High-Octane

Did something I have never done before...Ran my weekly long (10 miles) run "fast" on the treadmill...! As you can see, I could really pick up the pace from my normal hilly run. Still wondering what my top endurance level is. I'm courious to see what my pace will be in a "flat" Half Marathon. The one I'm running on Feb. 20 is supposed to be somewhat hilly. Anyway...here's the numbers....

2/1/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	7:40:00	127
2	6:45:00	158
3	6:39:00	159
4	6:39:00	162
5	6:23:00	163
6	6:30:00	164
7	6:52:00	165
8	7:12:00	165
9	6:47:00	171
10	6:26:00	174
Total	67:53:00	161
Pace	6:47:18

Romans 15:5
"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,"

18 Degrees here today and very windy, chill factor at 0 so obviously I went to the gym to run again. I stuck to my plan to run 10 with an average heart rate at 125. Although my average was 125 it went up higher than I wanted the last couple of miles. I was also wondering what pace I would maintain at this heart rate. So below you can see the details. I'm betting there's a lot of people running on their treadmills today...even the guy who ownes the running store down town was coming into the gym this moring to run as I was leaving...ha ha...! I've decided to run another Half Marathon on March 6th here in San Marcos called Mo's Better Half. This is two weeks after my first one in Austin on Feb 20. That will be interesting to compair the two races. I believe Austin is fairly hilly and San Marcos is mostly flat. Tomorrow I was going to do some speed work...the bad thing is the treadmills in the gym will only go up to a 6:00 pace...I guess that's what I'll run.

2/2/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:35:00	110
2	8:31:00	124
3	8:42:00	125
4	8:53:00	126
5	9:04:00	126
6	8:42:00	125
7	8:44:00	126
8	8:50:00	127
9	9:07:00	128
10	9:20:00	129
Total	88:28:00	125
Pace	8:50:48

Proverbs 25:20
Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on a wound, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

I was supposed to go to the track to do my timed miles today....NO WAY...!!!! 19 Degrees and windy is way too cold for me...! I went to the gym and ran. The problem with that is the treadmills only go at a maximum 6:00 pace....so that's what I ran. I worked on my cadence trying to get my steps up from the normal 168 to about 200. I couldn't do if for the entire time each mile...probably more like 1/3 of the time. I rested two minutes between miles which allowed my heart rate to go down to 110 before I started the next mile. All seemed good excpet I wish the treadmills would go faster and I wish I could run this fast on the track. My track times for the same timed miles is about 30 seconds slower and more draining.

5 Timed Miles on Treadmill
2/3/2011
Mile	Time	Max HR
1/2	9:00	Warm-Up
1	6:00:00	161
2	6:00:00	166
3	6:00:00	167
4	6:00:00	167
5	6:00:00	168
1/2	9:00:00	Cool-Down
Total	30:00:00
Pace	6:00:00

Genesis 2:2
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

I decided to stay on the treadmill again today. I got up at 5:30 to go to the gym and found it was 20 degrees and snow and ice on the ground. Went back to bed for a couple of hours then got up and ran. Also, this morning, I inspected my shoes and feet a little, after seeing Flanders "Flat" shoes photo. I posted a couple of photos for your enjoyment. The shoes are my "new" shoes with only 250 miles on them. They are Niki - Mojo 6 (I think...I will look more carefully when I get home). Notice how I have worn the outside of the heels, one is actually through the black hard sole and the other is close. I compared them to my "old" shoes (Niki - Pegasus...I think) and noticed, although they were worn a little, they were not anywhere close to being worn through the black hard sole. I have over 600 miles on the old shoes. Maybe I should send the new ones back and ask for a refund...ha ha... The next picture shows you why I'm not a foot model...and no that's not black toenail polish on four of my toes...Enjoy the pictures...!

Joshua 9:13
And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

"On the Road Again"....Finally warm enought for me to run outside. Ran my 6.6 Loop but forgot my heart monitor. Tried something different, 1 slow mile, 1 fast mile, 1 slow mile, 1 fast mile, etc... Total: 3.6 slow miles and 3 fast miles...Here's the results. This taxed me pretty much...had to slow down for about a minute on the third fast mile because I got a pain under my left arm.

