TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

A beautiful day to start the new year in Austin, Texas.  About 150 of us did the unadvertised annual 13.1 mile RunTex to RunTex to RunTex New Years Day run. 

And for proof just how small-town the governor of Texas can be, he got us organized at the start of the run and he stood on the hood of a parked car and took the picture of all of us runners.  He always does this run with us and did it again this year.  Then after the run in the RunTex store he called us all together and he stood up on a platform and he took the after-run picture.  Austin is a big state with big traditions, but the governor is one of us on a personal level.  We see him in many of the races here locally all year long. 

After the run in the RunTex store they gave each of us a real nice running t-shirt to commemorate the RunTex to RunTex to RunTex event.  They also provided some goodies to eat including hot black-eyed peas which I am told is intended for good fortune during the new year.  I think this is the 4th time I have done this unadvertised running event.

Karen H and I ran together and after the run Lynn, PD, Karen, and I went to breakfast.  A great way to start the new year. 

Ran 10 miles at Brushy Creek starting about 5:07 PM just as the sun was getting close to setting.  Got in 3.5 miles before the sun set and then after 6 miles I joined Bill and the Wednesday night crew and did the warmup drills and then we jogged over to the dam and did our speed workout, 0.5 miles at 6:45 pace, 1.0 mile at 6:30 pace, 0.5 miles at 6:05 pace.  Then finished the 10 mile run with 2 more miles in the dark on the big loop around the park.  A great run. 

Arrived at Brushy Creek Park at 4:00 PM.  Cold temps in the 30's.  I way overdressed and ended up removing my gloves, hat, and long sleeve shirt.  Ran a relaxing easy pace for the entire 10 miles and felt really good.  The purpose of this run was as a recovery type run, after combining last night's 10 mile run with 2 speed miles. 

This is the 3rd consecutive day at 10 or more miles.  I'm going to try to get more running days per week with more miles per day.  The letsrun.com web page really makes a point of getting in the weekly miles and also mixing in lots of easy relaxing days to get recovery runs.  So far so good.  This Saturday we are doing 18 miles so that will put me over 50 miles this week for the first time in over a year. 

Ran the Georgetown route from the new RunTex store with Karen F and Karen H.  A beautiful day with temps in the high 50's at 6:00 AM and temps about 70 degrees by the time we finished.  Then we went to breakfast with Lynn.  A great start of the weekend. This run gives me 51.1 miles for the week, the most I have run in over a year.

A beautiful evening in Austin, Texas with a temp about 75 degrees.  I got in a 10.5 mile run that included doing the Monday night speed work with Donnie's group.  I ran the speed session with Karen F where we did 5 sets of 500 M and 100M with a 100M recovery between each.  A nice fun workout. 

This starts the 3rd week in a row where I am trying to get in at least 10 miles during a run. 

Ran over at Florence HS while Lynn walked the track.  Nice cool evening with temps in the 50's.  This was a recovery run with focus on relaxing with the running stride.  Nice run, easy, legs feel really good. 

Ran at Brushy Creek with Bill S group.  I had a hard time getting away from work so I only had 1 mile warm-up prior to starting drills with the group.  Then for the workout Bill had us run up and down the boat dock hill for 30 minutes which I measure at 3.5 miles.  Then I did 2 mile cool down after the workout.  There just wasn't time to go for another 3.5 miles to get the 10 tonight.  Even so, a nice workout.  Had fun running with Erick on the Boat Dock hill.

Resting heart rate this morning when I woke up was 46, so I don't believe these longer runs are stressing my body.  This is about as low as I ever measure for a morning resting HR.

A beautiful evening in Austin, TX with temps about 55 degrees.  I ran at Brushy Creek and did a relaxing 11 mile run around the park loop and across the dam and on down to the end of the trail and then on up the greenbelt trail past 3 deer that were about 10 feet off the trail, and then turned around and ran back.  On the way back I noticed the sliver of a moon starting to appear in the western sky just after the sun went down.  On the last mile the stars were out and made an enchanting finish to the run. 

Ran Townlake trail with Karen F and Karen H.  Temp at 6:30 AM was about 42 degrees.  We did the 10 mile loop plus an extra mile and then the people bridge loop.  Loads of runners on the trail today. 

Lynn did her walk of the people bridge loop while we ran.  She saw a bum on a bench on the people bridge who smelled of marijuana.  He was gone when we did our people bridge loop. 

Then we went for breakfast at Maudie's.  Nice start of a weekend.  Lynn and I stopped at Home Depot on the return trip home.  Finish remodeling PD's shower this weekend. 

