Chasing the Pack

OBJECTIVE
15 mi. Easy w/last 3 mi.@ marathon pace

ACHIEVED
13.76 mi.@ 8:21/mi : no pickup

6:18 AM 55° 88% 5 mph

I am very disappointed that I didn't make it out to California for today's Rose Bowl half marathon. Alex and I had loosely planned to run it (he still is) but I was a last minute scratch due to my lousy cold and the lack of good flight options.

This ended up being a weird run. Stephanie is recovery from her 50K age-group victory last Saturday so it was a recovery run for her. A few other group regulars were out for various reasons. Steph routed an 11-miler. I wanted to try a bit more since I was scheduled for 15. My plan was to run a loop at Memorial Park before the group started at 6:30 AM. However, I stayed up late last night and didn't get to the park ready to run until about 6:10 AM. The loop is 3 miles so off I went after sending them a text message not to wait for me. I figured if I was feeling good, I'd catch up. The feeling good part was questionable based on my the lingering impact of the sickness I've been dragging around with me for the past 3-4 days.

The morning air was cool but comfortable for running. I made my way around the loop in the dark. The park was busy as I'm sure there are a bunch of runners prepping for next month's Houston marathon. There's almost always an "energy" in the park when I run there and this morning was no different. I was running "easy" but still clipping along at an 8:24 pace (it felt much slower). I figured the group had about a 10-minute head start on me. The chase was on. I tried not to think about them somewhere up ahead but invisible forces were pulling me toward them. My pace was faster than it otherwise would have been. After about 4 miles, I started running some numbers in my head and started wondering if I'd even catch them before they finished. I thought they were probably running 8:30 and I was under 8:20 but with those paces the run didn't seem long enough for me to catch them. I tried to stop thinking about it. If I ran alone today that would be fine. Finally at a water stop somewhere around 7 miles into their run, I caught them.

Today it was only Stephanie, Stuart and Randy. It was good to hear Steph's race report from SunMart. She had a fantastic run finishing 6th overall and 1st in her age group ... all of that after falling ... TWICE! ... and finishing the last 8 miles of the 31 miles run while battling severe cramps. Josh also ran and had a good day finishing 4th in his age group.

I was so happy to have caught the group that I bypassed my scheduled pickup for the last 3 miles of my run. I'd expended some energy in catching them and am still generally fatigued from being sick. The pickup can wait for another day .

PRE RUN
FRS liquid concentrate, oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk

POST RUN
2 SlimFast
Later, water, multivitamin, oatmeal w/almonds, flax, brown sugar & 1% milk

Cool Run under the Full Moon

OBJECTIVE
6 mi. Easy (8:08 – 38/mi.)

ACHIEVED
6.15 mi.@ 8:34/mi.

5:12 AM 28° 97% 0 mph

I had a pretty good run this morning. I focused on keeping it easy since I’m still not 100% back from the cold I’ve been battling. It was good to get back at it and hit a decent time. Fortunately, I didn’t feel like I’d lost much – if anything.

Some time ago I read the idea that there are times when you can “run through a sickness” and times that you can’t. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the parameters. The recommendation is along the lines of feed a fever / starve a cold. But I honestly can’t ever remember if it’s feed a fever or starve a fever …etc. I suppose if I had to deal with illnesses on a more regular basis I’d remember these adages better. No, I don’t want to have reasons to remember them!

I’m still not certain what I’ll be doing tomorrow for a run.

PRE RUN
weight = 159.5#
FRS liquid concentrate

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin, Life cereal w/1% milk

This Looks Worth Watching

Marathon Love airs Sunday, December 14, at 8 PM (ET/PT), on Discovery Health

Rarities

It snowed here Wednesday afternoon and evening. This is only the second snowfall I've witnessed since being in the Houston area since 1999.

The other rare occurrence is that I missed work due to illness (part of the day Tuesday and again part of Wednesday). I think it's just a cold but it's really been kicking my butt. I've had no strength and felt really worn down. Needless to say this preempted my Big Workout on Wednesday (Paige questioned if I was really just avoiding the run since she knows I dread "the Wednesday run" more than any other during the week.) and my Thursday recovery run.

Getting sick has me wondering about my nutrition again. Ever since the marathon in October, I've been fairly sloppy with my eating. For a few weeks it was anything goes. Over the past 5-6 weeks, I've "thought" about it and been kind of careful but have lacked overall discipline. I've justified it by thinking I can get back to it "when I need to". The other issue making it difficult right now is that we're trying to bulk Cameron up for the upcoming baseball season. He drops so much weight while running cross country. It's better for him to carry more weight for baseball. So there's been a ton of food available at the house - with the primary focus on mass calories rather than overall quality. His weight is coming up so that's good for him. Unfortunately, I think Paige and I are following his lead!

Hope to be feeling better and running again soon. I hate losing the days and having to log "zeros". It makes me feel like the prior training is a loss and wasted if I don't stay on plan.

OBJECTIVE
6 mi. Easy (8:08-38/mi.)

ACHIEVED
6.16 mi.@ 8:31/mi.

6:06 AM 72° 83% 7 mph

Since I started late, I went out-and-back to Wimbledon Forest rather than dropping down onto Cypresswood during morning commuting traffic.

I felt okay and tried to keep it “easy”.

PRE RUN
Ginger snap granola w/1% milk, water & 2 mini powdered donuts

POST RUN
SlimFast, multivitamin, zinc, 5-grain hot cereal w/1% milk

Dana Point Race Pictures ... Ugggggghhhh!

There has been some discussion recently among my Saturday running group about how horrible or ridiculous some of the race pictures are. I really didn't fully appreciate the discussion - as I thought I looked okay in most of my race pictures. That is until now! Here are links to the Dana Point races. I post these only for your amusement! I look horrible!


Dana Point Turkey Trot 10K (disregard the pics from the kids' race their was a kid with the same bib number is I had in the 10K)

You can only begin to appreciate how hard it was raining from these pics!


Dana Point Turkey Trot 5K

The finishing pictures here are ridiculous! Remember this was the race "I wasn't going to kick to the finish" in. You can see that I passed the guys who were in front of me in the picture from my earlier post

The rain stopped shortly after the 10K finished.

Lesson learned: Don't run two races on the same day!