Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

59F, S 14-22 mph.  8:11 AP.  I was going to do 12, but my legs were totally dead today.  Normally I'd just suffer through it but with a race in 4 days, I turned around early.  That is exactly what I get for all the big talk about how 20 miles is no big deal.  While it was easy at the time, it definitely still leaves its mark.  I knew it felt wrong when I was typing it!  Anyway, I think a little rest will recover them enough to be ready to run on Saturday.

Oh yeah, weather.gov is predicting the winds at race time to be SSW 26-37 mph.  The course for the half is fully exposed (no trees, houses, etc) and the first 5 miles will be into the wind.  Let's just say I am shopping around for another HM.

Just checked and my last day off of running was Oct 11.  So now is probably a good time for one.

35F (w/c 27F), NW 11 mph.  short sleeves and shorts, oh yeah!  I did have gloves and a hat though.  7:25 AP, which included strides and 2 x 0.5 mile @ HMGP.  Felt really good today coming off the rest day and probably the perfect running temperature for me.

It also helped that I hadn't just rolled out of bed - I had to be at work for something at 6am, but then ran after that.  Just jumped right into 7:30 pace; normally it takes several miles before I can approach that if I've just gotten out of bed.

So, feeling good for the race.  Temp should be upper 40s with the south wind at 20-25 mph.  I'll just do what I can; all the headwind pretty much comes right up front in the first 5-6 miles.  If I have to accept 7:30/mile on the first 5, I can still at least break 1:30 by averaging 6:30 the rest of the way.  It's a stretch, but worth shooting for.

29F.  My first run in the 20s this season, not too bad since the winds were calm.  I actually went with long sleeves.  8:40 AP.  Ready to run tomorrow and take whatever the wind gods will give me.

51F, SSE 22-31 mph.  no kidding.

Short version - Really happy with this one given the wind.  When I felt the wind before the race, I thought it might take a miracle to break 1:30, but it actually happened.  No telling what this time would be worth on a normal day (and I'm not gonna guess) but I think I'm right on track with my fitness.

Obviously the splits are all over the map with the wind.  The headwind legs mostly came up front and were absolutely brutal.  When it gusted, it felt like I would almost come to a complete stop.  The tailwind legs were fast, although the damage had already been done.  Here are the splits/commentary, with HW in red, crosswind in black and TW in green (although I'm sure it'll be obvious).

1 - 6:52 - It started out with a little loop, and I stuck with the 2 leaders.

2-5 - 6:51, 7:27, 7:21, 7:29 - Mile 2 was neutral until about 1.6 and then the hell started.  When I felt what the headwind was like, knowing that we would have to endure it for 4 miles, I almost mentally gave up.  The two leaders hammered it and I was left by myself.  I was completely smoked trying to hold 7:20s and thought I was done.

6-10 - 6:48, 6:53, 6:41, 6:35, 6:33 - At about 5.2, it turns off the highway to a crosswind, and the slippery gravel begins for the next 3 miles.  My breathing was really starting to recover even though I was going a lot faster.  Mile 7 was about half headwind.  Mile 8 was a nice tailwind but probably had the worst gravel, really slippery.  Miles 9 and 10 were crosswind but the gravel ended and the asphalt began; I was starting to find my stride and had recovered from the headwind legs.  The second place guy was about 0.25 miles ahead after mile 5, but I had closed to about 0.15 miles by mile 10 (I would see him pass a landmark, then look at garmin to see how long it took me to get there).

11-13.1 - 6:19, 6:27, 6:36, 0:39 (5:45 pace) - Now the part I had been waiting for - I actually did the last 5K in exactly 20 min.  I closed to within 30 seconds of 2nd place but couldn't catch him.  Mile 13 we lost a majority of the tailwind and I really redlined trying to catch up to 2nd place.

If you break up the race into 2 halves, I did the first 6.55 miles in 46:39 (7:07 pace) and did the second half in 42:52 (6:32 pace).  The funny thing is it might have been a positive split effort.

Afterward I ran the race opposite direction until I saw Danielle, and ran her in.  She got a 10-second PR, despite the wind.  So we are both feeling pretty good.

results (it seems 5-6 seconds was added to everyone's time; I'm sticking with my watch time since I could not have been off by that much!)

