TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

2nd place in my age group (55-59) out of 30 in our age group. Average pace 7:15. Just 0.7 seconds behind me our running buddy Joe Bernal finished 3rd in our age group.

Karen F and Karen H did great, finishing 10th and 8th in the women's 40 to 44 group out of 130 in their group.

Steve S finished in 21:12.2, Angel F finished in 21:22.5, Lou K finished in 19:11.9, Paul F finished in 19:24.0., Jason A finished in 19:19.4. Everyone in our Monday night group did a great job in this race. Tam ran 17 miles on Saturday so he didn't run the race today.

We ran as part of J's Crew. Karen F organized our team, in recognition of a friend of hers that has cancer.

Ran The Race for the Cure in Austin, TX. 5K race, temp about 65 degrees very high humidity. Great race, over 22,000 participants.

After fighting our way through the mass of slower runners over the first 1/4 mile of the race, the course went uphill for the first mile, up Congress Avenue up to the state capitol. We ran around the capitol, and then got into the downhill running back to the finish line on Auditorium Shores.

The uphill effort was significant, with heart rate steady at 163 to 165. 1st uphill mile pace was 7:35. 2nd mile around the capitol and starting downhill was 6:48 with HR at 166. My Garmin 305 lost the satellite signal somewhere as I ran through the tall buildings in town, because it only showed the total distance of 2.53 miles. But I believe the HR monitoring was pretty close. I sprinted in the last 100 to 150 meters, and the HR went up to 176.

After the race we all went over to Maudie's and had breakfast tacos. This included me, Lynn, Karen F, Karen H, Joe F, Angel F, and Paul F. We saw Steve S there too. The place was loaded and service was really bad (overloaded), but we still like going to Maudie's.

This felt good to get back into a race. We need to do this more often. I took my 5mg Prednisone at 4:00 AM this morning, hoping it would get into my system enough to help hold off the PMR muscle issues during the race, and I think it worked.

Temp about 75 degrees, humidity high. Ran at McNeil HS track. Started about 4:40 PM. Ran alone 5 miles, then Earl showed up and ran with him. Continued my own pace until I had 9.5 miles done, then joined Donnie's group to run with Karen F. & Karen H. & Joe. We did 3 each 1000 meters at paces: 7:15, 7:10, 6:57 each, with 200 meter recovery.

Pace for my first 9.5 miles was generally 8:00 pace, and heart rate was typically about 155. On the 1000 meter runs the heart rate averaged 154, 160, 163. Max HR got up to 171 at the end of the last 1000 meter run.

This was a great night of running. The McNeil HS football team was practicing for the first 9.5 miles of my running, then they turned off the lights when they left, so we ran Donnie's drills in the dark. No problem, a fun run.

Temp about 85 degrees. Beautiful day. Ran at Williamson County Park. 4 loops around the mulch trail, 2.15 miles per loop. Did a ladder method.

1st 2.15 miles at 9:30 super easy pace, HR 141. 2nd 2.15 miles at 9:00 easy pace, HR 147. 3rd 2.15 miles at 8:20 pace, HR 154. 4th 2.15 miles with Tam at 8:00, HR 158. Then ran 2 miles on the track at 8:30 and at 7:26 paces, HR 148 and HR 160. Then 1 mile cool down very easy pace 9:30, HR 137.

Good to see Donnie's group, and to run with Tam and run a little with Daniel. Daniel had achilles pain in both achilles, so after about 2.5 miles he called it off, protecting the injury.

Reduced Prednisone medication from 5mg to 4mg today.

Temp about 83 degrees. Ran alone at Williamson County Park. Did the 2.15 mile mulch trail 4 times then it was dark so I went over to the track and did 2 miles.

Mulch trail: 1st 2.15 miles took it very easy at 9:04 and 9:12 pace, HR at 139 and 145. 2nd 2.15 miles easy at 8:57 and 9:04 pace, HR at 141 and 149. 3rd 2.15 miles picked it up some at 8:36 and 8:05 pace, HR at 146 and 156. 4th 2.15 miles easy at 9:16 and 8:47 pace, HR at 144 and 151.

Then at the track I ran hard on the straight sections and ran easy on the curves for 1.5 miles, and then did a 0.5 mile easy recovery.

Then after running I did 1/4 mile very slow high knee lift steps to assist in flexibility. It took 9 minutes to do one lap of the track. A good flexibility exercise.

By the time I was done at 6:30 PM, the wind had picked up, the temperature began dropping as a cold front is moving into central Texas.

Looking forward to see the Texas Longhorns play Kansas State on Saturday night. It sure was funny to see Rutgers beat 3rd ranked Louisville, after all the media hype for Louisville.

Karen H. and I are going to run the Motive 1/2 marathon race on Sunday morning, but instead of race pace we are doing a weekend training run pace.

Medication at 4mg Prednisone.