Accomplishment of the week

Jakeb and I took off in the muggy overcast morning for what was supposed to be a four miler. We hit about a mile and a half and I felt good so I asked Jakeb how he was doing.

He said, “I feel good.”

“Good enough to run five?”

“Sure, I’ll try it”, he said.

So we stretched our four miles into five. At about 3 and a half it started to rain which made the run much nicer since it was hot.

Toward the end Jakeb said, “This is my accomplishment of the week.”

I asked, “Are you ready to run eight more?”

To which he replied, “I will be in January.”

Good answer.

Full Track Workout

I finished my first full track workout of this season. I’ve stopped short of what my training schedule called for me to run on every other track workout so far. I felt much better this morning. I think the main reason I finished this workout was because I recently got an iPod and it sure helped me keep running to have music in my head.

The Brazoswood High School drill team showed up about half-way through my workout and decided the best place to meet before they started practice was on the track. They left half of the outside lane for runners and walkers to pass through. It’s their world … we just take up space in it.

Jakeb made the trip to the track with me. He ran two and then went home on his bike ahead of me.

800 warm-up
1 mile (400 recovery)
800 (400 recovery)
2x400 (400 recovery)
4x200 (200 recovery)
800 cool-down

All of the blue stuff was at about 7:00 per mile pace

Lake Conroe

I spent the last four days on Lake Conroe at a Leadership Team Retreat for our church. The last two days of running in the morning were great as the weather cooled down to something pleasant rather than the hot humidity that is the norm. I am used to running on the completely flat Lake Jackson roads so the “hills” around Lake Conroe at the beginning of every run were somewhat of a challenge.

It is good to be back home with the fam and running where running is familiar.

I jinxed Andrea

I didn’t mess up my running mojo but I think I jinxed Andrea. Yesterday I wrote about how well running was going for me and how Andrea is training to walk the half marathon in Houston. At about the same time I pressed the button to post that entry on my blog Andrea started having some pain in her left heal. She took off this morning to rest and iced it last night. Hopefully she will be back at it soon. Like I said I am not superstitious but if it were possible, I would give some of my running mojo to my wife so that she could walk again.

Jakeb and I took to the track this morning. I only ran half of my workout but it felt good to run faster than normal.

Running mojo

Running has been fun lately. Usually this time of year I hit a spot where it is really hard to walk out of the door in the mornings and run. For some reason it has been different this year. Maybe it is because Jakeb is running with me some. Maybe it is because Andrea is training this year to walk the half-marathon and watching her leave for exercise before me motivates me to get out there too. Maybe it is because I am in better shape to train for a marathon. I don’t know what has made the difference but I have not hit a low spot yet this season. If I were superstitious I would cross my fingers and knock on wood and throw salt over my shoulder or something to keep it going.

This morning Jakeb and I ran three miles together and it was good, then I ran 2 more alone. I felt like I could run for a while longer but I had to come in and get ready for work.

Hopefully this post won’t mess up my good running mojo.

I rode alone on my bike to the track this morning. Jakeb decided to switch his 3 mile run to tomorrow because he had a full day yesterday.

I ran an 800 warm-up, 1 mile, 800, 2x400, all at 7:30 pace with 400 recovery and an 800 cool down.

There were a lot of people at the track this morning. A couple of guys were running laps and everyone else was walking. I am not used to having a crowd around when I run. I’m sure that a majority of the people at the track did not even care that I existed but it felt like I was in a fish bowl and people were watching me run. Weird.

Into the fishbowl

I make my stand

Among the red fish

That shake my hand

The left of never

The right of me

The yellow water

Eternity

I'm in a fishbowl

I'm a fishbowl man

Why ride when you can drive?

My 1994 Ford Explorer died on Saturday morning. Since my dad is a mechanic he has been working on it. We’ve done fine as a one car family for a couple of days but I wonder what it would be like to have only one car long term.

I ran four miles this morning, fed the dogs, did some crunches, and then took a shower and tried to cool down. Since the Explorer was fried I rode my bike to work. When I got here I was a bit sweaty so it was good that I brought another shirt.

Without cars we would have to live closer to work. We would be in better shape. We would have to endure one another’s odor from the human powered travel to the office. Life would definitely simplify.

Dad just called and said the Explorer is fixed. Tomorrow I go back to my self-absorbed, air-conditioned, gas powered journey to work.

