AM/PM

Well, the Striders were meeting for our TLT on Saturday AM. I mistakenly set my alarm for PM. I failed to get up in time in the AM. So, I decided to do TLT myself in the PM. Especially since we had soccer in the AM and I would have gotten too late a start in the AM since I slept in to 7 AM. After that workout, I think I need some Tylenol PM!

I got to Memorial Park last night around 6:30 (PM, that is). Did some stretching and set out for my warmup. 2 miles easy at around 13:45 pace. I followed that up with some Silly Walks and a Gu. After that the SMART Lite schedule prescribed 2 miles @ 10K effort, 5 miles at LSD effort, and then 2 more miles @ 10K with a mile cooldown.

I'd say I pretty much nailed the first 2 miles. I ran them at average 11:41 pace. Then, I confess, I recovered a minute or two with some water and a walk break before starting out on the LSD portion. I stayed consistent through 3 or 4 miles, maintaining about a 14:20 pace, including water/gu/stretching breaks. However, after 4 miles, I was spent. I finished the 5 miles of the LSD and packed it in. 9 miles total.

I'm not so sure I"m cut out for these hard, quality, TLT long runs. They're a lot harder than a regular old, mind-numbing LSD. But 9 miles is a good workout and I'm not kicking myself for that. And average pace for those 9 was 13:28 according to the Garmin, including a lot of water breaks. I'll take it.

Excuses

When I arrived at Memorial park last night, Steeeve asked me how it had been going. I said I had not run since boot camp last Thursday. "Oh, you took at WEEK off, huh?" Now let's just get a few things straight everyone. I ran last Thursday. Friday was already scheduled as a rest day. I missed Saturday's Yasso's and Sunday's long run. Oh, and there was a little Kenyan relay action on Tuesday night that I skipped too. Then, I was back at it on Wednesday. By my count, that's 4 days off, not a whole week. OK? Are we straight? Good?

In all seriousness, Wednesday's run actually felt like I had been off for 2 weeks. Very dead legs. I just could not wake them up. If felt like I just started running, like a total noob. That all ended tonight as the Smartie Hop seemed to awaken the sleeping giant. I didn't know during the workout that I was actually going to feel good after it was over but getting back into a bit of the routing has me feeling good tonight. Don't get me wrong. I'm gonna sleep well and I'm definitely ready for a rest day to get ready for TLT. But I'm feeling my oats again. Hope to be back in that awesome groovy place by next week.

Yikes!!! Next week. That reminds me. Boot camp D. Need I say more? Jen, I'd better see you out there Tuedsay night, ok? Next week's gonna be a bear. I can see it coming.

Bypass

A couple of friends of ours had stomach bypass surgery to lose weight. She had the surgery several years ago and he just had it earlier this year. Of course they've lost a lot of weight. Well, we haven't seen our friends for 4 or 5 months but we ran into them at B's season opener soccer game this morning. I saw one of them this morn ing from about 20 yards away and waved at her. No response. Anyway, she went her way over to the soccer fields where their son was playing. Later, we caught up with them and she told DW that she didn't recognize me earlier. She asked if I had "the surgery" too. LOL!!! She said she couldn't believe how much weight I'd lost. She asked Jan how I did it. Jan was like, "Well, goodness, he's been working over a year at it and has just been losing." I guess in their mind, they couldn't fathom losing that much weight on my own. Guess that's why they had to have their stomach cut out.

But speaking of weight, I've been flatlined for a couple weeks now. I've been around 291-293 now for a couple weeks now. Guess it's kind of a mini-plateau. That's to be expected. But, it's time for another BIG push to break through and get to the next level. I hope to be comfortably and consistenly at 285-288 by the Cross Country relay. I'll be logging religiously starting tomorrow and really watching every calorie.

Looks like a wee hour 10 or 11 miler at Memorial park is in order. I'd sure love to run early with the Striders but their route takes me too far away from the car and I need to stay close in case I get paged for work this weekend. Will post the report tomorrow afternoon. Until then, happy waddling.