2/5/2011
Mile	Time
1	8:24:00	slow
2	6:20:00	fast
3	8:36:00	slow
4	6:37:00	fast
5	9:49:00	slow
6	6:53:00	fast
6.6	5:38:00	slow
Total	52:17:00
Pace	7:48:23

Luke 24:13-16
 ^13" Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him. "

Well...I don't know what to say about this run. Since it was 20 miles (and I have only run 20 once before) I don't really have much to compare it to. I didn't get to run until after lunch and by that time it was 65 degrees with winds up to about 15 mph. I started out strong and though I could maintain but then hit the head wind. I wanted to maintain a 8:15 pace and did pretty well until my 13.1 mark...then it seemed to just fall apart. I didn't feel very good from this point on. I thought I could pick up my heart rate after about 10 miles and in turn pick up my pace but that was not the case. On the contrary my heart rate seem to go down but my effort went up. I was drinking gatorade (maybe not enough) and I had a couple of Gu packs along the way. I basiclly ran my loop (6.75 miles) three times...I realized when you run by your start/stop location a couple of times there's a real urge to just stop each time you go by that point..ha ha... After the run I was really drained, I got chilled immediatly and felt almost like I had the flu for a couple of hours. I felt pretty bad up until I went to bed. When I woke up this morning I was sore but went ahead to the gym and ran 5 slow recovery miles. I've got to figure out something different next time I run 20...this was too painful and I wasn't happy with my performance!

2 Samuel 15:26
"But if he says, ‘I am not pleased with you,’ then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him.”

2/7/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	7:48:00	154
2	8:03:00	152
3	8:10:00	153
4	8:46:00	154
5	8:32:00	154
6	8:28:00	152
7	7:52:00	152
8	7:56:00	154
9	8:28:00	153
10	8:14:00	153
11	9:11:00	155
12	8:06:00	154
13.1	9:16:00	153
14	8:07:00	152
15	9:33:00	152
16	8:22:00	150
17	9:12:00	153
18	9:47:00	151
19	8:53:00	148
20	9:24:00	151
Total	172:08:00	153
Pace	8:36:24

Pretty uneventful 5 easy miles on the treadmill except for the fact that I was still sore from the run yesterday. My feet and toes were sore as well as my left hip (hurts in the joint)...I think I'm falling apart! Crazy though...my heart rate was lower than normal for a 5 mile run at a 9:00 pace...?

2/7/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	9:00:00	120
2	9:00:00	122
3	9:00:00	123
4	9:00:00	126
5	9:00:00	127
Total	45:00:00	124
Pace	9:00:00

Genesis 32:32
"Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
"

OK....I'm ready to run again. Yesterday I wasn't sure...ha ha, after Saturday's 20 miles I didn't feel very good and even yesterday I was still sore. Today I got up early and went to the gym to run, since it was 30 degrees outside. I couldn't really decide what to run so I just warmed up a little and set the treadmill on 8:00 mile pace and started to run. After 12 miles I was out of time and had to go to work. It's interesting that my heart rate seemed to level off at 140 after 10 miles. I felt about 90% when I started and felt pretty good even after I was finished. Now I need to decide what to run tomorrow. I've got 10 on my schedule and hopefully it will be warm and not rainy so I can run on the road.

2/8/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:00:00	115
2	8:00:00	133
3	8:00:00	135
4	8:00:00	136
5	8:00:00	136
6	8:00:00	137
7	8:00:00	137
8	8:00:00	138
9	8:00:00	139
10	8:00:00	139
11	8:00:00	140
12	8:00:00	140
Total	96:00:00	135
Pace	8:00:00

1 Samuel 16:16
"Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.”

Dang....Thought I was going to be able to run outside this morning. When I got upt the temperature was 49 degrees but when I checked outside it was raining! I packed up and went to the gym. I really didn't have a running plan until I stepped on the treadmill. I was a little stiff but seemed to loosen up after the first half mile warm-up...so I decided to run a 1/5 mile fast...it felt good so I just decided to repeat that process...run a 7.5 pace 1/2 then a 6:00 pace 1/2, then repeated. In the end I realized overall I ran faster than my previous fast 10 mile treadmill workout, plus my heart rate averaged 154 where it averaged 161 before. That seems to be an improvement...?. I need an "effort meter" since I can't really remember how hard previous workout are. Anyway...I feel good now that's what counts.

