a quarter mile finish at 10.1mph (5:56 pace).  I have to admit that toying with the fast speeds like that is kind of fun.  At some point I'll increase it too much and be flung backwards from the TM in a comical fashion but until then I'll keep playing with it.  AP = 8:11.

EZ 7 @ 8:23 avg pace.  Mixed up speeds but kept everything at 8:00 or above.

Kept it steady at 7.0mph (8:34) the whole time but to spice things up, I ran the last quarter of each mile uphill in increasing increments starting with 2% and finishing with 8%.  The 8% was probably the hardest I've worked thus far.  I liked that workout because my lungs had plenty of time to recover and I was ready to attack the steep inclines when it was time.  Good one to do right before a day off, I think.  It's flat as a pancake here, so when I start runing outside I might have to duck into the gym every once and awhile for some mill-hills.  I'll give myself 1 fast mile for those last 4 quarters between 5% and 8%.

I actually have a chance to run in the early morning tomorrow but will opt out since it's time for my day off, and it's still going to be 93 degrees at sunrise.  A bit unlucky, since we've been seeing lows in the upper-80s lately.  Anyway...I wimped out, so what?

No run (rest day) BUT...I officially entered the lotto for the Houston marathon so hopefully we'll (my wife is trying for the half) get some good news in a few weeks and I'll be committed to train for my first full.  My alternate marathon is New Orleans in Feb.

4 mile warmup @ 8:34.

3 mile tempo @ 7:20.

For the last 3, I bumped up the speed as I went along and really got myself working pretty hard by the end.  AP: 8:02.

Easy miles with another faster finish.  10.5mph (5:43) this time for the last quarter mile.  I still didn't get slung off the TM, but planning on that happening soon.  Those treadmills go up pretty high...  Avg pace 8:24.

Double Complete Rainbow

I'm probably the last person to see the link above, but it made me laugh for hours so I thought I'd share.

86 degrees today...in the gym.  I've noticed when the days get to around 120/90 for the high and low, the gym itself is in the mid 80s in the afternoon (there are thermometers everywhere).  We had a stretch of days where it was around 110/85 and the gym was about 80.  4pm is just the best time to run with my schedule right now though.  Today I lucked out and got a TM with the fan pointing in its general direction so it was ok.

I did a marathon-pace run, sorta, for 5 miles.  I have no idea what my MP is.  Based on my HM, most calculators say it's around 8:00/mile.  So, figure I'll get a little faster by January and we'll call it 7:50 for now.  Can always adjust it later.

I did 1 @ 8:34;  5 @ 7:53;  and 1 @ 7:04.  AP 7:52.  I was pleased that mile 5 was just as easy as mile 1.  As I go, I'll just keep doing more and more at MP and throw them into long runs.