Homeland Security Copycat?

Event Alert System table:

Is it me or does the above Event Alert System table look eerily similiar and just as useless as the homeland security advisory system below. It would be nice if temperatures/dewpoints/humidity levels were associated with the different color groups.

Temperature's Rising

Here's the latest weather underground race day forecast for Chicago:

Saturday Night and Sunday
Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Lows in the upper 50s. Highs in the mid 70s.

Thats a 10 degree increase in the Saturday lows and a 15 or so degree increase in the Sunday high from just last Friday. At this rate it could be balmy on Sunday.

I think I've learned that weather is something that you can't control. You just gotta take what you're given and adjust your race plan accordingly. I definetely got the can't control part down; it's the adjust your race plan accordingly that I need to work on.

Week in Review

Date Type Distance Time Pace

10/4/2008 Long 8.02 Mi 1:11:55 8:59

10/2/2008 Easy 4.01 Mi 36:02 9:00

10/1/2008 Easy 6.01 Mi 52:20 8:43

9/30/2008 Tempo 4.04 Mi 33:31 8:18

9/29/2008 Easy 4.02 Mi 36:12 9:01

Week 2 of tapering went pretty much as planned; only hitch was Tuesday's faster than planned pace so we'll call that a tempo run and leave it at that. I had a deep tissue massage at Massage Envy early yesterday afternoon that was pretty intense. I felt good going into it but felt like I got beat up during it. Feeling good now so I'm sure it will help in the long run.....

Race week calls for easy runs of 4, 3, and 2 miles before the marathon Sunday. It's looking like they'll be on Tuesday, Thursday, and either Friday evening or Saturday morning. I plan on getting another massage Wednesday evening as well. Ute is back from her vacation and subsequent Hurricane Ike extended time off.

Last Long Run

I got my last long run in this morning before Chicago. Temps were nice in the 60s but humidity was in the 90s. My shorts were soaked even with me only running 8 miles this morning. All I have now is 9 miles spread over 3 days next week before the marathon next Sunday.

Chicago 10 Day Weather Forecast

The extended forecast for Chicago has race day, Sunday October 12th with lows in the upper 40s and a high of 60 with few showers. I'll take this one as is, realizing predicting weather 10 days out is pretty dicey.

10 for Texas Postponed until November 15th

The latest word on The Woodlands 10 mile race is that it has been postponed until I recover from the Chicago marathon because I really wanted to run it. Well that and Hurricane Ike has made the originally scheduled date of October 18th unsafe due to debris still in the area and large vehicles moving in the area clearing said debris.

But in any event it looks like I will be able to get my first 10 for Texas race in this year. I passed on running the 2006 race as I had my last long run that weekend before the New York City marathon. I was out of town running back to back half marathons in Baltimore and Atlantic City the weekend of last years race. Unfortunately alot of people planning on running the race on October 18th will be running either the full or half marathon of Elite Racing's inaugural Rock n Roll San Antonio on the rescheduled weekend.

I got in 6 miles yesterday during lunch. I hadn't run from work during lunch since I got shingles back in July. What a difference a couple of months makes in the weather. It was awesome running weather yesterday.

September was a great running month

Monthly Distances

September: 156.6 Mi
August: 129.4 Mi
July: 94.9 Mi
June: 125.3 Mi
May: 109.2 Mi

September may have been my highest mileage month ever as I was in the high mileage portion of training for my 3rd marathon. The drop off in mileage in July was due to me being out of commission the last half of the month with shingles. The high mileage in the latter part of August made up for my missing the first week of August. October mileage is up in the air as I'm just going to listen to my body and recover from Chicago before getting back into marathon training for Houston.

I'm starting to fill in my 2009 race calendar. I hope to get in at least 3 states in my 50 state quest. We'll have to see what airfare looks like for 2009; I have a feeling the days of $200 and under fares are gone.