Morning, Noon and Night?

This morning I ran with Will's Hills for (I think) the longest workout they do. 22 minutes one direction around the Waugh/Shepherd,Allen cloverleaf, and then 22 the other direction with no break. Will took off and I couldn't keep up with him. In my heyday we were neck and neck, so I have some work to do. I'm sure he's chomping at the bit to beat me this year at the Heights Fun Run 5K in June since I beat him last year. I didn't bring my watch but I'm going to be conservative and guess a pace of 8:30

5.18 miles, 44 minutes, 8:30 pace

This picture below shows my lunchtime run. The legs weren't responsive based on this morning's hill workout, but it was good to get out of the office.

Will I make it a three-a-day by running this evening? I've only done that a few times before, but it won't be based on how I feel so much as how much I have to do at work and home. We will see if I have time.

Sent from a mobile device.

Viva la Vida

by Coldplay

"I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
'Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!'

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand"

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I was taken by this Cold Play song the first time I ever heard it. The message I take from this song is that you're on top of the world one moment, and it's all gone before you get a chance to realize what happened. I believe this message is pertinent to all of us, regardless of where we fall on the continuum. Dealing with our success and eventual downfall is part of life.

A young person thinks they are invincible. In their prime they are unbeatable and victory comes easily. PRs fall, barriers are broken, enemies are defeated, gambles are taken and won. The world revolves around them, and their achievements and potential open the doors to another life.

And then it happens. One day they wake up hurting a little more than normal. The adversary who used to trail them is on their heels and then passing them. An exponential amount of work goes into producing a new PR, yet their body fails them under the extra workload. Their day has come and gone.

If they are lucky they can point to a single moment where they were on top of the world -- a paradoxical combination of their crowning achievement and the coup de grace for their career. The first place finish, the course record, the medal. They think about the days when people chased them -- when they left strangers effortlessly in their shadow -- when people wanted to BE them. Now those people have taken their throne and the associated brashness in exchange for fading memories and humility. The old king is dead, long live the new king.

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Although I wish I had taken to running in high school, I appreciate the fact that I found my passion in my early 30s. I will never be able to perform at the level I could have achieved during high school and college. I am disappointed by this realization because I'll never know what I could have achieved. But I'm currently riding the wave of continuous improvement as I approach the cusp of middle age. The ability to recognize and appreciate the cycle of achievement on the upside is the gift I've been given. It affords me the maturity to relish in my potential yet concurrently be acutely aware of the shelf life of my capabilities. One day soon improvements will cease, and I'll be looking at PRs in the rear view mirror. Fully appreciating the downside makes the upside that much sweeter.

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10/26/08 - 7.82M, 1:01:00, 7:48 pace This was a quick trail run around Julie's parents' neighborhood before mass. This link was famous for a day as it became a top Google hit for "Baton Rouge Trail Runs". My sister-in-law stumbled across it and let me know. Almost every half mile split was negative, and I hammered out the last 1.3M at 6:32 and felt like I could have carried that five more miles.
10/27/08 - 4.01M, 36:05, 8:58 pace, Avg HR = 118 (Zone 2.2) Wanted to run 6 but I gave in and only finished four since I got a late start. No PM run.
10/28/08 - AM10.08M, 1:13:35, 7:17 pace, no HR. I averaged 6:39 on the last four miles, and could have run another few with no problems. This isn't supposed to be happening based on the miles I have on my legs, but the weather provides great uplift. PMTour de Bayou final stage (4), 3.80M, 25:54, 6:49 pace, no HR. I finished third overall in this stage, and first overall for the cumulative open mens division. I finished the series races in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 3rd. This race wasn't particularly challenging, although I did kick it up a notch toward the end and put some distance between me and the 4th place finisher. My mile splits were: 6:53, 6:49, 6:54, and 5:13 for .8 (6:31 pace).

Tour de Bayou (Practice) 3

AM
6.15M, 56:59, 9:15 pace, Max HR = 126, Avg HR = 113

PM
1.76M Warm Up for Tour de Bayou 3
Tour de Bayou 3, 4.31M, 29:03, 6:43 pace, Max HR = 168, Avg HR = 154, 64% Z4, 33% Z3
4.25M Warm Down for Tour de Bayou 3

The morning run was slow on purpose to recover from a string of high mileage days and to save my energy for the race later that day.