2/9/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	7:12:00	131	Treadmill - 1/2 Mile at 7.5 Pace then 1/2 Mile at 6:00 Pace - Repeat 10x, Then 1/2 Mile Cool Down
2	6:43:00	145
3	6:43:00	150
4	6:44:00	153
5	6:42:00	156
6	6:43:00	158
7	6:44:00	161
8	6:45:00	162
9	6:44:00	163
10	6:35:00	165
Total	67:35:00	154
Pace	6:45:30

Matthew 16: 1-3

Another day...another 7 miles on the treadmill...slow and easy. Just set the treadmill at 9:00 pace (and at a 1% incline as my good friend Der Hammer suggested) and cruised the distance. Wore my new shoes, which felt great, listened to K-love. Below is the boaring details.

2/10/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	9:00:00	118
2	9:00:00	121
3	9:00:00	124
4	9:00:00	124
5	9:00:00	125
6	9:00:00	126
7	9:00:00	127
Total	63:00:00	124
Pace	9:00:00	1% Incline

Nehemiah 8:3
"He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law."

Ran the treadmill again...it was 18 degrees this morning. I decided to try out my brand new shinny bright orange Brooks Racer ST shoes today...! BTW...orange is my favorite color! They feel great...the only thing is my arches seem a little tired after the run. Didn't really decide what to run until I stepped onto the treadmill, after a 1/4 mile decided to run 3/4 mile easy (9:00 pace = below 130 HR) then run 1/4 mile fast (6:00 pace = 155 HR) then repeat throughout the 6 miles. I cooled down for 1/2 mile at 10:00 pace to get my heart rate to 120. The treadmills at the gym are set to max out at 6:00 pace so thats as fast as I can go....well I mean on those treadmills...I think I can run a lot faster...ha ha :)

9/11/2010
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:30:00	117	Treadmill - Warm-up 3/4 mile @ 9:00 pace then 1/4 Mile @ 6:00 pace thru 6 miles then 1/2 mile cool down (total = 6.5 miles)
2	8:15:00	129
3	8:15:00	134
4	8:15:00	137
5	8:15:00	138
6	8:04:00	139
6.5	cool-down
Total	49:34:00	132
Pace	8:15:40	1% Incline

Today I ran what my friend Der Hammer recommended (well...with a little modification). My big loop is 10 miles so I actually ran an extra warm-up mile so the total distance would bring me back home without having to walk a mile. I may have not followed his instructions correct (I realized this after I was midway into the run) because I increased my speed over the 5 fast miles...I believe he said to run at at 7:20 to 7:30 pace...well I just kept speeding up. At the end of the 5 I was thinking maybe I should have maintained a little slower pace since I was really spent at the end of the 5. I could not have kept up the pace much further! As you can see, my heart rate just kept increasing and after the fast five it never went way low (like in the 130's) until I quit running completly. Maybe my slow miles were too fast...It felt ok and I also kept feeling myself trying to speed up on the last two miles. Oh well...here's the details. Thanks Der Hammer for the advice. If you read this I would like your advice again...if you don't mind.

2/12/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:46:00	128	10 Mile Loop - Warm-up first 3, Run Hard for 5, Cool-down for 2
2	8:46:00	141
3	7:25:00	140
4	7:23:00	160
5	7:20:00	165
6	7:16:00	170
7	6:56:00	172
8	9:09:00	174
9	8:50:00	158
10	8:57:00	156
Total	36:20:00	156
Speed Miles Pace	7:16:00	40 Degrees
Elevation Change		106

Psalm 118:7
"The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies."

Boring details tomorrow...too much trouble from my phone! The only question is to pop or not pop the blister..,?

Ok...I poped the blister... Details below (of the run, not the blister popping)...really boaring, just tried to maintain a 9:00 pace throughout the run...no dead aminals...nothing...!

