Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

5am, 80F.  I looked up last year's temperatures to see when they were going to come down, and last year they had already had a few days with lows in the upper 60s.  So I guess this year is just hot.  This is clearly the work of global warming cooling warming climate disruption.

The run was good.  8:18 AP and less perceived effort than yesterday, so my legs and lungs are coming back to me.

My foot/ankle/heel/whatever felt a little better today too.  It's like it's just weak around that area or something; maybe it needs to take a beating.  I'm going to quit the anti-inflammatory now instead of finishing the 2-week course.  Maybe that'll help it strengthen up.  I was only taking a kid-size dose anyway.  They gave me like 2 months worth of pills for some reason.  If I get into trouble close to the marathon they can be my little lifesavers.

5am, 80F.  8:19 AP.  I intended on going slower today but some guy was behind me, catching up, so I had to speed up for a couple miles so he wouldn't catch me.  Yes, I had to.  My foot felt a little better too, and this was probably the first run where there were no anti-inflammatories in my system.  So good news there.

5:30am, 83F.  A decent-sized dust storm shrunk the vis down to 200m around 4am, but when I went out to hit the TM, it was looking a lot better so I ran outside.  Still pretty dusty though, my face felt like it was caked in a nice sand-sweat mixture.  Not feeling it on the run either, sore legs + stomach cramps + sore foot + out of breath at mile 1... I cut it short and will take a day off tomorrow.  4 days in a row is pretty good for my first week back.  Should be refreshed on Tuesday morning.  Avg pace was 8:30.

5am, 83F.  EZ 5, then 2 at MGP (7:54, 7:55).  8:16 avg.  My goal is a 3:30 marathon, even if that is a stretch right now.  I will have to get way faster, but why not just train for it and see what happens.  So 8:00 will be my goal pace.

My heel is still getting sore and I'm getting suspicious of the tendon again.  I ordered some firm arch supports today to take some pressure off of what I believe is the injured tendon (posterior tibial).  Most websites recommend arch supports for that problem and that info is backed up by what I've noticed in my runs - that if I use mostly the inside of the foot, which is natural for me the faster I go, I can feel it tugging a bit on what I think is that bad tendon.  When I consciously use the outside, it tugs less but gives my foot a pounding.  It seems right that some extra support in the arch would alleviate it, so I'll give it a try.

5am, 72F!!  Where did that cool air come from?  My target was 8:30s today, but the temperature was so nice I just ran easy and let the splits fall where they may...an evenly-paced 8:09 avg.  Coolest temps in months for me.  I actually had more energy after this run than any of my previous runs since the layoff.  Stiil, I will try to slow it down in the future until I start doing MP/tempo runs.  There are a couple 5Ks this weekend; I think I will do at least one and get the sub-22 that I should've gotten awhile ago.  There's one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Strategy will be to not accept anything slower than 6:59 for miles 1 and 2.  The rest should take care of itself.

My new theory on my heel is that it isn't the tendon this time (although it was before).  This is a good thing, I think.  Now the discomfort comes when my foot hits the ground, and it's more the back of the heel, right below the heel bone.  Calcaneal bursitis is the only thing my googling found that makes sense.  Hopefully, it's just a bruise though - that is what it feels like.  It's totally runnable, just feels like a hotspot back there, and really it depends how I land.  I might never figure it out.  I vow that this is my last entry complaining about it unless it gets too bad to run on.

5am, 71F.  7 easy, then at about 0.2 into the last mile I sped up and brought the last mile's split down to 6:53.  Wanted to test my foot at 5K speed, and it passed so I will run the 5K on Saturday and get that sub-22.  AP for all 8 miles was 8:06.

Think I will take a day off tomorrow, but not sure yet.  I was going to take Saturday off but there are races Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday's race has free t-shirts so I can't skip that one!

5:30am, 73F.  My strategy for this (to ensure sub-22) was to force myself to run the first 2 miles under 7:00, and it paid off to push the pace early; I finally got a 5K time I'm happy with.  I jogged 2.55 miles to the starting line as warmup, then:

Mile 1 - 6:43.  Surprisingly comfortable.

Mile 2 - 6:49.  Kinda hawked the Garmin here to make sure I stuck to the strategy.

