Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

29F, SE 14 mph.  Still sick, but felt decent enough to run this morning.  I ended up doing a harder effort, 7:19/mile average, and right when I stopped it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Feel like crap.  Now I feel a little dumb for running nearly 2-and-a-half hours in sub-20 windchill with a chest cold.  Not dumb enough to regret it though.  Or maybe too dumb.

7:31, 7:38, 7:35, 7:36, 7:34, 7:40, 7:27, 7:30, 7:30, 7:29, 7:32, 7:04, 7:12, 6:59, 7:06, 7:04, 7:00, 6:58, 7:07, 6:39.

You can probably tell where I turned around and started running with the wind.  Anyway, I tickled marathon pace most of the way home but never really quite got there.  Gonna rest, get healthy, and keep it easy this next week while still increasing mileage.

42F.  Muddled through 10 easy-ish miles.  8:00 avg.  felt ok.

AM - 56F, SSW 13 mph.  11 @ 7:49 AP.  I guess I'm splitting this run up.  I was going to do 15 this morning but felt crappy; can't quite kick this cold.  Part of the problem was I needed a pit stop pretty bad this morning.  Finally bit the bullet and hit up a 7/11 -- at least I ran in town this morning, so I got to use a toilet like a real human being.  Afterward I actually felt pretty decent and picked up the pace but in my mind had already decided to just do 11.  Not sure why I felt like that was an irrevocable decision, it just was.

PM - 67F, W 16 mph.  4.12 @ 8:08 pace.  Reluctantly finished up today's mileage in the late afternoon/early evening.

AM - 36F.  6 @ 8:35 AP.  Actually a planned double today.  Trying to get my miles safely up for my next marathon, probably OKC.

PM - 48F.  4.1 @ 7:35 AP.  Really felt good this afternoon but tried to keep a lid on it.  Normally this would signal me to plow through a killer workout tomorrow to see where I'm at, but I am running with derhammer and his group on Saturday.  So I'll run easy tomorrow and try to mitigate how bad I'm gonna get my ass kicked.

44F, 8:22 pace.

54F, raining.  Austin, TX - we were in the area visiting family, so I went to downtown to meet David "derhammer" and his group of Gazelles on Saturday morning.  I had read about some of their speedy past few weekend runs so I took it easy the last couple days in the hopes I'd be able to keep up.

I saw David in the parking lot and we did a warmup mile, then 19 @ 7:20 AP with Mike and Russ.  It was a killer run, hillier than anything I've attempted to this point in my running life.  The hills started about 5 miles in.  I knew I was in for it, because the other 3 guys seemed to actually increase their pace going up hills, and I tend to let gravity win when I run on my own.  Finally came to Mt. Bonnnell, which was pretty brutal - might as well have been climbing stairs, it was that steep.  Then we literally did climb stairs at the top, to reach the peak which had a pretty great view of Austin.  Then down the mountain.  Then turned around to go back up the mountain.  It was a Texas "mountain," so maybe only a few hundred feet tall, but the elevation gain seemed to all come in about a half-mile.  This last climb we got strung out a bit with SlowJoe bringing up the rear -- David zipped passed me like I was standing still.  Finally back down to the flatter area to finish up, still around a MP effort.

Quite a run, but I had an awesome time.  I was pleased just to be able to hang on for dear life.  Good scenery and good company, for sure.  Then after the run, I met Dasha from the blog to top off a great morning.

Here's what my watch had for splits - 8:33, 7:57, 7:47, 7:31, 7:41, 7:35, 6:58, 6:59, 7:33, 7:22, 7:18, 7:32, 6:52, 6:52, 6:58, 6:50, 6:43, 7:26, 7:01.  Miles 9-12 included the crazy hills - I'll credit myself with 10 good MP-effort miles.