Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

AM:  60F, dense fog.  16 @ 7:33 AP.  I wanted to get in some miles @ 50k pace, whatever that is, but legs still have a good layer of marathon stink on them and felt pretty heavy.  Last 2 were sub-7, the first such miles since Houston, and I kept an honest aerobic effort coming home.

AM:  38F.  6 @ 8:12 AP.  Legs felt good, better than before my MLR yesterday, which is weird.

PM:  49F.  5 @ 7:58 AP.  Lots of romping around on trails again.  Daylight is magical, I can see where I'm going; why didn't anyone tell me?  Can't do these trails in the early-morning darkness...

AM:  41F.  7 @ 8:18 AP.  I'm starting to enjoy my easy days more for some reason.  I used to hate them due to the boredom...

PM:  4 mile TM plod, at least I got to watch some ESPN.  They only replayed the game-winning interception 1,369 times in the 34 minutes I was on the tread.

Came to the realization I need to go long tomorrow as it'll be my last chance with our upcoming vacation.  It'll hurt a little, but I'll get it done.

AM:  43F.  22 @ 7:13 AP.  Up and at 'em at Ridiculous O'clock this morning to get in a Wednesday LR.  I did it as a long out and back, starting at the bottom of the Leon Creek trailhead at the shady bus station on Ingram, and made it about 3/4 mile from the Drury at the top before hitting my 11-mile turnaround.  Maybe one day I'll do the whole thing.

I ran 10 easy, then picked it up slightly to a steady pace and did the last 12 in 1:22:38 (6:53 AP).  It was tiring - I was probably a mile away from an ugly bonk, but it's done.  17 days post-marathon is probably a little too soon for a run like this, but now I won't be worried about trying to somehow fit it in on vacation.

AM:  43F.  6 slow miles; probably good that I forgot my watch at work.

PM:  44F.  4 @ 8:38 AP.  Sweat levels were low enough that I decided a shower would not be necessary before returning to work and going to a staff meeting in close quarters. What a timesaver!

42F.  8 @ 7:57 AP.  In the neighborhood.  Fly out to FL this afternoon.  Our travel agent sent us a detailed, packed agenda for when we hit Disney on Sunday.  I can already see a couple days where running will probably get squeezed out, but I'll try my best!

36F.  9 @ 7:47 AP.  Never knew it was so cold in FL!  Ran from my aunt's house near Gainesville.  It was a nice run -- their motto here must be No Street Goes Un-sidewalked. In San Antonio they're anti-sidewalk.

42F.  16 @ 7:23 AP.  Another cool run from Aunt Laura's house.  Made it to San Felasco Park for some trail running, though most of the run was transiting to the park.  Maybe 6 miles of trails total.

Driving to Orlando today.  Good visit in Gainesville, I always love visiting here.  Got to see my 93-year-old grandmother every day.  She's quite a lady - raised 7 children, and lived all over the world as my grandpa was a career Air Force officer for 30 years (fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam), so she had to handle all the kids by herself a lot.  Must have been some interesting times...  14 grandkids and 7 great-grandkids now!  

We're all sleeping like princesses tonight!

No run, had to be at Chef Mickeys by 7am:

Here they are 15 hours later (not kidding) on the bus back to the resort:

55F.  10 brisk miles around the resort.  Pedestrians are the resort's implicit prisoners -- the streets on the outside have no shoulders or sidewalks and the traffic moves pretty fast...no thanks.  They make up for it with a "new balance running trail" which is about a 1-mile loop.  So I did that a couple time then rebelled as much as I could without going on Suicide Road.  Good aerobic run.

47F.  8 @ 7:01 AP.  Resort miles, included a 2 x 1 (6:03, 5:55) to get the legs going.  I don't think I'd gone faster than MP in over a month so this was needed.  Actually, more than 2 miles was needed but I'm on vacation here...out of my element.  Epcot wasn't as fun for the kids yesterday so we were only there for 11 hours.  I remember when I thought an 8-hour day at sea world was long.  

43F.  15 @ 7:03 AP.  Last 8 @ 6:30/mile.

Hollywood Studios yesterday - is there any movie that Disney doesn't own the rights to these days?  My daughter now has a stuffed Mickey with a Star Wars flight suit on.

47F.  8 @ 8:01 AP.

40F.  8 @ 7:38 AP.  Last few Disney miles, now we're waiting in the airport.  Great vacation, I must say.  By forcing the kids to miss school we really skipped out on the big crowds (and big prices) that DW usually has.  Yea truancy!

I did ok trying to run while in FL - 74 miles in the 8 mornings we had here, including 1 run that I could count as a workout.  The time on feet from visiting the parks all week also has to count for something, right?  Probably not.

