Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Perfect weather: temps in the 40s, overcast, 10 mph wind.  7:32 AP for 20 miles.  I did 8 easy, 12 at "MP".  I was supposed to do a 10 + 10, but my plans changed; see below for the reason.

So I decided to go exploring a new route with this 20-miler.  We'll call it the prison loop.  Twice before, while running on isolated country roads, I've been stopped by shady-looking characters looking for directions to the prison.  Now I'll be able to help them!  Apparently there is a state prison just 7 or 8 miles from my front door...neat.  Well, my watch just beeped mile 8, and a car pulls up next to me.  I quickly glanced over and it says "Perimeter Security" on the side of the car.  The guard obviously wants to talk, but he's nice enough to let me keep running during the conversation.  We establish that I'm just out for a run and he says, "we were just wondering what you were doing running around a prison."  I asked, "was that a bad idea?"  He said, "well, our prisoners all wear white."  Guess what color shirt I had on.  I said, "Oh, so that WAS a bad idea."  He just kinda chuckled and we talked for another minute or so, and he "let me go" once he figured out I wasn't a threat (or an escaped convict).  Once he turned around I glanced at my watch and my pace had gone from 7:50s to 7:20s.  Well, I figured I might as well start the MP portion right then.  So I did 12 faster miles today.  To make the 20-mile loop complete, I looped around the water treatment/sewage plant.  Sometimes I just feel so lucky to have so many beautiful places to run.

First 8: AP 8:00.  Splits 8:14, 8:03, 8:09, 8:06, 7:59, 7:48, 7:49, 7:50.

Last 12:  AP 7:13.  Splits 7:34, 7:32, 7:28, 7:27, 7:18, 7:23, 7:19, 7:24, 7:13, 6:54, 6:49, 6:20.

I averaged a faster pace on this 20-miler than I did on my HM race last weekend.  In fact, my last 13.1 today was 1:35:17.  What was I doing in Longview??  Am I just hyper-sensitive to warm weather?  As excited as I am about this run, part of me considers it almost fake since I had nice weather today, and you never get nice weather for races.  I'm particularly excited to pull off a 5K pace mile for mile 20.  I wanted to empty the tank to see what I had left and there was plenty.  With good temperatures at OKC, my time should be really, really good.  I just wish I didn't fold so hard in the heat, because it's more likely to be warm there in May.

47F, wind N 12 mph, light rain/mist.  Nice and refreshing morning for a run.  I just did base miles today, 8:03 AP.

My legs knew it was Tempo Tuesday, but I had to deny them any speedwork today.  I have my PFT tomorrow (pushups, situps, 1.5 mile run) so I will move the tempo run to Thursday.  My goal will be to crack 9:00 (6:00 pace) on the run portion.  I think I'm in shape for it but I always underestimate how much the pushups and situps take out of me.  FYI, less than 2 years ago I ran a 13:30 (9:00 pace) and almost failed this test...

What the hey, let's make it a race report...  I got to my test early and did 4 warmup miles.  Then started the test - there are 4 components: a waist measurement, # pushups in a minute, # situps in a minute, and a 1.5 mile run.

I got max points on waist, pushups, and situps.  I hit 57 (max points) pushups with about 15 seconds to go, and 54 situps (max) with about 10 seconds to spare.  Then I needed just a 9:34 on the 1.5 mile run to get a perfect score, but my goal was to break 9:00.  Jogged about a half-mile to the start line...  My quarter-mile splits for the run:

1:25

1:30 (2:55)

1:31 (4:26)

1:31 (5:57...mile PR)

1:32 (7:29)

1:24 (8:53!)

woohoo!  I've actually never broken a 6-minute mile before, so this is a pretty nice result.

Low 40s, great running weather.  I wanted to do 7 easy, 6 tempo (6:50s) but fell a little short.  Not sure why, I was pretty sure I'd be able to pull it off but I guess it wasn't my day.  The tempo miles were 6:55, 6:54, 6:53, 6:54, 6:57, 7:21.  I was dead tired and actually stopped after 5 and started jogging it in, giving up, but then remembered that I always regret doing that.  So after about 0.15 at a jog, I tried to pick the pace back up.  Never got it back below 7, but I definitely suffered quite a bit while trying so hopefully that makes me faster down the road.  AP for 13 miles was 7:36.

low 60s, windy.  We had a "fun run" today at work so I did an easy 5k or so before I left, thinking they would probably be a little skimpy on the distance.  They were...about 1.6 on the fun run.  Just a recovery day anyway, so altogether that about did the trick.

mid 50s, 8mph wind.  Did 8 at an AP of 7:58.  Tomorrow I'm doing 16 on what will be the hottest day of the year so far; should be a good opportunity to do a long run under adverse conditions.