The race went well. I saw Joe at the starting line (he won stage 2), and he told me he'd be taking it easy today because of his upcoming Marine Corps Marathon this weekend. I already had my plans to take it easy because I'm tired, and because of a certain incident at work on Monday.

The fire alarm went off, disabling the elevators and trapping me 58 flights above a lunch date with my wife. I took the stairs down. It was easy while I was doing it, but I felt it in the quads all day today. They were screaming during the warm up but managed to be replaced by a general feeling of weakness by the time the race started.

Even so, I ran a good race. I came in fourth overall, behind a man and his two (high school aged?) sons. The family kicked my butt, but I'm still pretty happy with my work today. The out-and-back course was somewhat hilly, but the overall elevation gain on the out was only about 15 feet. So this gives me the opportunity to compare my out split with my back split.

Out:
2.16M in 14:44 (6:49 pace)

Back:
2.15M in 14:14 (6:37 pace)

So I managed to pick up the pace in the second lap. I'm not sure if I'm happy or upset that I kept my heart rate out of zone five. I didn't enter the race wanting to hurt -- I'm trying to save my legs. But to give less than a zone five effort on a race is disappointing. I just need to remember this isn't the goal race -- just a speed workout for the goal race.

Notes:
1) Jon Warren's group was doing their workout along our course, so it was nice to hear their cheers. Thanks to Jeff, Shon and Matt for the encouragement. At one point I merged with Katherine as she did her speed work, and running with her helped me to pick up my pace. Otherwise I ran pretty much by myself after the first mile. Thanks to Katherine for her post-race encouragement as well.
2) This is the longest Tour de Bayou race I've ever run.
3) The course that most closely corresponds to the second TDB race I did in the Spring. My pace was the same, although today I ran an extra .8M and my heart rate was significantly lower. I guess that qualifies as improvement. This is the blog entry from that race.
4) The post-run warm-down was a beating. I ran out of energy (similar to my PM run on this blog entry). I get to a point that I feel like I desperately need food and can't run another step. I'm a little lightheaded as well. My kingdom for a Gatorade! I mustered myself and trotted back to the car, but I absolutely have to do a better job of taking some calories before workouts. We shall see how this breakdown affects tomorrow's planned 6M morning run, and PM PIM session.
5) I ran most of the final 2/3 of the run with a feeling that there was a stick or rock in my right shoe. Mid-way through the warm down I finally decided to investigate it, and discovered a bloody sock thanks to an untrimmed toe nail. I hope I learn my lesson -- you can do all the preparation in the world for a marathon, but if you forget the simple detail of cutting your toe nails before the race then your goal can be sacrificed. I added a "clip toenails" reminder to my outlook calendar set for 24 hours before the marathon.

And if you're wondering why I'm sharing all of these gory details, you should know that I'm wondering why you're reading them!

Tour de Bayou (Practice) 2

Warm Up
2.73M, 19:52, 7:16 pace, Max HR = 178, Avg HR = 165, 32% Z5, 58% Z4
Warm Down

This course, run around the bowl of Spotts Park, is by far the hilliest of the series. Roger structured the course as two reps of an out-and-back course. Prior to the start I was given the yellow lei, signifying that I had the overall men's open lead. I've never run a race with a target on my back.

I went out easy hoping someone else would take the lead -- it's a common strategy for me to follow since there is always someone faster than me and going out faster than them would be foolish. But nobody took the bait this time so I had to go out mostly by myself. One guy stayed with me, and we alternated leads through the first quarter of the race. I settled in behind him right after the quarter mark of the race and waited to see what would happen.

Five minutes later, at the halfway point, I found out what would happen. The guy dropped the hammer and opened up a lead that I'd never challenge. Once he did a lap, he was done with me. He must have won by at least thirty seconds. I think he was using me as a guide for the course, which is a wise strategy since it's not too hard to lose the trail like Alejandro did in the first race. In fact, on the way back during the first lap I did miss a turn and the guy yelled at me before I got too far off track.

I introduced myself to the guy afterwards. His name is Joe and he's from the Houston area, although he just returned home after getting his degree at UT. I don't mean to imply that I'm a formidable challenger, but the way he disposed of me makes me think he could clean up at a bunch of area races, particularly in his age group. The people who just graduated from college seem to prioritize place late nights and beer far above PRs. I certainly did.

