Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

AM:  76F, 83%.  6 @ 8:04 AP.  Did a couple 30-sec strides @ mile pace without looking at my watch and they were around 5:15.  Did not feel as crisp as last week.

I signed up for a HM this weekend.  Kinda surprising they would even have one in south Texas at this time of year, but I need to do some racing, even if it's at a heat slog pace.

PM:  93F, "fees like" 96F, SSE 16-25 mph.  I ran the 1600m tonight.  My warmup was a little pitiful, only made it 2 miles and did 3 or 4 strides.  I did the first stride into the wind and it was depressing enough that I did the rest with the tailwind.  Then sat in my car for 10 minutes blasting the a/c in an attempt to cool down.

They called up everyone in the event.  I looked around and it was me, an old guy, and 7 or 8 kids.  Not like HS kids....like maybe 10-year-olds.  Ah, what did I sign up for?  Anyway it would definitely turn out to be a solo time trial.  My splits were 76, 81 (2:37), 83 (4:00), 78 (5:18).  True, it was hot and windy, but I left a lot of effort on the table as well.  It's hard to go into beast mode when you're feeling ridiculous as you're lapping adorable little kids.  Anyway, I don't think I'll do any more of these meets.  I just kinda felt stupid out there.  The price was right though - $1.50!

AM:  77F, 80%.  8 @ 7:53 AP.  Standard slog - felt cruddy for 7.5 miles and ok for 0.5.  Mostly thought about my history of racing little kids like this time when I crushed the little girl, and of course the sprint to the finish against the 15-year-old.  Dang kids.

PM:  4 on the TM, including 4 x 0.25 mi on/off (10.0/7.0) to prime the pump for a 10k workout tomorrow.  I'll give it a whirl on the track, and probably set the bar pretty low for myself.  That way it's easier to succeed, see?

77F, 85%.  Workout Fail.  I was going to do a 2 mi + 4 x 1 @ 10k at the track, and even added the 20 sec/mile Death Zone premium (DP was 72), but could only make it through the first 6 laps before I fell off pace.  This downward spiral sure escalated quickly!  9 good workouts in a row, only to be followed by 2 Workout Fails and a Race Fail in the past week.  I guess I've been going at it pretty hard for almost 6 weeks now.  I'll take it super easy the next couple days to try and reset.  Then "race" a half on Saturday - it'll be too hot to RACE so I'll "race."  Goal will be marathon PR divided by 2.

77F, 81%.  No watch, but probably not a world record.  Legs feel like they might be trying to come back to me.  Should be good after tomorrow, then I'll be ready for Saturday's slogathon race.

75F, 84%.  7:24 AP.  Tested out a few paces for tomorrow's race.  Even at 80 degrees, I think 6:50 is reasonable for a HM.  Guess we'll see.  Several gnats in the eyeball this morning.  Now one eye is red and puffy, and I have an early meeting/presentation to run.  Perfect.

80F, 82%.  Hwell, I severely underestimated how slow I'd go in the heat.  They started the race at 8am, which meant a 9:30 finish and the heat index in the mid-80s.  My first 4 miles were sub-7 and that was it.  Last couple were in the 7:30-7:40 range.  I think I'm ready for summer to be over now.  Hopefully I got some benefit from the torture (other than my sweet pilsner glass for AG award).  Danielle and the kids came out and I think the kids had fun though.  They had lots of questions about why I didn't have a shirt on.

I'll see how next week goes...might start using the TM a lot more for workouts.  Just don't want a repeat of last summer and I can feel the heat-induced apathy trying to sneak in already.