Middle of the road

Finally a decent run. First run getting up at 3:30 am to get out the door by 4:30 am. Pretty hard to get to excited running 5 miles in 45 minutes. The stiffness in my ankle has just about gone away. Breathing wasn't an issue, maybe the pollen is about done. This spring has been terrible for the allergies, probably because I'm not running very much.

Perhaps next week I'll try to run with the guys once or twice. The main road out of my subdivision is being worked on in both directions. Talk about a cluster fuck. The city is putting in a traffic light in one direction. That's good, its been needed for awhile. The boneheaded thing is resurfacing the entire road in the other direction at the same time they are making every corner wheel chair accessible. That's all well and good, but why make a corner accessible if there isn't a sidewalk leading to that corner? Even dumber is resurfacing the road which is due to be widened in the coming year.

Creepy headline of the day

Baby girl sacrificed on bonfire after sect leader says tot is the Antichrist, Chile cops say

 "Everyone in this sect was a professional," Ampuero said. "We have someone who was a veterinarian and who worked as a flight attendant, we have a filmmaker, a draftsman. Everyone has a university degree. "

Weather for this weekends Country Music Marathon continue to improve. Temperatures will cooperate, the rain may not even be a factor. Spring marathons are such a crap shoot. My target marathon last weekend had good weather but the course had to be rerouted because of flooding. I've run a marathon on a flooded course where they didn't bother changing the course. It was an adventure by a shody/less than ethical race director in Texas. We have them here in Tennessee as well.

 "Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." Edward Stanley (1826-1893)

Winter craptastic

Another day, another run in the rain. Think it's been 4-5 days straight of rain runs. Yesterdays was the worst. Only because of lack of preparation on my part. One particular spot went unlubed and it was painfully obvious within the first 2 miles. The combination of a steady rain, a shirt that must have been made of sandpaper and the up and down motion of said shirt removed half of my nipples. Or so it seemed.

Today was much better. Harder rain, but temperatures in the sixties. Isn't it supposed to be winter? But, I wisely chose a singlet with a better tech material. Plus, it stuck to my chest when it was soaked, so it didn't ride up and down with each foot strike. And, I lubed every potential rub spot generously. 

Today's workout was 10 by 100 meters at 3k pace, with equal recovery. Luckily someone left the gate unlocked at the high school track. These are getting easier, especially since these were solo and I wasn't trying to keep up with the fast guys. Cool thing about this workout is that it's not really work, more of a shakeout/wake up the dead legs kind of thing. Makes the following days hard workout easier? At least able to get onto pace easier anyway.

Can't complain about the weather this winter. We're a little less than a third of the way into the winter. January and February are typically the coldest months of the year. We'll probably pay dearly for the mild fall and early winter in the coming months.

Oh yeah and that former Tour de France bike rider. What's his name? is going to be on Oprah. Whoopity shit. Won't be watching, won't watch the comeback, won't be interested in whatever angle he's trying to con/scam/be forgiven for, pffffffffffftt.

Light drizzle

As a runner it would have been no hesitation. Riding the bike, apprehension. Nothing worse than a little rain to make the road really greasy. Like when someone turns their sports car around and into the ditch, greasy. Turned out it wasn't that big of deal. The radar didn't show any rain, but it sure was raining for the first mile down the road this morning.

Rode from the house to the Stones River Battlefield. This is my go to route for the bike in the morning before work. I only have to ride on 2 miles worth of road before I can get on the Stones River Greenway and take it over to the Battlefield. Only problem is leaving at 5:30 am, it's still not quite light out yet. I have a headlamp and flashing red tail light. Hopefully that will keep me from getting run over.

Great thing about the battlefield is that it's car free that early in the morning. Plus, its wider than the greenway and fewer people. Most mornings only a handful of runners. This morning, not a one. Must have been the threat of rain. Plus, they have a program to remove the privet. This helps to open the woods up. Completely different than riding down the greenway in a tunnel of green. Lots of wildlife out, more deer than usual, the usual bunnies, birds and one turkey who remained in the road for each of my four laps. Bizarre.