67F, SSE 18-26 mph.  8:37 AP.  Actually got some sunshine for this run.  This is the first time as a runner that I have gotten to experience the joys of Fall daylight savings time.  Last year I was living with savages (no DST), and the year before I would've never done something like wake up early to run.

57F, WNW 16-23 mph.  7:45 AP.  Interesting run for a weather nerd.  I ran about an hour after the squall line came through but just before the cold air from the actual front.  In the relatively short time I was out there, I could feel the winds transiting from south to north by the end of the run.

The plan for the rest of the week is a lot more plain ol' aerobic running like this to recover from the half, then 10 @ MP on Sunday in my long run.

39F, N 10 mph.  Some perfect running weather.  7:32 AP today as I got a little carried away on the way home...nothing crazy though, just having fun throwing in a few strides of varying speeds and duration.  Legs really sprung to life today and are seemingly recovered after the race.

32F, 8:39 AP.

49F, SSW 17 mph.  I had the day off, so I took my kindergartner to school and ran from there.  7:36 AP.  Once my legs get warmed up, things are now very comfortable in the 7:30s (when the weather is cool).  Hopefully if my easy pace is speeding up, it means everything else is too.  Not sure if it works like that though.

61F, SSW 20-27 mph.  8:35 pace.  Short late-morning jog before tomorrow's torture session...looks like it'll be in the 60s.

61F, SSW 13 mph.  Workout was 8 easy followed by 10 @ MP.

8 easy, 7:48 AP.  (8:03, 7:57, 7:54, 7:50, 7:36, 7:38, 7:40, 7:46)

10 MP, 6:45 AP.  (6:52, 6:52, 6:51, 6:49, 6:50, 6:49, 6:39, 6:38, 6:35, 6:30)

Overall for 18 miles, 7:13 AP

I was starting to suspect I'd gone through an improvement spurt this week since my easy aerobic runs were coming in about 10-15 seconds/mile faster than usual.  I think this confirms it.  When I finished it was 63 degrees and in direct sun (around 9 am) so not ideal conditions for me, although not terrible either.

My BQ pace is 7:03, so I don't think that is in much doubt now unless the conditions are particularly adverse.  It might, MIGHT be time to start thinking sub-3, but it's a fine line because the BQ is the goal and I don't want to blow it by getting greedy.

The shoes I ran in (type A4s) will probably be my marathon shoes, as they felt fine the whole time.  I have been dealing with a sore right achilles/calf since the race last weekend though, so definitely need to run in the trainers for awhile.  The good news is that it never hurt at all while running.

AM - 60F.  7:57/mile, legs were pretty dead this morning from Sunday's workout.  It definitely does not makes sense to do those long MP runs more than once every couple of weeks -- I don't think I'll be ready for a workout tomorrow, so I'm going to try for Friday...thinking 8 x 800 but not sure yet.

PM - 67F and cooling.  8:31 AP for 4 miles and change.  I wasn't originally going to double up today but there will be a nasty south wind on Friday, so I am shuffling the whole week around so I can go to the track on Thursday (40 degrees and low wind).  Hopefully the legs will be good to go by then.

44F.  8:29 AP.

30F, w/c 26F.  Little chilly, but great interval-running weather.

The plan was for a 5 mile warmup, then 8 x 800s with 400m jog recovery at the track.  Well, after my warmup, I notice what looks like the entire ACU football team or something arriving there too.  So on to Plan B, which was to set my watch up for 0.5 mile laps and do the repeats around the campus jogging path loop.  So the workout ended up just about the same, I just did 0.5 miles fast and 0.25 miles slow, 8 times.  I ran them pretty evenly but since it wasn't a track, there were some slightly overall uphill and downhill repeats.

5-ish warmup: 7:53AP

8 x 0.5 miles: 3:02, 2:57, 2:57, 2:59, 2:59, 3:02, 2:55, 2:51.  AP was 5:56 for the 4 total fast miles.  Recoveries were all basically 2:00-2:05 for the quarter mile inbetween (8:00-8:20 pace).  It felt all frantic at first trying to get to 6:00 pace, but I sorta found a groove with it.  A really uncomfortable groove.

Pretty much the times I was shooting for, even if I had gotten to run on a nice level track, so I'll call it a success and go back to avoiding VO2 max workouts again for as long as possible.