I was really happy with my race effort. My heart rate was high, indicating that I didn't slack off, and I knocked off 30 seconds from the time I posted last time on this course. (Actually more than 30, but this course was a bit shorter so I scaled up my current time to 20:13 to be able to compare it to the 2.78M course I ran in 20:44 on April 1 earlier this year.)

4:58 out
5:00 back
5:04 out
4:51 back

so, Lap 1 = 9:58 and lap 2 = 9:55.

Great consistency considering I didn't look at my watch and I was doing everything I could do to survive. What's even more encouraging to me is that I ran a hard 10M race just 2.5 days ago and didn't have any problem running this race.

I ran this race with my Vibram Five Fingers, and they felt great. Feeling the ground with your toes makes me feel like I have a good grip, even though Gaslight swears that cross country spikes would improve my time. And speaking of Gaslight, I was treated to the opportunity to run the warm down with her.

Week in Review

Once again I've allowed myself to get behind in blogging, and once again I'll bore you with a summary of my runs over the past week.

8/31/08 - 17.8 miles, 2:18:17, 7:46 pace. I showed up to the park for my Sunday long run with the Tornados, and I noticed that the Nike Human Race is taking place today. It's a 10K race, run in cities around the world. I'm not into the whole marketing thing, but I did get a free shirt out of it and a chance to run with my friend Cory. I took a long break after the 10K and ran almost 12 afterwards. I'm not going to lie -- it was tough and I wanted to quit a few times. Daniel joined me -- I met him about a month ago when he joined us for a Tornado long run. He's a good runner and a nice guy -- hopefully he'll continue to run with us and join the Tornados.

9/1/08 - Will's Hills Warm Up. Will's Hills Relays. Category 2 Hurricane Gustav made landfall on Labor Day, sparing New Orleans but ripping up Baton Rouge unlike any storm in history. Thankfully my family and friends are all ok, but without power. After a long hiatus I ran with Will's Hills today. Holiday runs are always festive with that group, and I've been missing running with them. It's always a challenging workout, although I entered the workout with the attitude that I would take it easy. We ran two man relays of appx 200M each, and of course I ran them too fast. I didn't want to let my partner, Phil, down, and I floored it. Pablo and I blistered the last 200 of the first set and had a nail biter finish. I ran that one at a 4:05 pace. I just looked that lap up and it surprised me -- that was in the twilight, on grass, with my Vibram Five Fingers, and it was my tenth one with 45 seconds of rest between. The shoes were a hit, by the way, but the most curious feedback I got was from a girl that told me I had a lot of confidence to wear those. I'm not sure what that means, but she said it with a smile.

9/2/08 - 8.01M Morning run, 1:03:32, 7:55 pace. Tornado PM Speed Work (400s). We usually run speed work for time instead of distance so everyone starts and stops at the same time. So my 1:30 runs (with 2MR) were run at paces of: 5:21, 5:34, 5:49, 5:33, 5:18, 5:17. It was tough to run 200s yesterday, 8M this morning below a 8 minute pace, and then 400s today in 93 degree weather. But who said speed work was supposed to be "easy"!?


9/3/08 - 5.16M Morning Heights Run, 44:03, 8:32 pace. I've been avoiding running along White Oak Bayou since I inhaled more than my fair share of swarms of white bugs. I've never been real excited about running the Heights Boulevard trail, but I've warmed up to it lately. I'm doing my best to run all of my scheduled runs this week, and this one was difficult given my soreness from the last couple of days. 5.04 After-work Run to PIM Happy Hour, 41:01, 8:07 pace. The happy hour was great -- The owners of Anita's Bar and Grille are PIMsters, and I enjoyed talking to them. The downer of this run was that my left knee acted up as a result of too much speed work over the past couple of days.

9/4/08 - I rested my knee and my body, and Julie and I went to Discovery Green downtown to watch the Iguanas. They're based out of New Orleans, and the show had a strong Tejano influence. It was a good time, particularly since the weather has recently changed to a (dare I say it?) Autumn-esque feeling. Since I didn't run today I had to run my threshold on Friday morning -- alone. I slept uneasily on this day, wondering how my knee and my psyche will hold up.

9/5/08 - 9.23 as 3M Warm Up, 3M Threshold, 3M Warm Down, 1:18:15. 6:39, 6:53, 6:48. These are about 20 seconds slower than I should run, and 30 seconds slower than I want to run. But I'm giving myself a break since I've beat myself into the ground this week and I have 18M to run tomorrow.

