Tempo in Austin

This morning's 6-miler included four miles of tempo running, which as usual got progressively faster. Clouds hovered overhead and the reflection of the city lights provided some much-needed illumination. My final mile was at an 8:30 pace, which felt good. Lots of people along the downtown trails, as usual here in Austin. The cold front came through at the right time for this visit.

Recovering in Austin

My Monday run was 4 miles in downtown Austin, one of my favorite places to run, especially when it's nice and cool like it was at 6:15 a.m. I've learned my lesson from past outings before dawn and brought my light with me. There were several spots along the path where it pitch black, and the hand light (formerly a head lamp) served me well.

Redemption

Finally, a nice cool Saturday morning. In fact, it was literally freezing. From last week in shorts and t-shirt to today in long pants and several shirts, mittens, and stocking cap. It was refreshing and I kept a decent pace, about 10 minutes/mile over the 15 miles. I even planned my route so that I ended at the right distance and ran the last 5.5 miles downhill and flat, except for the big hill at the end.

I also experienced a measure of redemption since I made the right turn at the same juncture of indecision from last week - which was actually a left turn. The other thing that I did right was take a couple of my bottles out of the freezer last night so they could thaw since I knew they wouldn't do so as much during the run. The other two bottles were still about a third frozen when I finished, but I had plenty along the way and it wasn't an issue.

You know you've done some long runs and your training is working when 15 miles doesn't seem so bad.

Another Austin Run

This morning I ran my 6 miles, starting out in the dark again, in the form of Yasso 800s. The plan called for five of them and since I had to run fast to beat a light and cross the last major street on the way back, I went ahead and did an extra one. The temperature was cool enough again to allow for the faster pace. This time I made it all the way around to The Domain. No complaints - it was a good run.

Nice Discovery

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning I set very early here in Austin for a tempo run. The temperature was really nice. I wasn't sure where all I was going to get in my 6 miles since I knew the park at the quarry wouldn't be open. I ended up going through the business park to the east and came out on the frontage road, which then looped me under the Mopac Expressway and along the west side of The Domain. It turned out to be a nice discovery since I thought I was going to end up running up and down the same street multiple times. It's certainly not as nice as staying downtown but at least it worked out okay.

Stupid Wrong Turn

My estimate of the distance for today's long run using USATF was a little off, but I thought that was probably okay. By the time I got to the fifteenth mile I figured I would end up over my goal by about a mile or a little more, but what could I do? I guess the thought in my mind was distracting because about that time I made a wrong turn. I'd mapped a route that would give me a flat approach back to the neighborhood, for the most part, which was lacking my last few Saturday runs. I was in a neighborhood that I'm not real familiar with, and when I got to a point where I was supposed to make a left turn it didn't look correct - probably because it was uphill and I was expecting a continued descent to a park - and I took a right instead. By the time I realized I was not going where I wanted I was already committed. The route dumped back onto Eldorado, which ended up being okay. I think I came up a half-mile, or maybe even a little more, shorter than if I'd taken my originally planned route. I still ended up at 21 miles.

The run/walk method is working so far. The temperature today was warmer than during my morning runs this past week, but I'm okay with that because those days I was able to do speed work. Today the temperature was in the low 70s, but there was constant cloud cover and a nice breeze out of the southeast that helped with the humidity. I still sweat a ton, but no calf cramps and I finished the run without feeling absolutely horrible. My overall pace was right at 10:30/mile, which will put me around 4 1/2 hours for a race. I guess that will depend on the weather on race day. Now it's time to taper.

Visible Breath

Ooh, Visible Breath would be a good band name. Or even a good song title. I'll have to think about that one.

This morning was nice and cool once again, and even on the way back when it had moderately warmed up I could still see my breath. The conditions favored a good tempo run and that's exactly what happened. I started running at the one-mile mark, and the splits at miles 2, 3, 4, and 5 were 9:12, 9:03, 8:54, and 8:35. Not too bad, and I never felt winded or like it was a hard effort at any point during the 6-mile run. Overall pace was 9:22, which involved warm-up and cooldown mile bookends. A good effort, and even though it was early it was still nice to get the run in before the day started.

Some Yasso 800s

I think this was my first time to do Yasso 800s in this round of training, and I picked a good day. Today was one degree lower than yesterday and started at 43 degrees. I wish I'd worn mittens, but I survived okay. The intervals went well and the low temperature really helped. I ran five intervals over the course of my 6 miles.

