TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

Ran alone at Lake Georgetown.  Warm evening with temps in the 80's but not too humid tonight.  I did some exploring, starting at the top of Outlook Park and running down below the dam and back up, then across the dam and over to the Cedar Park area and found the running trail on that side of the lake.  Ran the trail which had several nice up and down rough rocky segments.  This was my first time on this trail and it was special to do some discovering.

On the return trip I found the trail that went down below the dam and back to the trail that I had run at the beginning of the run. 

I wore my heart monitor and watched it so I could run different segments in different heart rate ranges.  During part of the run I would do some fartlek runs and push the pace getting the HR up to 165 and it felt good to do it.  Overall just a great run to discover these new trails.  It will be fun to show Tom these trails next Wednesday evening. 

A beautiful morning in central Texas, temps in the low 60's, no breeze, blue skies.  Since I was going to run alone today, my wife, Lynn, drove the car as I ran the country roads out here.  She would stop each mile and hand me a sports drink at the end of each mle. 

I ran in the 60% HR zone (108 - 125) for the first 3 miles, then moved it up to the 70% HR zone (126 - 143) for the next 3 miles, and then mixed the 70% and 80% (144 - 161) HR zone for the rest of the way.  This was interesting to watch the HR monitor instead of the mileage pace.  I had initially figured I may go 15 miles today but there were enough hills in the 13 miles I did that by the time 13 miles were done that was enough, 13 days since doing Boston. 

The most excitement for the run was being challenged by a few barking dogs.  Only two of them came out on the road so I yelled at them and threw rocks, no big deal, as I could tell they were only trying to make noise.  I did think of putting on my pistol belt next time and carry the .38 special with the bird shot loads next time, just to put a good scare in some of the dogs.  I doubt I will actually do that, but I may put it in the car just in case.  The 2nd most excitement was seeing a Roadrunner bird on the way home, as we usually don't see a lot of them.

As I ran I thought about some of the guys from the FastRunning blog that are injured.  It sure is a blessing to be running healthy with no issues at all as far as basic running goes.  My polymyalsia rheumatica slows me down from running marathons as fast as I want to, but nothing is holding me back from having a great experience either on the trails or out on the road like today.  Feeling pretty good today. 

A beautiful evening in Austin, TX after rain storms over night and during the day.  A cool breeze with temps in the high 70's and cloudy, just nice.  We had about 40 of us at McNeil HS.  I got in 2.25 miles warmup, then we did drills.  Then Donnie had us do 1 mile strong, then 700 M stronger, then 300 M pushing very hard with 100M recovery jog between each. 

I ran with Andy, Joe and Veronica for the first mile which we ran at 6:56 pace, then the 700M at 6:28 pace, then 300M at a 5:41 pace.  Then I did my cool down with Veronica.  Then Donnie had us do the stretch exercises.  A nice workout.

Strength workout tonight.  Leg curls, leg extensions, leg press, 20 reps each increasing the weight each set for a total of 4 sets.  Also 3 sets of crunches and 1 set of pushups.  Workout took about 35 minutes.  A nice workout. 

A hot evening in central TX.  Met Tom H at Lake Georgetown Outlook Park.  We ran the route that I did last Friday down to the bottom of the dam, across the trail to the end of the dam, up to the top of the dam and into Cedar Breaks Park.  Then on down the trail with some great footing challenges.  Then we returned back tracking.  A great run.  Tom is excited about running Pikes Peak in August.

Thursday some good stiffness again with abductors but more specific at the top inside of the legs.  Feel great by Friday when I'm writing this entry. 

Wow, this one was fun.  I met Tom H down in Austin, TX at the Barton Springs Pool parking lot at 6:30 AM.  We ran the Barton Springs greenbelt up to the Hill of Life and back including a couple of stray runs on side trails.

We saw Reni and Charlene from my old Pikes Peak training group on our way up and on our way back.  At the top of the HOL we saw Jeff and 4 or 5 guys who will be running a 100 miler late this summer.  Tom had never run the HOL so it was really fun pacing him up this one today.  HOL is 1/2 mile long, steep, rugged.  A great run.