9/6/08 - 18.08M, 2:28:53, 8:13 pace, Max HR = 149, Avg HR = 133, 36% Zone 3, 64% Z2, 78 degrees, 59% humidity. I was happy with this run, despite the fact that I started to experience some cardiac drift at about mile 13. Prior to that my heart rate was at about 128 the whole run. After mile 13 my heart rate rose even though my pace was flat to slightly faster. I suspect it was a combination of fatigue, the rising temperature, and dehydration. Running 18M by myself at a respectable pace was a confidence builder.

Summary:
Last Week = 73.44M, 10:02:45, 8:12 pace
August = 249.73M, 33:12:55, 7:59 pace, avg 8.06M per day (64 minutes 19 seconds per day)

The Houston Marathon is 19 weeks away, and I'm happy with my training to date, but it's time to get busy. I've been hitting the core exercises after almost run. 20 push ups were difficult at first but now I can do three sets of 25 without much of a struggle. After a six month break from core, I'm pretty weak in the upper body but hopefully I'll show some rapid improvement.

Will's Hills 23 - Goodbye Wills Hills?

5.47 Miles, 48:16, 8:49 pace, Max HR = 143, Avg HR = 127, 26% Z3, 67% Z2

Today was my last day as a regular participant in Will's Hills. I have to cut back on the number of intensive miles I've been running or face health consequences, so I decided to stop going to Will's Hills on a regular basis.

old regimen:
M - hills
Tu - speed work with tornados
W - hills
Th - threshold work with tornados
F - hills
Sa - moderate distance at easy pace
Su - long run

I would take a break whenever I was completely exhausted or injured. I'm breaking down at this pace.

new regimen:
M - Easy Day
Tu - speed work with tornados
W - Easy Day/Recovery
Th - threshold work with tornados
F - rest (no running at all)
Sa - moderate distance at easy pace
Su - long run

I'm swapping Will's Hills for rest and easy days.

So, as sad as it will be to put Will's Hills down for a while, it's for the best. Perhaps it's appropriate that my last day was the first day for my friends Laurie and Randy from Stephanie's Saturday long run group. They're great people, as is the rest of the Will's Hills group, so I hope they will enjoy it in preparation for their St. George Marathon in Utah.

I ran with Laurie and Randy today, and our assignment was 1 minutes fast, 1 slow, 2 fast, 2 slow for about five miles. We also ran a warm up and warm down.

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TDLY - 6/23/07 - Houston Fit Long Run, 8.78 miles, 1:28:31, 10:04 pace, max HR = 148, Avg HR = 137. This was my first "official" long run with a marathon training group. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 22 -- Toughest Workout I've Ever Done

Bike ride there
Warm Up and Hard Mile to Elanor Tinsley Park, 6:18, no HR info
10x100M sprints all out, hills, hard mile back to YWCA, bike ride back home

Recap:
Hard Mile out -- hit this too hard for the beginning of a workout
10x100 -- shouldn't have hit these all-out
12 minutes? of hills -- absolutely died, and ended up walking portions
Hard Mile back -- absolutely exhausted and forgot to start watch, but I'm pretty sure I didn't break 9:30 for this mile

I think I red lined too early and hit the point of no return. I think this is a valuable lesson for beginning, intermediate and advanced runners alike. If you go out too hard, something physically happens to your body and you can't recuperate despite taking rest intervals. That's why some people claim negative splits on marathons lead to PRs and world records. The theory is that the high level of exertion makes your body switch over to burning fat as an alternative to carbohydrates. Since it's less efficient to burn fat, you fatigue faster. But once you start the fat burning cycle, you can't easily switch back to burning carbs for fuel. So you're stuck in this fatigue mode.

To be honest, I don't necessarily believe it. I think it's a theory that hasn't been proven, so I'm unwilling to believe it until there is more empirical evidence. But I can't dispute the feeling of continued fatigue once you red line, even if you do slow down and take it easy. I was just as exhausted after this hour workout as I was when I finished the Houston Marathon.

I'm just glad I didn't have to go to work afterwards.

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This Day Last Year (TDLY) - 6/27/07 - Kenyan Way Progressives, 2.72 Miles, 5x.55M with rest, 7:19 pace, Max HR = 179, Avg HR = 156, Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 22 - 200 Meter Relays

Two-man 200 meter relays for 13 minutes, 3 minute rest, relays for 13 more minutes, no watch

Occasionally Will's Hills meets at the "Dog Bowl" along the bayou to do some speed work. It's named that because it's an informal dog park. And where you find dogs, you also find dog poop.

