Sans Garmin

Guess I left the Garmin on after Sunday's run and the battery was low. Tonight's run was au natural as far as that goes. I ran my regular 6-mile route after waiting until almost 7:45 to start. The temperature today was in the 90's and the sun was brutal. Waiting seemed like the prudent thing to do. I almost stopped during my prep a couple of times and thought about just staying home, but after some drama at work I decided I needed to get out and burn off the stress of the day. Another prudent move. Now maybe tomorrow I'll be a little calmer and clear-headed. Or maybe I'll just need to go for another run.

Ten for Father's Day

Continuing the practice of putting numbers in my post titles, I ran 10 miles on Father's Day. I was VERY tempted to stay in bed and sleep late, but as I've always said, you shouldn't make a decision about whether or not to run while you're half-asleep in frog pajamas. Yes, that's a Tom Robbins reference for you. Anyway, I had planned on getting up at seven, and that's what I did. It was tough, but I'm so glad I did. I drove about 550 miles to Tulsa and back yesterday to drop off Daughter #1 at church camp, and today I added another 10 miles to the overall weekend total. I knew if I didn't get up and run early it wasn't going to happen since the temperature was forecast to climb into the nineties during the day. It worked out well as clouds rolled in from the north and I spent most of the run under overcast skies. I felt good and was happy to get in such good mileage on an early summer morning.

During today's run I finished up the last part of the Hardcore History series on the Eastern Front of WWII. All I can say is wow. How have we not heard more about this? I'm convinced the war was won there after listening to these podcasts. In America we talk about D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and those epic events, yet the tide of the war was actually turned in eastern Europe. I've read plenty on D-Day and I know the Allied troops who gave their lives and those who punched through the beaches are heroes. But the absolute carnage and scale of the war in Russia dwarfs what happened in western Europe. I've already put a book on hold at the library to learn more about this, and sadly enough the literature on this part of the war is scarce compared to western Europe and the Pacific. It's an odd scenario in trying to root for one side or the other since Hitler and Stalin butchered millions of people and both were evil to the core. Yet if Stalin's troops hadn't won their part of the war the world would be a far different place. I still recommend the series and think there's a lot worth pondering from the history of the war in eastern Europe.

Hot Six

Not as hot as it's gonna be this summer, but still pretty warm at 91 degrees after 7 p.m. I waited until later to run to avoid the direct sun and still caught plenty anyway. So I kept it slow and easy and sweated a lot but didn't overheat during my 6 miles. That was the aim and I was successful. I generally don't like running later in the evening. However, since I'm not actively training for a specific event, I also don't feel the need to kill myself in the high heat. I'd prefer to keep running as enjoyable as possible without injury. Too bad I go into work so early. I'm routinely jealous of the people I see running in the morning as I drive by them on my way to work. Maybe someday that can be me. Many years from now, after I retire...

6 in 81

6 miles today in 81 degree temperatures. It was an easy run with a finishing average pace of 10 minutes per mile, and I was happy with that. I continued with Part III of the Hardcore History series on the eastern front of World War II. It was an excellent distraction from the heat and the sweat on this run in ways that music wouldn't be. Since I didn't sweat enough on the run I went ahead and worked on sanding the deck in preparation for some new stain. Fortunately for everyone in the household I'm done sweating for the night.

A Plan Comes Together

A disturbingly close crack of lightning awoke the household at 6:30 this morning and also heralded the fact that I wouldn't be running anytime soon. The wife and oldest daughter went for a bike ride a little later and were going to run, but then the rain really started. I kept hoping the rain would finally end, and sure enough, about 1:30 the storm finally moved past. The wife and I had gone to the grocery store in the meantime, so when I saw the blue sky beyond the line of clouds to the west I hustled into running clothes and scooted out the door for an 8-miler. It was humid but my plan was to get the run completed before the sun came out, or at least mostly complete. Success!

I'm at that point where I don't have a specific race scheduled but know that I'll be running in the fall. I need to figure out what's next. Also at this point is the question on whether I should take a little time off. My thought is that for the most part I feel pretty good, and it's probably best to keep running three times a week without speedwork at this point, and maintain my base. That way once I pick the next race I can determine my workout schedule without starting from scratch. Plus I need to work on some strength training and core work this summer. I exercised twice this week with dumbbells and ankle weights and feel pretty good with that. Maybe when Alan is here in a couple of weeks we can pick our next outing. Or maybe I'll just pick one before then and tell him what he's going to do. Yeah, I like the sound of that better.

