TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

McNeil HS Monday night group.  There were 38 of us there tonight.  I got there early and did 1 mile warm-up.  Then I did 6 each 800M intervals at a 6:30 pace.  By then Donnie had started the group on their workout which was 3 sessions of 200M, 250M, 300M, 350M at mile race pace. 

After I finished my 6 800M intervals I joined Joe and Karen H on the start of the 2nd session of their workout and stayed with them for both of the last 2 sessions, where we ran at paces with a range between 6:00 and 6:25.  Then Karen H and I did a 1 mile cool-down.

This was a great workout.  Coming home I still feel strong instead of worn out. 

Temp in high 80's or low 90's at Brushy Creek. I did 2 loops warm-up for about 1.8 miles. Then we did drills and had 14 of us here tonight. Bill is glad to see the group growing.

We had a tough workout as Bill had us do a pyramid routine.
1. The shortest half loop in 3:12. Heart rate 159
2. The longer half loop in 4:25. Heart rate 162.
3. The full loop in 5:53. Heart rate 167. This is the loop we did last week 4 times at 6:20, 6:16, 6:17, 6:06. Joe fell back a little as I finished this one in 5:53.
4. The extra long loop in 7:08. Heart rate 166.
5. The full loop again but in 6:20. Heart rate 165.
6. The longer half loop again in 4:16. Heart rate 167.
7. The shortest loop in about 2:50. Heart Rate reached 177. This last short loop we pushed it real good and sprinted in the last 100M and got my heart rate up to 177, wow.

A nice workout tonight.

Very warm and humid morning in Austin, TX. Ran at Austin HS track with Karen F & Karen H. Did 1 mile warm-up, then we did 10 each 1 mile intervals at 7:26; 7:26; 7:27; 7:22; 7:19; 7:24; 7:25; 7:19; 7:19; 7:11. Averaged 7:22.

We sweat profusely. I finally took off my dripping wet singlet at mile 6. We were surprised by how many running groups showed up at the track. By the time we did the last couple of repeats we had to run around lots of other runners. It was a great workout. We went over to the shower by Townlake and got the smell off, and then went to breakfast at Maudie's.

I was thinking of the folks running the St. George Marathon this morning as I was running this workout. Maybe next year we will get in on the lottery for St. George.

Very warm and humid in Texas.  Ran tonight at Florence HS track while my wife walked the track.  1 easy warm-up mile.  Then 4 miles tempo pace without any walk break, averaging a relaxing but steady 8:05 pace.  With the humidity I was sweating like a pig, so I removed my singlet after the 1st tempo mile.  

Ran at Brushy Creek park again with the Wednesday group.  1 mile on the trail warm-up.  We did drills, then Bill had us run the figure 8 route (1 mile route) 4 times.  Tom, Joe, and I started together for the first 3 loops (7:49; 7:29; 7:39), then Joe tried to run from us on the last loop so I took off with him and we ran a real good push on the last mile.  We sprinted the last 200M and I passed him with about 30M to go.  Lots of fun.  I did the last mile at a 6:39 pace.  A nice workout.  

Walked the trails around our farm with my wife for about 20 minutes.  The cats went with us and Tiger and Chunk got in a tangle and fought it out.  Mama kitty jumped in the middle of it and separated them.  Goofy cats.  A nice walk just as the sun went down.  

Ran 15 miles with Karen F and Karen H.  A nice run up to Mt. Bonnell, then over to 2222, then over to Shoal Creek, down to 45th, over to Speedway, down to the University of Texas, over to the State Capital, down Congress to the Townlake trail, and back up to the Austin HS parking lot under Mopac.  A nice run.  

Ran at McNeil HS track. Temperature about 85 degrees. It feels good to know the temperatures are finally dropping a little. We had about 45 of us tonight in the group. Ran 2 miles warm-up with Daniel for most of them and had a great talk. Did drills. For the workout Donnie had us do 1500 meters (about 6:45 pace) and then 100 meters recovery, then 700 meters (about 6:30 pace) and 100 meters recovery, then 300 meters (about 6:00 pace). We ran all of these at a hard effort. I ran with Tam on all of these and really had a great workout. Then did a mile cool down.

Ran at Brushy Creek with Bill's group.  Temp kind of hot about 88 degrees and kind of humid.  Did 2 miles warm-up on the big loop trail.  Then the group got together and we had 20 of us there tonight, as the group is getting bigger.  Patrick showed up, I hadn't seen him for probably 6 months.  He has been training with Gilbert's gazelles, as he is really fast. 

