"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"

Ran before work w/ Darin and Dave. Decided to run a fast run (call it tempo, or threshold, or 5Kish pace). Ran out into the wind and uphill, coming back was faster but felt good to have the wind at our backs.

Darin and Dave want to run about 7:00 pace at White Rock Half Marathon on Sunday, and have this crazy idea that I might try to hang w/ them. I might be able to carry 7:00s for a 10K..not real confident about 13.1 miles.

AP: 6:50

7:13, 7:12, 6:13, 6:42

42F, S15 MPH

I haven't race a 1/2 marathon since January, so I was kind of looking forward to today's 1/2 marathon in Dallas. I'd been training  a little bit in the past few months, but my longest run since July has been 10 miles (the day before Thanksgiving). So, I had no real expectations on time. I was going to run by feel.

I stayed with a friend of mine in Dallas last night. We stayed at a fancy-schmancy Fairmont (why is it that cheap hotels have free internet, but fancy hotels charge $15 -- what's up with that :) I fell asleep watchin Nebraska and OU football, but was awakend at about midnight by the guys next door -- loud music, call to front desk, knock on door, music stopped, guys must have gone out to a different bar). I think I managed a few more hours of resless sleep.

Up at 5:15 -- over to Fair Park by 6:30 for the 8AM start.

This is a new venue for the event this year - it used to be in the American Airlines Center, this year it was moved to Fair Park (where the Texas State Fair is held)  Lots of people complained about parking and traffic, but I got there early, so I didn't see it.

I looked for my buddies Darin and Dave who were planning to run about the same pace as me, but never found them before the gun went off.

The weather was almost ideal. 38F, 10MPH N wind, clear skies. I wore hat, gloves, long-sleeve tech, and my optic vest, and shorts. Maybe a little over-dressed. I was wearing my Speedstars that I bought at the Boston 2008 expo (I really like those shoes for some reason).

As is usually the case when I run by feel, I ran the first mile a little fast for me, and slowed up a little bit -- I wanted to be able to finish all 13.1 miles. The whole race felt good, though I made a quick pitstop at around mile 8 that cost me about 45 seconds.

Darin and Dave passed me while I was drinking some water at about mile 11. I caught up to Darin and ran with him for a little while. Dave was about 50 yards ahead of us, so I caught up to Dave and tried to hang on his shoulder, but he spead up a little. We ended up finished within 5 seconds of each other (gun time). We all PRed! It's great to be running with 2 guys that are at my pace--and we're all getting faster, by pushing eachother.

After today's race, sub 1:30 doesn't seem too far out of the realm of possibilites---especially if I can put in more quality/quantity training.

I'll post my splits later (I'm too lazy watching football right now to get up and get my Garmin ::)

6:44, 6:54, 6:48,7:00,6:57,7:10,7:20,8:13 (pit stop),7:36,6:49,6:59,7:06,6:48, (last .1 mile 6:36)

Solo run on the Mineral Wells Trailway after church. Was going to do 15, but decided to make it a fast 10 (had some fence work to finish at home).

44F, 15W, sunny

AP: 7:24

Got to Darin's house around 7AM. Dave was running late, so Darin and I went for a quick 2 miles. Then the 3 of us ran another 3.5 miles. The morning was brisk, but not too bad. The neighborhood around Darin's house has lots of rolling hills...good training. Wasn't feeling super energetic, but finished strong.

AP: 7:27

38F, S10MPH, sunny

Just Darin and I this morning. Kept it to a quick 3.5 miler. (no tights, legs got a little numb :)

Signed up for a FREE half marathon to be held on Saturday. As I'm ramping up for a marathon at the end of Feb, this is the kind of motivation I need to run long. Maybe I'll run a warmup and cooldown mile to get to 15 on Saturday.

39F, N20, clear

I'm not going to make this race entry -- because I don't want to draw attention to this disappointing outing.

I think my big mistake was not preparing the night before for a race. Beth served tacos (I usually eat pasta pre-race) and I ate lots.

Got to the 8:00AM race at about 6:45 and picked up my FREE bib, then went back to my my, put the seat back, and enjoyed the heater. It was about 33F.

Saw Darin, Dave, and Dariin's son Zachary before the start. We all talked about pace -- thinking this was going to be a long training run, we were all thinking 7:20-7:30 pace.

When the gun went off, I quickly found myself cruising at about 7:00/mi -- so much for the plan. It felt good for about the first 5 miles, then I started the negative thinking -- wondering when I would walk first. 13.1 miles is a long ways. The weather was perfect, 35F, no wind and the course was flat. I was thinking it was a good day for a PR when I first started. But, at around 5 miles, I could tell it wasn't in the cards.

Dave passed me at about mile 8 -- I just wished him luck. Darin came up to me with a couple miles to go -- I did my best to stick with him. He ended up finsihing about 15 seconds before me.

All-in-all, though I was disappointed, I enjoyed the training run. I need to fight the negative thoughts and prepare better for the next race. (Jan 8th 15K)

Enyoing 2 weeks of Christmas vacation!

Darin paged me at about 10PM Monday night to let me know that he and Dave were running Tuesday morning. I drove the 1 hour to Darin's house and ran a tough 5.5 miles.

 59F, 5-10S

AP: 7:40

Merry Christmas!

Took a break from all the festivities and ran 10 miles on the Mineral Wells Trail.

35F, W 10-15

A slow lack of energy run. Not sure why 4 miles seems so long. Maybe it had to do with all that I've been eating lately.

 35F, S15

AP: 8:00

Needed to get in some miles today. We're redoing the kitchen, and I've already cleared out all the cabinets and tiled the floor. Tonight we paint and grout -- I need to go back to work so I can get some rest!!! :) Two weeks of the "Honey-do" list is wearing me out!

55F (gorgeous weather), 5-10S, cloudy

AP: 7:52

It's the last run of 2010, and just enough miles to put me over 1000 for the year. (not stellar amongst the likes of my other fast running  bloggers, but not bad for a year with nagging Achilles tendon issues).

It's time I start thinking of some goals for 2011.

 Happy New Year to all my running buddies!

AP: 8:56

54F, W 20-25, sunny