2/13/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:39:00	141	10 Mile Loop - Tried to maintain a 9:00 pace
2	9:14:00	131
3	9:04:00	134
4	8:45:00	138
5	8:36:00	134
6	9:09:00	133
7	9:01:00	135
8	8:39:00	136
9	8:59:00	134
10	7:52:00	140
Total	87:58:00	135
Pace	8:47:48
Elevation Change		106

Psalm 110:4
"The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”"

Really foggy this morning...felt like I was swimming and not running. I bet Flatlander sees these conditions a lot! I decided to run 5 today...3/4 slow and 1/4 sprint pace. First couple were good, last three I was really pushing on the sprint. As you can see I had to slow down on the 3/4's to regain my breath. My legs were pretty tired at the end. I guess I haven't tried to run this fast since I was a kid. I felt pretty choppy when trying to run this fast, I thought it would be more smooth feeling...oh well, I seemed to get up to a pretty good pace (3:37) althought that was on a slightly downhill run. Wish I could keep that up for a reasonable distance.

2/14/2011			Heart Rate
Mile	Time	Fastest Pace	Avg.	Low	High
1	7:47:00	4:33	130	130	157
2	8:37:00	3:59	140	140	164
3	8:33:00	4:45	143	143	166
4	8:39:00	4:14	144	144	167
5	8:39:00	3:37	146	146	166
Total	42:15:00		141
Pace	8:27:00

Amos 2:15
"The archers will not stand their ground.The swiftest runners won’t be fast enough to escape.Even those riding horses won’t be able to save themselves."

After running my 1/4 mile sprints yesterday, my legs felt a little "puffy" and my left knee had a little odd feeling in it. I think I just overdrove my joints a little. Felt better this morning but still could feel a little something in my knee. Anyway I decided to run my "slowest" loop ever (my normal 6.6 run) and did a great job averaging 9:56 pace (I was shooting for 10:00 pace). Oh...I also figured out how to set my Garmin on "Auto Lap"..ha...now I'm precisly accurate! On another note...You know I just realized this morning that now I really don't think or worry about how far I'm running on a day, I just think and worry about how fast I'm going to run. It used to be I was much more concerned about the distance...just an interesting thought..? Anyway I've put the details below althought they're so boaring nobody will even care...

Job 3:4
"That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it."

2/15/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	9:51:00	125	Loop
2	9:58:00	120
3	9:50:00	126
4	10:06:00	120
5	10:01:00	127
6	10:01:00	129	59:47:00
6.6	6:50:00	125	9:57:50
Total	66:37:00	125
Pace	9:56:47

Took the day off...First off day in 30 days. My knee felt really puffy yesterday evening. It's better this morning but feels like it could puff up again. I think the 1/4 mile speed runs, on Monday, did the dammage. I'm going to wait till tomorrow to decide what to run the rest of the week.

Weather says 55 degrees and 30% chance of rain for the race on Sunday morning...hope it's not raining...!

My goal is to 1:45... might as well get it written down now so I can't fuge on the time... :)

I decided to go to the gym and run an easy 5 miles on the treadmill to make sure my knee was not going to do something weird...Did it...and the knee was fine so tomorrow I'll run 10 on the road to get back into the groove. Today was hot...they usually don't turn on any AC in the gym so it was really humid.

Race on Sunday...not feeling very confident at this point! Oh well...it's the first one and if I just reach the finish line it will be an accomplishment.

2/7/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:26:00	118	Treadmill MPM
2	8:00:00	137
3	8:00:00	143
4	8:00:00	145
5	7:32:00	149
Total	39:58:00	138
Pace	7:59:36	1% Incline

Philippians 3:2-4 

"Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.  For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—  though I myself have reasons for such confidence."

Well...Kam gave me advice to not run for the two days before my race on Sunday..I didn't get the message until I had already run this morning...but my plan was to run very, very easy which I did. Ran my Loop (6.6 miles) trying to keep my heart rate at or below 120. The last quarter I couldn't stand it and had to run at a faster pace...;) Even at that I sweated a lot. The humidity must have been 100%. Oh well...felt good...it was easy...nothing really hurts...I guess I'm as ready as I can be!

2/18/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	9:56:00	121	Loop - Really Slow and Easy (Tried to maintain a 120 HR)
2	10:13:00	116
3	9:49:00	120
4	11:01:00	121
5	10:38:00	121
6	10:30:00	122
6.6	5:58:00	131
Total	68:05:00	122
Pace	10:09:56

Numbers 14:39
"When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country, saying, "We're here; we're ready—let's go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we're ready.""

