Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

74F, 87% humidity.  Got 3.5 inches of rain on Friday night, which now accounts for more than a third of our rainfall for the year.  Yeah, kinda dry here.  Anyway, the storm cooled things off this weekend and made for a nice run this morning.

7:48 AP today.  Took a new route out to the wind farms and got some decent hills.  The last 8+ miles were all between 7:20-7:32, and as I finshed I felt like I could've run forever at that pace.  I was consciously slowing my pace to save gas for the rest of the week.  Amazing what a difference a few degrees makes.

76F, 76%.  Really early start to a long day.  9:09 AP.

AM - 80F, S 10 mph.  7 miles @ 9:01 AP.  Hoping to be ready for some intervals tomorrow.  It definitely couldn't have happened today - felt kinda worn out.

PM - 4 on the treadmill, 8:41 pace.

77F.  I did my big workout for the week today at the track.  Stole the idea from Flatlander and did 6 x 1000m, with 600m active recovery.

First, a 6+ mile warmup, averaging 8:04/mile.

Then the 1000s were 3:48, 3:52, 3:48, 3:49, 3:53, 3:47.  Average was 3:49.5 - if you're like me a 1000m time means nothing to you, so 3:49.5 converted to min/mile is 6:09 AP.  The 600m recovery jogs averaged about 8:40/mile.

Really happy with my performance today.  If I recall, I recently did 12 x 400m at the same avg pace.  It was about 5 degrees cooler today though, with less wind, and a slightly higher percentage of recovery time today, but these 1000s were controlled while I was flailing on the 400s.  The recovery time was still in the 50-90% range recommended by Pfitz in his book (although I came pretty close to 90% on my slower recoveries toward the end) so I'll chalk this workout up as a success.

Cooled down back home until I got to 15 miles total.  7:43 AP on the day.

78F, felt cooler though.  8:41 AP on this recovery run - my legs actually were not dead today...somehow.

Saw a guy walking along the highway in street clothes toward Abilene (very unusual on that stretch of road).  As I passed by, he asked me if that was Abilene (and pointed toward it).  I said, yeah about a mile past that hill.  Then as I jogged away I realized he was probably just released from the prison and had probably walked about 5 or 6 miles already.  I guess if they don't have a ride they just kick them out the front door and say "good luck, nearest town is 7 miles that way."

77F.  7:37 AP.  Skunk day today, I saw 2 live skunks.  Found out they are not intimidated by humans.  The first one actually scurried up toward me, to meet me at the side of the road with his tail straight up in the air.  Within a second I was running in the ditch on the opposite side; I don't think I've ever moved that fast.  Did not get sprayed by either one, fortunately.

The run was great other than that.  I'd planned to mostly take it easy but started to really pick it up on the way home.  Last 6 were 7:24, 7:22, 7:19, 7:08, 6:53, 6:19.

I think I'm on the verge of an improvement spurt, but probably can't really assess that until it cools down -- this is a run I probably could have done this past spring but probably could not have pulled off for most of this summer.

Oh yeah, and I finally hit 70 miles in a week!  I'll step back a little next week with about 50, then try to hit a couple more 70-mile weeks before rolling into my official training plan.