"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"

No work today...a paid holiday!!!! Woohooo!

Ran an easy 3 miles of hills in my neighborhood this morning. 85 degrees, no wind, no clouds. Slow and steady. Not many miles, but it's a start!

 AP: 8:20

Got out and ran my longest run since Steamboat marathon. It was a nice break in the hot weather. Temperature was about 75 when I started, getting to about 80. It was very humid (as it had just finished raining). Not bad. Hopefully, I'll get in a 40 mile week this week. Planning to get up and run 7.7 on 7/7 with my buddies tomorrow.

Met at 7:07 on 7/7 and ran 7.77 miles! :-) (Smooth are 7's lucky numbers?) I'm pretty sure the temperature was about 77. (at least the humidity wasn't 77%)

Ran 1 mile warmup, 3 tempo miles, then a nice easy jog for the last 3.77.

AP: 8:10

I missed the hill workout with Jo and Eric today due to an early dentist appointemnt. Ran 4 on the treadmill at 7.5 MPH.

Got up at 4:20...AM. Drove to Colleyville to run with a group from Luke's Locker running store. Saw quite a few old friends. Ran with Julie for the last 6.5 miles (I started a little later than her and the "green" group). It was nice seeing all the people out there training for the various halfs and fulls -- all different abilities. The weather was quite pleasant..about 82, not so bad humidity, and a light breeze.

AP: 8:13

Arrived for our morning run about 20 minutes early, so I ran 2 warmup miles around our facility.

8:13, 8:00

Ran mile repeats w/ Eric at 7:15. We were planning to run them all at about 7:00/mi.

6:18, 6:51,6:40,7:18

84 degrees, 5 MPH S breeze. Not too bad.

Jogged an easy 3 miles w/ Eric and Jo, then did some hill sprints (on grass). At first it seemed like my HR wasn't getting up very high, but after each climb, it increased by 10 BPM from the time before. 110,120,130,140,150,160..by the last one I was maxed out. Good workout.

I feel I need to apologize for my lack of activity keeping up with the blogs lately. I've been swamped with work and life in general (my mother visited last weekend from Illinois). Even if I don't write much, I think of you all often, and will try to catch up when I can.

Tonight's El Scorcho. A 50K race in downtown Ft Worth that starts at midnight. I'm going to meet a friend of mine, Ty, there around 10:30. The plan for both of us is to take it pretty easy, and try to average 9:00 miles. (You know, I have a terrible track record for sticking wth anyone during a race) At least I'll know someone there..so I don't need to drag my wife there to give me moral support at 3 in the morning. 31 miles in the dark...why do I do this? :-)

This was my second time running this race. Not sure why I ran it, really. I fell for the "sign up early or pay more later" trap. I spent the bucks so I was comited. I went into this midnight event as a "long training run with benefits". I secretly wanted to beat last year's time, but I knew that was a long shot, as I haven't been training a whole lot lately.

This race is run completely in a park in Ft Worth, and starts at midnight. There is a 25K flavor (La Scorchita) and the 50K both running the same 5K loop. There were about 400 runners in both events. Nice 10MPH breeze, temps started in the low 80s, and by the time I finished were in the upper 70s.
Like last year, I got to Trinity Park (in Ft Worth) about 2 hours early. Set up my aid station right along side the trail. Met up with a few friends, and sat around awaiting the stroke of midnight.

I was going to try to run as even splits as possible. I was also planning to walk through each of the aid stations, every 1.5 miles.

The 5K laps slowly ticked away.I kept talking to myself along the way.
1 down ("10% complete").....2 down ("only 8 to go")....3 down ("almost 10 miles...only 20 miles to go...uggg..why am I doing this?"). 4 down ("40%...1 more lap an you're halfway")...5 down ("half way...15.5 miles..that's the longest you've run since..should I quit now and call it a 25K training run?" ... 6 down ("only 4 to go...that's 12.4 miles remaining...that's longer than you've run since Steamboat in June"...

On the 7th lap, I ran about 1.5 miles with a guy from Houston. I thought he looked much faster than me, and was surprised to find out he was on the same lap. That 1.5 miles just flew by as we talked about our other races. I assured him that I wasn't going to try to race him for a spot, but just "wanted to finish". As we crossed the line with 2 laps to go, he must have stopped a while at the aid station, because I lost him, and wasn't about to wait up for him. He ended up finishing a few minutes behind me, but I credit him for lighting a fire under me to get my rear in gear!

The last 2 laps flew by..and my times improved. As I crossed the finish line at 4:43AM, I was surprised to find out that I placed in the top 10 -- which earned me a pretty cool shoe bag/back pack thingy (though it only has a single strap)..anyways it's the closest thing to hardware that I've earned this year.

I broke a few cardinal rule of running (and I didn't pay the price):

I wore a brand new pair of shoes (and socks). (but my feet felt great the whole way)

I ate/drank stuff I didn't train with. They had Heed gels and drink. Not great, but didn't make me hurl.

First run after El Scorcho on Sunday. Felt pretty good. Hills with Jo and Eric. 75F, 5 MPH Wind. 7:15AM.

I've been working with a couple of people from China over the past few weeks. After 3 straight days of eating at the Chinese buffet, I noticed a little extra bounce in my steps (not in a good way)..time to get serious about nutrition and training for St George!

AP: 8:10
 

1 mile intervals with Eric and Jo before work. 75F, slight breeze, very humid (foggy on the drive in) 

1 mile warmup (8:41)

3 faster laps ( 6:55,6:51,6:39)

1 mile cooldown (9:53)

Felt good -- especially after taking 4 days off! SGM is coming up fast!

 

Storms woke me up early this morning. Decided to skip the morning run with Jo and Eric.

Ran 5 miles on my neighborhood hills after work. 87F (much nicer temps than usual), 5 MPH breeze. Partly cloudy. Felt good.

My goal from now until taper time for St George is NOT to skip more than 1 day between runs.

Tonight's low is supposed to be 66 -- I might just have to get up early tomorrow and get in a nice, cool run. (don't hold your breath)

AP 8:24

Somehow my alarm got turned off in the middle of the night..I swear I set it for 5:30 before I went to sleep...but, I woke at 6:45...and realized I didn't have time for a pre-work run (when it would have been about 68 degress)...

..so I ran at lunchtime with Darin. 85F, 8 MPH breeze, partly cloudy. 51% humidity (felt like 86..or at least that's what weather.com thinks)

Mile	Time	Avg HR
1	7:49	129
2	7:40	143
3	7:48	144
4	7:51	154
5	7:48	161
6	7:52	164

 I finished feeling not-so-great, and wondering why my HR climbed so much. When we started my HR was the usual 4 or 5 BPM below Darin's, by the time we finished mine was 5 or 6 above Darin's. I'm thinking I wasn't properly hydrated. I really haven't been very thirsty lately, but I know I need to drink more water. Drank plenty after the run, and this evening in prep for tomorrow's long run.