This run gives me over 50 miles a week for 2 in a row which is a record.  Legs feel great. 

A beautiful and pleasant evening in Austin, TX at McNeil HS.  Temp about 58 degrees.  I got to the track early and it was loaded with high school track athletes which made it fun to be running the track while they were doing their relay race training.  I got in 6 miles and then joined Donnie's group for drills and the workout.  About 40 of us in the group tonight.  Donnie had us do 8 sets of 350M with a 50M recovery jog.  I ran with Karen and then we did 2.25 miles recovery.  A really great way to start the week.  Ethan was there tonight as he is on a trip down here from Utah. 

Today I managed a lunchtime run over at Wells Branch Park.  Temp about 60 degrees and perfect for a nice run.  7.25 miles at Boston Marathon qualifying pace.  The plan was to get in at least 3 more miles tonight but I got hung up at work and couldn't get away.  7.25 miles isn't 10, but I'm going to try not to feel guilty for a short mileage day.  Legs feel really good. 

Resting heart rate has been 46 and even down to 45 this week. This is as low as I have ever measured it.

Stopped by Wells Branch park this morning on the way to work and got in 6.6 miles.  A beautiful morning with temps in the high 40's.  Squirrels running across the trail, ducks on the pond, people walking and running on the trail.  This is a nice start to the day.  Plan to join our Wednesday evening Brushy Creek bunch tonight for the speed workout and another 7 miles. 

This evening we ran at Brushy Creek with temps in the mid 50's. I got in 7 miles with the speed intervals right in the middle of the run. After we did drills, Bill had us run over to the dam and then do 5 speed intervals (1/2 mile each) with each one faster than the one before (3:29; 3:23; 3:20; 3:09; 3:01). For most of the run we had a beautiful half moon overhead.

This business of consistently running longer distances mostly at areobic paces seems to be a good thing for extending the running base. So far the experiment seems to be working.

Update on the polymyalsia rheumatica disorder: taking 8mg of prednisone medication per day (5 in the morning; 3 at night). Hopefully this nuisance issue will be gone by spring (2 years of putting up with this stuff).

A nice lunchtime run today for 6.6 miles in temps about 45 degrees.  A nice start to the running day.  Will do more after work. 

Ran tonight at Florence HS.  Lynn went with me and she walked while I did 4 quick miles.  The temps were cold probably about 35 degrees.  I noticed a good strong feeling in the legs tonight even after all the miles I have run lately.  Hopefully this is a result of the extended mileage mostly at an areobic pace. 

A cold morning in Austin, TX, about 29 degrees.  I joined Karen F and Karen H at Austin HS track at 6:30 and we did a warmup mile and then 8 speed mile intervals with a 1 lap recovery between each interval mile, and then 1.5 miles cool down.  Lynn did her walk of the People Bridge loop of Townlake.  Then we all went to Maudie's for breakfast.

The speed mile intervals were moderately difficult as I was just trying to do a pace of 90 seconds per mile faster than my Boston qualifying marathon pace.  So the speed intervals were 8:05 (start easy with the 29 degree temps); 7:37; 7:36; 7:22; 7:19; 7:30; 7:32; 7:25.   The intent was to hold the pace to 7:30 so I backed off after doing the 7:22 and 7:19. 

This finished up another week going over 50 miles and the legs felt great.  So far so good on the longer mileage weeks.  Both Karens think I am goofy for extending my weekly mileage this fast.  This experiment continues. 

An interesting observation this past weekend.  We did mile interval training on Saturday.  I worked the rest of the day remodeling our son's bathroom.  Very tired I slept really good Saturday night into Sunday morning.  I woke from a deep sleep and took my resting heart rate Sunday morning and it was the lowest I have ever measured it at 43.  I did two measurements to make sure the count was correct and they were both 43.  Amazing.  Last week I had counted resting HR at 46 and 45.  Prior to all this long distance and consecutive days running my typical resting HR had been anywhere from 47 to 51.  This is part of the experiment I am doing with this long running days stuff.   

Ran in the morning in the rain at Wells Branch park and got in 6.6 aerobic easy miles.  Then ran in the evening at McNeil HS track doing 6.4 easy miles and 2 miles of track workout with Donnie's group, running with Karen F and Joe.  We did 4 repeats of 700 meters with 100 meters recovery between each.  A fun evening in the misty drizzle part of the time.

