Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

4:30am, 82F.  I guess the 2 weeks off didn't really bring lower temperatures; the low was still 82 today.  But, it didn't matter - my 2 miles went great.  8:24 pace was faster than I was shooting for but I don't think it hurt anything.  No gym afterward, I just didn't feel like it.  Hopefully I'm done with the gym now.  Starting Monday, I'm gonna cut my NSAID in half again to ease off it.

4:30am 84F.  Two loops around Lost Lake, 8:05 AP (whoops).  Can't seem to quiet down my legs, who have missed running; I intended to do the first week back at 9:00 pace but I don't think it's doing any damage at 8.  I even missed the creepiness of running Lost Lake in the dark - the Arab guy wailing out morning prayer from the mosque loudspeakers on the other side of the wall, the bombed out buildings...feels like I'm in an Indiana Jones movie.

Injury-wise, I'm pretty happy.  Feels like there's no pain where the tendon is; the only oddball thing is that I feel like maybe I'm unconsciously landing a little differently on my foot.  The effect makes it feel like my right shoe has half the sole of the left and doesn't absorb as much.  But I'm being picky, it's a minor thing to complain about.

Horrible football weekend though with Texas (NCAA) and Houston (NFL) losing.

5am, 85F.  8:17 AP.  I finally ran long enough to be able to tell that I lost a bit of cardio from the 2-week layoff, for sure.  Hopefully it'll come back in a week or two.  Some lower temperatures might be nice too, if I'm getting really greedy.

I'll take tomorrow off as a precautionary move for my foot, and to let some soreness from my hip flexors and quads subside.  Same soreness I got when I switched from TM to outside running awhile back; just gotta get used to running again is all.

5am, 82F.  Ran a lot more evenly-paced today, 8:30 avg.  No mile was more than 5 seconds off the average.

It took until the 5th mile today for that weird heel thing to crop up, where it feels like the bottom of my heel is taking a pounding - like there's not enough cushioning.  Feels completely unrelated and unlike the injured tendon, but same foot.  Gotta be landing differently or something...ah well, it'll work itself out.

I worked up a general plan of how my training will go for the marathon, mileage-wise, in Excel (nerd).  I'll max out at a 20-mile long run, and do that 3 times; the first will come in early December.  Max weekly mileage of 62 on the weeks where I do 20 (hope I make it).  I think I'm just going to do easy runs and 1-2 tempos/week, no speed work except for the occasional 5K races they have here.  Does that sound about right?

5am, 80F.  I looked up last year's temperatures to see when they were going to come down, and last year they had already had a few days with lows in the upper 60s.  So I guess this year is just hot.  This is clearly the work of global warming cooling warming climate disruption.

The run was good.  8:18 AP and less perceived effort than yesterday, so my legs and lungs are coming back to me.

My foot/ankle/heel/whatever felt a little better today too.  It's like it's just weak around that area or something; maybe it needs to take a beating.  I'm going to quit the anti-inflammatory now instead of finishing the 2-week course.  Maybe that'll help it strengthen up.  I was only taking a kid-size dose anyway.  They gave me like 2 months worth of pills for some reason.  If I get into trouble close to the marathon they can be my little lifesavers.

5am, 80F.  8:19 AP.  I intended on going slower today but some guy was behind me, catching up, so I had to speed up for a couple miles so he wouldn't catch me.  Yes, I had to.  My foot felt a little better too, and this was probably the first run where there were no anti-inflammatories in my system.  So good news there.