TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

Temp about 60 degrees. Nice evening run at Williamson County Park. Using my Garmin 305 toy, I love it. Ran the mulch trail 4 loops (2.15 miles per loop). Loop 1 pace 8:34 HR 151. Loop 2 pace 8:33 HR 152. Loop 3 pace 8:16 HR 155. Loop 4 8:37 HR 154. Ran a marathon goal pace mile on the track at a pace of 7:09 HR 161. Ran a cool down mile at 7:48 pace HR 157. Walked a lap recovery. Then jogged a easy recovery mile with Daniel just to have time to talk.

Daniel looked extremely good with his running tonight, and he was mentally feeling great.

I think this running every other day doing longer runs and giving me a recovery day is working for me. Still on 5mg Prednisone for PMR.

2nd place in my age group (55-59) out of 30 in our age group. Average pace 7:15. Just 0.7 seconds behind me our running buddy Joe Bernal finished 3rd in our age group.

Karen F and Karen H did great, finishing 10th and 8th in the women's 40 to 44 group out of 130 in their group.

Steve S finished in 21:12.2, Angel F finished in 21:22.5, Lou K finished in 19:11.9, Paul F finished in 19:24.0., Jason A finished in 19:19.4. Everyone in our Monday night group did a great job in this race. Tam ran 17 miles on Saturday so he didn't run the race today.

We ran as part of J's Crew. Karen F organized our team, in recognition of a friend of hers that has cancer.

Ran The Race for the Cure in Austin, TX. 5K race, temp about 65 degrees very high humidity. Great race, over 22,000 participants.

After fighting our way through the mass of slower runners over the first 1/4 mile of the race, the course went uphill for the first mile, up Congress Avenue up to the state capitol. We ran around the capitol, and then got into the downhill running back to the finish line on Auditorium Shores.

The uphill effort was significant, with heart rate steady at 163 to 165. 1st uphill mile pace was 7:35. 2nd mile around the capitol and starting downhill was 6:48 with HR at 166. My Garmin 305 lost the satellite signal somewhere as I ran through the tall buildings in town, because it only showed the total distance of 2.53 miles. But I believe the HR monitoring was pretty close. I sprinted in the last 100 to 150 meters, and the HR went up to 176.

After the race we all went over to Maudie's and had breakfast tacos. This included me, Lynn, Karen F, Karen H, Joe F, Angel F, and Paul F. We saw Steve S there too. The place was loaded and service was really bad (overloaded), but we still like going to Maudie's.

This felt good to get back into a race. We need to do this more often. I took my 5mg Prednisone at 4:00 AM this morning, hoping it would get into my system enough to help hold off the PMR muscle issues during the race, and I think it worked.

Temp about 75 degrees, humidity high. Ran at McNeil HS track. Started about 4:40 PM. Ran alone 5 miles, then Earl showed up and ran with him. Continued my own pace until I had 9.5 miles done, then joined Donnie's group to run with Karen F. & Karen H. & Joe. We did 3 each 1000 meters at paces: 7:15, 7:10, 6:57 each, with 200 meter recovery.

Pace for my first 9.5 miles was generally 8:00 pace, and heart rate was typically about 155. On the 1000 meter runs the heart rate averaged 154, 160, 163. Max HR got up to 171 at the end of the last 1000 meter run.

This was a great night of running. The McNeil HS football team was practicing for the first 9.5 miles of my running, then they turned off the lights when they left, so we ran Donnie's drills in the dark. No problem, a fun run.

Temp about 85 degrees. Beautiful day. Ran at Williamson County Park. 4 loops around the mulch trail, 2.15 miles per loop. Did a ladder method.

1st 2.15 miles at 9:30 super easy pace, HR 141. 2nd 2.15 miles at 9:00 easy pace, HR 147. 3rd 2.15 miles at 8:20 pace, HR 154. 4th 2.15 miles with Tam at 8:00, HR 158. Then ran 2 miles on the track at 8:30 and at 7:26 paces, HR 148 and HR 160. Then 1 mile cool down very easy pace 9:30, HR 137.

Good to see Donnie's group, and to run with Tam and run a little with Daniel. Daniel had achilles pain in both achilles, so after about 2.5 miles he called it off, protecting the injury.

Reduced Prednisone medication from 5mg to 4mg today.

Temp about 83 degrees. Ran alone at Williamson County Park. Did the 2.15 mile mulch trail 4 times then it was dark so I went over to the track and did 2 miles.

Mulch trail: 1st 2.15 miles took it very easy at 9:04 and 9:12 pace, HR at 139 and 145. 2nd 2.15 miles easy at 8:57 and 9:04 pace, HR at 141 and 149. 3rd 2.15 miles picked it up some at 8:36 and 8:05 pace, HR at 146 and 156. 4th 2.15 miles easy at 9:16 and 8:47 pace, HR at 144 and 151.

Then at the track I ran hard on the straight sections and ran easy on the curves for 1.5 miles, and then did a 0.5 mile easy recovery.

Then after running I did 1/4 mile very slow high knee lift steps to assist in flexibility. It took 9 minutes to do one lap of the track. A good flexibility exercise.

By the time I was done at 6:30 PM, the wind had picked up, the temperature began dropping as a cold front is moving into central Texas.