Bad decision

Last night, just before bed, I had to make a decision. Several things were considered. Friday morning I woke up very sore from Thursday's brutal Boot Camp and through the day, it got worse and worse. By bedtime, I could barely get down the stairs. Also, B had a soccer game at 9 am and I kind of wanted to give the fam a saturday morning. And third, I'm on call this weekend. So I decided to skip the Yasso's this morning.

That turned out to be a bad decision. First off, when I woke up at 7:30 and put my two feet on the floor, the soreness was gone completely. In fact, I felt quite frisky, just the way you'd like to feel when you wake up for an early morning workout. Then, we went to the 9 am soccer game only to find out that the coach gave us the wrong schedule and that the game wasn't until 11. And even though I've had my beeper and laptop with me the whole morning, I haven't been paged even once all weekend.

So, I missed a good opportunity for another needed workout but I got to spend the morning with the family. Guess it wasn't that bad of a decision. At least, it could have been worse. :)

Now that this opportunity has passed, though, I've got to find a way to get a long run or something in this weekend. Whatever I do, it will need to be close to the computer. I guess I'll do 3 or 4 Memorial park loops in the wee hours tomorrow morning. That's gonna be my best bet. Plan two is an evening 10 miler at the same venue. Hope it works out cause I need to keep this train moving.

Grim Determination!

Thanks goes out to Steeeve for this title as he so aptly and succinctly summarized tonight's Boot camp C out at TH park. The last time we arrived at TH park with weather like tonight and Boot Camp C on the schedule, we didn't hesitate to knock it down to the Boot camp A schedule, get it done, and count our blessings and get out of there. Tonight, that was not an option.

We grimly noted about a quarter mile into our warmup that this was not going to be anywhere close to a walk in the park tonight. But the group was determined. Besides the boot camp part (squats, pushups, thrusts, pullups, lunges...) we had 5x800m intervals spread out through the workout. I'll tell you what. Doing those intervals, I thought they would never end. We did 400 out and 400 back and when I turned around at the halfway point and looked back, it may as well had been halfway through a marathon. The finish was so far off.

My goal for tonight was to just hang in there on the boot camp and try to run the intervals as best I could. I think I got through the workout only owing about 20 or so burpies, and about half of the number of reps required for all the other exercises. However, I just got back home here and checked the Garmin and really, really liked what I saw. My splits for the 800's were

5:21
5:21
5:23
5:31
5:21.

No lie. Those were my splits. I was not in any way trying to be consistent and only glanced at the Garmin a couple of times. I like that consistency. The last one sure didn't feel like a 5:21. It felt more like a 6:21 if you ask me. But it looks like I finished strong.

Much fun and trash talking at NY Pizza after the workout. They were nice enough to serve our group right at closing and never made a fuss. They even thanked us for stopping in. AWESOME!!! Congrats to Jen who made here Boot Camp debut tonight. I feel bad. I kind of teased her a bit. She asked me near the end of the workout if it was almost over. She did not look at the description in the SMARTie manual so she really didn't know where we were. I told her we were almost halfway done. I know Jen...NOT FUNNY!!! Great to see you out there.

Christmas in Septemeber

It must be Christmas because this morning, Bill gave me the coolest present anyone could have given me, a 1 minute 41 second PR at the Fired up 5K. Bill volunteered this morning for pacing duties as I set out to see if any of the training I've been doing has paid off.

I've been chasing my 5K PR now for almost 3 years, since the Houston Press 5K, January 2005. About 32 months, major ankle reconstruction, a lot of yo-yo dieting, 30 or 40 lbs. lost, 30 or 40 gained and lost again, and few hundred miles lie between then and now. How sweet it is to finally feel like I'm making just a little bit of progress. I ran the Fired up 5K last year, just about as hard as I did today, and brought it home in 40:51. Today's race was 5 minutes and 47 seconds better than that. What a difference a year makes, huh? I couldn't be more thrilled for myself and for all the other Striders who PR'd.