Through some crazy cosmic twist or divine intervention, I don't think I've ever stepped in any dog presents at the dog bowl. But of course I just doomed myself next time I run there.

Today's workout was a two man relay, each covering 200 meters and resting while your partner runs his leg. I ran with Shane, a senior cross country runner for Bellaire High School. He's a likable guy, as is evidenced by his friends' shirts that read "Beat Shane". Shane is thinking about going to UT San Antonio when he graduates. "Not too close but not too far."

We tore it up, and only a few teams were faster than us. The all-star team was a Will and Brett. Interestingly, I found that the high school guys were generally faster than me in the beginning, but that I held my pace (or sped up) and passed many of them in the second set.

I wish I hadn't forgotten my watch so I could have recorded my splits to see if I really did hold my pace.

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TDLY - 6/16/07 - 10.19 miles, 1:30:12, 8:50 pace, Avg HR = 143, Max HR = 163, 23% Z4, 56% Z3. I took a big step forward that day with a new personal record distance and total time running. It was after this run that I knew I could continuously run a half marathon. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 21 - W's

4.15 miles including warm up

We ran W's today, which is essentially a route that looks like a W when viewed from above. Each pen strike is a hill. The agenda called for 23 straight minutes, but I bowed out at 20 minutes and walked the mile back to the car because my Achilles started acting up. I think it was a wise decision, because it is now 1:47PM and I don't feel any pain.

I think this will be my strategy from now on: don't run long distances on back-to-back days, ice/ibuprofen when it hurts, and quit the intense workouts as soon as I start to feel the pain. Who needs a doctor!?

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TDLY - 6/13/07 - Kenyan Way 8x300 and 800, no watch. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 19 - Easy Workout before Race Day

Short hill session and lap around the bayou, Max HR = 152.

Will's instructions for the day were for those racing tomorrow to take it easy and run only one lap of hills before jogging around the bayou. I didn't get much of a workout, but that worked out well for me. I'm still trying to favor my leg and I didn't want to expend too much energy before my race tomorrow.

It was nice to take this at a leisurely pace and not worry about work, since today is my day off.

The leg feels OK, but I can tell something is wrong. There is a small bump where a bump shouldn't be -- kinda scary. Things aren't looking good for my race tomorrow. But if I can't run a good race, at least I'll try to host a good post-race party. Yes, I'm a proud Heights resident and I'm excited about inviting over dozens of my sweaty friends over to my house after the race for some post-race refreshments and stories. I'm cooking enough to feed 50 people, based on the response from my evite. I only hope my supply can keep up with the real-time demand. (I hope I can cook the burgers fast enough.)

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TDLY - 6/4/07 - KW - Max HR = 168. Steepest hills ever for KW. (I only ran this course once.) Blog Entry.
6/5/07 - Short Run around Hermann before dinner, 2.84 Miles, 23:20, 8:13 pace, Max HR = 171, Avg HR = 146, 34% Z4, 44% Z3, 18% Z2. Blog Entry.
6/6/07 - KW Warm Up and KW 200M three man relays, Max HR = 174. I ran 12x200M at about 38 seconds each. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 18 - 6x4 minutes of hills

Warm Up, 6x4 minutes of hills with 1:45 rest and warm down, max HR = 176.

I took this one kinda easy since the legs were a bit tired from last night's run and lack of sleep. It was NOT easy to get up this morning, but it helped knowing it was Friday.

I saw Brett Riley there today. He's an infrequent participant in Will's Hills, and is a stellar runner. I don't think I mentioned this before, but Brett emailed me a few weeks back and asked if I was available for his Beach to Bay Marathon Relay team. I declined since that was my weekend in Ogden for the marathon, but I was certainly flattered to be asked by one of the fastest runners in Houston. That being said, I'm fully aware that he asked everyone he knew and was scraping the bottom of the barrell (me) to field a team, but it was an honor to be asked. His team finished sixth in the open Men's division in 2:24:52, for a 5:32 average mile pace. Each leg averaged 4.4 miles. So you can see that I would have really dragged the team down if Brett was unlucky enough for me to accept. My best pace over that distance would be about 6:05.