Mile 3 - 6:59.  I really battled to keep it under 7.  The pace would keep bleeding back into the 7s and I'd surge.  Definitely struggling (gasping for air!) but it was awesome to look down and see 6-something when it beeped at the 3.0 mark (even if it was by a fraction of a second).

The last 0.13 was 49s (6:14 pace).  Afterward I saw Antonio who now runs in the evenings (when it's well over 90 degrees); he beat me by a little over a minute.  I slowly jogged 2.32 back home - coincidentally it worked out to exactly 8 miles for the day.

5:15am, 71F.  I was going to run Sunday morning, but my foot apparently didn't appreciate my all-out effort in the 5K.  It hurt too much to even run on it.  So, I dug out my stash of magic pills (meloxicam) and took one, went to bed, and when I woke up Sunday evening it felt pretty good again.  So I ran an easy 8 today, 8:17 AP, and only felt a dull ache back there.  I realize it was a drug-induced absence of pain but I will slowly wean myself again and hope for the best.  I figure if I'm really not supposed to run on it, it'll hurt me bad enough even with an anti-inflammitory working on it.  If I'm wrong then, ok, I learned a lesson the hard way.  I'll take off every 3rd or 4th day for a "healing day" and my arch supports will hopefully be here within a week to help me out too.

Congrats to my wife Danielle who just PR'd in the half marathon on Sunday!

5:15am, 62F.  Guess summer is finally over; I'm gonna have to think of another blog title.  Something really creative like, "Marathon Training."

I ran 7 easy, 1 @ MP.  Honestly, there isn't much of a difference between the two.  8:14 average.

Resting up tomorrow.  No need to run every day while I'm trying to heal the foot, and training for Houston doesn't start until November.

5:15am, 65F.  Average pace 8:01, with a nice negative split for the 4s (33:02, 31:08).  I know that less than 24 hours ago I commented I was just going to run easy for awhile but I'm a liar.  These 2 dudes joined the trail about 100m behind me in mile 5 and were catching up so I had to speed up.  I HAD to.  Not sure why I'm not mature enough to just run my own pace, I'm just not.  Once I lost them I just held pace; I stayed in my aerobic range and had energy to spare after I stopped, no harm done.

5:15am, 71F.  EZ 8, 8:19 avg.  No one messed with me today, guess they learned their lesson.

5:15am, 72F.  8:18 AP.  First double-digit run in a few weeks.  Felt pretty good the whole way.  Last mile was at MGP.

5:15am, 73F.  That sure was a nice 2 days in the low 60s last week, but I guess summer is back - it hit 100 yesterday afternoon.  Still, I'll take low 70s any day.

Picked up the pace a little today, 7:56 avg.  Last mile 7:32 to make sure the 8-minute guy lost for once.  I was hoping 8:00 would feel like a nice long-sustainable cruising speed so that maybe in January I could do 26.2 miles at that pace.  But it still gets the lungs/heart working a bit too much for now.  Still got time to work on that though.

This was my first run on a half-dose of NSAID and my foot felt decent enough so I'll continue on half a pill for a few more days before trying to run without it.

5:15am, 73F.  8:21 avg.  I'm going to attempt 12 miles tomorrow.  My plan is to take it nice and slow.

My arch supports finally came in the mail, but the instructions say not to use them for "athletics" until you've walked around in them for a few days.  I did run up and down the street to test them and other than feeling like there's a bubble under my arch, they felt good.  I'm definitely not positive that it's the right solution, but seems like they might help me out once I get used to them.

5:15am, 72F.  8:18 AP - Easy 8 (avg 8:34), then 8:17, 8:02, 7:41, 7:15.  Really felt good today.  Although in the early miles I was forcing myself to run 8:30s and people kept messing with me, like speeding up when I'm about to pass them.  I know that's exactly what I like to do, but it's somehow ok when I do it.  Normally I would've done everything in my power to speed by them but I was worried about completing all 12 so I ran my own steady pace like a big boy.

5:15am, 73F.  Plan was for 4 warmup, 3 @ 7:20 (new tempo pace), 1 cooldown.

