Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

73F, 89%.  7:19 AP.  I'd forgotten that I'd turned off auto lap on garmin and when I started to pick up the pace at the turnaround, I could not seem to drop my pace.  I was almost sprinting and the watch was still showing 7:35 or so.  I was convinced, for an embarrassingly long period of time, that there was some kind of mechanical issue with my stride until I finally realized it was showing AP for the whole run, not for the current mile, as I usually have it set.  Stupid human moment...

Off to Sea World / Aquatica (again) with the kids for the next 10 hours or so.  God help me.

AM:  75F, 78%.  5 @ 8:36 AP.

PM:  4 TM miles, including 6 x 1 min on/off @ 5k.  Legs feel cruddy, so I'm taking an extra easy day instead of a workout tomorrow.  I guess being out in the heat for 11 hours at a theme park doesn't aid in recovery.

AM:  75F, 79%.  8 @ 7:50 AP.  People on the trail seemed friendlier today.  The Lorax waved AND dinged his bell for me.

PM:  4 on the TM w/some shorter 5k strides.  My first full-up treadmill workout is tomorrow morning.  Dreading it, but gotta do it or I'll probably be posting another workout fail.

AM:  Cool and dry inside the gym.  8 mi total.  On the TM today, I did 5 x 0.75 mi @ 5k, with 0.25 mi recoveries.  3 mile w/u, then I started the reps, going a little faster each time (10.0, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, then 10.5 w/ last quarter @ 11.0).  So, a 4:30 (6:00 pace) for the first rep, down to a 4:13 (5:38 pace) for the last rep (AP for all reps was 5:49).  I did the recoveries at 6.7 mph, about 9-min pace.

I was working pretty hard, don't get me wrong, but I just didn't get that wasted, lung-burned feeling like you do after a brutal track session.  I guess it is like having a 10 mph tailwind the whole time though.  Kind of unsatisfying...it's just not quite the same.  But pulling the plug on the second rep outside on the track would've been much more unsatisfying, so I'll take this any day.

PM:  4 on the TM with some short, hard uphill efforts.

AM:  77F, 83%.  6 @ 8:40 AP.  

PM:  4 slow TM miles with some lazy pickups to MP.  My legs are a little tired, which is good.  The TM workout yesterday did something.

AM: 72F, 97%.  5 @ 8:40 AP.  Muddy trail after some rain.  Scared off all the cyclists, which was nice.

PM: managed to squeeze in 4 during lunch.

67F, 93%.  7:15 AP.  In Longview, TX for this one, visiting family.  Really lucked out and got a very atypical mid-July morning (due to some rain), even for Longview which is a lot farther north than SA.  Perfect opportunity for 8 @ AT.  I did ok, I guess, averaging 6:46 (6:53, 6:47, 6:45, 6:54, 6:50, 6:41, 6:39, 6:39).  I think with temps in the 60s, I expected a jet engine to sprout from my butt, but that didn't happen -- it was actually pretty tough to move the needle much today.  I did unwittingly pick a hilly course and ended up clomping through a lot of tall grass on a shoulder-less Farm To Market road that somehow had an incredible amount of traffic for the 6 o'clock hour on Saturday morning in the middle of nowhere...  Anyway, I'll take it.  I needed to check the box on a solid long tempo, as it had been awhile.