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TDLY - 5/30/07 - No Motionbased info because this was a treadmill run to keep out of the lightening and get an idea about what pace I should run the 2007 Houston Heights 5k. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 17 - Ladders and Hills

Warm Up, Ladders on Two Hills, 2.68 miles, 9:37 pace, Max HR = 174, Avg HR = 157, 6% Z5, 71% Z4.

This is one of the tougher workouts I've done in quite some time. We had two hills, about 75 yards apart. No Achilles issues.

Hill A - up/down 6 times
Hill B - up/down 5 times
A - 4
B - 3
A - 2
B - 1
A - 2
B - 3
A - 4
B - 5
Gasp for air.

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TDLY - 5/27/07 - Rice, 4.35 miles, 38:33, 8:52 pace. Saw Tracy on the Rice loop. Blog Entry.
5/28/07 - Kenyan Way 200s. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 16 - Memorial day 1200s, 700s, 500s

Warm Up, Will's Hills 1200s, 700s, 500s - Max HR = 137.

I wish all Mondays could be this way. Today is Memorial Day, and Julie and I have a day off from work. I dragged her to Will's Hills, probably against her will, but I didn't give her a chance to voice an opinion! I got a kick out of introducing her to the crew. Cory even brought his son Cameron and Cameron's friend, Rory. We ran my favorite Will's Hill's workout, 1200 (3MR), 700 (2MR), 500 (1MR), 1200 (3MR), 700 (2MR), 500 (1MR), 1200. I ran with Julie, and we were in the middle of the pack today. Normally I like to try to keep up with Will on workouts like these, but of course I'm unsuccessful.

Afterwards we did an intense regimen of core exercises and stretching. I usually have to skip the post-run routine so I can get to work, but today was different. Julie and I left, exhausted, and headed to Empire Cafe. All in all it was a great day.

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TDLY - 5/26/07 - Memorial Park for Memorial Day Weekend, 6.06 miles, 56:11, 9:16 pace, Avg HR = 144, Max HR = 156. I had some back problems that day, something I haven't really had to deal with since then. Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 15 - Miles and W's

Warm Up, 1x2M followed by 6 laps of hills, Warm Down

Today's workout was one of the toughest I've done in a long time. 2x1M at near top speed, followed immediately by six 0.3M laps, each with three hills. My heart rate got elevated pretty quickly and stayed that way. Over the 33 minute workout (which doesn't include the warm up), my heart rate averaged 82% of my max (157 BPM).

I tried to keep up with Will on the first mile split, and clocked a 5:40, Avg HR = 134, Max HR = 171. After a five minute, .58 mile recovery jog, I turned the second mile split in at 5:57, but a Avg HR = 170 and Max HR = 180. The significant decrease in speed was disappointing, particularly because I was clearly working harder based on my heart rate. But then again it's the first intensive cardio exercise I've done in several weeks, so it was to be expected that my endurance isn't there.

Coach Ted from Power in Motion was there today. We seem to keep step-in-step, despite the fact that he is twenty years older than me. I blew me away when he told me he was more than fifty – I had him pegged for low forties. He's a phenomenal runner with tons of experience. Not only that, but he's an all around nice guy.

Today he stressed the importance of the rest period between intervals. I tend to get caught up trying to maintain a high heart rate, but I need to listen more closely to him so I can hit the intervals harder by taking the breaks easier.

He offered some great advice about my Achilles as well, which I originally dismissed because I thought it couldn't be true. He said I might have an underdeveloped calf muscle which caused the Achilles strain. My right leg doesn't look underdeveloped, and I leap up hills thanks to my strong calves, so I assumed he was wrong. But after I thought about it a bit more, I realized that my left calf is stronger and the imbalance could very well have been my problem. I'm not sure why it developed that way, but I suspect it's because my right leg is about an inch shorter than the left. I really need to listen to Coach Ted when he's giving me advice. He knows what he's talking about.

I haven't had any trouble with my leg, despite ramping up the miles this week – 36.5 since the marathon, with somewhere around 15-20 scheduled for this weekend. The miles haven't been as fast as I was running a month ago, but it's twenty degrees warmer.

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TDLY - May 23, 2007 - Kenyan Way, sixteen 30 second sprints. Tough workout -- don't dismiss it until you try it.Blog Entry.

