TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

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.