Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

54F.  Got in 4 neighborhood miles in the late afternoon.

I wanted to simply invite my buddy and his kids over last night since his wife is deployed, and somehow that turned into us hosting a block party (mostly my fault).  Since we're outside the city limits, we shot off some good fireworks, including one called "The Shizzle."  I thought it was 25 separate shots when I bought it, but apparently you just light it and you get them all within about 20 seconds.  Comes to more than $2/second.  Totally worth it.

40F, N 17-27 mph.  7:47 AP.  First time I've ever really felt the wind blow a bit here in the morning.  I'm still pretty sheltered on the trail I always run on.  700 miles on the fastwitch and no signs of them getting too old - I bet they will last to at least a thousand miles.

Finally got around to planning out from here until Boston.  Not the mileage of the previous Boston buildup, but at least the same level of quality, and at a mileage I should be able to handle while still nailing workouts.

Any thoughts? 

25F.  The dreaded bam-5k-predictor workout.  4 x 1 @ 5k, 90 sec rest.  I had yet to be able to complete it until today.  I did this at the track, so it was 4 x 1600.  I averaged 5:51.4.  The individual repeats were 5:55.5, 5:51.9, 5:53.4, 5:44.6.

I've had some good track workouts lately but this was probably the pinnacle.  I've never felt so relaxed at sub-6 pace.  Not saying it was easy,  I killed myself on that last repeat, even allowing myself to kick the last 200m, which I usually don't do, for recovery purposes.  Anyway, Bam would say this predicts an 18:18 5k, but I think I might even be in slightly better shape than that. Either way, my fitness at the 5k level has never been stronger (thanks Bam).  It'll be interesting to see how that translates into a HM in 2 weeks.  My LT wave workout next week should give me a better clue.

67F, 8:20 AP.  afternoon miles.

42F, N 20-33 mph.  7:26 AP.  Somehow timed my run to coincide with the cold front blowing through, so I had a pretty good wind for this one.  Saved the tailwind for the way back and knocked out a few MP miles to finish up the run.

Only other noteworthy thing is hitting my first 60+ mile week since March.  Bout time...

28F, N 16 mph.  8:44 AP.  Windchill in the teens, but don't worry about us here in south Texas.  I know we have some very extreme cold here, but we'll be ok.  Upper 60s and low 70s by the end of the week.  Thanks in advance for all your concerns about us during this savage winter blast.

19F, 7:28 AP.  First time since moving from Oklahoma that I had sweatcicles on my hat.  Fun!

38F, light rain.  Today was my last 3k session; I did the same 5 x 800m as always, but didn't think it would go any faster than last time.  I did manage to shave a bit more than a second off the average repeat though, averaging 2:46.1 today (2:46.5, 47.5, 45.8, 47.7, 42.8).

This has definitely been a very productive little speed cycle for me.  Weird that it will culminate with a HM instead of a 5k like it should, but that's just how it worked out.  I'm hoping to find a 5k once I recover from Houston.  I think I'm ready to at least take a stab at 17:59.

52F, foggy.  8:20 AP.

64F, 94%.  Workout fail.  I was supposed to do my 6-mile HMP wave run today but pulled the plug really quickly on it.  Either I was tired, it was too unseasonably warm/humid, or the headwind on one of the straightaways got to me.  A combo of all, most likely.  It always sucks to pork the last workout before a race but I pulled the plug early enough that I can try again on Sunday, although maybe an abbreviated version since it'll only be a week out from Houston.  I still have that awesome 2 x 5k in my memory bank, so I don't think I'm in trouble with HMP, just an off day.

58F, 98%, some fog.  7:20 AP.  Lost weekend as far as running goes...excuses are too lame to even type out this time.  Let's just call it an early taper for Houston.

I was sluggish today but forced myself to do a little 2-mile tempo on the way back, for running penance.  Did that in 12:18 (6:11, 6:07).  6 days to Houston....

35F, 7:32 AP.  Legs felt good again today, must be back in the 30s.  I think I'll just stick with my favorite 8-mile run holding pattern and then taper off slightly during the week, mixing in short reps at HMP.  Easy run today except on the way back I was passing this guy and he started putting up some resistance as I got close; I was all like, nuh uh this is MY trail brah and then I punched it for about half a mile and wasted him.  That'll teach him to, you know, run fast.

42F, 7:13 AP.  I did a little 4 x 1/2 mile on the way back.  Each repeat I would imagine I was running a half marathon and didn't look at my watch.  Paces ranged from 6:10 - 6:24.  PR pace is 6:25 and the goal is to get a PR so I'm thinking start out around 6:20, try to come through the first 10k in ~39:30 and feel it out from there.  I really am pretty unsure of how it'll go.  My short track stuff has been awesome, faster than ever, but mileage has been low for an extended period and I haven't exactly been crushing long tempos.  I'm almost more curious than anything, it's kind of a cool experiment.