Will's Hills 14 & Unofficial PIM - Busy Day

AM: Will's Hills - Warm up, 3.31 Mile Indian Run, no HR info

PM: Pre-Unofficial PIM threshold run in heat. 3.03 miles, 21:05, 6:57 pace, Max HR = 172, Avg HR = 157, 70% Z4, 1% Z5.
Unofficial PIM - 3.84 miles incl. warm up, 38:33, 10:02 pace

It was good to be back to Will's Hills this morning. Will encouraged us to divide into four degrees of "fastness" (because we're all fast.) I joined the third from fastest for fear of re-injuring my leg, since it's my first time back on the hills. My worries were unwarranted.

In the evening I joined the PIMsters for an "unofficial" run since the season is now over. I got there early enough to run a hard lap around Memorial before they started. However, "hard" only turned out to be a 6:57 pace. I don't think I could have gone much faster over that distance. I guess I'm tired from this morning and from the Marathon four days ago. Plus the temperature was 84 degrees -- it makes a difference.

After my solo run, I joined up with the PIMsters -- about 30 showed up! I expected around 10 at most. And after that the coaches met at Jax for the coaches banquet. It is nice to be appreciated by the powers that be, even though the real reward is working with the PIMsters themselves. PIM is very fortunate to have some fantastic coaches. I'm trying to learn how to be a good coach by observing them.

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TDLY - 5/21/07 - 3.97 miles of Kenyan Way Hills, Blog Entry

Will's Hills 13 - 2x12 minutes of hills with 2 minutes rest

4.09 miles including warm up, 2x3 laps of hills which ran about 12 minutes per set, about two minutes between sets.

I joined Cory and the rest of the group for core exercises afterwards.

Laps (each one was about .5 miles)
4:29 (following leader to make sure I know the course)
3:57
4:05
reverse direction
4:18 (tired)
4:20 (tired)
3:58 (thank goodness this is over)

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TDLY - rest

League Line Road Long Run with Cory

9.53 miles, 1:14:40, 7:50 pace, Max HR = 146, Avg HR = 133


League Line Road Elevation

I've been told that League Line Road is where Houston runners go to get their long hills. I get plenty of hill workouts with Will's Hills, but the hills are short and steep. At League Line Road the hills are longer and more gradual. Many local runners use this route for their Boston Marathon training which has some challenging rolling hills during the latter stages of the course.

Today Cory and I made the 45 minute trek out to League Line Road in preparation for the upcoming Ogden Marathon which has an overall drop of about 1100 feet. It's always a pleasure to chat with Cory, and the conversation always seems particularly fluid when it occurs during a long run. And while today's run wasn't particularly long, the shorter "long run" worked out well for both of us since we both have a bit of recovering to do. Cory has been battling knee and ankle problems, whereas my right ankle/Achilles/leg has been acting up.

I'm not really sure what my problem is, but at this stage I'm fairly certain it's not my Achilles. After our run today I could feel a slight burning sensation and sensitivity midway up my Achilles. Hopefully I can get Dr. Bob from PIM to look at it and give me some advice. For now I'm going to take it easy on Sunday and Monday so I don't miss my streak of consecutive Tour De Bayou contests.

But back to League Line Road -- it was a good experience. I had hoped for more challenging hills. Despite a relatively aggressive sub-8 minute pace, my heart rate stayed very low (52% Zone 3, 45% Zone 2) and I never felt affected by the grade. After visiting Austin last weekend and seeing some monster hills, I guess I was expecting and hoping for a bit more. Running along Teaswood was nicer than League Line Road since we didn't have to contend with any traffic. The weather was great (49 degrees average) which contributed to our healty pace. Overall I think I'm in good shape to handle the Ogden course on May 17, with the obvious unknown variable of elevation. I'll tackle that issue when I get there.

This is Cory's account of today's run.

Mile Splits:
8:39, 7:35, 7:48, 7:54, 7:58, 7:48, 7:46, 7:45, 7:45, 3:32 (.52 miles, 6:47 pace)

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TDLY - Rice Loop, pi miles (3.14), 28:22, 9:09 pace, Max HR = 159, Avg HR = 150, 52% zone 4, 43% zone 3. This was actually only 3.10 miles, but the reference to pi seemd appropriate given the fact that it was run around Rice University.