The 4 warmup miles were @ 8:33 avg.  I always see the exact same people on the first few miles around Lost Lake.  My nemesis, Jingle Keys, was giving me a run for my money today.  I can always hear him from about 50m away.  Anyway, the tempo portion was 7:18, 7:17, 7:17.  Then I cooled down with an 8:28.  I haven't done much stamina work lately so this kicked my butt today; I would not have wanted to do another mile like that.  Gotta get used to feeling the pain again!

I also wore my arch supports today.  No issues with them.  It was interesting though, the insert really felt like a big bubble under my right arch - the semi-injured foot (getting better and better by the way), but the left foot felt like the arch support wasn't even there most of the time.  So maybe I really need them.  Who knows.

5:15am, 72F.  Easy 7, + 1 @ MGP.  8:24 avg.  No NSAIDs in my system for this run.  Went pretty well - I can tell a difference, but I can definitely continue without anti-inflammatories for now.

5:15am, 72F.  I think cooler weather is coming later this week...  I cranked out a 10-miler today, 8:12 AP.  Pretty good negative split (42:08, 39:56).  Now to sit back and enjoy a few hours at the top of the mileage board.

5:15am, 72F.  8:19 pace.  Kinda sluggish.  My lungs were demanding more air than usual today.  Stupid lungs.  I forced a few quicker miles toward the end to teach them a lesson.  Hopefully they got the message.

5:15am, 64F.  8:18 pace.  Same course, same time of day, same pace as yesterday but half the effort.  Gotta be the awesome temperature this morning, although I had the shoes I prefer today too.  And there was a nice breeze that made it feel even cooler.  I fought the urge to just rip off an 8-mile tempo, and held back since I'm planning on a 14-miler tomorrow.  Should have nice temps for that too.  It will tie my record for longest run ever, set about 6 months ago.

5am, 64F.  It went pretty good - AP was 8:19.  First 8 were easy (averaged 8:32), then 8:21, 8:14, 8:09, 7:59, 7:49, 7:48.  I was pretty spent after that.  I should have been doing more long runs.  The thought of running 12.2 more miles makes me want to puke all over my laptop.  But I only have 1 laptop and I need it, so I'll try not to think about it.

5:30am, 70F.  Plan was 4 warmup, then 3-4 tempo miles (based on how I felt).  My mistake was giving myself the option.  But, I managed to push a little longer and do 3.5 tempo, so I can say I improved from last week's 3.0.

Easy 4 avg 8:29.  Then, 7:18, 7:16, 7:14, 3:34.  7:15 AP for the tempo.  Then a half-mile cooldown @ 8:50 pace.

I started to get sloppy with form, and my legs started that warm, "lactate-y" feeling (I knew exactly what you were talking about Flatlander) a half-mile later this time.  So maybe some improvement.  My target is 7:20 on these tempos, so it's weird that I panic when I see 7:20 on the watch and speed up.  But if I could slow 'er down and average 7:20 I think that would help too.

I saw lows in the 50s on the forecast for next week.  50s!  There were also these white puffy things in the sky today that I remember from back in the states.  Forgot what they were called, but the weather is showing signs of changing at least.  Summer is almost over.

5:30am, 66F.  Easy 8, 8:17 avg.

They were running a satellite race of the Marine Corps Marathon here this morning.  Apparently I started my run 20-25 minutes after this race started and was unknowingly following its routing.  The first water station I saw offered me some water, but I said, "no thanks, I'm not in the race."  It was too dark to see I didn't have a bib.  Then around mile 3, there was a guy clapping for me and pointing me in the direction of the race.  I told him thanks, but that I wasn't in the race.  Finally around mile 4 there was an aid station with about a dozen people hanging out.  I overheard someone say something to the effect of "hey, here comes someone else, let's really cheer him on..."  I was running all by my lonesome and had to have still been at least 10 min behind everyone else, so they were definitely pity-cheering.  This time I just raised my hand up, gave a few fist pumps and a "woohoo" and kept going.  Someone told me (kinda like you would tell a 4-year-old) "YOU are doing a GREAT job!"  It made me feel good in a pitiful sort of way.  Shortly after that I must have split off from the race route because I didn't receive anymore ill-gotten cheers.