We jogged over the dam and then did drills.  Then Bill had us run the hill loop for 40 minutes.  What a great run.  Each loop is 3/4 miles and ends with the hill.  Recovery is a walk/jog down the hill.

Ran with Joe, 1st loop at 4:45.  2nd loop at 5:04.  3rd loop at 5:09.  4th loop at 5:14.  5th loop almost a recovery loop at about 5:20.  Then we pushed it the 6th loop hard and when we hit the turnaround Joe fell back.  I pushed it hard on the return and blasted up the hill and finished in 4:34.  Joe finished about 30 seconds behind me. 

This was a great workout.  Then Patrick and I jogged back to the park area and I headed home.  I think these Wednesday night runs are a great weekly opportunity to push it a little and get the improvement that will come from pushing harder than normal runs.

Nice temperature in the 60's at 5:30 AM as we started from the Austin HS parking lot.  Tam ran with Karen F and Karen H and me for the 15 mile loop up Mt. Bonnell.  Then K & K ran with me for the 10 mile loop.  This was the nicest weather for the past 5 months.  

I'm a little sore from the run but overall feel pretty nice.  San Antonio is 3 weeks away.  The only goal is to simply qualify for Boston, so I won't worry too much about doing a really fast time.  

Ran at McNeil HS with Donnie's group.  Temp in the low 60's or high 50's with the wind blowing.  The coldest day in the past 7 months.  Did 1 mile warm-up on inline skates, then 1 mile warm-up on the track.  Then we did drills.  Then 3 miles pyramid each one faster than the one before.  Since we did 25 miles on Saturday I was going to take it kind of easy tonight, so we ran 8:02 mile 1, then 7:53 mile 2, then 7:40 mile 3.  Just a nice steady run.  Karen F set the pace and I was happy with it.  Then we did a cool down mile.  A nice windy cold evening. 

Ran at Brushy Creek with the Wednesday night bunch.  We had 17 of us there tonight.  Temp pretty nice tonight in the low 80's or high 70's.  Did a mile warm-up, then drills, then we did 5 loops.  Joe led us in the first two loops, I led the third loop, Tom led the fourth loop, and Allen led our bunch the fifth loop.  We did times of 6:15; 5:50; 6:03; 5:57; 5:59.  A nice workout with a steady push but without overdoing it.  We have our Austin Oyster Adventure race this weekend where I will run, bike, inline skate, kayak, and navigate with Karen F. and Karen H.  It should take anywhere between 4 to 8 hours. 

Beautiful day for a crazy race in Austin, Texas. I'm calling the race distance equivalent to running 28 miles but that is an estimate of the race effort distance. The Oyster Adventure series is run in 4 cities in the United States: San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Austin. This was the first year in Austin and what a great race.

Our coed team of myself, Karen F., and Karen H. took 4th place overall of all the teams (and some of the teams had 6 on a team so they took turns every other event) and we took 2nd place in the co-ed teams. We finished in 4hrs 23min and a few seconds. The 1st place coed team finished about 3 minutes ahead of us, a young team of two stripling men and one stripling young woman. Our team was the oldest in the entire race with our combined ages adding up to 150 years old. For our 2nd place finish in the co-ed division we each won a $110 gift certificate for Merrell sportsgear, and our team won a cash award for $250.

They call this an adventure race because you have to do a total of 8 events (passports) in the race, but you don't know what the event will be until you finish the current event that you are doing. The pre-race information said we would be running, biking, in-line skating, kayaking, and using our mental powers to figure out how to get to the destination, and using maps of the city to figure out where the destination item was located. For example, the event card might have a picture of a landmark from Austin, and then we had to figure out where it was located and then go find it and then take a picture of us in front of the landmark to prove we had been there. We would get our "passport" punched either out on the course or when we got back to the race start area with the evidence of completing the task. Then we would collect the passports as there were key clues even in the passports.

1. The first event we ran for about 55 minutes to find a statue, a famous tree, and another statue.  We ran at a strong pace and it made me wonder if both Karens would be able keep this up for the length of the endurance run.  They both did keep it up and even dropped me in the bike rides.  I was impressed. 

2. The second event we rode bikes from the center of Austin up to the top of Mt. Bonnell and then back to the race starting area. Both Karens ride bikes a lot and it showed on this long bike ride. I kept falling a little back and when they would be stopped by a red light I would catch up. I thought they might get tired so I could keep up all the way, but it didn't happen. They said that biking helps strengthen running skills, but running does not translate into biking strength and conditioning.  I think I will join them in some of their training bike rides. 