36F, 8:15 AP.  Took 'er a bit easier today.  Shouldn't be any excuses in Houston - good weather, flat course...should get a really good idea of what kind of shape I'm in.

49F, 7:52 AP.  Kept tasting the 15-20 hot wings I ate for dinner last night.

Picked up my number and chip downtown, then a 5 mile shakeout with Jake K.  My garmin wasn't picking up much of a signal but I can only assume it was 4:30 pace or so, right?  Anyway, pretty cool to meet up in person...  Looking forward to the race, the plan is still 6:20 pace and see what that feels like.

53F.  Really good race.  I thought if everything went perfectly, I could break 1:23, so I guess it did.

Miles 1-5: 6:23, 6:13, 6:15, 6:16, 6:20.  (Garmin splits today, forgot to turn off auto lap).  As you can see, it took a little while for me to find the magical 6:20 pace I was shooting for.  I really felt good today.  With all my recent track work at faster paces than this, it truly felt pretty easy; I mean, there's 13 miles so it better feel easy.  I came through the 5k a little fast, officially in 19:22.  By the end of the first 5 miles you could definitely see who there was to run with going the same pace.

Miles 6-10: 6:20, 6:19, 6:19, 6:18, 6:23.  These miles were awesome.  I found a group of 3 and latched on.  They all had Luke's Locker on their clothes, so I guess they were friends.  Jake gave me advice yesterday that helped - find a girl to run with because they are great at pacing.  There just happened to be one in this little group and they were deadlocked on 6:20...perfect!  I came through the 10k in 39:06, a little ahead of the plan.  Before mile 8, the two guys in the group peeled off on the full marathon route.  I went ahead and introduced myself to Luke's Locker girl, heretofore known as Kylee.  We stuck together through this section, right on pace!  Came through the 15k in 58:35, another great 5k split (19:29).

Miles 11-13.1: 6:15, 6:29, 6:22, 0:31 for .11 (4:42 pace).  Kylee went behind me a few steps somewhere in mile 11; I should have slowed down for her, but I thought I knew better.  Sure enough, that little pickup in mile 11 debilitated me in mile 12 and she dropped me there like a bad habit, ended up beating me by 8-10 seconds.  Turning the corner for the home stretch, this guy pulls up next to me and we had ourselves an all-out foot race to the end.  It was awesome.  Usually I just pick up the pace slightly at the end, but we were battling like crazy.  Dead even at the line, but he won on the chiptime.

Key takeaways:  1) That 2 x 5k workout continues to be a great HM predictor for me.  2) You can fake your way through a HM on low mileage if you have some good hard efforts in there.  3) Girls are smarter pacers than me.  4) I'm in great shape for Boston, but I've gotta run real mileage now, because you can't fake your way through that race.  5) I love my new age group!  7th of 721.

54F, N 16 mph.  8:15 AP.  Some good, even, all-over soreness in the legs from the race (on concrete in lightweight flats).  I cut this a run a little short because of it; the soreness is well worth it though.  Recover this week, train for a marathon next week...

34F, 7:55 AP.  Still some residual crud in my legs, but better.

53F, 7:40 AP.  A little better; that race hit me harder than most HMs have.  Maybe it took too long to find the chocolate milk tent afterward.

37F, 7:27 AP.  Sleet and freezing rain shut down San Antonio this morning, giving me the morning off, and 9+ hours of sleep.  I didn't run though.  So normally, I would've said oh well, but I gotta start getting in the miles, so I ran around the neighborhood for an hour this evening.

I was playing around with Garmin Training Center, evaluating my race.  Says I hit 4:06 pace at the end (for whatever that's worth; instantaneous pace is pretty inaccurate).  I'll often crack into the 3:xx range on my strides, but this was at the end of a half.  I need to hire a 15-year old kid to accompany me on workouts, I think.

57F, 7:59 AP.  evening miles today.  Long and easy in the morning...

45F, 7:43 AP.  Tired legs still, but the second half was ok I guess.  I have the recovery ability of an 80-year-old woman, so I guess I'm right on schedule given that.

54F, 8:57 AP.  Lucky to beat the 9-minute guy today.

31F, N 16 mph, 8:12 AP.  Couldn't quite get the 8-minute guy today, but will battle the 5:40 guy tomorrow.  Should be interesting (16 x 400).

26F.  Weeeell, I came down with a little illness which is why my last few runs felt so terrible.  I woke up on this morning feeling crappy and weighing a few pounds lighter.  So, naturally, I still went to the track to try a 16 x 400.  Wow.  I won't bore you with the details but I did not make it far before I resigned myself to sadly jogging many right-hand circles in lane 8.  Decided right then to sleep in on Thursday and take the day off.  Not a great start to Boston training, but what can ya do...

53F, 7:39 AP.  Felt better today, the day off running helped (and the extra sleep.)  Got my 3 lbs back, which I needed.  I think I'm in the gunk-ejection stage now, and hopefully can do a little bit of an MP workout on Sunday...not the full 18 w/10, but maybe a few less.