Saw six Indigo Bunting's this morning. That's the most I've ever seen on one ride. They were hanging out on the edge of the road around the battlefield. Not all at one time but individually at different spots around the loop. Usually I'm lucky to see one every couple of months. Plus, they're hard to see anyway because they fly so low to the ground.

On the way home I saw one Great Blue Heron flying. Cool to see such a big bird flying. Saw another one in the same spot where I tried to take his/her picture last week. Must be a good fishing spot.

Three weeks since I've run last. Foot is feeling better. Hope to resume running in another week.

Rain and repeats

Woke to rain on the back deck when I let the dogs out this morning. The radar showed the showers moving eastward. Yet, on the way to meet the fella's at Greenland, it sprinkled rain, poured rain and stopped raining. BLEAH. Big crowd to start, eight of us total. Biggest group ever for a 4:30 training run? We broke into two groups, the fast guys went out for some kind of tempo workout and the rest of us headed out for 5 x 3:00 with a 1:30 recovery.

Today's workout was BQ1's from some kind of McMillan 10k plan. He planned on running 5k pace, I was thinking more of 10k pace. My plan was to go out at my pace and try to speed up at the end. Worked out pretty well. BQ1 would blast off and I'd chase, and never quite catch him. Always about 10 seconds back. Far better than the last couple of workouts where I went out at his pace and caved in the last half of the repeat.

Best part of the workout was that it was pain free! All of my little aches and pains didn't show up today. Don't know what's going on with that. Last couple of workouts have been better. So, perhaps everything is starting to come together. Sure hope so.

Nasty cut on Lance Armstrong from yesterday's crash, 13 miles into stage 5 of the Tour of California. Good news, nothing broken, but the cut below his eye required 8 stitches. Floyd Landis crawled out of his hole, to accuse everyone around Lance of doping and to change his story as well. This kind of crap really gets the forums all jazzed up, sort of entertaining but just more of the same old same old.

mugs

New mug to add to the collection. Picture of my Octoberfest beer mug, didn't turn out? But, doesn't really fit the theme of the coffee mugs. Calling this a mug is a stretch, it's almost as big as the liter beer steins from Germany and about as thick. It's the age group award given out at this years Tom King 5k and half marathon.


Nothing special about this mug. Just an age group award from the running club in Texas. RAW. Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers. But, it's the one mug that's used every week with the morning coffee. More race directors need to take note, a mug makes a better award than a trophy that sits on a shelf or in a box in the closet.


This mug was from the 2000 Peachtree Road Road race. This race is a 10k on July 4th down Peachtree in Atlanta, Georgia. At one time it was the largest 10k race in the world. Nike gave a mug to the first 1,000 runners across the line. Tough part was getting seeded to be at the front of the race to have a shot at being one of the first 1,000 runners. The mantra for this race is the three H's, heat, hills and humidity.


One of the first mugs I ever got from a race. Not an age group award, they gave a mug to everyone who entered. This was my 3rd marathon? In 1998. The Blue Angel Marathon in Pensacola Florida.

The mark has been set for the upcoming 5k season. According to the Jack Daniels VDOT tables yesterdays race effort at the Tom King 5K, gives me a 50. I need to raise that to between a 53-54. This should yield a sub 19:00 5K or better yet around a 18:50.

Only good thing about the race was winning my age group and no rain during the race. Temperatures were perfect. Only reason I managed to squeeze out a first in my age group was because the Fast Master, won Masters and the rest of the fast guys were running the half marathon. Did win a cool coffee mug. Its about as big as the German liter beer steins and almost as thick. One of the better age group awards I've won over the years.

I think I'm better suited to longer races. The 5k race is over to quick and has to be run almost out of control from the gun. My first mile yesterday was right at my target pace, but then I slowed. Sure didn't seem like I slowed. I kept pace with the runners around me. Passed a few people, actually only eleven runners finished in front of me. Chased some little girl for the last mile and a half towards the stadium. She ended up being the first female and only finished seconds behind me. I didn't get past her until less than a half mile to go. Sure did worry that she might out kick me at the finish. But it wasn't her that beat me to the line. Another runner pasted me right at the line and finished 1 second ahead on gun time, but a second behind on chip time.

seven weeks out

Hit 60.9 miles this week on 6 day days of running. Didn't run this morning, so still just streaking for 6 days at a time. Seems like every other run this past week was in the rain. The long run last week was pouring rain as was this weeks. Steady state run on Thursday was raining the entire way as well.