Ran in the morning at Wells Branch park and got in 11 miles of aerobic easy running.  During mile 5 as I was crossing a wood plank foot bridge I caught my right toe on a nail that was protruding up about 1/2 inch and I did a face fall landing on both hands and both knees and my stomach, then slid to a stop on the wet bridge.  I was amazed because I didn't even cuss.  I just looked back to see what I had tripped on and then did an assessment of the damage and realized everything was fine, thank goodness.  Then I finished the run with no issues.  A great way to get the week going with two consecutive long mileage days.

My mother turned 100 years old today.  She lives in American Fork, Utah with my sister and is doing great.  She had been living alone in her home up to 2 years ago when she had a fall and broke her hip.  We sold the house and she moved in with my sister as a caregiver since then.  My running friends think I have inherited some longivity genes from her, which is supposed to explain why I am still running marathons and competing at my young age of 60.  I do love to run.

Ran tonight at Brushy Creek park.  Cold weather with temps in the 30's so I dressed for it, but by mile 3 I was pulling off the long sleeve shirt and gloves and hat.  After 5.5 miles I joined Bill and the Wednesday night group where we did our drills and accellerations, and then ran down to the boat dock and did 6 loops from the boat dock and up through the parking lot and back to the stop sign.  Then I did 2 more aerobic miles. 

I could feel the left knee just a little bit after taking the fall yesterday, but not actually an injury, just a nuisance.  No problem.   

Ran tonight over at Florence HS while Lynn walked the track.   It was cold with temps in the high 30's with misty wet air.  However by mile 3 I was taking off my hat and gloves and by mile 6 the long sleeve shirt came off.  At mile 9 the gloves went back on and for mile 10 the long sleeve shirt went back on.  A nice enjoyable run after taking Thursday off to let the left knee cap feel a little better, since the fall last Tuesday morning. 

Yesterday I had a doctor checkup visit and when the nurse came in to take my vital signs, after she took my pulse heart rate she went and got the doctor.  The heart rate was 50 and it alarmed the nurse.  The doctor had some fun and brought in another nurse and asked him if he could explain my low heart rate.  The nurse thought it might be the prednisone medication for the polymyalsia rheumatica, but the doctor used this as a teaching moment and explained to the nurse that they need to ask a few questions of the patient to learn more about life style that may contribute to the low heart rate.  This was fun.  The doctor couldn't hardly believe that I was doing 50 miles a week, but he said that sure explained why my heart was getting so efficient and strong.  There are definite visible benefits to doing the longer runs.  

Beautiful day in Austin, TX, with 6:00 AM temp of 40 degrees.  I met Karen H at RunTex in the Gateway shopping center about 6:00 AM.  We went out and got in a little over 4 miles of easy running prior to the start of the 3M half marathon, then we ran the 3M as bandits but we carried our own drinks so we were not in the way at the aid stations to those who had paid their race fee of $60.   After we finished the 13.1 miles of the 3M race we ran another 4.5 miles on down to the Townlake trail and then ran up to Mopac at Austin HS tennis courts and found Lynn.  Then we all went to breakfast at Maudie's on LaMar.  What a great day.

Prior to the start of the race we saw Ethan and during the race we saw Jim and Lisa (Karen F's friends) and ran with them a couple of miles and talked about watching the movie, Spirit of the Marathon, and other running stuff like the Oyster Adventure Race I did with Karen F and Karen H last October and about the Ironman race Karen H did in Idaho last June and the Muddy Buddy race that Karen F and I have done 4 times.  You can never run out of things to talk about when you are running.  When the sun came up so did the temperature and by the end of our run it was probably in the mid 60's with beautiful sunshine and a slight breeze, probably the best running weather we have had so far this year.

This 21.6 miles was very easy and smooth.  We targeted just running an easy 20 mile training run pace but we were passing up race runners the entire 13.1 miles of the race.  Just too much fun and zero soreness or stiffness even now after completing the 21.6 miles.  We got in the extra mileage because the race finished over on the east end of Austin near the University of Texas football stadium area, so we had the longer distance to run to get back down to the Townlake trail and back up to Mopac. 

Ran at McNeil HS this evening, a beautiful day with temps in the 60's at the time we ran.  I got in 6 miles before the group drills and workout and then a cool down mile after.  Jill had us do 12 sets of 200M hard with 200M recovery jog.  Karen F and Tam and I did 12 sets of sub 5:45 pace 200M intervals.  This was lots of fun.

5:00 AM, 32 degrees in Austin, TX.  Ran with Karen F and Karen H for the annual Karen F birthday run.