Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

71F, low wind.  Maybe the worst of the wind season is over.  It still blows like crazy in the afternoon but the mornings have been nice the past few days.

At 17 miles, this was my longest run since OKC.  I don't see myself trying to go any longer than this during the summer off-season, there's probably no need.  AP was 7:57 today.  Ended up being a progressive run (I started at 4:30am so the first few miles were ugly).  First half was 8:19 AP, second half was 7:35 AP.

Highlights were seeing my first live skunk (after having seen a few dozen carcasses) and having a dog charge through a hay field toward me.  It was dark with no moon when it happened, and I could hear the rustling quickly getting closer and sorta see the disturbed grass on a course to intercept me.  I was hoping it wasn't a coyote but I got ready and out pops this little 10-pound dog yapping at me.

76F, S 12 mph.  7:55 AP.  Fartlek on the way home with 8 x pickups ranging from about 75m - 200m in distance.

In the winter, the weather here can be somewhat unpredictable.  In the summer, not so much...

76F S 15-21 mph.  8:36 AP.

Danielle obtained an old set of Insanity DVDs from someone and we did Day 1 last night.  Let's just say I'm not looking forward to the rest of the workouts.

78F, S 17-27 mph.  So last night Danielle and I did day 2 of Insanity - cardio plyometrics or some crap like that.  Ouch.  Anyway, I realized after we were done as I wobbled over to get some more water that my 15-miler was only 8-9 hours away.  So I'd tentatively planned to do 6 x 800m @ 5K pace this morning but after the first mile I cancelled that plan and decided to just survive the run.  I ended up doing an 8:09 AP, no fast finish, no intervals, just a heavy-legged solid aerobic effort.

It's possible that increasing my mileage + introducing speedwork + Insanity might be asking for trouble, so I think I'll just do a few fast finishes here and there when I feel good and not worry too much about speed while I'm building this nice fat mileage base.

77F, S 12 mph.  8:59 AP.  More Insanity last night; I needed a nice easy day like this.

79F S 14-23 mph.  8:14 AP.  Got started a little later than usual.  When I finished I could've sworn it was 90 degrees out but I checked and it was only 81.  I'm doing a race Friday evening (3-hour race) where it will actually be in the 90s so I'm probably in big trouble there...

Last night's Insanity workout was cardio recovery.  For a "recovery" it sure crushed my quads.