Weight is still stuck at 160 pounds. Seems like the same thing happened when I increased the mileage last year. Still hope to drop five pounds by race day. I did start back on lifting weights twice a week. At least that helps to keep the arms firm. The big mileage is about the only thing that seems to melt that last few pounds around the middle of the belly. Never have been able to maintain a constant regime of crunches or sit ups.

The guys I've been running with (the herd) are mostly all back running. Some are running strong, some are coming back from injury and some sharpening up the speed or focused on the next race. All of this diversity makes some of the training runs really interesting. We all usually start off together for a few miles of warmup and then separate as everyone gets into their individual workouts or comfort zones. Nice when we are all able to run from start to finish together, but that is really difficult with the different levels of training/fitness/talent.

BQ1 was able to defend his masters title at the Zoo run on Saturday. He's running super strong. Even able to come out in the rain on Sunday morning and pull me through 11 miles of the Spain loop. We did the loop backwards to get "the hill" over with first. Doesn't really matter how you do that loop its rolling hills the entire way. His scheduled workout called for 20 minutes of "moderate". We started that after the last major hill. Pretty tough workout 14 hours after racing. I was able to keep pace most of the way. Lost ground on the uphills, gained it back on the downhills. Still he pulled away in the last 5 minutes. Guess he was either ready to be done or wanted to see how much gas he had left in the tank. I'll just be glad to maintain that kind of pace for six miles this coming thursday.

8 weeks out

Not really enough time for a proper buildup for a half marathon. But, at least it gives me a target to aim at for the next several weeks. The Tom King Half marathon is March 13th. I've been able to sharpen up the speed in five weeks the last couple of years off a marathon base. This time around I'm still struggling to get back up to speed and that was only for a 5 mile race.

Still not following any schedule. Been doing BQ1's workouts with him on Tuesdays. Kind of sorta following McMillan on my second speed workout of the week and for the long run. Today I wanted 14 miles. Most of the guys showed up even though it was raining and 47 degrees. I was secretly hoping everyone would stay home and I could either slog on my own or go back home. P man and BQ1 had some Hudson plan workout that was way to intense for me. Speedy and I let them go after about a four mile warmup. We were running the Lascassas loop which has enough hills that I wasn't up for any type of speed workout in the middle.

Looking at the radar this morning before I finally made it out the door, gave me the impression the rain would slack off a hour or so into our run. That never happened, in fact at times the rain picked up and never did slow to more than a steady drizzle. Not to bad for the first 10 miles, but I was ready to be done coming back to the car at around 11 miles. BQ1 and P man were headed back out, so I turned around with them to add some more miles. Couldn't keep up with them and didn't until they'd turned around again and headed back to the car for the cooldown. Thankfully P man pulled me out for one mile out and back to the car to get my 14 miles before he headed back out to finish the rest of his long run.

wind and rain

Another training run in the rain. This cycle seems to have oodles of runs in the rain and even a race. The rain never was a factor this morning, actually warmer rain than in the past, 57 degrees. The wind on the other hand was pretty stout. I had it in my face for the first 4 miles at marathon pace and it was very noticeable. Because of the darkness, wind and rain, it was pretty difficult to see the Garmin. So, once I settled into pace, I maintained pretty much by perceived effort. I knew I'd have to go a little harder into the wind and counted on it slowing me down. Plan was to go about 7:05 pace and settle for a 7:10 because of the wind. The last 4 miles at marathon pace were considerably easier. The wind was at my back. Seemed like the rain picked up alittle bit, but no biggie. Only problem was I forgot to lube. I'll pay for that when I get in the shower. The splits really show the effect of the wind. First 4 miles slowed because of headwind and the last 4 with a little pickup because of the tailwind or cross wind.

