TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

Awesome day in Austin, TX.  Humid but not too hot in the morning.  Enough clouds to hide the sun for the first 8 miles.  I did 12 loops of the Hill of Life, which is the primary training site here in central Texas for the Pikes Peak Marathon.  I did a steady forward motion pace on all 12 loops.  No walking and no power-walking.  Very happy with this workout today.  The workout took 2 hours 32 minutes.  HOL is 1/2 mile steep, rocky trail down and then 1/2 mile back up. 

My descent/ascent times were:  6:28/6:30;  5:59/6:37;  6:06/6:19;  6:02/6:36;  6:15/6:44;  6:15/6:32;  6:16/6:47;  6:05/6:44;  6:04/6:57;  5:41/6:59;  5:48/6:32;  5:40/6:25. 

I saw a group of 100 miler runners who had run all night as part of their training to go to Wyoming Big Horn 100 miler in 3 weeks.  I saw a couple of guys who are training for a hike up Mt. Raineer in Washington in August.  One of them went to hike the Andes last year, and the other one has hiked Mt. Everest.  Saw a woman and a guy who were going to walk the Hill of Life for 4 hours today as part of their training for their first Pikes Peak ascent in August.  I saw Rick, a 100 miler runner, who I hadn't seen since last year on the HOL.  Lots of folks who enjoy the work on the HOL. 

Business trip to Nashville, TN.  At 6:00 AM got up and went to the fitness center at the hotel and set the treadmill to the max 15 degrees incline, and then power walked 45 minutes.  A great power workout.  Sweat like a pig.  Legs felt great all morning after the workout.  This is all preparation for Pikes Peak.  I would visualize working the first 3 miles up the W's on Barr Trail. 

Business trip to Nashville, TN.  At 6:00 AM got up and went to the fitness center at the hotel and set the treadmill to the max 15 degrees incline, and then power walked 45 minutes.  A great power workout.  Sweat like a pig.  Legs felt great all morning after the workout.  This is all preparation for Pikes Peak.  I would visualize working the first 3 miles up the W's on Barr Trail. 

Business trip to Nashville, TN.  At 6:00 AM got up and went to the fitness center at the hotel and set the treadmill to the max 15 degrees incline, and then power walked 45 minutes.  A great power workout.  Sweat like a pig.  Legs felt great all morning after the workout.  This is all preparation for Pikes Peak.  I would visualize working the first 3 miles up the W's on Barr Trail. 

Hot and humid in Austin, TX.  Got a 6:00 AM start on the Hill of Life.  Had a 9:30 breakfast appointment at Maudie's with Lynn, Karen F & Karen H.  Lynn walked the HOL while I ran.  Got in 13 miles and then it was time to go to our breakfast appointment.  A hot sweaty run.  Again I stayed pretty consistent on the descent and ascent of the HOL.  Next week my target is 16 repeats, another 9:30 breakfast appointment, so I will start at 5:00 AM. 

Still on 6mg of Prednisone medication for the PMR.  I'm holding the dosage to 6mg until I finish Pikes Peak Marathon in August. 

Ran 3 easy miles at Florence HS.  My son ran 1.75 miles with me.  Just testing the right achiles tendon since it was tender after doing the 13 Hill of Life miles last Saturday.  Felt pretty good tonight. 

3 inches of rain at our home in the past 3 days.  3:45 AM got up and listened to the thunderstorms drop rain on our home.  Got dressed and headed for Austin and the Hill of Life.  Rain all the way as we drove to the HOL.  Dark, rain, and with my flashlight I started running HOL at 5:20 AM.  The plan was to do 16 miles of HOL.  After 3 miles (3 loops) I didn't need the flashlight any more.  Most of the rain had quit by the 5th mile.  There was a stream of water running down the HOL until I got through with my 8th mile.  With the rain the temperatures stayed pleasant, so this was a great run.  Finished my 16 repeats at 9:25 AM and headed to Maudie's where Lynn and I joined Karen F. and Karen H. for breakfast.

Karen H. runs her Ironman race in Idaho next weekend.  We admire her for all the work she has put in and will celebrate her success next weekend.  Our thoughts and prayers will be with her as she puts it all on the line next weekend. 

Ran at McNeil HS with Donnie's RunTex group.  A great workout.  2 miles warm-up.  Drills. 10 each 200M with 50M jog in between.  Then 1 mile cool down.  It was Donnie's birthday celebration.  We had over 40 of us there tonight.  Donnie's wife and sister also showed up for the celebration.  We gave him the certificate for the 8" by 8" brick to go on Townlake trail.  We collected $500 to get the 8" by 8" brick with Donnie's name on it.  Fun. 

Ran at Florence HS with my son while my wife walked the track.  A nice evening in Texas after another day of rain.  Temps down in the 80's.  Getting ready to do 20 miles of the Hill of Life on Saturday. 

A warm humid morning in Austin, TX, but not too hot.  The continuing rains over the past couple of weeks has held the temperatures down some, but kept the humidity high. 

Got up at 3:45 AM and headed for the Hill of Life in Southwest Austin.  The HOL is 1/2 mile long, steep hill, loaded with rocks, roots, and ledges.  I got started at 5:00 AM, flashlight in hand, and was the only runner on the hill until about mile 5 when I saw Rick, the 100 miler.  He was headding down the HOL and going for the Barton Springs Greenbelt trail.  I didn't see Rick again until I was on my HOL 20th mile. 

This was a real nice run.  I expected to see some of the Rogue Training runners preparing for Pikes Peak, but none of them showed.  They must have been on a trip to Bandera or somewhere like that.  I saw a few other runners and walkers but mostly had the hill to myself most of the time, strange.

I used my new trail shoes on this run and they worked pretty good.  Yesterday at RunTex I bought a pair of The North Face trail shoes.  So far so good. 

Next weekend we will be in Colorado to see my daughter's family.  I plan to do a run half way up Pikes Peak for the weekend training run before we return to Texas on Tuesday July 3rd.

Nice workout at McNeil HS track with the Monday night speed bunch.  Rainy today and the humidity was real high, lots of sweat.  Did 2 mile warm-up, then drills, then Donnie had us do 4 each 700M with 100M recovery each.  A nice workout.  Then a mile cool-down.  Just a nice enjoyable run.  About 35 runners showed up tonight.