Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

64F, 95%, mist or fog or light rain.  15 @ 8:05 AP.  Gooey morning.  Next weekend looks better though, fortunately.

Today the ol' legs were pretty unwilling to stray from 8-minute pace and I wasn't about to make them.  This wrapped up my first 70+ mile week all year, and I've been feeling the buildup lately...although my legs did have some surprising springiness on Friday.  Guess I used it all up fiercely fartleking.

AM:  51F.  6 @ 8:37 AP.

PM:  4 TM miles in ~31 minutes.  Included 6 x 1 min @ 5k.

AM:  60F, 100%.  10 @ 7:40 AP.  Felt tired and weak again, but begrudgingly did a little 2 x 1 tuneup, low 6's, on the way back...with a ridiculously long recovery in between.  I'm going to shave some miles off the rest of the week in an attempt to not totally embarrass myself on Saturday.

PM:  70F, 85%.  4 @ 7:45 AP.  Recovery except one mile was faster... I actually got passed by another runner in my own neighborhood for the first time ever, so had to remedy that obviously.

69F, 95%.  6 @ 8:40 AP.  Wet.  Buttsweat towel season is just about here.

68F, 95%.  7 @ 8:14 AP.  Did a few wussy strides.

61F, NE 18 mph.  6 @ 7:45 AP.  Cold front blowing in now, perfect timing.  Legs are starting to get a little life back as well.  Just gotta remember I don't have my distance legs back yet, and it'll probably be a ~2 hour race tomorrow so better not get too carried away early on.

45F.  Great conditions today for my first race of 2016.  I got my $&@! handed to me by a few 20-somethings but still had a lot of fun.

Course - it was in good shape, not too wet or muddy other than a few creek crossings (water can be pretty wet).  I realized about halfway through the race that these were my first trail miles all year.  The course, true to its name, basically takes you up and down switchbacks the whole time except for a few nice stretches of sandy jeep trail.  My fastest Garmin mile was ~6:30 and the slowest was ~8:30...actually, those 2 were back-to-back, not that I ever bothered to look at my watch.  Anyway, some of my climbs were pitiful "power" hikes, especially towards the end.  More trail running needed.

Race - start was fast, but worked my way into 3rd once we hit the singletrack.  I stayed there, sandwiched between Short Shorts and Yellow Soler's for the first couple miles and it hit me that I was basically sprinting with 13+ miles still to go.  So I pulled over, let Yellow Soler's pass, pulled my head out my @$$ and started running my own pace in 4th place.  3 miles later, I passed Yellow Soler's, and was then by myself in 3rd until maybe mile 12-13.  Blue Shirt caught up and absolutely blew past me...he ended up putting almost 2 minutes on me over the last 2-3 miles.  Not sure what he was doing behind me for so long, but in Tejas Trails races you only need 5th to get the crazy trophies, so whatever!

Somewhere in the last half mile, during a pointless push to the finish line, I tweaked my calf a little.  I thought it was about to ball up and cramp but now it just feels kinda strain-y.  I think it'll be ok by next weekend.