The conditions this morning were suboptimal to say the least. The sun was behind the clouds but that's the only thing positive I can say. No breeze at all. None!!! The flags at the fire station were limp. Bill and I did a warmup and I was dripping sweat after just a mile. The good part was I warmed up quickly. After a few pickups we got our spot. I was casually waiting of the national anthem, a prayer, or something and bent over to tie my shoes and I heard, "Runners to your mark. Get set. POW!!! So much for patriotism, I guess.

Bill's original plan was to take us out just under 11 minutes. If 34 and change was possible at all, we'd have to hand around just under 11. Things were clicking along pretty well through mile 1. Bill's job was to pace and my job was to keep up. Bill did a perfect job. It would have been nice to have a little more in the bank after mile 1 but 11:14 was right on pace for a sub-35.

Mile 2, I was still steady and felt like crap but in a good way. I logged an 11:22 for mile 2. At the turnaround, I got a cup of water and splashed it on my head. That felt gooooooood!!! "Now, back to the barn," I thought. I didn't realize it but I had picked it up a little bit and according to Bill, dropped it down to 10:30 or so. Well, that didn't last as I slipped into a bad, bad place and had to take a 5 or 6 second walk break. It was just that, 5 or 6 seconds, a chance to catch just a little of my breath. Then off I went.

I settled right back in to that 11:20 pace. I couldn't (or wouldn't) seem to push past that. When I did, I just felt like I was gonna die. I tried to change my stride a bit, maybe bend my knees, lengthen it out a bit but I nothing seemed to help. This was my highest gear. Of course, you think it's your highest gear until the last few hundred yards. Then you realize you had another gear. After an 11:21 mile 3, I finished up the last bit at 9:20 pace for a 35:04!!!

I'll take it!!! If I had any energy left, I'd have done some cartwheels. Just 5 seconds off of sub-35 and in not too favorable conditions.

Lots of Striders took home hardware and all the Striders took home free socks. :)

Bill, this was one for the memory books. You taught me a lot out there about mental toughness. I'll not soon forget the stuff you were telling me about the 5K being less about your legs and more about your mind. Way to go out there today, buddy. I owe you big time. And great to see E, A, and P, too!!! That made the morning even that much more special.

Bring on Run with the Saints!!!

Well, it's Saturday morning. For a good bit of the running community out there, that means long run. Still, others would prefer speedwork to an LSD run any day. The SMARTies had the best of both worlds as we ran two sets of 2 (or 3) 1200m intervals with a long run in between or as it's more affectionately called, TLT (track-long-track).

Of course there was the customary 2 mile warmup which I completed at ~13:25 pace. It was unseasonably NOT HOT out this morning. Overcast skies made for some bearable running. After silly walks we mosied over to the starting line. I cranked out 2x1200 with 400m recovery. The average pace for the 2x1200's was 11:37 m/mile and 10:59 m/mile. Next was 3.6 miles which I covered at around 13:55 pace. Then back to the starting line for 2 more 1200's. Although I was quite tired, I averaged a consistent 11:16 and 11:17 minute pace. Throw in a half mile cooldown and that totals just over 9 miles for the morning.

Now, it's rest and hydration in preparation for Monday's 5K. I'd like to make it over to packet pickup for some free lunch but I'd like more to just go to bed. Think I will...go to bed that is.

August Miles

I was looking at my monthly miles and it looks like I'm down a bit this month. But I beg to differ. I've done some hard running this month and made some good progress on the weight loss.

So, where am I? Well, for August '06, I ran 59 miles so I guess I'm ten miles ahead of what I ran last year. I'm about 25 pounds lighter than this time last year. And last year on Labor Day weekend, I ran a 40:51 at the Fired up 5K. I hope to better that a bit in just a couple days.

It's progress.

Meltdown!

It's getting really hard to find time to blog, especially in a reasonable amount of time after a run. The real problem is probably that my posts are just too long and since I don't have time to write down all my thoughts at night when I get home, I put it off until some time like now when nothing's fresh in my mind anymore.

