I only run on days that end in a "y."

I made the trip downtown so that I could run on the trail.  My legs thanked me for it.  I did the dam loop and added some on for a bit over 12 miles.  First 2 were close to 9:00 miles but then dropped to the low 8:00s and a few 7:30's-7:40's towards the end.  Legs feel pretty good considering the race was just 2 days ago.

Last nice morning for a while, I think.  Temps are supposed to drop significantly over the next couple nights.

Anyway - easy 7.25 in the neighborhood this morning.  Low 8:00's.

OK - so I decided on running some 800's today.  In retrospect probably not the best plan only 4 days after the race, but I felt like my legs were recovered enough - wrong.

The group was going to run a tempo or something like that and I felt like I had just done that on Sunday.  I had emailed out and another runner responded that they would be at the track doing some 800's. That sounded just dandy to me.

A few issues with that plan - I went out to see a band last night - I got home at a respectable time and was in bed by 11 - but just did not sleep well at all.  I probably got 5 hours of sleep.  I am also coming down with something - could be allergies - but not feeling 100%.  It was 42 degrees this morning but there was also a 25-30 MPH gusty wind.  And finally - the other runner never showed at the track so I ended up doing the repeats by myself.

I should have run another 12-13 semi-easy medium long run instead, but oh well, at least I was smart enough to cut this workout short.  By repeat #3 I could tell it was not happening today.  Running a 5:40 pace into a 30mph wind on an exposed track is not any fun.  I could not break 2:50 no matter how hard I tried. My legs were still tired and I didn't have the energy.  Stopped after repeat # 6 and ran 4 easy back to the car @ 7:50 pace. 

4 mile very easy warm up followed by 6 x 800m @ 2:50 - 2:51's with 1:30 rest in between with 4 mile easy back.

6 easy miles on the soft trail at lunchtime.  Going to go for the last 20 mile long run tomorrow with some MGP hopefully.

Nice cool morning - around 44 degrees with no wind.  Today was a 20 mile loop with the first 4-5 miles steady net incline gain, across town and up some more, then over and back down.  

The plan was to run 4 easy, 6 MGP, 4 MGP+20 sec, and finish with 6 MGP.  Well, once I got going I decided to ride it out until my legs couldn't go anymore.  That was around mile 17.  Still feeling a bit of the race from Sunday and with a 1/2 next weekend I decided there was no need to push the end.

I started with the group at 5:30 am and ran with them for about 3 miles and then started to pick it up.  I ran alone the rest of the run.  This is the time of year where people have run their marathon or are going to, or dropped out of one.  The 2 runners that I should have been running with today have both dropped out of CIM, and Lisa is running San Antonio full next week, so that left me to run by myself.  That was OK though - I am going to have to race by myself so it's good practice. :-)  I decided 19.5 was sufficient given the quality.  I felt pretty good with the low 6:50's - high 6:40's - hopefully I can manage a few of those during the marathon.  I need at least a 6:50 average for a sub 3.

Splits:  9:04, 8:16, 7:22, 7:14, 7:07, 7:05, 6:56, 6:57, 6:48, 6:53, 6:48, 6:50, 7:04, 6:54, 6:48, 6:55, 6:57, 7:10, 7:45, .5 @ 7:22. 

Broke 70 for the week - maybe another 70+ next week (including the 1/2 marathon) and then  taper time. 

Overcast with a few light showers - I always like to run in the rain.  Maybe it's because we don't get too much of it anymore.

I stayed on the trail to give my legs a break.  On Saturday's long run I felt a tweak in my left calf on the last mile.  It went away and felt fine.  However, later in the day I would feel in - it felt like a spasm - quite odd.  After a tough week and that tweak I took yesterday off.  

It feels better today - a bit sore when I stretch it but did not bother me too much while running.  With a half coming up this weekend I don't think I will be doing any hard workouts this week.  I will try to stick to the trail as much as possible.  I feel like I am on the razors edge with pushing my body and at this point there is too much to lose and too little to gain by pushing too hard.

Ok - that was gross - 70 degrees and 90% humidity - and it's November!  This is torture after running in nice cool mornings lately.

Anyway - I woke up a bit too late to try and get down to run on the town lake trail.   I decided I would run the 14 mile out and back route that I have been using for my progressive runs.  I know yesterday I said I would take it easy this week and that was my intention this morning.  I ran by feel and let my legs lead the pace.  By mile 3 I was already at a pretty good clip so I kept going.  I pretty much ran by feel and it went well until the last 3 miles or so as it is mostly up at this point combined with the heat which caused by heart rate to go up.  Only had 1 gu and took 1/2 a my waterstop around mile 3.5 and coming back I had the second 1/2 at the same waterstop.  I felt the lack of energy towards the end of the run, maybe next time I will take 2.