Will's Hills 12 - 4x1Mile

Warm Up, 4x1Mile with 1000 meter recover, Warm Down

Four miles at near top speed was intimidating, but I gutted it out. Kevin, Lee, one other guy (forgot his name) and I took turns leading portions of the workout. As a result I think I pushed myself much harder than I would have if I ran these alone. I'm not sure if I run faster when I'm trying to keep up with someone, or if I'm in the lead trying to keep a good pace for the rest of the crew.

Miles splits(actually measured .95 and .96 on the Garmin):
5:52, 5:52, 5:51, 5:55 (slow start but strong finish on my last mile)

Looking at those times I'd like to say I wish I had a slightly better pace. But I have to remind myself that the elevation change, uneven terrain and darkeness makes this more difficult than a street or track run. Also, I wonder if the painted mile marker is more accurate than my Garmin, meaning I might really be running sub-6 repeats.

I had no Achilles concerns, but I'm not ready to write this off yet. I think I'll talk to my friend from H-Town Runner to get her feedback since she suffered through this injury last year.

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TDLY - Easy run around Hermann Park, 2.79 miles, 26:14, 9:24 Pace, Max HR = 148, Avg HR = 138

Tour de Bayou 3

3.48 miles, 23:38, 6:47 pace, Max HR = 180, Avg HR = 164, 22% Zone 5, 66% Zone 4, 9th place overall

I'm really satisfied with this performance because it's the hardest I've ever run in quite some time, including my recent 5K PR this past Saturday. My race strategy was to stay with the lead group as long as I could, and then push really hard at the end. The lead group took it easy over the first mile and then lowered the boom and left me after that.

In general I've been noticing that my average and maximum heart rates over a run have been declining as my times also decline. This is good and bad. It's good because it means my cardiovascular system has adapted and allows me to run more efficiently. It takes less heart pumping for me to go faster than before. But the fact that my max and average heart rate is declining is bad because it means that I'm not trying as hard as I have in the past. I believe heart rate is the best measure of effort. So I'm sad to say that my effort during races has decreased since my early days of running.

With that in mind, I wanted to lay it all out there on the race course today and not allow myself the luxury of coasting. I think I succeeded . . . at least by the heart rate measure. I ran the last half mile in zone 5, which is reserved for maximum intensity. During this time I passed two people. The first finished in the top two last week, but the course destroyed him today and he was walking. The second person I passed took significantly more effort. I trailed him by a long way for at least a mile, but I reeled him in and gutted it out to slide past him with less than 20 yards to go.

(I use my Festival International 5K as a benchmark of effort, because it's the hardest I ever ran as measured by heart rate. 66% of the time was in zone 5, and 31% was in zone 4.)

Back to today: The course was on White Oak Bayou, which is where I run many of my neighborhood miles. But the twist to today's route is that we were ran through wooded trails that caused you to duck under branches and hop over obstacles, interspersed with a fair dosage of hills. It was a challenging and fun course.

And the BEST part is that Julie joined me for this race. She was nervous about the course difficulty, but looked and performed like a champion.

I was worried about my right Achilles tendon since it felt a bit funny, but I didn't notice anything unusual during or after the run. Maybe yesterday's break was all I needed to ward off injury. As mundane as this sounds, I'll probably keep reporting on this for the next few days until I'm sure this is behind me.

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TDLY - Two laps of Memorial Park, 6.08 miles, 54:59, 9:02 pace, Max HR = 173, Avg HR = 156.

Will's Hills 11 - 500s, 700s, 1200s

Warm Up, 700, 500, 1200, 700, 500, 1200, 700, 500, Max HR = 170

This was a good workout. We ran around a 1200M course along the bayou, broken into a 500M stretch and a 700M stretch. So at the end we ran five laps. I followed Kevin the whole way. He looked strong and it's easier to do speed work with another person. We averaged around a 6:00/mi pace for all legs. We probably could have gone faster, but we were running on the uneven footing of hills, dirt and potholes in the dark, so you have to be cautions. After my set I ran with Monica for her last 700 and 500. She looked strong during that stretch.

Afterwards I stayed around for core exercises and biked home since it was my 9/80 Friday off. The rest of the day was spent running errands and preparing the house for Julie's parents' visit. By the way, raking, edging (manual edger), and sweeping the driveway qualify as a great upper body workout.

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TDLY - 2.92 mile PIM Run, 27:52, Max HR = 158, Avg HR = 150 followed by the 3.89 mile LP run, 34:20, 8:50 pace, Max HR = 183, Avg HR = 167, 15 laps and change