3. The third event we rode bikes over to Townlake and while both Karens did the kayak challenge I rode over to Barton Springs pool and went out into the water and found the clue on a green card at the bottom of the pool.  We used this clue in the 6th challenge.  Then we returned to the race start area.

4. The fourth event we ran over to a gym and then we divided up the task. Karen F had to lift 10,000 lbs. She did 100lbs 100 times. Karen H had to ride the stationary bike for 3 miles. I had to run the treadmill for 1 mile. Then we ran back to the starting area.

5. The fifth event we had to in-line skate for about 30 minutes. We split up and each went to the designated destination, got our passports punched and then returned to the race start area.

6. The sixth event we had to go to a designated location and then walk down Shoal Creek in the middle of the creek. Both Karen's tripped on a big rock and cut their knees and fell down into the water up to their neck. The highest the water got on me was up to my chest. Then after about 200 meters of water walking we had to transport 30 rocks over across the creek to a designated area before they would punch our passport. Then we returned to the race start area.

7. The seventh event had instructions to have us go beg for money and to find diet Coke cans, and Pepsi cans, etc. We were just starting to run down the street as we read the instructions, and at the bottom of the instructions it told us that if we were reading this instruction, then we could ignore all of the above instructions and go back to the race start area. Thank goodness for good reading.

8. The eighth and final passport included interpreting some coding of asterisk words from all of the passports, and then figuring out what the code words meant. Then once we figured it out we rode our bikes through Austin to the landmark and got instructions. We had to pick up 8 drink coasters from local bars in Austin. We did this and rode back to the start area and we were done. By this time the legs were cramping and twitching. It was pretty wild.

We were glad to have finished as well as we did. We had a great support group of my wife, and Joe and Angel, and Sean and Melanie.  They sure made it fun to return to the exchange area and get ready for the next event challenge.  

So it is impossible to truly translate how all of these events translate into "mile" distances, which is why I just put it at equivalent of running 28 miles. It took over 4 hours 23 minutes of continuous effort that left the legs spent and cramping and twitching. What a great feeling.

My estimate of actual distances is that we probably ran 7 miles in the 1st event, rode bikes for probably 16 miles in the 2nd event (8 miles uphill and 8 miles downhill), rode bikes for 6 miles in the 3rd event and the K's kayaked for probably 40 minutes in the 3rd event, ran 1 mile and did the 10,000 lb lift / 3 mile stationary bike / 1 mile treadmill in the 4th event, in-line skated for probably 4 miles in the 5th event, ran 1/2 mile in the 6th event and made our way through Shoal Creek  and carried rocks,  7th event included reading the instructions, and the 8th event included probably a 2 mile bike ride and running through bars in Austin to get the coasters.  Total all that up and estimate the equivalent of a 28 mile run (my best guess).

Run4fun, Run4life, Run4adventures,
Paul
 

A beautiful cool evening in Austin, TX.  We ran at McNeil HS track.  I did 2.5 miles warm-up and met a guy named Paul who had run a 2hr 42min and a 2hr 44min marathon 20 years ago when he was 20 years old.  He quit running for 20 years and is now back into it. 

We did drills and then Donnie had us do 6 each 700M intervals with 100M recovery.  Since we had run the adventure race yesterday I planned to take it kind of easy tonight, but instead Karen F took off on a nice sub 7 minute pace for most of the intervals and we just kept up.  Had a great time.  We turned Lemuel loose on the last 700M interval and he looked real good.  Lemuel is tall and has a real smooth stride that looks so easy but he really runs fast. 

Then Karen and I did a mile cool down.  A real nice evening to run.  The legs could feel that this was quite a workout just 1 day after the race, but it is a good feeling.

A beautiful evening in Austin, TX.  Temps about 70 degrees.  We ran at Brushy Creek tonight.  1 mile warm-up, then we did drills, then Bill took us over to the dam and we ran 3 each 1 mile intervals.  I ran with Bill (old Bill) and Jason.  We didn't push it too hard tonight and did a 7:16, then a 7:15, then I did a 7:03 and lost Bill for the last 1/3 of a mile.  Jason stayed with me on the last mile.  Then we did a 1 mile cool down.  An enjoyable evening just to get out there and get some mileage under my belt.  Still feeling a little from the race we did 3 days ago, but overall all the body parts are feeling real good in prep for the marathon in San Antonio a week from this Sunday.