7:08
7:10
7:08
7:09
6:53
6:56
6:58
6:51
56:13 total time at marathon pace

Very encouraging workout. I've done marathon pace efforts in the past, but typically throughout the cycle. This was the first attempt at the "new" marathon pace. Averages out to a 7:01, that may be a little to quick. But, the rain and darkness really hampered my effort to control the pace at the desired target. The effort was pretty steady.

Lance Armstrong crashed hard the other day and broke his collar bone. Hate it. Quote from him on how lucky he's been in the 17 years of racing and this is the first time he's broken his collar bone. Hopefully he should be back racing in 4-6 weeks. Couldn't have come at a worst time in his comeback. Now his Giro shot is just about gone and even for the Tour de France he won't be peaking at the right time. Damn.

herd mentality

Met the 4:30 herd this morning for an easy 10 miles in the rain. Pretty crappy day. I was late and the guys did a quarter mile loop waiting for me to pull up. I was almost secretly hoping they'd all slept in. The temperature was 34 degrees and a pretty steady rain. Yuck.

First 4-5 miles weren't to bad, the rain was mostly at our back. By 6-7 miles the guys were picking up the pace. They were ready to be done. By 8 miles we were all soaked to the bone and ready to call it a day. The final couple of miles home seemed to be filled with road sized puddles which were deep enough that we were leaving a wake and splashing each other.

Blech. Not the worst conditions I've run in. Glad the guys slowed down enough that I was able to keep up. Couple of fast miles around 6 or 7 miles in, but still only averaged marathon pace for the entire run. Probably to quick for an easy day for me, but slow for their easy day.

rock and roll

Watched 3-4 days worth of VH1's top 100 hard rock songs, since the start of the new year. Can't find the list on the web, only their story about the 4 shows. Dylan and I watched it for 2 hours straight on Saturday night. I'd watched a little bit on Friday night and watched the pieces I'd missed on Sunday. Lots of hair bands from the 80's, some punk (Ramones and Clash), and lots of stuff I sure wouldn't consider hard rock (Jethro Tull, Heart). My definition of hard rock is probably more of the heavy metal, Black Sabbath, Metallica. Their (VH1) number one song was Guns and Roses, Welcome to the Jungle. Lots of interesting quotes from band members, comedians, and even some wrestler ? Entertaining stuff, even if it was geared towards selling Guitar Hero.

Everyone at work seems to be sick. I hear everyone hacking, coughing and runny/snotty noses, hard to not get sick. I've been fighting some kind of crap in my chest for a week. Finally, seems to have broken last night. Hasn't affected my runs to much. Wanted to start running seven days a week yesterday, but sleep in instead. Pretty much laid on the couch all weekend.

Rainy 10 mile run this morning. Easy pace with Speedy and FM2. Wasn't as bad as I expected. The rain was mostly just a light drizzle and the temperature was around 40 degrees and no wind. Almost got a little bit warm with my rain jacket, but glad I wore it instead of just a long sleeve shirt. To hard to figure whether or not it would be raining hard enough to soak through a shirt or not.

Hate to see the Ravens coming to town. I think the Titans can come away with a win, if they don't turn over the ball and establish the run and dominate time of possession. But, if they get behind and have to try and play catch up, the Ravens defense can be overpowering. Titans 17, Ravens 10.

cold rain

Typical Tennessee winter weather pattern. Cold, windy and temps in the 20's two days ago. Warms up to the 50's and then the rain comes. This morning, 39 degrees and a steady soaking rain, plus steady wind. YUCK. Whenever it's cold enough to snow, no moisture in the air, usually clear skies. Just as well, snow around here shuts down everything.

Tried out a new loop course this morning. I've run most of it before, just connected it all together this morning to make a loop, instead of the usual out and back course. Estimated it at 8 miles, but it came out to 9 miles. Good thing about a loop on a windy day is only having the wind in your face for a couple of miles or so. This loop goes by some nicer homes on Riverview adjacent to the Stones River Country club. Lots of little rolling hills in quiet subdivisions. One busy section on Sulphur Springs road, but its wide enough and has sidewalks, so new issues. Only a small section of road on Haynes with no shoulder. This will be a good route for some marathon or tempo pace runs to practice running the small rolling hills at the end of the Flying Pig marathon.