That's not totally true. I can still remember one thing from last night. I nailed that workout. I've been flexible to tailor the SMART workouts to my ability, doing a few less reps, running a bit shorter warmup, and even walking to cool down instead of running. But tonight, I did the full workout and man did it feel good. I mean it felt good when it was over. :)

The short version is that the schedule called for SMARTie Hop. That's 2 mile warmup, silly walks, and the Hop routine. Then the fun began. The plan called for tacking on a meltdown run out to Dairy Ashford. That was 2 miles out @ 10K effort and then 2 back for the cooldown. I did the first .5 at easy run effort and then kicked it up a notch or 2 and averaged 12:10 pace all the way to the water fountain at Dairy Ashford. Man, did that suck running hard like that on legs that were already fatigued from the Hop. But I guess that's what it's all about, right. Running on tired legs.

So, total running was about 6 miles. Warmup was 13:15 average pace. The pre-meltdown half mile was around 13:35 pace and then the next ~1.5 was 12:10 pace. Then 2 miles cooldown with some walking thrown in for an average 14:15 pace.

I made it over to Charcoal Chicken for some good grub and great company with all the SMARTie's. Sometimes I wish we were ALL together, Memorial, Sugarland, and West side groups. But I guess that's what Saturday mornings are for. Speaking of...let me get to bed.

Getting Fired up for the 5K

Monday will be my first race this Fall and I'm looking for a sign of things to come. I said in January that one of my goal for the year was to PR at every distance and my marathon ambitions are quite lofty so I'm looking for something dramatic to kick this whole thing off. Of course, I still need to manage expectations, chill out a bit, know that this is the sport of running and anything, absolutely anything can happen in a race. But I want to give myself every chance to really nail this 5K.

Of course, since I am training for the Houston Marathon and that is my #1 goal race, training must continue through all of the races between now and then. That means a long run on Saturday, probably a tough Track-Long-Track workout with the SMARTies. I've been concerned that I may not be recovered from that by race time Monday morning. So, I e-mailed Catherine the Great to see what she would suggest nutrition-wise to maximize my recovery and be ready for Monday. Here's what she replied:

Here's the scoop. I would do Endurox within 30 minutes after your long run on Saturday. Have you ever used it before? Then two hours later eat a balanced meal. The rest of the day just eat healthy like you normally would :) On Sunday, eat your typically healthy balanced meals, but it is okay to go over your calories by 250-300 calories. Then Monday, eat what you normally do on race day and you should be great. I think a bigger factor than the food is hydration so make sure to drink a lot of water starting Friday thru Monday.

So, I got some of this Endurox last night at the store for post-long run on Saturday. We'll see how it goes.

One on One

Tuesday night was a tough workout as SMART Lite scheduled 12x30/30's with WU and CD. I had the special privilege of receiving some major one-on-one coaching from coach Steeeve who led me through the 30/30's. Steeeve pulled me through a tough one, one of those where you just feel like quitting, like you've done enough, but something (or in this case, someONE!) just won't allow you to quit.

The weather was unseasonably comfortable, probably in the high 70's/low 80's. I felt very, very strong during the warmup, comfortably holding right at or slightly below 13:00 min/mile pace for 2 miles. I kept wondering if I should slow down but seriously, my effort was quite easy so I kept it going.

After silly walks, we got a drink, received instructions, synchronized our watches and we were off. I felt real good through 6 repeats. Then Steeeve told me I was halfway done. I don't know if knowing that was too good a thing because things soon got harder. The rolling hills of TH Park made for some interesting speedwork, too. With 3 repeats to go, Steeeve tells me that this is the point where I need to really start covering some distance. WHAT?!?!?!?! I'm really huffin' by that time and in my mind I'm thinking, "I'm getting close to the end. The hard part is over. I deserve to taper off these last 3." But in my heart I'm saying, "I want to nail these last 3!!!" Steeeve said, let's try to get to the bridge. So, as much as it sucked, I was intent on making it to that bridge. I ended up not just making it to the bridge but to the other side at that. :)

I stopped to catch my breath while Steeeve continued to coach. We talked about my effort, how far I got, how far I was going to get the next time we do 30/30's, and how far I'm going to get doing this same workout next year. We talked a little about Monday's 5K coming up on Labor Day.

