I ran my 3rd 5k of 2009 Saturday morning in Houston. They had around 2,000 runners and walkers do the out and back course over the Elysian Viaduct. Prior to 2009 I believe I ran over the elevated viaduct only once for the 2007 Houston Half Marathon. With Saturday's out and back I have now run the Viaduct 5 times this year. It's definetely not the most scenic part of Houston to be running; hopefully I'm done with it for the year.
I employed the Walt Stack "Start slowly, then taper off" strategy for this race. My legs have been achey for the past couple of weeks most likely due to a 2nd cholesterol medication that I started taking within the past month. This should be a banned substance as it definetely appears to prohibit performance. Hopefully my body will adjust to it over time.
My next race is about 3 months away; I'll be running a half/full marathon in my 36th state in West Virginia in late August. With the conitions expected to be hot and hilly, a "Start slowly, then taper off" strategy will most likely be in effect again.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Meds are worse than Mother Nature
I'm having difficulty adjusting to my 2nd cholesterol medication that I've started taking within the past month. I've read that a side effect of zetia is muscle pain and my legs have been hurting the past week even with very little running. It took my body awhile to adjust to crestor so hopefully the same thing will happen with the zetia. I still plan on running at Minute Maid park in Houston this Saturday morning but not expecting anything special. A finish would be super.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Mother Nature's a Bitch
As I was preparing to convert my PR races from the Runners World training log to Buckeye Sports this morning, I noticed that my pace didn't follow the assumed relationship that it should follow with race distance. Looking at races, I distinctly remembered some days as being cold and others warm; I looked up race day highs and lows and the results showed what I expected. I am definetely a cooler weather runner; anything above 60 and I'm not a happy camper or runner as the case may be. These are my PR's from shortest to longest distance:
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Hogs Hunt 25k Trail Run in the Books
It was a hot and humid morning.....
Signing up for a mid May 25k (that's 15.5 miles for you non metric folks) trail race in Huntsville State Park sounded like a good idea in mid March when temperatures where pretty darn awesome in Houston. Running the race yesterday in 10 degree above seasonal average temperatures turned out to be not nearly as fun. Still it was a good time at my first race in Huntsville; I've run several weekend long runs there. My schedule never fit into the race schedule up there until this year.
My time wound up at 2:27 and change in a very very positive split kinda way. That converts to a 2:02 half marathon using predictor tools; that would rank as my 3rd worse half if you're keeping score. I felt good for the first 8 miles but my calf began cramping up at that time and from there on out a lot of walking was involved. I looked like I fell in the lake while running....it was just that humid.
Guess I'm still not a trail runner as I stayed upright the entire race yesterday; only saw a few people that fell and didn't actually witness any of the falls.
I was considering a trip to New Orleans for the barathon this weekend; looking back I shoulda opted for the trip.
Up next is the Astros Race for the Pennant in a couple of weeks. This year's finish is inside Minute Maid Park.
Signing up for a mid May 25k (that's 15.5 miles for you non metric folks) trail race in Huntsville State Park sounded like a good idea in mid March when temperatures where pretty darn awesome in Houston. Running the race yesterday in 10 degree above seasonal average temperatures turned out to be not nearly as fun. Still it was a good time at my first race in Huntsville; I've run several weekend long runs there. My schedule never fit into the race schedule up there until this year.
My time wound up at 2:27 and change in a very very positive split kinda way. That converts to a 2:02 half marathon using predictor tools; that would rank as my 3rd worse half if you're keeping score. I felt good for the first 8 miles but my calf began cramping up at that time and from there on out a lot of walking was involved. I looked like I fell in the lake while running....it was just that humid.
Guess I'm still not a trail runner as I stayed upright the entire race yesterday; only saw a few people that fell and didn't actually witness any of the falls.
I was considering a trip to New Orleans for the barathon this weekend; looking back I shoulda opted for the trip.
Up next is the Astros Race for the Pennant in a couple of weeks. This year's finish is inside Minute Maid Park.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Musta Got Lost
The plan was to run between 12-15 miles out at Huntsville State Park for my longest long run before Hogs Hunt 25k on the 16th of this month. Net net I wound up right where I wanted to be mileage wise; however, I had to improvise on how I got there.
I woke up around 5:3o Sunday morning and tuned in to the Weather Channel as I normally do on long run mornings. When I heard the annoying beeping warning, I figured that couldn't be good news. The weather was nice and dry in The Woodlands; however, Huntsville State Park and areas further north were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 11am. Looking at the radar, it looked like a line of thunderstorms was about to move through the area; it just looked like rain/no red stuff after the initial line. So figuring that the weather would be fine, I slowly started getting ready to head up there. A few miles from the HSP exit, it started pouring down rain; it was raining so hard I didn't hear my cell phone ringing. I heard the missed call bleep as the rain let up. It was Sara calling to see where I was; I seem to have a reputation as a fair weather runner and bets were being taken as to whether or not I'd show. All this and I wasn't even late for our 7:30 start time.
The storm passed through and the weather held out for us to get in an unexpected cool run in before more rain came. I normally watch my footing on trails so I was extra careful with everything being wet. No falls again..... so I'm still not a true trail runner yet.
Last week in running around 10 miles, we took a right on the perimeter road and then cut back into the trail while running around the lake in a nice circle as shown by the Garmin. This week to get extra mileage, we ran out to the feeder road and then back to cut back into the trail. I thought I was cutting into the same place I did last week but I ended up cutting back to soon and wound up back at the Nature Center after 5.5 miles. I took the opportunity to refuel with shot blocks that I had in my car and top off my fuel belt bottles and headed back into the trail. I planned on running the trail backwards up to about 10 miles total then head back. I made it out to the dam and got back in. Turned out to be a nice training run.
I woke up around 5:3o Sunday morning and tuned in to the Weather Channel as I normally do on long run mornings. When I heard the annoying beeping warning, I figured that couldn't be good news. The weather was nice and dry in The Woodlands; however, Huntsville State Park and areas further north were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 11am. Looking at the radar, it looked like a line of thunderstorms was about to move through the area; it just looked like rain/no red stuff after the initial line. So figuring that the weather would be fine, I slowly started getting ready to head up there. A few miles from the HSP exit, it started pouring down rain; it was raining so hard I didn't hear my cell phone ringing. I heard the missed call bleep as the rain let up. It was Sara calling to see where I was; I seem to have a reputation as a fair weather runner and bets were being taken as to whether or not I'd show. All this and I wasn't even late for our 7:30 start time.
The storm passed through and the weather held out for us to get in an unexpected cool run in before more rain came. I normally watch my footing on trails so I was extra careful with everything being wet. No falls again..... so I'm still not a true trail runner yet.
Last week in running around 10 miles, we took a right on the perimeter road and then cut back into the trail while running around the lake in a nice circle as shown by the Garmin. This week to get extra mileage, we ran out to the feeder road and then back to cut back into the trail. I thought I was cutting into the same place I did last week but I ended up cutting back to soon and wound up back at the Nature Center after 5.5 miles. I took the opportunity to refuel with shot blocks that I had in my car and top off my fuel belt bottles and headed back into the trail. I planned on running the trail backwards up to about 10 miles total then head back. I made it out to the dam and got back in. Turned out to be a nice training run.
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