In other news I finally registered for the race in November. And got a hotel for the night before. All that remains is to finish out the training plan.

Cool Easy Run

Monday morning dawned much cooler than the past few days...weeks...month. It was 44 degrees and so I wore a long sleeved shirt. I ran my 4 miles, and I could tell I definitely needed this easy run to stretch out a little bit. Nothing hurt too bad after Saturday's long run. I only wish the temperature had been this low on Saturday.

Endurance

I knew that with higher humidity and temperature than my other runs this week that it would be a test of endurance today. I was right. I ended up with 18.2 miles for the total, but really the extra two-tenths was to get back to the neighborhood and also because I walked so much in the last mile up some big hills. I'm thinking about reversing the route next weekend since that last stretch is too much at the end of a long run.

Fortunately there were no equipment malfunctions today. If I'd lost a whole bottle of sports drink and half of another I wouldn't have made it.

In other news, guess I should actually register for this race. I almost did it last night but decided there was no rush since I needed to get through today's long run first.

Early Outing

Back home for today's run, where I headed out at 6:30 before the sun rose. I didn't like the lack of a light for my 6-miler, but since most of it is on sidewalk the risk was low. I did four of the miles as a tempo run, getting down into the low 8's by the end. Once again it was a nice low temp, which will not be the case for Saturday's long run. Oh well.

Anniversary Run

The Wife and I went to San Antonio to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and it was on that day that I also ran. I was going to do my recovery run on Monday, but walking around SeaWorld and Fiesta Texas on successive days was enough of a recovery for me. I mapped out a route for Tuesday, which dawned with temperatures in the mid-50s, on surface streets, but decided when I left the hotel that I would try the River Walk. However, I did it with a twist. Instead of going through the restaurant and tourist section, which would have been mostly deserted by my 10 a.m. start time, I decided to head north. I was surprised.

The route along the San Antonio River went much farther that way than I expected, and the only surface streets I ran on during the 6 miles were when I got to Brackenridge Park. Otherwise it was scenic, well-curated, and much nicer than running the streets. I had to backtrack a couple of times, and on the return route I navigated through the Art Museum grounds, but otherwise it was a very enjoyable run at a good brisk pace.

Equipment Malfunction

About 3.5 miles into today's 16-miler (which turned out to be 16.5 plus some walking) I felt some dripping on my left leg. I thought it was a top on one of the bottles on my belt with a top that wasn't closed all the way. It turned out to be a cracked bottle that was almost empty. Then about a hundred yards after I emptied that one I felt more dripping on my leg, and discovered that the top on another bottle was missing. I turned around and discovered it was actually caught in my shirt However I was down to pretty much 2.5 bottles of sports drink to last the next 12.5 miles.

Fortunately the sky was overcast and I made it. If the sun had come out like it did a couple of weeks ago there is no way I would have lasted. Which was even more fortunate because I took an ill-advised detour into a neighborhood just north of Stacy Road which I though would provide a route through an apartment complex and get me off the main road. No. It added about 2/3 of a mile to my overall run.

It was a tiring run and humid, which is normally my Achilles' heel. The cloud cover helped me make it through. Hopefully next week will also be better as far as equipment goes.

In the Slow Lane

Today's plan was supposed to include Yasso 800s, but once again the temperature was up in the 80s. I decided that getting in the mileage was more important than speed, so I ran my 6 miles. The difference between today and Tuesday was that I didn't walk anywhere except up the big hill. My pace averaged just above 10 minutes/mile, which wasn't too bad. Just looked at the weather for Saturday's long run and humidity will be about 90% in the morning. Should be interesting, to say the least.

Higher Heat, Lower Speed

Yesterday's plan called for some tempo running, but it was one of those days where the humidity was so high it was like running through soup. I decided early on that just running the distance would be a victory, and walking every mile for a minute would also be in order. So I ran 6 miles, with a minute walk at every mile marker, and when I made it to the end my clothes were soaked with sweat. I thought about running up the big hill, but there was a Mustang on the sidewalk in one of those "how did that get there?" positions that doesn't make sense unless you saw the wreck, along with a police SUV and another car in the right lane. So I walked past that. Lots of car pieces on the sidewalk and grass and so the street was my only way to go. Anyway, I got in the mileage and that's what made for a good outing on a not-so-good-running day.

Easy Monday

This morning was a nice 4-miler in mild weather. Pretty nice. Not much more I can add to that.