It's hard to predict based on anything really (e.g. my mile time trial, this workout) what my time is going to be. I'll jump for joy if I go sub-35 but I don't really know if that's possible. I know one thing. It's gonna suck real bad and I know it's gonna hurt but I'm going for it. I have a bit of a different mindset or strategy if you will. In the past, I've pretty much always raced conservatively, always saving something, maybe not consciously but in the back of my mind fearing a DNF or worse. But right now, where I am now, I'm ready to NAIL a race. I'm ready to run hard, as hard as I can and just see what happens.

Boot camp tomorrow!

First

My memory may be not be correct on this but I don't remember ever running the day after a long run. I do know one thing. I've never run well the day after a long run until tonight.

SMART Lite called for 4 miles. For most SMARTie's, that's a 32-44 minute run so that's what I gave and it was sure a nice one. I started around dusk and it was a beautiful night. Off to the east were clear skies and just about a full moon, lighting my way through the Fairfield greenbelts. To the west, lightning and thunder lit up the night, issuing a jolt of adrenalin every time a bolt cracked the sky.

It was quite hot and extremely humid for that late in the evening but I tolerated it very well. I stayed conversational and kept it between recovery jog and easy effort. Here are the stats:

Total distance - 3 miles
Venue - Fairfield greenbelts and neighborhoods
Splits - 13:39 / 13:47 / 13:40
Total Time - 41:08
Average pace - 13:43 min/mil

I'm happy with this week. 5 days of running, 21 miles, including some Kenyan relays, some quality work on Thursday, a decent long run on Saturday, with some easy miles sprinkled here and there. I'm happy with this week. Now I just gotta keep it going.

LSD'n like I knew what I was doing

It's been about a month since I've done any kind of long run. I did 9 miles on July 15 and a couple of 6 milers here and there since then. That's about it. I've been telling myself that it's ok because I've been getting a lot of quality stuff in and have been working on my core. But sooner rather than later, it's going to be time to start ramping up and LSD'n on the weekends.

Of course the temptation for the first long run in a while is to overdo it, to prove I still have a good 12, 13, 15 mile run in me. But the prudent thing would be to pick a moderate distance, somewhere around 8 to 10, and build on that. I'm nothing if not prudent, you know, so 9 it was.

I ran this one like a pro. The effort was just right. I stayed conversational miles 1-6, cranked it up just a bit for a couple of miles, and cooled down with number 9. Here are the stats.

Total distance - 9 miles
Venue - Memorial park to Allen Parkway (4.5 out and back)
Splits - 14:01 / 13:51 / 13:46 / 14:05 / 13:49 / 14:32 / 13:13 / 13:02 / 13:28
Total time - 2:03:51
Average pace - 13:46

...and by the way, those splits and times include water/gu breaks.

The best part of this morning's run was finishing to the roaring good times of HARRA's party in the park. Great tunes, beverages, breakfast, friends, and frivolity. It don't get much better than that after a tough workout. Lee and company were working the Strider tent, taking inquiries, signing up new members, and showing off our dozen or so HARRA team awards. It was a good morning.

Ok, nap over. Blog done. Let's get on with this day.

Sunday?

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but Sunday??? It's been since Sunday??? That's totally unacceptable.

Let me catch up Current events first.

I arrived at Terry Hershey 10 minutes late for the SMARTie workout. Guess it was really 20 minutes late since I usually start my warmup 10 minutes early. I stretched a bit and took off for an abbreviated warmup, arriving back just a few minutes into the SMARTie Hop workout. I owe some one leg squats and a couple sets of toyotas but jumped right in for the better part of the workout.

