Congratulations Runners!!!

I say congratulations because I know that everyone must have had a great run this morning. The weather was just fabulous and was my first taste of cooler temps since I started running (again). It sure makes all the difference in the world and gives me hope that as things continue to cool down, I will be able to complete the marathon.

There are some good words from a couple of good coaches regarding Thursday's mile time trial in the post below so go check it out.

Hal's schedule today called for 9 miles. Actually, now that I remember correctly, it's Katy Fit's schedule that called for 9 miles today. I just plugged it into Hal's schedule since I had already progressed further on my long runs. However, since last weekend's 12 miler was such a bonkin' bust, I decided to have another go at the distance today. Jo ran the first 9 with me. We had a great time enjoying the weather and Cullen park. My plan was to finish up 9 with Jo and then tack on 3 more at the end to make up the 12. Here are the stats:

Total time - 2:58:11
Total distance - 12 miles
Mile 1 - 15:29
Mile 2 - 15:30
Mile 3 - 15:16
Mile 4 - 15:32
Mile 5 - 15:18
Mile 6 - 15:10
Mile 7 - 15:14
Mile 8 - 15:20
Mile 9 - 14:54
Mile 10 - 13:45
Mile 11 - 13:39
Mile 12 - 12:58
Average pace - 14:51 mpm
Average temp - 63.8 degrees
Average humidity - 77.7%

By now, one may be wondering what in the world happened at Mile 10, after I dropped Jo off at the parking lot. Was it all downhill? Were hurricane force winds at my back? Was I chasing Miss America? No. No. and NO!!! I had the "opportunity" to stop off for a bathroom break. After that, a couple of my Luke's/Koala Half registrants wanted to combine their registrations and form a team for the relay so I had the forms in the car and walked over to make the corrections. Between the restroom and taking care of the registration, I had about a 4 or 5 minute break, not reflected in my splits, of course. This kind of bothered me as I wanted to just take off after the bathroom break but I needed to take care of this for my fellow Fitizens. After that rest, the cool weather just got to me and I was alone. I took off down the paths behind the parking lot. The paths come out at the bridge and cross over along the big field there. The whole loop is about 1 mile. I was really feeling my oats and thrilled with everything, the pain-free ankle, the weather, the 10-mile race coming up next week, the Bear Creek 10K, the Half, the full, the kids, the wife, and just life in general. I looked down at my Garmin and my pace had gotten down around 14:00 so I said, well, I'll just try to pick it up a little more and see if I can run these 3 miles around 13:45 (that's my goal marathon pace if I'm allowed to have one). Well, you see the results. 40:22 for 3 miles and at the end of a 9 mile long run to boot. Gotta be pleased with that. It was a huge confidence booster. Seem to be having a lot of those lately. Good!!! I need 'em.

Lastly, I wanted to post my HR splits. I must admit I was very, very pleased to see the easy effort I was able to maintain through 9 and then the moderate effort over the last 3.

MaxHR - 182 bpm
Resting HR, week of 10/01/06 - 62 bpm Mile 1 - 135 bpm (61% HRr)
Mile 2 - 139 bpm (65% HRr)
Mile 3 - 141 bpm (66% HRr)
Mile 4 - 139 bpm (65% HRr)
Mile 5 - 139 bpm (65% HRr)
Mile 6 - 140 bpm (66% HRr)
Mile 7 - 142 bpm (67% HRr)
Mile 8 - 143 bpm (68% HRr)
Mile 9 - 146 bpm (71% HRr)
Mile 10 - 142 bpm (67% HRr) [after the 4 or 5 minute rest]
Mile 11 - 157 bpm (80% HRr)
Mile 12 - 159 bpm (82% HRr)

God Bless!!!