Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

42F, N 15 mph.  7:25 AP.  I waited to run until after church and it turned out to be a really nice day to run.

I had 2 hours and 14 minutes to think about my training a little.  Something Sasha said on the message boards kind of turned on a lightbulb for me, that my 5k time was a problem.  I think for most of this past year, even though my race times have been stagnant, my aerobic threshold has actually been improving.  That's why it feels like my "easy pace" is getting faster and faster.  It's been closing the gap on lactate threshold, which has NOT been improving.  Neither has 5k pace, vo2 max, etc.  I have not done enough to address those other paces and it's kind of putting a ceiling (or a floor?) on how fast I can run a marathon.

Anyway, the training I have on tap now should address those shortcomings (thanks, Jake).  I have 2 big LT workouts planned before the Houston HM in a few weeks.  Then I will keep hitting the other systems more consistently (as I've been doing the past few weeks) while shifting the focus to MP.  Don't want to jump the gun yet, but I might even consider a longer 5k-focused cycle instead of a marathon cycle next fall (as painful and terrible as that sounds).

35F.  8:25 AP.  No work today -- nice to be able to wait until it warms up a little, and then go running.

Tomorrow on the other hand...well, it's neat to get a white Christmas in Oklahoma, but this is going to be a whiteout Christmas, with 40 mph winds to go along with the snow.  Anyway, might be treadmilling it.

Poor Keira - Santa is getting her a Power Wheels Jeep and she is only going to be able to drive it in circles in the living room tomorrow!

AM - 4 so far on the TM.  I'm actually breaking up my 8 miles today into 2 runs, that's how long my attention span is on the TM.  I can handle the 20 degrees outside, but not 20 degrees with 35 45 mph wind and horizontal snow (link to my front yard).  Or at least I don't want to.  Back to playing with all the new kids toys.

PM - 4 more when the kids went to bed.  Both runs in the low 8's on the pace.  Gotta do a workout tomorrow - I think the wind might die a little by the afternoon.  The question mark is how snowy/icy the roads are.  Or the track.

Merry Christmas all!

26F.  Big LT wave run today - I went down to the track to do this workout.  After all, Houston is flat.  There was some snow in a few patches that slowed me down a bit but it was workable.

So with the wave run, you alternate paces.  My mission was to alternate 800s between 3:05 and 3:20, and do this for 6 straight miles.  So you end up with 6 continuous miles @ HMP overall, but the alternating 800 paces make you step up your game a bit.

Unfortunately I didn't learn my lesson with the stupid Garmin.  When I left, it had 41% battery, but it fizzled out after 3 800s.  I don't think it liked the cold.  I would have loved to have the data for this workout.  I ran 2:59, 3:15, 3:04, then ???.  Kept going though, and finished it off by effort.  I think I had the pace pretty well dialed in by the second set, after being a little fast on the first set.

The absolute hardest part of this workout is the first "recovery" lap after the faster 800.  You already know the fast 800 is going to suck, but after running a hard 800, you have an urge to jog the recovery yet have to press on at faster than marathon pace.  This is why I think I met the intent, even though I wasn't able to time most of it.  I got the proper "hurt" at the proper times, and when I finished, I had the feeling that I REALLY would not have wanted to do another set.  But dang, I really wanted to see what the total time was for 6 miles, and whether it was faster than HMP overall.  The important part is that I got the right stimulus out of it and I'm very confident in that, at least.

AM - 19F, 6 miles @ 8:49 AP.  shorts.

PM - 33F, 4 miles @ 8:32 AP.  I wore the Mizunos again; the first time I wore them they rubbed my achilles raw, so I finally did some corrective surgery on them with some scissors.  Seemed to be ok this time, hopefully I won't have to throw them away.  Why would you make a shoe that pinches in right there?  Dummies.

27F, N 20-25 mph.  7:46 AP.  Sideways snow for the last 4 miles, my favorite.  Of course, I ran on my east/west road but the blowing snow made the right half of my face numb on the way back...ouch!  My eyeballs took hundreds of direct hits.

I was going to do some short time trials today, but the snow/ice never melted off the track.  It's one thing to clomp through/around it in a tempo, but another to all-out sprint through it.  I'll try next week.

Saw 2 brown foxes and an instruction book for a one-step pregnancy test while on the road today.  Someone really wanted to know!

33F, 8:21 AP.  Waited until it warmed up a bit, then did a short recovery run.  One nice thing about winter is that you might as well sleep in, because the cool temps let you run later in the day.  That option goes away in the summer (and surrounding months).