Every day seems to bring back more and more memories of last year's journey to my first marathon. I couldn't help but remember tonight as we were strolling over to start greyhounds how 11 months ago, Steeeve had invited me to "one of SMART's easier workouts," the SMARTie Hop. I remember how tough that workout was. I remember how the greyhounds were to that date the hardest training exercise I had ever done. I remember how my legs felt like jelly after we were done and how it was all I could muster just to walk a 1.5 mile cooldown.

Tonight was quite a different story. Don't get me wrong, the Hop is a tough workout and even now as I lay here in bed blogging, my legs still slightly resemble jelly but I did the workout, no problem. I felt strong doing runner's poses. I didn't fall off the bench doing high bench step-ups. The maniacs burned but were kind of fun. I still hate the wall shin raises!!! :) And the greyhounds really surprised me. I did 2 kind of scared! Like, I'd better save a little. Then the 3rd one was tough but I was fine. I remember a year ago at this point wanting to just quit and walk it in. Tonight, I was like LET 'ER RIP. I took off ahead of the entire group, accelerating to a smooth, kickin' all out sprint. Last year I would have worried about being in everybody's way. WIDE LOAD!!! Tonight, I stayed pretty much with the group. It was a great confidence boost for me.

Post-cooldown, a decent sized entourage gathered at Charcoal Chicken for some scrumptious fixins and some timely trash talking. It was a blast, as always when the Striders get together.

The details are fading fast from my memory but Wednesday found me running trails with the Striders. I took it very, very easy as my foot has been hurting lately. It felt really good after the run so I think my easy run was just what the doctor ordered.

Tuesday...now what did I do Tuesday? Oh, yeah! Kenyan relays. Oh, no, I'd like to forget that. What a tough thing!!! But fun and novel as the SMART program is keepin' it fresh for all of us. Pamela was a great relay partner and we kept each other moving at a pretty consistent effort for the whole 20 minutes. Steeeve asked me tonight if I lasted the entire 20 minutes. I thought, "You mean I could have cut it short? I didn't know that was an option." :) The thing about the relays is you pretty much gotta keep going or basically your partner is done too. So, that's what I did. But it was a long 20 minutes and the second 10 minutes was definitely longer that the first 10. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Huh?

After Steeeve's comment on my blog, I re-read what I had written and the first words out of my brain were "Huh?"

That was confusing. Here's the down and dirty.

Monday's - easy run in the early dawn (3-5 miles)
Tuesday's - rest
Wednesdays - group run with the Striders (4-6 miles)
Thursday's - SMART workout (hard day)
Friday's - rest
Saturdays - SMART workout (long run) Sunday - rest or 2-4 miles easy

Or.....

Heck, I don't know. Maybe I'm fine. Maybe I don't need any changes. Maybe I need to quit thinking so much and just keep doing what I'm doing. It seems to be working.

Please feel free to shut-up now, Vic.

Beat up!

Going into this week, I frankly was starting to feel pretty beat up. It's been an intense 3 or 4 weeks for me and my joints were starting to feel it. I didn't mention it because I thought it wasn't a big deal but climbing up the side of a tree on Wednesday's trail run, I stepped the wrong way and strained a ligament or tendon or something in my foot. All I could remember was Steeeve saying that he didn't care to do the trails because he'd just end up getting hurt. I do love the trails, though.

I haven't run since Wednesday as that place in my foot continued to nag me Thursday and Friday. To be quite honest, this morning, when I woke up, it felt great. Definitely runnable. I really wanted to get out for the TLT workout with the SMARTie's but I just don't want to get into that cycle where a strain or sprain is aaaaalmost healed and then you go out and do a hard workout and regress back to where you started. So, I skipped it today.

It was kind of a good thing as I got to go with the family to get the 14 y/o all set up for his first week of High School. This morning was get-your-schedule, get-your-books, get-your-locker, join-a-club, see-your-friends day for all the incoming freshmen. DW has been the sole taxi cab driver for the last month or more since I've been SMART'n it on Saturday mornings. It was nice to spend the morning with the family.