Tired

I woke up at about ten after six this morning (late for me), put on my running stuff and went out of the door at a little after seven. I ran about ten steps and thought “forget this” and went back home and ate breakfast and got ready for church.

I slept terribly last night and I was tired all over. I’m glad I didn’t run. It would have just worn me out and tomorrow is my long run - long for this time of year.

It’s time for an afternoon nap.

I run at 6 ... A.M.

The student ministry at our church had a dodge ball night at a local pizza restaurant/indoor soccer field a couple of weeks ago. One of the guys there is a high school runner and knows I run.

He came up to me and said, “Hey I want to run with you sometime.”

“You’re faster than me”, I told him.

“I don’t care, you run farther than me.”

“I run at six in the morning.”

He gave me a funny look and just walked away. He didn’t say “never mind” or “no thanks, that’s too early”. He just wandered off.

A couple of days ago I saw him in the office and I said, “Every morning I stand at the end of my driveway and look at my watch. It says ‘6:00 a.m.’ and I look up both sides of the street and you are not there. What’s up?”

He said, “I’ll meet you in the morning…at the track. I’ll ride my bike and meet you there”

Jakeb and I rode our bikes to the track the next morning and I looked at my watch. It said ‘6:00 a.m.’ and no one but me, Jakeb and a couple of walkers were on the dark oval.

A morning runner waits for no one. I think it has to do with that red line.

Blog Redesign

I was tired of the old blog look so I started messing around with a new template. I like the new design because it gives me greater flexibility with the header graphic. I find that tinkering with the design of the blog is way too addictive so I will stop now.

A horrible seven

I ran seven this morning and it was horrible. The first two and a half were with Jakeb and then I finished on my own. It was incredibly hot and my legs were dead weight. My shoes were sloshing by the time I made it home. I walked some between mile 5 and 6.

Andrea said, “At least you did it.”

Mosquito Chase photos

The worst race picture ever…link

I was trying to stay ahead of the guy in the black shorts behind me and I was not interested in posing for the finishing photo. It shows.

Here is a good picture of Jakeb … link

These are pictures from The Mosquito Chase … the race where my wife Andrea stood in the hot sun after her walk at the track and cheered me on.

Mosquito Chase

Jakeb and I ran the Mosquito Chase yesterday morning. The race is part of The Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute. It is normally the hottest local race of the year and this year was no exception.

As soon as the gun went off (or really when the guy starting the race yelled “Go!”) the sun came up over the horizon. I was able to keep pace with EQ for a couple of tenths of a mile but that was only because he started at the back of the pack and admitted that he was going to take it easy. It wasn’t long until he was out of sight.

I ran pretty well. I am not in my fastest 5k shape ever but I am pleased with the results. I passed 3 people in the second mile and picked off eight in the last 1.1 even though my pace progressively slowed.

Mile 1 – 7:27
Mile 2 – 7:42
Mile 3 – 7:50
.1 – 34:44
Total – 23:34 (7:36 pace)

Jakeb ran 26:05 about a minute and a half off of his 5k PR. It was a good race for him considering the heat and the fact that he is just in the beginning stages of training for a half-marathon.

Jake and I finished the day at an Astro's game with great seats behind home plate. We got to see Roy O pitch and the Astro's win so it was worth the trip.

Overall it was a good day.

Holy batphobia batman

Last week I mentioned how I am fascinated by bats. A couple of years ago I noticed that there were bats everywhere during the summer months. It was cool to watch as many as ten at a time flutter around above me as I ran.

I have a friend who worked at the local bird observatory and I asked him why it there seemed to be so many bats in the summer. He said that they were Mexican bats and they were migratory. So every summer I began to look forward to seeing the bats while I run.

This year the route I see them on the most is a run that takes me toward downtown Lake Jackson on Center Way. The bats seemed to be getting braver. Instead of flying ten to twenty feet above me, every so often one would circle a few feet in front of me. I thought it was cool and I never really even reacted to it until I read this article about the City of Lake Jackson finding rabid bats at a local apartment complex.

This morning Jakeb and I ran a new three mile route that he mapped out last night on Gmaps. After we hit the three mile mark, he stopped and went into the house and I ran on so I could get in a fourth mile. Right past the house a bat dove right in front of me. The experience was no longer enjoyable. It made me want to take another less bat infested route. It made me wish it was November.

Who needs a plan?

I ran six miles this morning. Being the imprecise runner that I am, all I know is that I ran it in about 55 minutes (~9:10 pace). This is my “long run” for the week as I start building up to marathon training.