Google Maps street view image of one of the houses from the loop this morning.

Finally have just about got the cold, windy, run in the rain clothing figured out. Tights are essential for warm legs with wind and anything below 39 degrees. I usually wear the loose fitting tights, but the "tight" tights are the way to go with the rain. No getting around wet feet. My shoes and socks were soaked by 4 miles. Coolmax, polyester or technical t-shirt or long sleeve shirt depending on the distance. This morning was a coolmax t-shirt under a wind proof, breatheable bike jacket. Wore a hat to keep the rain out of my eyes, with a beanie over the top to keep my ears warm. Most important is the glove selection. Short distance you can get away with a lightweight pair of windproof gloves. But, they usually absorb all of the rain and are only good for about 4 miles. Lately I've been wearing a pair of lightweight leather motorcross gloves. They block the wind and don't absorb the rain as quickly.

windy morning

Pulled into the parking lot to meet speedy this morning to rain blowing sideways and temps at 44 degrees. We both were really tempted to just go back home, but went ahead and got our run done. Nothing fancy, speedy did a tempo yesterday so we did an easy pace for him which is about marathon pace for me. Wind was pretty fierce when it was in your face and the rain was blowing.

Trying to plan out the next race and plans for the spring. Current plans are to maintain about 40-50 miles per week. Next race is going to be the Fat Ass 50k on January 1. Talk on the strider board about another race on the 11.2 in Percy Warner Park. I'd do that again, but not really racing it. Wonder if anyone is going to step up and volunteer to organize and score it?

Next major race is going to be the Flying Pig marathon in May. Plenty of time to build up with the Daniels program for a fast marathon, 3:10 or 3:15. Need to check out marathonguide.com to get a B race in case the Pig doesn't work out. Maybe pace the 1:45 group at the Country Music half marathon in April.(if Peter will have me back after last years debacle).

training interruptions

Only the second week in and I'm having to make adjustments to the training schedule. Moved the Tuesday evening tempo to this morning and the regular tempo to Wednesday evening. That may end up being a dumb thing. Thursday morning I'd hoped to get in the 11.2 plus Luke Lea at PWP. Depends on how I feel after tomorrow's tempo.

Tempo pace this morning was to hot from the first mile and just hung on after that for another 2 miles. Tagged along with Speedy on his tempo workout. Stayed on his shoulder for the first mile, but it was closer to 5k pace for me. Backed off and kept it going at my tempo pace for the next 2 miles. Lots of wind and a little drizzle. Right glute is still tight.

Yesterday was a complete rest day. Didn't even do any weights. Slept in to almost 6:30. Don't know how I'm going to get a bike ride in this week. Picked up a Park PRS 5 work stand for the bike yesterday off Craigslist. I've been looking at these for awhile. They don't last for long on Craigslist. I'd been using a old trainer as a stand for working or cleaning the bike.

this blogging thing

My 100th post has come and gone. Didn't even realize it until yesterday. Knew I was getting close. This has actually been easier than I thought.

Check out this definition of a blog. Swiped it from Bad Ben's other blog.

Definition of "Blog" -
1. an acronym for Boring Loser Of Grand-design. 2. an abbreviation used by journalism drop-outs to give legitimacy to their shallow opinions, self-absorption, and amateur photography, which seem permanently stuck in the first draft.

My first batch of home brewed beer is a little green. I'll try again, but first I'm going to make sure all of the ingredients are fresh.

Easy 10 miles from the house to the Stones River Battlefield. Super slow. Rain the entire time. Ran in the freshly plowed field adjacent to the battlefield. I'd hoped to find some flint, arrowhead preferably or perhaps a mini-ball. Nada. Dirt was very wet and my shoes were mud covered in the 100+ yards of dirt I covered. About the only thing I saw in the mud were the deer tracks entering and exiting the field.

Freshly plowed fields or bulldozed work sites were always the best places to find arrowheads in my youth. Dylan found a couple of arrowheads up at the farm last summer. I still have a box of broken arrow head pieces that I've held onto for over 30 years. Below are some of the perfect to near perfect points I've found.