Running with the Daughter

Today was hot and humid. Seems like Daughter #1 learned a lesson since at the end of the run today she decided she would prefer to run in the early-morning hours. It was nice to run with her, though. I ran 4 miles by myself to start, and it was a very slooooow 4 miles due to the weather conditions. I stopped by the house and picked up Daughter #1, who is training for a triathlon, and we ran 2 miles together. Her training schedule said today was supposed to be a run/walk day, but we ran the whole way. I was proud of her for doing so with minimal complaining. At one point I joked she must have misread the schedule and decided it was a run/talk day instead. I thought about waiting longer to run after the race last Saturday, but the race really didn't do me in too bad and after all I've eaten the past couple of days I figured I needed it. My plan for the next several weeks is to run 6 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays with an 8-10 miler on Saturday. Guess I need to pick my next race and work backward on the calendar so I know when to start doing speedwork again. But as long as I get to run with my girl I'll be fine.

The other thing I did today that was running-related was to buy a new pair of running shoes for the wife, who is also participating in the triathlon. Her old shoes were worn out. We went to a specialty store and she tried on a half-dozen pairs. She settled on a pair of Asics Cumulus, which is the same model I first bought from Asics. She didn't have a moment of epiphany like I did, but she seemed pleased with the purchase. Plus they look pretty spiffy on her.

Hospital Hill Run

In the last half mile of today's race, I looked over at Alan and told him this was one of those races it was good to run but I don't feel the need to ever run it again. That pretty much sums up my feelings about this course. It was hot, but not terribly so due to an overcast sky early on, and terribly humid. And hilly. Yeah, a race with the word 'hill' in the name should be a clue.

Alan claimed at various times that he's out of shape and hasn't been training enough and certainly hasn't been training on hills, as well as stating that the humidity and/or heat was brutal. Okay, I'm giving him a little grief, but I have to agree on several of those counts. Much like the race in Leavenworth a couple of weeks ago, the course was tough. Leavenworth was a little tougher, but not by much. After mile 10 one of the guys running near us shouted out, 'This hill is stupid!' We had to laugh and agree.

None of this is to reflect on the race organization or anything like that. It was very well organized and other than the torture of the hills an enjoyable event. Lots of good volunteers, aid stations, and after-race activities. The one bummer is that we left our IDs in the car and therefore couldn't get the necessary bracelet for free beer afterward. Very scenic course.

The official time was 2:17:42, which included lots of walking. As I figured earlier this week, this wasn't going to be the course or the weather for setting a PR, and I was right, so I hung with Alan and had a good time. I don't want to do this race every year, but it was a good experience.

And One More

Just had to get in one more run since I didn't want to have three empty days before the race. I ran 4.5 easy miles in low-80's temperature. No snakes in the road today, just a guy running with a dog. At this point I still don't feel like I'll be gunning for a PR on Saturday morning, but we'll see how I feel on race day. And how the weather shapes up. The overnight low on Friday is supposed to be 71 degrees, which means temps will probably be in the mid-70's by 8 a.m. at race time. That's not a good recipe for a really fast race, so maybe I'll just pace this one with Alan and see if we can get him in under the two-hour mark.

90 Degrees

That was the temperature today when I set out for my run. And maybe I still am getting smarter, since rather than totally run my brains out I did my speedwork at a decidedly slower pace. I ran 6 miles and did the 2x800 intervals, and my second interval was at an average 9:03/pace. If I go that slow in a race I'm in trouble, but today it was the wise move. I thought about waiting until later in the day but decided that if the temperature is up on Saturday morning that I should acclimate to the warmer weather as much as possible.

Bonus: in the road at about mile one was a black snake - alive! A squirrel had come out to look at him and the squirrel almost got nailed by a small SUV. But the snake kept slithering along. When I ran by the spot after turning around up the road he was nowhere to be seen. I kept a careful eye on the grass, though, 'cause even though he probably wasn't poisonous who wants a snake leaping out at them? Well, not really leaping, but you get the idea.