Ran 2 miles at just below 8:00 pace to test how I'm feeling. For some reason I didn't feel very good last night. Woke up 5 or 6 times and feeling almost like I had the flu or something...just ached all over, felt better this morning. I'm going to pick up my packet for the race after lunch.

Ran anoter 2 miles at just below 8:00 pace in the evening. I know it's against what most people are recommending, but I just need to feel confident about my pace. This week has been so weird I just felt like I needed to do this to gain some confidence.

Psalm 71:5
"For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth."

Overall finish – 431 (10,523 total)

Age Finish – 17^th (305 total)

First of all I want to say I had a great day at the race! I went to the Expo Center on Saturday, the day before, and picked up my Bib and Packet. At the Expo I was able to meet up with Der Hammer, who lives in Austin. We have been communicating on the Blog and he has been giving me some great advice and encouragement. BTWâ€Ĥyou need to check out his race reportâ€ĤHe qualified for Bostonâ€ĤYESâ€Ĥ!!! I couldn’t believe how much traffic and how many people were at the Expo and at the race on Sunday. I think there were about 20,000 runners in all (5,000 Marathoners, 10,500 Half Marathoners, and others in the several thousand in a variety of other races). It might have been fun to run with someone but what the heckâ€ĤI was probably too self conscience about how I was going to doâ€Ĥprobably better I was by myself.

At the beginning of the race I lined up at the very end of the “chute”. This was probably a bad decision because for the first three miles I felt like OJ Simpson running through the airport dodging people, jumping over strollers and just trying not to run over the back of someone. I really couldn’t get into a good stride until about the fourth mile. (Actually I later looked at the 5K times for all of the 17 runners that beat me; every one of them had a faster 5K pace than meâ€Ĥ I was up to 5 minutes slower; most were 3 or 4 minutes faster than me. I did intend to go out slow but I think this was too slow. Even with this slow start and after 3 miles I realized my heart rate was 163, way higher than I wanted it at this point in the race so I decided to slow down on mile 4 to see if I could make it go down. After running mile 4 in 8:21 I decided my heart rate wasn’t going to go down unless I started walking so I just decided to run by pace and not worry about my heart rate, if I burned out then I burned out! I also think it was about this point in the race that I saw the BIG guy with no shirt, his I-pod strapped to the back of his shorts in front of me. Every time he took a stride about 6 inches of his crack showedâ€ĤI decided I couldn’t take looking at that ugly sight so drastically picked up the pace to get in front of him and stay there! Around mile 5 or 6 two really hairy butted guys came running into the race group wearing only g-straps and tee shirtsâ€Ĥat this point in the race I realized why they call Austin “WEIRD”â€Ĥ! Finally at mile 7 I decide to tune out all of the distractions and JUST RUN. On my 7^th mile I broke the 7:00 pace and realized I was going to be able to finish the raceâ€Ĥ! On miles 8 and 9 I just cruised at what I felt was a comfortable pace. Since I wanted to finish strong, I decided to slow a little on mile 10 and ran it at 8:11. At the 11 mile spit (Full Marathon or Half Marathon) I joked with the race judge about which way I should go. He encouraged me to take the Full route but at the last minute I decided to go ahead with my Half planâ€ĤHa Haâ€Ĥ Mile 12 was greatâ€Ĥ!!! They say it has the toughest hill of the course and I was looking forward to it. I think I passed about 20 runners on this hill and a total of about 50 from that point in the race until the endâ€ĤNo one passed me after the 11 mile markâ€Ĥ! This made me feel good. I was tired at the end but quickly recovered and today feel about like I do on any longer run day. Now I have a PR and a goal to beat in two weeks in San Marcos at another Half Marathon. That’s my race report and that’s all I have to say about that!

Livestrong Half Marathon
2/20/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:02:00	150	Livestrong Half Marathon
2	7:33:00	159
3	7:54:00	163
4	8:21:00	163
5	8:00:00	161
6	7:52:00	162
7	6:59:00	162
8	7:34:00	162
9	7:37:00	165
10	8:11:00	165
11	7:53:00	169
12	7:36:00	173
13	7:37:00	175
13.1	1:07:00	179
Total	102:16:00	165
Pace	7:48:24

1 Corinthians 9:24

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

Took the day off after the race yesterday...Although I feel fine...