Center most point in the frame was given to my Grandmother, the spear point next to it was found by my brother, (who evidently forgot that he gave it to me) he can have it back.

Tied to the whipping post

Lance woke me up 15 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off. I rolled over and overslept until 4 am. No biggie looks like I missed most of the rain rolling through this morning. By the time I finish with my warm up the rest of the rain should be gone. Can't be near as much as yesterday.

Wrongo. Rain and more rain. Never ending rain. Only let up for around 800 meters in the cool down. Workout today was 12 x 200 meters at 41 seconds. Averaged 40.8, mission accomplished. Headed out the door, lubed up and expecting the rain to be done by the time I started the intervals. Wore shorts, coolmax t-shirt, arm warmers and gloves. When I get wet, I get cold. Finished the workout in my shorts and shoes. Ditched the t-shirt after the first set of 4 intervals. Arm warmers came off after the 2nd set of 4 intervals. Took the gloves off before I started. Total miles 8.5.

Ipod, shuffled through with some great tunes on the warm up and during the intervals. I was "tied to the whipping post" for most of the first 2 sets and went "down to juniors farm" for the 3rd and final set. The slow easy Merle type stuff didn't shuffle through until the cool down plod home in the rain. That must have been a sight, old guy with soaking wet shorts and shirtless with a heart rate monitor and a hat.

Lightning and the Lascassas Loop

Heavy rain and lots of lightning this morning at 4:00 am when I got up to get a early start. Rain front coming through won't pass until probably 8 or 9 am. That would be great if I were running the Strolling Jim (one of these days) or the Wild Thang. The Wild Thang is a 9 mile trail run at Long Hunter State Park. I've done the race once, volunteered once. Ran the trail countless times. Cool thing about that race, instead of a t-shirt, you get a tree seedling. Seems some of the bigger races have started to give out technical shirts instead of the cotton, its about time. Sure don't need anymore cotton t-shirts.

Needed to be done this morning by 7 am so we could head up to the farm. Pops poured a concrete slab for his motorhome. He also got a couple loads of gravel to spread in the barn to keep the dust down. The rain will be done by the time we get to the farm, just means I won't get my run in today. I don't mind running in the rain, its the lightning I don't want to mess with.

More later..


Starting point of Lascassas and Spain hill loops

Ended up starting my run at 6:30 am, the front pushed through faster than I thought. Got rained on for the first 2 miles and last 2 miles. No biggie, just a light drizzle. Planned on doing 12 miles at 7:30 pace, but cut it short at 10.8 because of the late start. Ended up averaging 7:25 pace, right about marathon pace. Took the camera and stopped 6 times to take pictures. Good thing I was by myself. Lots of buzzards out and saw one American Goldfinch.


first rise on the Lascassas loop


coyote corner looking towards the bridge

coyote corner looking across the field by the creek

coyote corner looking back up the hill

spain hill across the field

looking back down the last hill on the Lascassas loop

To wet for Dylan's ball game, it was canceled. Rushed for nothing on my run, to wet to go to the farm, we'll go tomorrow instead. Rest of today we'll shop for camping stuff for the farm, plus do some birthday shopping for Dylan. He'll be seven.

Skate board wannabe's

Took Dylan and his cousin Bryan to the Skate Park in Lavergne on sunday. The both did pretty well. Seems like they are actually better than Darrell was at their age.

Run this morning was going to be a recovery on the golf course, but we got to much rain last night. Ended up just running from the house to the greenway and back for 6 easy miles.

Country Music Half Marathon race report

Apology. First off I need to apologize to everyone who was waiting for me in corral 4. I was just getting off the bus when the gun went off. I allowed an hour to make it to the start. Next year, I'll either have to stay in Nashville or leave the house at 3:30 am. (I live in Murfreesboro and left the house at 4:30 am)

Weather. Best of any of the Nashville races I've done. This is the second half, plus 2 full marathons. Cloud cover, little breeze, little rain. Excellent, just glad I was finished before the sun popped out.

