Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

56F.  7:35 AP.  Felt kind of tired today, but I have a full day off tomorrow.

55F.  7:42 AP.  Really refreshing run on another cool, perfect morning.

Tempo run tomorrow.  Probably somewhere between HMP and MP; I don't think I'm ready for much faster quite yet, although I am signed up for a 10K this weekend.  Time to cram some speed down my throat.

58F.  7:14 AP.  Today was 8 easy, followed by 5 tempo.  Per Jake's suggestion, I started out at MP.  That felt fine, so I dropped it ever so slightly to TT pace for the last half of the tempo (tinman has a calculator now, woohoo).  The 5 fast miles were 6:45, 6:44, 6:41, 6:34, 6:35.  Cooled down to my mailbox and finished with exactly a half marathon distance on the watch.

I was glad I took it easy for this first post-marathon tempo; I definitely finished with some gas left in the tank, which is good with the dreaded 10K looming.

58F.  I think this morning was the last time the temperature will dip below 60 again until this fall.  R.I.P. 50s, see you in September (I hope).  8:24 AP.

62F.  7:29 AP.  Kept it a shorter effort today, hoping to be somewhat fresh for the 10K tomorrow.  It's going to be 70 degrees with 20+ mph wind.  Don't care too much, I am really just running it to get a good hard effort in anyway.  I was definitely never expecting to run the sub-38 McMillan thinks I can do.  Actually if I even run a sub-40, I'd be pretty surprised.

Oh, and I pooped in the bushes again today.  Did not even make it 2 miles.

*Here's an update from the 10K facebook page, from the RD, that makes me a little nervous:

"You know that feeling you get when you finish something really hard, and you know you pushed yourself to your absolute limits? You can have that feeling this Saturday no matter what your limits are. 1 Mile, 3.2 Miles or even 6.4 miles"

73F, S 16-21 mph.  sunny.  really sunny.

I drove up to Chickaska (about 30 min) to do this 10k.  Once again this distance plagues me.  On top of the heat and wind, it was pretty hilly.  The good news is there was a 5k and 10k and they were paying actual money for 1st-3rd.  I knew that would draw some fast people from OKC, but was hoping they'd be spread out over both races and maybe I could sneak in and grab some cash.  Sure enough, both winners of the OKC marathon this year showed up, Jacob Buhler and Camille Herron.  So at the starting line I was looking around and other than Jacob there was one other guy with shorty shorts who looked fast.  So I figured it would be a battle for 3rd to get that last $50.

The 2 fast guys took off and ended up running 32 and 33 for the race.  They disappeared pretty soon and it was me and gray shirt for the first mile.  He sounded like he was breathing hard already so I passed him but he stuck close by.  I started feeling really hot and drained already by mile 2.  At the halfway point he was still there, and I was sure I was being used as his rabbit, but he slowly faded (worse than me) and I ran the second half of the race alone.  Could not even manage half-marathon pace out there; it just felt like I was shuffling along, and I just kinda slogged it in unceremoniously.

I invented a new kind of run today.  You've heard of the progressive run, this was a "regressive run."  I'm sure it will catch on everywhere pretty soon.

6:15, 6:28, 6:34, 6:36, 6:41, 6:35, 1:32 for 0.23.

But, of course I got my 50 bucks - the first time I have won actual money in a race.  Past prizes I've received have included a jar of gumballs and a PetSmart coffee mug.  So it was all worth it!