That brings up another change that's going to have to take place pretty soon. As school gears up, there's going to be a lot more stuff going on. DS's football games are going to be on Thursday's, the 4 y/o has soccer practice on Friday's. DD's soccer practices are on Tuesday's. Both have games on Saturday's. So, it's gonna get real busy real soon and it's not fair for me to be off training and playing with the Strider's while DW gets all the other duties. So, I'll be doing a lot more early AM running before work. I hope to still make it out on Wednesday's and definitely on Saturday mornings. I'll have to play Tuesdays and Thursdays by ear.

I was telling JM that my body isn't tolerating Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday very well. I've been going real hard on Tuesdays and then Wednesday's, even though they've been easy miles have been tough. By Thursday, I haven't felt recovered and have struggled or just not run on Thursday at all. So, I'm taking a new tack.

I'm going to switch Monday's from a rest day to a running day. I'm going to rest on Tuesdays and do a hard run on either Wednesday or Thursday. Whichever is hard, the other is going to be easy. Even though Wednesdays are easy, recovery runs for the SMARTie's, I could turn it into a good tempo run, then run easy on Thursday. If I run easy on Wednesday before work, I should be good and ready on Thursday night for a hard boot camp or hills or whatever the SMARTies are doing.

So, that's the plan. Again, I sure missed everyone this morning. It sounds like a good group showed up. Can't wait for next week.

Traffic

Let's get some traffic going on this guy's blog. He seems cool enough. :)

Why I run

I came across this blog entry on Runner's world and it really hit home for me. Check it out if you like. It's quite inspirational.

Uncle!!!

Mother nature had me in a chokehold tonight as I battled to get through tonight's boot camp. I made it through the warmup and just over halfway through the boot camp and then cried, "UNCLE!!!". I was just done. Actually, it was partly the heat and partly that things just didn't feel right. Going into my second set of body weight squats, my knees just felt weak and there was a little pain. That's when I knew I was done.

No excuses or apologies for tonight. I got a GREAT workout in tough conditions. I'm way ahead of where I would have been had I just stayed home tonight. The boot camps have given me a lot of confidence, not to mention the noticeable fitness gains, even over a short period of time. So, no worries about tonight's abbreviated workout. I still got in 3 and a half miles. My pushups are getting a lot better. My crunches are improving. I'm doing more reps then when I started. Who knows? One day I may even be able to do a pullup.

Fun times!!!

PR's, celebrity pacers, friends!!!

It don't get any better than this!!!!

I don't know if I let on during the post run trash talking at Starbuck's but I AM PUMPED UP!!! FLYING HIGH!!! EXCITED!!! STOKED!!! FREAKING ON CLOUD NINE!!! This morning, I NAILED my mile time trial. Not having a clue what to expect, I totally surprised myself. If it gets any better than this folks, I'm gonna burst!!! Seriously, I just did a happy dance around the living room couch. My kids are looking at me wondering what's wrong with Dad. Not a thing, kids! Just livin' this wonderful life.

And to think when I woke up, I actually contemplated skipping out on this morning's SMARTie workout. That would have been a big mistake. So, SMART Lite today called for silly walks, 1 mile all out, and 3 mile cool down. In other words, it's MILE TIME TRIAL DAY!!! I got up in plenty time to take in some sustenance and get over to the track a little before 7. After some stretching and a warmup mile we gathered for some silly, silly walks. Coach was giving out booby prizes for anyone who could guess the artist, song, and album that he was playing on the speakers. No one had a clue. So, he offered a prize for just the artist. Blank stares. :| He finally just asked if anyone knew the decade the music was from. Finally a few guesses...70's? No. 80's? BINGO!!! Nice guess, Adam! You win.

Steeeve had already organized our heats by the time silly walks were over. I was in the 3rd heat with Barb, Pamela, K, and Jen. We were about to start and I found out that I had a treat in store. I was assigned a pacer, none other than HARRA top 10 Open Female Runner of the Season, Jennie Minken. What an honor.