8:54, 7:39, 7:24, 7:16, 7:17, 7:24, 7:16, 7:08, 7:00, 7:02, 7:04, 7:14, 7:10, 7:02. 

Nice and cool morning - out and back from the house for 7.5 miles total.  No one else out there but me this morning.  At least I didn't see anyone.  8:29 AP.

Met up at the annex to run some fartleks on the trail - nothing too taxing but fast enough to shake out the legs a bit.  Ran 2.5 easy and then 12 x 1 min fast - not paying any attention to pace - with 1 min easy pace in between.  Looking back at the history on my Garmin the fast portions were 6:30-6:10 pace.  I wanted to run around HMGP pace so that was at least within the range. 

Probably run a few miles tomorrow and maybe some on Saturday. 

I am taking the family down to San Antonio tomorrow to make a weekend out of it.  I think we will go to the zoo, maybe the children's museum.  Interestingly enough my son had no desire to do Sea World.  That's fine by me.  I probably won't get much leg rest on Saturday but I am not too worried about it since it is a half and not the full.  Speaking of that, I am glad I am not running the full, and if I were, would probably not - starting temperature for Sunday morning will be about 60 - and with the sun it is going to warm up fast.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, I am through running marathons in Texas! :-)  This just reinforces my opinion.

7 easy in the morning - just to shake the legs out.  7:50's.

We drove down to San Antonio last night.  The kids are having a blast so even if the race goes south we had a good time as a family.

Woke up @ 6:45 this morning.  Staying at a hotel and don't know the area.  Thought I would go for a few miles to keep the legs loose.  I wanted to do a mini carb load so I thought about going to the treadmill and running a couple with 3 minutes fast followed by carb load.  For some reason the room key would not open the gym.  So outside I went.  Luck upon luck there is a high school right up the street that I found by running up that way.  I did 2.75 miles with 2 on the track and then 1000m fast.  I downed a bottle of Gatorade Prime Pro with 85 carbs and then short run back to the hotel.  Pigged out a breakfast.

Forecast for tomorrow is low 60's.  It all depends on if it is going to be cloudy like they say.  If the sun is out then all bets are off.  At the very least it will be a hard training run.

Mid 60's and something like 90% humidity - we are off to the Zoo now so I will put in a full report later.  I am pretty disappointed as I thought a 1:23-1:24 was a possibility.  I guess I will take the 1:25 and live to fight another day.  I started out right were I wanted but faded in the last 3.  More details to follow.  Overall pace was 6:32 according to the Garmin.

RACE REPORT:

I woke up at 5am, downed a bottle of Gatorade Prime Pro, got my stuff together, and then headed out the door.  I knew it was going to be a rough morning when I went out to the car and it was drenched in moisture – and it hadn’t even rained. 

I don’t know San Antonio that well so I decided to drive to the shuttle location.  It took about 10 minutes to get into the parking lot because of traffic.  They had arranged everything well and getting on the shuttle was not a problem, as short wait in line and then we were off.  The shuttle ride took about 15 minutes.  I had about an hour before the race.  I had to find the gear check in.  There were 26 UPS trucks arranged by last name.  Since the race end was not near the beginning they trucked all the gear over to the finish.

I warmed up for 1.5 miles and then made my way to the 1^st corral.  When I registered the day before the computer assigned me to corral 5.  Changing it at the Expo was not a problem, though.  It didn’t really matter since no one was checking anyway.    

I met up with Matt, a guy that I try to keep up with in training.  He said he was going to shoot for a 1:20 – 1:25 – I thought that was a wide range.  I said I wanted to go for a 1:23-1:24 but would be happy with a 1:25.  I thought I would try and stay with him but we got separated at the start and he passed me about the ½ mile mark and I knew I could not keep up.  He finished n 1:23 BTW. 

My main strategy was to keep the splits around 1:25 but at least under 6:30’s.  I was hoping I could pull off strong finishing miles like I did in the 10 mile race but the weather kept me from doing that.  I drank a Gatorade Prime around mile 2-3 and got a surge off of that.  I felt pretty strong until mile 5-6 when my heart rate started to rise.  My mind was playing tricks on me, too, thinking about how I can barely run a 5 mile tempo run @ 6:25’s – how was I going to run a half marathon at that pace?   At around mile 8 I took a 2^nd Surge gu and almost choked – it burned my throat something awful.  I had been fighting something lately and did not realize my throat was that sore.  It took everything I had to keep from walking at that point.  It was probably another ½ mile or so before I got some water.  It was very hard to get my breathing back under control.  They were handing out Cytomax and I choose not to have any.  Too many bad memories from Steamtown marathon.  I should have probably done a better job with my nutrition strategy.   I don’t know how much it would have helped but it may have made it less painful.