Ha...Ha....I went back and compared a run I did about 6 month ago with this one today...same route, same distance, same pace and I think the weather was about the same...My heart rate has gone down from 150 Avg. to 136 Avg on the same run...! I'm happy about that! That feels like I'm making progress. I'm also happy it's now light during most of my run, I like light. I go to the doctor today for the yearly check-up. I hope we don't have to do the dreaded bootie check. I'm worried this may also be the year for the colonoscopy...Noooooo!!! Anyway, at least I got in my Half Marathon before I was reminded how old I am. Feeling pretty good after the race, I couldn't remember what I was supposed to run this morning (I keep my schedule on my computer at work) so I ran the standard loop (6.6 miles), I was only supposed to run 4...Oh well!

Oh yeah...I think I'm going to get my running partner back on Wednesday, Callie my daughter, may get released to run again after a stress fracture kept her from running for several months.

Here's the details.

2/22/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:48:00	128	Loop - Slow (Just tried to pace below 9:00)
2	8:55:00	139
3	8:46:00	134
4	8:59:00	140
5	8:52:00	140
6	8:47:00	135
6.6	5:47:00	138
Total	58:54:00	136	Blood Pressure
Pace	8:47:40	53 Deg.	98/60

1 Timothy 4:15
"Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress."

Okay....I really never even thought about post-race recovery,so after the race on Sunday I decided simply to take a day off and then get back into my training on Tuesday. Yesterday (Tuesday) I ran 6.6 fairly easy miles but after that, during the day, I started looking at blogs and articles about allowing your body to rest and recovery. Most all of them say to take several days off...so I decided to take another day off today. One of the articles said to test your recovery by checking your resting heart rate. When your body is fully recovered it will be back to normal. Mine was about 6 beats faster than normal this morning. So now the delimia...what to run the next few days and between now and my next Half Marathon on March 6th...

I'm a little lost in my training right now...after the race. Don't really know if I should rest or run...so I Just Run... Went to the hot/sweaty gym and ran 5 miles at an 8:00 pace just to see how I was feeling. I don't really seem too sore today although I was yesterday, maybe I was a little sluggish feeling. Anyway, I made it through 5 it was about 70 degrees when I finished in the gym (they don't turn on the AC). Ran with 1% incline which raises my heart rate about 8 BPM from flat. Tomorrow I will run 10 fairly slow, on the road, to see how that feels. I've got to get back up to speed before next weekends race.

Here is a link to photos of my race in Austin. Bib # 7661...

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=75398&BIB=7661&LNSEARCH=1

2/7/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	8:25:00	118	Treadmill MPM
2	8:00:00	140
3	8:00:00	145
4	8:00:00	148
5	7:32:00	152
Total	39:57:00	141	65 Deg.
Pace	7:59:24	1% Incline

Daniel 3:15
"Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

WoooooHooooooo......MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT...!!!!

After setting my new goal of qualifing for Boston on my first Marathon, I decided I needed to increase my speed quite  bit to feel comfortable about this goal. I went out today and ran my 10 mile hilly route at a determined pace of 7:30. As you can see at the end I was actually 7:23...! After seeing what my heart rate was during the Austin Half-Marathon I realized I now can maintain a higher heart rate for a longer period of time. Even at the pace today my heart rate was better than the race last week. Now, next up, to run below 1:40:00 next weekend at the Moe's Half Marathon then figure out how to train for the Oklahoma City Marathon on May 1st....Any suggestions would be appriciated. (BTW...I think I have to run a 3:35:00 to qualify for Boston).

2/25/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	7:34:00	138	10 Mile Loop Backwards
2	7:30:00	157
3	7:02:00	161
4	7:07:00	163
5	7:23:00	165
6	7:45:00	166
7	7:19:00	165
8	7:41:00	166
9	7:15:00	167
10	7:16:00	170
Total	73:52:00	161
Pace	7:23:12	53 Deg.	Max Speed
Max Ascent		892	5.5

Nehemiah 8:10
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

Ran one loop today, trying to keep at 10 min. pace and keeping my heart rate at an average of 125 bpm. With the hill my pace slowed on a couple of miles to keep my heart rate down. I started looking at what heart rate you should run a marathon and am now getting nervous about my ability maintain a sustainable heart rate over that distance. I don't think the speed or the distance will be a problem but as I studied my heart rate over my last couple of big runs (Austin Half-marathon 7:48 pace & 10 miles here on my hilly course 7:23 Pace) and found that I was running at 85 - 90% (161 bpm) of my oveally capacity. Not sure if I can maintain that over 26.2 miles... Hummm... how do I get my heart rate down to 75% (146 bpm) in two months...? I guess I'll just keep running...