A few near pitfalls on this run as I tripped 9 times on rocks and roots but did not go down, whew!  However, with about 1 mile to go I was wearing my running hat with the brim low on my forehead as I focused on the trail so I didn't trip again.  All of a sudden SMACK to my forehead as I smashed into a tree limb that was hanging across the trail.  My head snapped back and I could hear the sound of cartledge being forced unexpectedly in the reverse direction as I stumbled trying not to go down.  For just a moment I wondered if I had broken my neck, duh.  Good news all was okay with only my pride suffering.

Heart rates during the run were mostly in the 70% zone (126-143) or 80% zone (144-161).  Pushing it up the HOL the HR was pumping in the 90% zone at 165 BPM and it really felt good pushing hard up the HOL.  I reminded Tom that the 3 miles at Pikes Peak up the "W's" is relentless much like the effort up the HOL today, but for 3 miles instead of 1/2 mile.  Then after getting to the top of the W's the Pkes Peak trail gives some relief as it continues up the mountain, but you are measurably drained by the time you finish the W's.  He is looking forward to it.   

Back to Barton Springs Pool, hot and sweaty, we went to the far end of the springs pool and walked out in the spring with all our running clothes on including trail running shoes and we cooled down in the springs in water deep enough that we went swimming. Cold water felt awesome.

A beautiful evening in Austin, TX with overcast skies and temps in the 70's and a light breeze, just nice.  Easy slow warmup in the 60% and 70% heart rates.  Then drills with the group, about 35 or 40 of us.  Tam even showed up tonight as he didn't have to work late.

After drills Donnie had us do 5 sets of 400M medium hard, 100M recovery, 200M hard, 100M recovery, and repeat 5 times.  I ran the workout with Tom and Tam, a great workout.  Then we did a recovery run, just a nice evening. 

All body parts feeling great, no injuries or stresses.  I saw a guy at work on crutches today who had sprained an ankle really bad playing basketball over the weekend.  Too many runners on the fastrunning blog with injuries.  All I want to do is stay healthy and keep on running. 

Worked late so I couldn't get away for the run with Tom at Lake Georgetown trails.  So I went home and got my wife and we went over to Florence HS track.  She walked while I ran.  We watched the thunderstorms as they approached and headed for home just to get there as the rain started. 

As I write this report the TV weather reports are showing tornado warnings a couple of miles south of us and a mile north of us.  We have lots of lightening and winds and rain.  Amazing that the WIFI connection for the computer is working.  The TV satellite was out for about 30 minutes and just came back on.  Last night about 3:30 we woke up and watched the severe weather with white lightening right overhead, an amazing show.  We got 2 inches of rain last night.  Getting more tonight. 

Anyway, it sure felt good to finally get out and get in a run tonight.  HR 60% range the first mile, 70% the next mile, and 80% range the last three miles.  Hot and humid. 

As some of you would know during the past week we didn't know if I would be able to join Karen for this year's Muddy Buddy race (our 5th Muddy Buddy) in Austin, TX.  My 100 year old mother has lived a good healthy life but during the last week the Hospice workers have told my sisters (Lynda and Suzanne) that mother could go at any hour.  If she would have passed away earlier in the week then Lynn and Paul Dean and I would have been on the road to Utah and would not have been here in Texas today for the race.  Mother was willing to pass away at any time but her body held on for several days longer than the Hospice team had thought.  She finally received her reward and moved on to heaven Saturday night, so we will not be leaving for Utah (via Colorado - Desiree) until Monday morning for a Wednesday funeral.  

The Muddy Buddy link is shown below.
Link: http://www.www.muddybuddy.com/results.php
When the official race photo's are available if you search for them, our race bib number for our team name "Boston Bound" was 857. 

For those not familiar with the Muddy Buddy series, they do the race in 9 locations around the country.  You do the race as a 2 person team.  One team member starts on the bike and 2 minutes later the other team member starts running.  There are 5 segments in the race and the team members switch off biking and running each segment and there are obstacles at the end of each segment that you have to work through. 
 