Miles 10, 11, and 12 - I really started to fade big time – again, it was mentally taxing just to keep the legs moving.  At this point I am telling myself to finish and to save it for the marathon in 3 weeks.   I don’t remember much else.  I do remember there was a pretty good hill climb with about ½ mile to go.  Somehow I was able to pick up the pace a tad on the last mile and gave it everything I had when I turned the corner and saw the finish in the distance.  I was not going to be denied a 1:25. 

They say to double your half marathon time and add 10 minutes – so I should have a shot at a 3:00 in 3 weeks if all goes well.

I am not sure how to handle the next 3 weeks training wise – I have never raced this close to a marathon before.

Splits:  6:27, 6:24, 6:25, 6:26, 6:37, 6:30, 6:35, 6:31, 6:29, 6:40, 6:40, 6:46, 6:33, .13 @ 5:04.

Jogged .5 mile from the shuttle back to the car.

Spin class for 55 minutes.  I kept the resistance pretty light.  I knew if I did not do anything my legs would really be sore tomorrow.

8 super easy - took my 8 mile out and back route from the house. Didn't wear a watch.  It was San Antonio all over again - 100% humidity and 60's.  Legs feel pretty good, though I am not sure I am up to 1000's on Thursday. 

7 recovery miles on the trail.  8:20's.  I am not sure I will run tomorrow's workout - I'll see what the legs feel like.  Otherwise I will run easy again and then run 14-16 on Saturday with some MGP during the second half.   Pretty much in maintain mode at this point.

Ah, a nice cold front blew in last night.  

So the workout on this morning's agenda was 9 x 1000m at HMP with 400m active recovery around MGP - no stopping allowed what so ever. The first 3 1000s were supposed to be HMP, and then drop 5 seconds on each of the next 2 sets of 3.  Total mileage was just over 8 miles on the track.  The goal of the workout was just to work on turnover and build some confidence a couple weeks out from the marathon.  The coach and couple other runners were handing out cups of water and gatorade so we could get some practice of drinking while on the run.

I wasn't sure how my legs would feel but they responded really well.  I kinda skipped the whole HMP deal and ran mine at 10k pace or a bit faster, with my recoveries @ or slightly slower than MGP.  I don't know, running fast on the track is just a bad habit I guess.

2 miles warm up on the trail from BS pool to Austin High. 

9 x 1000m @ 5:54 to 6:10 pace, 400m recoveries @ 6:49 - 7:11 pace.

Combined 8.05 miles @ 6:21 AP.

2 miles on the trail back to the car @ 7:50 pace.

Quick core workout at the gym this morning before work.  Not sure if I will get out for a run today or not.  

Checking the schedule from my summer marathon - I ran 16 with 8 @ MGP 2 weeks out.  I may run similar.  I see the RLRF plan has a 13 mile MGP run 2 weeks out.  I may go for 14 miles with 1 mile warm up and then hit the MGP for 13 - just like race day will be.  I guess I will decide tomorrow.  I like to experiment a bit during taper - looking a different plans as seeing what looks good.

This morning did not go as planned due to tired legs and warm and humid weather.  2 hard races - with the half 6 days ago and this past Thursday's workout has taken a toll.  I could feel it after about 3 miles of MGP - which felt really hard due to the weather.  65+ degrees and high humidity.  It was San Antonio all over again.  I hit the hills around mile 7 of MGP and my legs died.  7 and 8 were not fun.  I was unable to hit 6:50 or below.   Not a big confidence run.

I met up with the group and ran 2 warm up miles then dropped the pace for some MGP but started fading soon after - heart rate was high and legs were tired.  I slowed down for a couple miles and then picked it up again coming back in.  Some guys I ran in the beginning finished in front of me even though I took off in front of them around mile 3.  They said they had 14 miles so I must have missed a mile or more with my watch because I only showed 13.25 miles.  Strange.

I will have to plot it out on the map to see.

2 miles warm up @ 8:40 pace.

12 @ 6:59, 6:55, 6:57, 7:05, 6:59, 7:03, 7:23, 7:40, 6:57, 6:42, 6:52, 6:48. 

I am seriously considering 2 full days off at this point to let the legs recover.  We will see if I can hold myself to it.

Around 40 miles for this week is the plan - I need to work that out.  I think it is pretty manageable even with the next 2 days off. 