2/26/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	9:53:00	119	Loop - Slow (Just tried to pace below 10:00)
2	10:23:00	123
3	9:55:00	121
4	10:21:00	127
5	9:59:00	128
6	9:44:00	127
6.6	6:20:00	130	Max Heart Rate
Total	66:35:00	125
Pace	9:56:29	63 Deg.	135

Psalm 31:6
"I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the LORD."

Well...Don't know if I did something stupid today but I felt Like I needed to do it. A lady from our church has been teaching the small kids about how all things can be done through Christ. So she decided to run from her house to chruch (19.2 miles). She has been running for a while and bringing her long runs up to her max. 16 two weeks ago. Each week she would run a little further to church each Sunday. Today was the day to run the entire distance. She had asked me several times to run with her and I hadn't given her a firm answer. (Ha...Ha...she thinks I'm a "real" runner.) Anyway last night I decided I should (and wanted to do it with her). Three others joined us at about miles 7, 9 and 15. It's funny because at about mile 15 we ran into the San Marcos Running Club. I know only one guy who is in the club, he ownes the new running store in town. As they caught up with us I ran for a little while with them and then backtracked to meet back with my group. As you can see from my log I actually backtracked several times to increase my milage. I wasn't intending to run that much further but seemed to be compelled as the pace was so slow. I also wanted to run some "tempo" miles (I think that's what you call them) to see how I felt after that many miles. the pace felt fine but as you can see my heart rate would rise quite a bit each time. I still believe I can run the BQ qualifying pace but I may not be able to keep my heart rate at 85 - 90% for the entire 26.2 miles (Can anyone tell me if a typical Marathoner runs with a heart rate of 85-90% of max for the duration of the race?). The weather was pretty nasty, about 65 degrees and drizzling most of the way. I basically poured water out of my shoes at the end. I didn't bother with any Gu, just Gatoraide and water. Anyway....It was a good run, my maximum distance ever run and for a great cause...!

Now to get ready for the Half-marathon this coming Sunday. I'm not sure if this run was good or bad for me. I guess I'll find out in the next few days. I still plan to bust 1:40:00 this weekend!

2/27/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate
1	11:06:00	122	Wood's House to Church (With Tanya and Other Girls)
2	10:29:00	126
3	10:37:00	121
4	10:29:00	124
5	9:58:00	132
6	7:17:00	157
7	9:26:00	144
8	11:45:00	123
9	11:36:00	125
10	11:37:00	126
11	10:29:00	132
12	11:19:00	128
13	11:31:00	128
14	9:48:00	136
15	8:42:00	146
16	7:31:00	158
17	7:20:00	158
18	10:41:00	142
19	11:49:00	146
20	10:41:00	138
21	11:49:00	140
22	10:41:00	146
23	10:28:00	144
Total	237:09:00	137
Pace	10:17:35

I think I've used this one before but it such an inspirational verse and the one the kids were being taught:

Hebrews 12:1
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,"

 I went to the gym and ran an easy 4 and a lifted a few free weights. I was a little sore/stiff from the run yesterday but all in all I felt pretty good, I wasn't really tired feeling.  Now time to prepare for the race this Sunday. I read up on some tampering techniques and decided to run (4 easy today, 10 easy tomorrow, Off Wed., 6.6 race pace Thurs., 5 easy Fri. and 3 easy on Saturday. We'll see how that goes. I think I need some more new shoes, My Mizuno's were soaking wet from the run yesterday and I had to run in the Niki's. The Niki's look brand new and don't have very many miles on them but the hard sole wore off the heel after about 250 miles. Here's the boaring details...

2/28/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate	Treadmill (Taper Run)
1	9:00:00	119
2	9:00:00	127
3	9:00:00	130
4	9:00:00	131
Total	36:00:00	127
Pace	9:00:00	1% Incline

Isaiah 8:9
"Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!"