Looking forward to see the Texas Longhorns play Kansas State on Saturday night. It sure was funny to see Rutgers beat 3rd ranked Louisville, after all the media hype for Louisville.

Karen H. and I are going to run the Motive 1/2 marathon race on Sunday morning, but instead of race pace we are doing a weekend training run pace.

Medication at 4mg Prednisone.

Motive Half Marathon, Austin, TX. Temp in high 40's or low 50's, great for running. We picked up Karen H. at 6:40 AM and went over to start the race. Our goal was to run a fun run as a weekend training run, targeting 8:30 to 9:00 pace. Our official chip time average pace was 8:36, so we were right on.

Karen had just finished a great 1/2 Iron-Man race 2 weeks ago, so we didn't want to overdo it today. Karen's friend Casey ran with us for the first 5 miles or so as a bandit. Casey had run the 1/2 Iron-Man with Karen 2 weeks ago. Had fun telling her marathon stories. She wants to qualify for Boston and join Karen and me next April.

We had a great race telling marathon stories, and half Iron-Man stories. Karen is real confident looking forward for her first full Iron-Man next June in Idaho.

I wore the Garmin 305 toy and monitored our pace and my heart rate. We waited until basically all the runners had started the race, and then we started, figuring that anyone in front of us needed to be passed up, even though we were not really "racing" this race. This approach really made the race a lot of fun as we jabbered and ran very much in control for the first 8 miles, and then we started to pick up the pace for the last 5.1 miles. Paces and HR were:

1. 8:51; HR 146.

2. 8:17; HR 153.

3. 8:35; HR 150.

4. 8:33; HR 154.

5. 8:22; HR 151.

6. 9:11; HR 158. Into the hills.

7. 9:14; HR 153. Into the hills.

8. 8:30; HR 152.

9. 8:18; HR 154.

10. 8:33; HR 151.

11. 7:58; HR 154.

12. 8:05; HR 157.

13. 8:23; HR 157.

13.1 7:08; HR 160.

This fun run gave Karen 30th place out of 128 in her age group. It gave me 15th place out of 39 in my age group.

We didn't see Tam, but his finish pace was 8:01, so he had a great race. Also, we didn't see Daniel F., but he finished his first 1/2 marathon. Awesome for Daniel!!

Joe had a great race averaging 8:13 pace, finishing 12th in our age group. Angel had a awesome race averaging a 7:19 pace. Donnie O'neal was out of this world, averaging a 6:29 pace. Donnie's wife, Jill, averaged a 7:19 pace, awesome race. Andy had a 8:05 pace, great race.

Medication at 4mg Prednisone.

Temp about 80 degrees. Ran McNeil HS with Donnie's group. Did 1.4 warm-up miles with Daniel and talked about the 1/2 marathon yesterday. It was the first time he has run that far, and he did it at the same pace he had done a 10K a few weeks ago. Very satisfying for Daniel.

Ran the workout with Joe and Karen H. We did 2 miles, with crunches or push-ups every lap. A recovery workout after running the 1/2 marathon yesterday. 1st mile at 8:46, HR at 132. 2nd mile at 8:34, HR 142.

After the workout the traffic was terrible going north on Parmer. It took 45 minutes just to get to Hwy 620, due to an accident.

Medication at 4mg Prednisone. Do not know if muscle aches is all due to race recovery, or contributed to by reduction of medication to 4mg.

Muscles still hurting some. Seems to have a specific pain in left hip and lower back. Is it still from race recovery, or is it from effects of dropping muscle disorder medication down to 4mg last Wednesday? I don't know right now.

Also working late until 8:15 PM, so I took the day off from running.

Temp about 80 degrees. Ran 11 easy miles over at the Wells Branch trails. Nice day. Legs were still a little out of sorts, since doing the 1/2 marathon on Sunday morning, and reducing the Prednisone medication down to 4mg per day.

Ran at a real easy comfortable pace. 1st 2.21 miles at 9:07 pace, HR 143. 2nd 2.25 at 9:05 pace, HR 146. 3rd 2.25 at 9:06 pace, HR 142. 4th 2.22 miles 9:12 pace, HR 144. 5th 2.25 at 9:24 pace, HR 143.

I was happy to do the run, but I'm a little unsettled about not having the legs feel 100%. I'm not patient enough to put up with this nonsense. Anyway, it sure felt good to get out and get in a run.

Ran Mt. Bonnell with Karen and Karen. A really beautiful morning in Austin, TX. On the way back down from Mt. Bonnell we saw a steady stream of running groups that were headed up that way. What a great running community here in Austin.

Headed for Colorado about 2:00 PM Saturday. Stayed in Dumas, TX Sat night, and got to Colorado Springs about 12:30. Staying the week at Desiree's home.

I told Ethan that the 4mg Prednisone is marginally working. Every morning the neck is stiff, legs are tight and have some goofy aches. It is frustrating. The Poly Myalgia Rheumatica is my main concern right now. I'm probably going to back off on my running intensity, and focus on the PMR, but keep up enough running that I can sustain some kind of base. I need to reach a point that the sore neck and legs is not an issue, so I can increase the running intensity.

This past week Lynn and I were in Colorado with the family for Thanksgiving. We built a horse barn for one of Desiree's horses. Had a great time with the grand-children. I plan to run Monday night at McNeil with Donnie's group. Tuesday I fly to North Carolina and then to Tennessee for the rest of the week.