The biking is done on some tough terrain trails with some of the hills very technical and steep and rocky.  The trail is loaded with bikers and runners and can be dangerous as you navigate around slower participants.  Last year Karen wiped out on the 3rd segment on her bike and tore up her forearm and foreleg.  This year neither of us had any falls and the chain did not come off the bike, a great year.  We ran and biked our guts out and earned every ounce of glory, and did a great mud swim through the mud pit at the end of the race. 

Our wave of the race had 12 teams and started at 8:56 AM as we were entered in the coed division with ages adding up to 96 or higher (the oldest group).  We may have been the oldest team there with our ages adding up to 106.  The last 3 years even though we are a coed team we had to compete against the men's teams in the same age group, and we won the race 2 of the last 3 years.  So, I predicted a win again this year because now we were just competing against coed teams. 
 
We ran and biked and did the obstacles as hard and fast as we could because you really never know how close the competition is behind you.  After the race finish times were posted, we noted that we also beat all of the men's teams of the same age category, and we would have finished 2nd if we had competed against the younger coed teams from the 2 divisions below us, so it was a real nice race.  Our finish time was 41 minutes 23 seconds (I may be off a second or two). 
 
Andy and Shea from our Monday night running group at McNeil High School were also registered and ran the Muddy Buddy, but they were in the youthful coed teams so we were not competing against them.  They ran a great race and took 2nd place in their division, finishing with a time about 20 seconds ahead of us.  They are focusing already on next year and a 1st place finish in their division. 

The last week has been a blur as we have driven over 52 hours of travel to get to Utah for my mother's funeral, to do the funeral in Payson on Wednesday morning, then drive from Payson to Hyde Park for the burial, and back to Lehi to Lynn's mom's home for the night.  We spent Thursday with family doing an outing at Thanksgiving Point at the dinosaur museum and then going over to Cabella's.  A busy day.  Then we drove Friday to Colorado to my daughter's home, and then drove all night Saturday night / Sunday morning to get back home in Texas.  Did a long sleep when we got home, and then got behind the push mower for 6 hours mowing the lawn and then 2 hours with my grand-daughter jumping on the trampoline and pushing her in the swing.  I'm taking credit for a 16 mile run from this 8 hours of cross training walking and running. 

Hot in Austin, TX.  Tied a record at 96 degrees and lots of humidity.  Even with the holiday today we still had about 25 of us there at McNeil High School.  Both Karens made it.  They had rode their bikes for 173 miles over the past 3 days in prep for their Ride the Rockies in 3 weeks. 

After running at McNeil, Lynn and Tapainga (my grand-daughter) met me at Brushy Creek where they have the water park sprinklers.  It felt great to get cooled down prior to doing a mile with Tapainga.  She had a great time.  When we finished at 7:50 PM the water sprinklers had turned off so we didn't get the wash after our run, darn.  A great night of running.

Met Tom at the Hill of Life this morning at 7:00 AM and we ran 8 reps of the HOL.  A great run with heart rate bouncing at 170 as we finished each rep and HR at 165 to 167 for most of the run each rep.  The HOL is 1/2 mile long, steep, rocky, perfect training for Pikes Peak.  One rep gives you 1 mile. 

Last Thursday the podiatrist treated what was left of plantar seed warts with the special medicine that is derived from beetles.  So the pain in the right foot was pretty good this morning which made this run even more special as I ran mostly from the push of the left leg and pivoted with the right leg/foot.  It really felt good to get out and sweat profusely.

We met some old guys (68 and 70 years old) who are training to climb a 19,000 foot mountain in Africa in mid July.  These guys are in awesome condition.  I never would have guessed they were that old.  I told them about the book, Younger Next Year, and told them that they are doing the single most important thing to prolong a quality life, with their conditioning exercise that they obviously embrace.  They are going to get copies of the book.

Just a great run.  Then when I got home, Lynn and I took our grand-daughter, Tapainga, down to Russell Beach on Lake Georgetown and Tapainga and I went swimming and had a ball.  What a day.  We helped 3 other boys gather rocks off the lake bottom and built a fortress with them on the beach.  Tapainga thinks Texas is awesome.