5...4...3...2...1 and we're off. Right out of the gate, Jennie was there pulling me along, keeping me steady and strong, not too fast for the first quarter mile. Jenn said all the right things. "C'mon, you big hunk!"..."You run, gorgeous!!!" Ha! Ha! Seriously, Jen paced me perfectly. She knew when I was giving in (lap 3) and she knew exactly when it was time on that back straightaway in lap 4 to kick it up and finish strong. Thanks Jennie!!! You rock!!! I owe you big time.

Ok, so I had not clue what my time was going to be. I've only done one mile time trial in my life and it was last year around October, after a good 3 or 4 months of training. I ran a 11:07 then so I'm thinking, hey, it's just August. I'd be happy with anything under 11 minutes. A 10:something would make for a pretty good blog entry, right? Now, just for grins, when I was surfing the net last night, I made my way over to McMillan Running Calculator to take a gander at what my mile prediction would be for a 5:48:30 marathon. That's my goal time this year for Houston. That's exactly one hour better than last year. Anyway, I didn't really remember this morning what it said but I remembered it was around 10:20 or 10:30. But that was really dreaming to think I could do that. Like I say, I was shooting for ANYTHING with a 10 in it.

I finished lap one in 2:30, a little fast but feeling good, of course. I knew then and there I had gone out too fast but I didn't feel like I was running on too much credit. Lap two showed that I had settled in with a split of 5:13 or something like that. I didn't want to lose ANOTHER 15 seconds on lap 3 so I just concentrated on maintaining my effort and trying not to crash. I was breathing rally hard going into lap 4. Heck, I was breathing pretty hard going into lap 2 and 3 for that matter. I maintained good effort through the turn and then at about the straightaway, Jennie said "Now here it is. Pick it up a bit. Almost there." It's kind of a blur but I remember feeling good coming around that last curve. Not good in a good way but good like "this is almost over". I do remember one thing very vividly. When I came out of the 2nd turn on lap one, I could see the clock very clearly, 100 yards in the distance. Same on lap 2. Lap 3, I didn't care. I didnt' even look at the clock. But on lap 4, I hit 100 yards and looked up at the clock and I couldn't see it. The numbers were all a blur. Oh, well, I thought. It really doesn't matter now. Just push it!!! I picked it up as best I could, legs burning, chest about to explode, and collapsed across the finish line.

I don't know what I saw or what tricks the heat was playing on me but I could have sworn I saw 10:26 when I came across the finish. I was pumping my fist a little, very, very pleased with 10:26, trying to come back from the dead. Once conscious, I checked the Garmin. 10:19??? What the hey? Well, I just figured in the state I was in, I hit stop halfway down the last straightaway, hoping it would be over if I just hit that button. But then it was confirmed. The time that was recoreded from the clock was 10:19. That's official!!!

Talk about all smiles!!! I was very, very surprised and pleased with a 10:19 mile, a PR for me and 48 seconds off last October's attempt, and it's August. It was so encouraging doing this with all the Striders. The morning's most memorable and encouraging words for me came from Steeeve. He told me that the difference between this year and last year, besides the 48 seconds, was that this year "I was running." Now some people might take that wrong but I know exactly what coach meant and that was a HUGE encouragement to me.

If that wasn't fun enough, I got to do a 3 mile cooldown with Jen. Not Jen the pacer, Jen the blogger. I must say we kicked butt on those 3 miles. Even though it was getting hotter and hotter, Jen and I just got faster and faster. We did a big negative split (not much of a cooldown but a good workout) with a 13:38, 13:34, and 13:08 for miles 1, 2, and 3. Way to go, Jen!!! That was fun.

Now, I said I didn't remember what McMillan running calculator said was my mile predictor for a 5:48:30 marathon, right? When I got home, I went back to check, just for fun. I type in the url, get to the calculator and enter 5:48:30, my goal marathon time. The page loads and I scan to find the 1 mile time. I do a doubletake. It's exactly 10:19. Don't believe me? Go there and put in 5:48:30 and choose marathon and look at the mile time. I've done it 5 times now because I don't believe it. No way I planned that this morning when I woke up. I think it's an omen.

Good times!!!

quack! quack!