I have been running in ignorant bliss, ignoring my training plan because I knew generally what I was supposed to be running but not specifically. So yesterday I opened my training plan spreadsheet and found that my general knowledge of my training plan was falling short of what I was actually supposed to be running.

This week I’ve run the following:

Saturday – 3 (track), Sunday – 5, Monday – 3, Tuesday – 4, Wednesday – 3, and Thursday – 6
Total – 24 miles

This is what my training plan called for:

Saturday – 4, Sunday – 4 (marathon pace), Monday – 6 (Long Run day), Tuesday – 4, Wednesday – 5 (track), Thursday - 4
Total – 27 miles

Fridays are my rest day. I’ll stick to the plan next week … and say goodbye to 3 milers forever.

Routine running

EQ gave me a hard time this morning @ church for not blogging about my running.

So … yesterday morning I went to the track with Andrea. I ran an 800 warm-up, 2x200 with 200 meter recovery, 2x400 with 400 meter recovery and an 800 with an 800 meter cool down for about 3 miles. I didn’t even look at the watch so I do not know how fast it was. All I know is the sun was up and it was HOT. Andrea and her sister walked for an hour.

This morning I ran five. 8:57, 9:11, 7:37, 9:15, 9:44 for a 45:44 total (9:08 pace).

I’ve been running but it has been very routine. I guess there is something to say for consistency but it is very boring to post on a blog. The bats are back in full force and they fascinate me. Other than that I have nothing to say…

Lake Catherine State Park

The family made it home from camping Monday night. We had a great time while we were away at Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas. Arkansas has some great state parks. We tent camped for a couple of nights and then spent two nights in a cabin.

Jakeb, Anna and Tori fished. Tori and Anna both caught their first fish on this trip. All three of our kids caught their first fish at Lake Catherine. Jakeb caught his first fish at Lake Catherine a couple of years ago.

We swam … the kids more than the adults. We hiked every trail in the park. Lake Catherine State Park has ten miles of hiking trails. I ran the trails a couple of times and slightly twisted my ankle yet again. Arrgh!

I read two books while I was away and thoroughly enjoyed both. This one and this one. It is rare that I read two books back-to-back that are as enjoyable. Usually there is a dud in between.

The trip was fun and relaxing.

Tonight Tori, Andrea and I are going to Everything is Spiritual … it should be good.

July 4th Firecracker 4

The firecracker four was a family affair this year. Jakeb and I ran the four miler. Andrea and Tori walked the two miler and Anna ran the kids K. Andrea’s sister Gwen and her kids Shannon and Matthew walked the two miler as well.

Jakeb finished in 36:47 – pretty well since it is his longest run in over a month and has done very little training since he has been busy camping.

I ran 32:33.

It was hot but I remember past years being worse. I saw a lot of people that I know. It was a good day to run.

Now it’s off to lunch with my parents – B-B-Que. And fireworks tonight with Andrea’s side of the family if the weather holds out.

We are leaving at the end of this week for a camping trip. All of us are looking forward to swimming, hiking, swimming, running, swimming, and other stuff and swimmimg.

Can't complain about the weather

This morning I ran in a suburb of Chicago. As I ran beside a small lake on an unfamiliar route I heard footsteps behind me. I looked back and a guy was breathing hard as he caught up to me.

As he reached me he slowed and said, “What do you think about this weather?”

It was cool and in the 60’s with 40% humidity and I said, “I think it’s great. I’m from the coast of Texas and it is 75 and high humidity even in the early morning. The weather here is almost perfect.”

He scoffed and said, “Wait until this weekend it will be just like Texas; humid and almost 90 degrees.”

Then he kicked in the afterburners and left me behind.

I won’t be here this weekend; I will be home where it is really hot. Most of our attitude in life is about perspective.

Four-Mile Tempo

I ran a four-mile tempo run yesterday. Jakeb ran the first two with me and he did a good job of hanging close. We put together a half-marathon training program that starts for him in July. I think it seems a little overwhelming for him as he sees the whole training program but we talked about how he will have to take it a run at a time. I know how intimidating it can be to think of how far you have to run towards the end of a training program. I wish I would have had the same opportunity at thirteen.

I was supposed to run my four-miler at 8:30 pace but got a little carried away with the last two.

8:30, 8:23, 8:11, 8:13

This morning I ran slow four and it was hot. The rest of the week will be hit and miss and hopefully next week I will get in a routine rhythm.

Later …