AP 7:19 for 13 miles.

46F, S 18-25 mph.  8:17 AP.

64F, S 19-27 mph.  Normally I do the LR on Sunday, but offered to take the windy day this weekend so Danielle could have some calmer weather (tomorrow) for her 18-miler.

Overall, 7:51/mile.  The direct headwind legs were about 8:40 pace, and I had to push a little to get that, so pretty nasty wind.

47F, N 10 mph.  It was supposed to be in the mid-60s all day but stayed 15-20 degrees below the forecast - weird, never seen them screw it up that bad.  I actually ran just after lunch.  Maybe a little too soon after lunch:  fajita burps all the way.  Leftover fajita burps.

8:27 AP

43F, foggy.  More weird weather for Abilene.  7:42 AP.  Such a nice, flowing, easy, gliding run - you know, just the sweetest feeling kind - until about 5 miles from home.  Then I had...issues.  My bowels were paying for a weekend of total gluttony.  Somehow I made it home with clean underwear and no pit stops -- it took a few short bouts of walking to contain things.  But the joy of running through the refreshing cool mist was gone, gone, gone.

46F.  8:09 AP.  Leaving for Houston today...sometime.

56F, N 10 mph.  Houston.  8:25 AP.  I forgot to bring any running shoes - what kind of runner am I?  I did this run in some old beaters and there will probably be a shiny new pair of racers in my very near future.

54F, ENE 8 mph.

Stunk it up today - I hate the 10K.  Basically went out forcing the pace I wanted for the first half and it was way too fast for me today.  Miles 4 and 5 were into the wind but I can't in good conscience use that as an excuse, the wind speed was not too bad.  I was just mush after the 5K and gave a pretty poor effort for the last 3 miles.  I'm trying not to read in too much as far as what kind of shape that I'm in, hoping it was just a bad day, but I expected a lot better on a flat course with close to perfect conditions.  Sub-3 needs to be shelved for sure.  Gotta focus on 3:05, because I probably still have work to do to get there.  Don't you hate it when you realize you're slower than you thought you were?  Anyway, here's the carnage:

6:18, 6:21, 6:21, 6:40, 6:47, 6:50, 1:38 for 0.29 (5:38 pace).

Danielle and I both measured the course about a tenth of a mile long, not that it really mattered for me, given my crappy running.  The last .29 would've been slower but (another) girl was passing me and I picked it up to finish ahead.  Actually, it was really easy to pick up the pace, which kind of lets me know I dogged it way too much once I knew it would not be a good race.  Lazy bum.  Ah well, back to the grind.  Happy Thanksgiving all.

56F.  7:41/mile - Started out thinking it would be mostly recovery today but my legs quickly told me they didn't need it.  Still in Houston, but I was feeling more like my normal self today; maybe I just needed a couple days to acclimate to the wetter climate and humidity?  I don't know, but it might be worth arrving in Houston a few days early for the marathon to adjust, just in case I'm not crazy.

68F, 94%, drizzly.  Had a great run with Flatlander, in not-so-great conditions.  I think last time we ran together it was around 80 and muggy, so I guess this was nice by comparison at least.  We did 4 loops of Houston Memorial park, then ran to downtown and back along the bayou trail.  Nice to have good company for a slog-it-out kind of run.  Ended up with 8:26/mile which was a good workout given the heat and muddy conditions.

42F.  Quick jog around the neighborhood after a long day in the car.  8:17 AP.

Here's a picture from the 10k:

That was after out-kicking that 12-year-old girl in the background at the end.  OH YEAH - IN YOUR FACE, 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL.

29F.  7:28 AP - kind of a brisk pace, attempting to warm up the body quicker than usual.  Still wore shorts though!  My legs were all red after I came back.

AM - 30F.  6 miles, 8:28 pace.  Probably going to do a few more recovery miles after work, then a tempo tomorrow.

PM - 50F. 4.1 miles @ 8:22 AP.

28F.  Mostly easy with a 4-mile tempo block thrown in on the way home - 6:37, 6:27, 6:34, 6:19.

Average was 6:29 for the tempo, and 7:27 for the 15 mile total.

Have to mention this, on the way out I made my first-ever pit stop in a nice ditch (it was still good and dark).  Pretty efficient and tidy, I was pleased.