60 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym.  Good effort.  Followed up with some hip work.

 Tomorrow is the fun 10 mile Fartlek - a pre-marathon tradition.

Woke up to thunder and lighting at 3:30 am - finally fell back to sleep and then woke up again a bit before 5 am.  I quickly checked the radar to make sure the storms had passed and then got ready and headed downtown.  I met up with a couple other CIM runners at 5:30 am.  

We ran 2 miles warm up and then started the workout.  I had programmed my watch the night before so I had to stop and find that workout to get started.  I ended up running alone since my paces were a bit faster than the others.  The trail had lots of puddles and was sometimes hard to navigate.  It was 60 degrees but 100% humidity.  I am guessing the trail took at least 5 seconds per mile off.  Not a super confidence inspiring workout but I finished it.  I met up with the other runners later and 2 of them had cut it short and the other finished but did not hit the paces he wanted.  So, I'll take it.

20 minutes @ MGP 6:55 pace (2.88 miles)

2 minutes @ 7:40 pace (.26 miles)

10 minutes @ HMP 6:30 (1.53 miles)

2 minutes @ 7:45 pace (.26 miles)

5 minutes @ 10 k pace 6:25 (.76 miles)  Not really 10 k pace here.

1 minute @ 8:30 (.12 miles)

5 minutes @ 10k pace 6:18 (.80 miles)  Better,  but still off pace.

1 minute @ 7:00 pace

1 minute @ 5:59 pace (.16 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.10 miles)

1 minute @ 6:00 pace (.16 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:58 pace (.17 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:59 pace (.17 miles)

1 minute @ recovery (.11 miles)

1 minute @ 5:58 pace (.17 miles)

6 recovery paced miles.

Nice crisp morning but quite humid and foggy.  The CIM group met up at 6 am and we did a 2 mile warm-up to Austin High.  

The regular group had 400's on the schedule and the CIM group had Yasso 800's.  It was a sparse crowd out there this morning.  I knew I would be running alone but fortunately I saw James.  I asked him half jokingly if he was going to pace me through my 800's.  Poor guy, here he was going to come out and run a few 400's and he gets roped into running 800's.  He was gracious enough to say yes.  

I talked to coach before hand and it was agreed that I would run by feel - if I felt good I would keep going and if not I would back off. At this point there is not much to be gained and today's workout is all about turn over.   I get the 800's relaxed and didn't push them.  Nice and easy on the first one and James got carried away a bit on the third, but other than that they were all pretty close.  Some active recovery in between.

2 miles warm-up.

8 x 800's  3:03, 2:57, 2:47, 2:52, 2:50, 2:53, 2:50, 2:53.

2 miles easy back to the car.  It was gorgeous - almost surreal - the sun cresting with a brilliant red, mist coming up off of town lake, leaves falling on the trail - I feel sorry for all those people who sleep in and never get to see such beauty. :-)

I put my legs in Barton Springs pool and it actually felt warm with the outside temp being around 50 degrees. 

6 recovery miles, low 8:00's.  Legs felt pretty good.

Woke up to rain though it had stopped by the time I arrived to the annex.  I brought my visor along just in case and it turned out to be a good idea as there was a light rain on and off throughout the run.  The crushed granite trail had turned to quick sand - well, not that bad - but it was mushy and took a lot of pace off.  

So - a bit over 2 miles on the trail until we hit the road.  4 more miles through some hilly terrain and then a turn around and back along the same route.  I was really in a grove about mile 8 and felt great, but at mile 10 I came back on the trail and the pace disappeared and the mushy trail took all the energy out.  With about a 1/2 mile to go I jumped back up on the road to prove to myself that it was the trail and not me that could not hold the pace.  I was able to pick it back up so which made me feel better. 

Doing a hard taper this week - only 3 days of running not including Saturday's pre-carb load run.  I might muster 20 miles.  I have been getting a lot of sleep which has been awesome.  I woke up Sunday morning at 8:40 am!  I should be well rested come Sunday.

8:43, 7:54, 7:36, 7:09, 7:19, 7:17, 7:02, 7:08, 6:46, 6:49, 7:10, 6:59.

6 easy around the trail at lunchtime.  8:10's - 7:50's.

Dress rehearsal day - nice and cold - 34 degrees.  I ran 3 easy miles and then 3 @ MGP.  Legs did not feel particularly good, still have that nagging hamstring, fortunately it does not bother me while running, only after.  

MGP: 6:58, 6:53, 6:55.   

Unless something miraculous happens on race day I don't feel a sub 3 is in the cards.  I have not been feeling it lately.