58F, 86%.  18 @ 7:14 AP.  Last 3 were 6:41, 6:35, 6:21.  Back in San Antonio.  Felt surprisingly good, after the first few I-just-had-a-long-vacation miles were complete.  Went to bed before 9pm last night and got 8+ hours of sleep, which was awesome.  I actually slept pretty good the whole vacation in my princess bed, but there's no substitute for your own bed.

AM:  63F, 92%.  6 @ 8:23 AP.

PM:  47F.  4 miles out on the trail, after the cold front arrived.  GPS didn't lock on until the run was almost over, but I was running plenty easy.

AM:  37F.  7 @ 8:22 AP.  Stung for a couple minutes with some sleet or freezing rain.  You know these extreme San Antonio winters...

PM:  49F.  4 @ 7:55 AP.  Trails outside.

AM:  36F.  6 @ 7:33 AP.  No run yesterday, I had kid duties.  I'm thinking one more long aerobic tempo tomorrow or Saturday...

PM:  66F.  4 @ 7:52 AP.

AM:  58F.  7 @ 7:52 AP.  Workout tomorrow but nothing too crazy - just want 1 more good aerobic effort.

PM:  68F.  4 @ 7:37 AP.  Worked up a sweat - I'm definitely not ready for Buttsweat Towel Season to start.

62F, 84%.  14 @ 7:23 AP.  It just took me forever to get going today, never felt comfortable until about 10 miles in, then started dropping the pace finally.  Probably just 3 quality miles at the end.  I'm someone that takes a lot of time to get warmed up but that's a little ridiculous!  No matter, should be feeling good by next weekend. Looking nice and cool for the 50k so far.

56F.  6 @ 8:30 AP.  

35F, light drizzle.  6 @ 8:26 AP.  Legs have felt strangely cruddy the last few days, not sure why.  Hoping this easy week will fix it, although last week was pretty dang easy too.

On the plus side, I made it to 1000 miles on my last pair of Kinvara 1's.  Not sure how much longer they have though, the upper is really starting to pull away on one of them. 

32F.  6 @ 7:51 AP.  Legs were a little bouncier today.  3 days of 6-mile recovery runs usually does the trick.  60% of the time, it works every time.

37F.  8 @ 7:09 AP.  Included a 3-mile block on the way back @ 6:39 AP.  Felt nice and springy this morning.

Here's my pacing plan on the 50k - for the first 10 miles, let the 7-minute guy gap me by a minute, and hit the 10-mile mark in 71 min.  Then hold it there at 7:00 pace for the next 10, hitting the 20-mile mark in 2:21.  From there, go by feel but be conservative until crossing the marathon mat, hopefully in 3:04-3:05.  Then idontknowwhat for the last 5.  I think the biggest challenge will be running at such a low effort initially, in a race setting.  Having never run this far before will hopefully give me a healthy fear of going too fast.

58F.  5 @ 7:42 AP.  Included some lazy strides.  Really nice afternoon to escape from the office for a bit.

Weather should be to my liking in Fort Worth on Sunday.  Upper 30s to start, mid to upper 40s at the end, probably some rain.  I have run a couple races in cold, wet conditions and I always seem to do well relative to the field (as opposed to hot, humid races where I get beat by 80-year-old grandmas).  My best workouts have always come in the 30-40 degree range (I keep track of this stuff) so I'm excited to get to at least start out in the 30s.  My average marathon has been squarely in the 50s.

Cowtown cancelled the expo today and all the Saturday races due to the EXTREME winter weather.  I guess the whole city is pretty much shut down now.  Fortunately my race is Sunday, although it will now start an hour later.  Thanks for the extra 2 degrees, you wusses!  Not looking forward to getting my bib tomorrow with the EXTREME crowds that will be mobbing the expo for the 5 hours it's open, but at least we're racing.

3 mile shakeout before leaving San Antonio.  

I got an email from Cowtown right after I made the 4-hour drive to Fort Worth saying they were working with officials to determine whether conditions would even allow for the race tomorrow.  Ugh.  I made fun of them yesterday but admittedly the roads are a little treacherous up here, especially if you consider that there are a bunch of Texans driving on them.  Skating-rink-like in a lot of spots.  I really hope this race happens; I can't exactly go find another big road 50k next week if they cancel it.

**update - 50k and marathon were cancelled but we can all run the half since that part of the course is ok.  I guess I will run it since I'm already here.  I'm in terrible HM shape and really don't feel like running that hard but maybe a good progression to HMP.  Sucks!

Here's my hotel, seems to be covered with this cold, white substance.