Race. My chip time was 1:44:26. Got the job done. Did get a group around me almost from the time I jumped onto the course. Crowd support was good this year. Little hoarse from yelling trying to get the crowds to yell when we went by. I jumped in behind the 3rd corral, and tried to stay behind the 3:30 marathon pacer. He got ahead of us for quite awhile, but we caught back around mile 11, just before the split for the marathoners and half marathoners.

Excuses. Only one bottle of water before the start. Plan was to drink that bottle and then eat and drink some more before the start. No food. Didn't get a chance to change shoes. I wore my rain shoes, an old pair of trainers that I wanted to change out of before the race. No Succeed. Planned on one capsule before the start, because of the temperature and humidity.

Traffic. This is the only real complaint, but it lead to me not getting to the start on time and all of the other excuses listed. I can't believe someone can design an egress to a stadium knowing the amount of traffic coming in and have only 1 lane coming into the parking lot. Complete bullsh*t. Last year the traffic coming in from interstate 24 slowed around Hermitage Avenue. This morning, just after the 24/40 split, traffic came to a complete stop. I sat in traffic for an hour. I got to that point at 5:30 and didn't get off the Hermitage Avenue exit until 6:30 trying to get to the stadium. Debate in my mind was go to the stadium and wait for the bus, or try and get to the start with all of the lane closures. Chose the stadium.

All in all I had a blast. I'll be back next year. Good call to wear the regular stop watch to monitor total time. The Garmin was good for seeing where we were distance wise. I didn't feel comfortable with the heart rate. According to it I was running tempo pace the entire race. Actually did what I did last year and ran by perceived effort. Uphills were a little slower than pace and the downhills a little quicker. Seems like more downhill in the final 3-4 miles than I remembered. Next year I need to mark on my pace band where the water stops are located.




Post mortem. Still don't know what to make of the heart rate data. I started out at 172, that's because I sprinted from the buses to the meeting spot for the pacers and dropped my bag and sprinted to the starting line. I saw corral 4 coming to the line and jumped in at the start, but evidently I actually jumped in the back of the 3rd corral. I never could get my heart rate below 155. In training 8:00 pace was 145, add a couple of ticks for the heat. I averaged 163, which is tempo pace and hit 170+ a couple times. Some of it is because I waved the pace stick around and gestured with the other arm to pump the crowds for a little noise. Bottom line, the Garmin is a great training tool but I'll leave it at home on race day.

Uh oh.

Woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain and thunder. Radar shows solid rain, not showers. Appears it could be gone by the 7 am start.

cold ears

Grabbed the balaclava instead of the beanie. I already had my Nike hat on. Wore it instead of the balaclava to keep the rain out of my eyes. Did wear the tights even though it was around 38 degrees. Glad I did, the wind was plenty cold. Good thing the golf course has so many turns, by the time my ears were really cold, I'd have the wind at my back and it wouldn't be as bad. Sure wish I'd kept the goatee another week, the chin was cold.

This weather would be ideal for the race on the 26th, but it doesn't appear the cold will stay around long. Back into the 70's in a couple of days. Just hope it doesn't creep toward 80. Glad I'll only be doing the half regardless of what happens temperature wise. That's why I prefer a fall marathon, less chance of it being warm than the spring marathons.

Soaked in the hot tub after Sunday's run. Felt great, only thing missing was the sun. It really is nice to have the sun in your face on a cold day, but the tunes on the Ipod made up for it. (and the 2 pints of beer) My old shuffle is still going. The one thing I really like is the random shuffle. First song was Merle Haggard, some Beatles and ended with some Hendrix and heavy metal. The newest generation of shuffle has been discounted to $49. I'll wait to get a Nano or something with at least 10 Gigs of space.

Lunch on Sunday was T-bones on the grill at the Foxes. Those were some tasty steaks. Had to come back to our house just after the grill started up because we ran out of gas. I was already using my spare tank. Nothing better than a steak or burger cooked on the grill. Actually does taste better on real charcoal. We do that at the farm, when we aren't in any hurry to get cooking. Had Black Forest Cake for Ryan's birthday, it's my new favorite cake.