Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

82F.  4 evening miles in the neighborhood, right after sunset.

AM:  69F, 78%.  8 miles.  Forgot my Garmin at home, but I have a finely-tuned Internal GPS that was able to pinpoint my pace somewhere between 7:00 and 9:30/mile.

PM:  4 on the TM with some short strides @ mile pace.  Tomorrow: 400s!

AM:  66F, 86%.  Track day - 8 x 400 @ mile pace, 90 sec rest.  I only made it through 5 reps before the XC team (maybe 40-50 kids!) came pouring on to the track.  I ran 74.3, 74.7, 75.7, 75.7, 75.0, then had to stop there.  I can deal with a few, and have in the past, but you gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.  Speaking of which, I'm off to court, probably for several hours, to fight my $35 parking ticket.  Stupid idea...

*****DISMISSED*****

So, parking ticket court was pretty painless.  I walked right into a room and up to a judge and explained my case.  He kind of dismissively said, "no, this park has different hours."  I was ready for that line of argument and pointed out a few spots in the code.  He read through it for about a minute, then kinda sighed and said, "ok, I'll do it this time, but not again."  That was good enough for me.  It could have gone either way, and the ordinance just leaves a lot of holes and room for interpretation.  Unfortunately I should probably still avoid parking there, but I got my small victory today.  This almost merits a race report!

PM:  5 with a mini-workout on the TM.  4 x (.25 @ 10mph, .25 @ 11mph, .25 @ 7mph). On the last time around I did the middle quarter @ 12mph instead of 11.  So I got one of my 3 missed reps back from this morning.

AM:  75F, 86%.  6.5 mi.  Forgot Garmin again but it was a plod.  Same tomorrow as the FC weather is back.  A cold front will arrive by this weekend though, so it'll be the perfect opportunity for a Big Workout.  Might even see 59 degrees.

Here's the chart o' the month.  Pretty much shows why I'm light years ahead of last year after the 2013 Summer of Joe (at least I hope).  I have 4 races over a 6-week period so it's time to put up or shut up!

PM:  4 slow TM miles.

AM:  78F, 83%.  7 mi.  Remembered my garmin but forgot to stop it until after I'd been driving for 3 miles in my car.  Even with the bonus car miles, it was only about 7-min pace overall...safe to say it was a slow run.  Of all the days to forget my buttsweat towel, it would have to be a hot one...and that's why I carry Febreeze in my car.

PM:  4.5 TM with 6 x 1 min @ 5k.  Legs have been telling me they're tired the past couple days.  I don't agree that they should be tired right now, but it's hard to win an argument with an appendage so I might cut tomorrow's volume a bit.  Trying to lull them into a false sense of security before I destroy them with a brutal BW on Saturday.

71F, 56%.  6.5 @ 8:19 AP.  Cool, dry air blowing in today.  I wish I could've stayed out and run all morning.  Will probably skip the PM run today and be ready for a good workout tomorrow.

61F, 60%.  18 miles today with a 10k wave tempo.  First I wanted to get some miles on the legs, so I ran through the surrounding neighborhoods - about 8.5 mi. @ 7:35/mile.  Then hit the track, reset the watch and rolled into the tempo.  My goal was to alternate 3:00/3:15 every 800, until I had 6 miles.  My obsessive need to stay a couple seconds ahead of the desired split meant I'd go a hair faster.

Bold splits are 1600s, with (800s) - 6:14 (3:00, 3:14), 6:10 (2:58, 3:12), 6:09 (2:57, 3:12), 6:10 (2:57, 3:13), 6:10 (2:57, 3:13), 6:12 (2:59, 3:13), then a 92 final lap.

I didn't want to do the last lap, and hadn't really planned on it, but it was hard to pass up an easy 10k PR, so I motored through it for a 38:37 10k (6:13/mile).

whoops, it's sideways.  Anyway, good effort and lots of benefits for both the half and the full.  Last HMP workout will be in ~10 days, and I'll be doing my 2 x 5k predictor.  If I can get those around 19-flat, I might have a shot at sub-80.  Unfortunately, I think the predictor works great for Houston, but I've selected a race in the Texas "hill country," so it might be asking too much, given the course.  Still worth a try, you never know...