A New Iron-Nuke

Congratulations to Agapito, who finished the 2007 Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene Traithlon in 11:53:19. Pete ran a 3:45 marathon after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile cycling warmup!

A Couple of Weeks

Days since last run less than 80°F: 20 (June 5th)
Days since last run less than 70°F: 59 (April 27th)

22¾ miles for the week of June 11 to 17
M – 0 miles, 84°F at 4AM
Tu – 5¾ miles, average pace 6:52 mpm (The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:17 going out and coming back was 13:06.), 83°F at 4AM [S-B/Dow]
W – 5¾ miles, average pace 7:04 mpm, 3x1M/400rec on the track, 1M times were 6:08, 6:07, and 5:58, 88°F at 7PM [B’Wood HS]
Th – 0 miles, 80°F at 4AM
F - 0 miles, 86°F at 8AM
Sa – 1¼, about 8 minute pace, heavy rain 80°F at 4PM [NTrail]
Su – 10, average pace 7:51 mpm, 86°F at 11AM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT-2M-MBT/SeaC]

My parents came for a visit on Thursday, so I missed a few days running. On Saturday I took them for a walk on the Bottomlands Park trail. When we got near the back end of the trail it started pouring rain. I had them stay under the highway river bridge and I ran back to get the car. I was wearing a pair of worn out boat shoes and running in them in the pouring rain did a number on my Achilles.



38¼ miles for the week of June 18 to 24
M – 4 miles, average pace 8:39 mpm 86°F at 4AM [Dow-]
Tu – 4 miles, average pace 6:52 mpm (The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:42 going out and coming back was 13:45.), 87°F at 4AM [Dow-]
W – 5¾ miles, average pace 7:17 mpm, 3x1M/400rec on the track, 1M times were 6:07, 6:07, and 6:08, 87°F at 7PM [B’Wood HS]
Th – 0 miles, 84°F at 4AM
F - 7, average pace 7:42 mpm, 88°F at 3PM but there was a nice cross-breeze on the beach [Surfside 11-8.5-11-10-11]
Sa – 7½, average pace 8:23 mpm, cloudy and 86°F at 1PM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT/SeaC]
Su – 10, average pace 7:59 mpm, 90°F at Noon [SeaC/NTrail-MBT-2M-MBT/SeaC]

My right Achilles tendon had a few niggles from Monday to Wednesday but it's fine now.

My son called tonight; he got his hearing aids today. He can't believe all of the things he hadn't been hearing. He said he heard birds chirping for the first time in over a year.

Fast Runs in the Heat

I've been in a Monday off, Tuesday morning tempo run, Wednesday evening mile repeats and Thursday off schedule recently. This lets me be lazy and sleep in on three of four workdays, but it's not really what I need to do for Summer base building.

Last night was 3x1Mile/400recovery. The miles were 6:08.1, 6:06.8, and 5:57.7. I thought I ran the mile repeats pretty well until I looked in my log. Ouch. I wasn't anywhere near the times from March and May. The warmer temperature is my only excuse. It was 88 degrees last night with the dewpoint in the upper 70s and the June sun was still adding a little radiant heat.

It was 83°F at 4AM, for Tuesday's tempo run. I was able to run the full S-B/Dow course (one mile around my neighborhood and then two hard “Dow-Minus” miles, a little recovery during the ¾ miles to the Dow turnaround, and then two more hard miles on the “Dow-Minus” return). The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:17 going out and coming back was 13:06. Total was a 26:23, not great but a new best ever “Dow-Minus” tempo run in June.

Too Bald?

After watching Alan Webb and Bernard Lagat in this video, I'm not sure I can claim being too bald as a handicap (OK, as a RUNNING handicap). I can't believe Webb was able to finish a mile so strong and fast.

Last Week's Return to Summer

35¼ miles for the week

M – 0 miles, 75°F at 4AM
Tu – 4¾ miles, average pace 6:44 mpm. The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:39 going out and coming back was 13:01, 79°F at 4AM [Dow]
W – 5½ miles, average pace 6:51 mpm, 2M/400rec/1M on the track, splits for the 2M were 6:14 and 6:10 and the 1M was a 6:09, 85°F at 7PM [B'wood Track]
Th – 0 miles, 84°F at 4AM
F - 7½, average pace 7:50 mpm, 88°F at 10AM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT/SeaC]
Sa – 7½, average pace 8:13 mpm, sunny and 89°F at 3PM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT/SeaC]
Su – 10, average pace 8:03 mpm, 88°F at 11AM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT-2M-MBT/SeaC]


This week was completely free of any pain where my foot and ankle join. In the meantime, Summer is here in full force. I reached the “squishy shoes” milestone around mile 8 during Sunday’s run. There's only about 14 more weeks until the next cool morning.

This weekend's runs were all out to the Bottomlands Park Trail and back. The mountain bike trail is still in really good condition but the spiders are starting to come out. We have banana spiders here that make very large webs. I use the "spider stick" technique to avoid running into spider webs. I find a sturdy, but not too heavy, stick and move it up and down in front of me to clear the spider webs. It's not easy; you have to keep the stick moving fast enough to clear the webs from about knee high to head high and you still have to keep an eye on the trail for snakes and roots. On Saturday I stumbled over a root and ended up on my hands and knees. It wasn't a bad fall, but I hurt my right hand enough that waving the spider stick on Sunday was much more difficult. I had a nice long branched stick Sunday, and while I was running down a more open part of the trail a deer stood in the middle of the trail watching me come at her. She either thought I was the craziest human ever, waving a stick in front of me, or maybe my spider stick reminded her of a buck's antlers. She kept watching me and didn't jump off the trail until I was nearly close enough to touch her with the spider stick.

Summer's Here

The low temperature this Friday morning was 84.6 degrees F. It's been fog-up-your-glasses, full strength heat and humidity here this week. I'm still just running every other day, but I did manage a couple of decent runs.


It was 79°F at 4AM, for Tuesday's tempo run. I was running a little late so I skipped the mile warmup and ramped up pretty quickly into two miles hard on the “Dow-Minus”, continued to push the ¾ miles to the Dow turnaround and then two more hard miles on the “Dow-Minus” return. The measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles were 13:39 going out and coming back was 13:01. Total was a 26:40, not great but my best ever “Dow-Minus” tempo run in June. My glasses stayed fogged over for the entire run, from the time I left the house until I came back into the air conditioned house. I ended up with 6:44 mpm for 4¾ miles.

Wednesday evening I went to the track and did 2M/400rec/1M. It was 85 degrees at 7PM and the sun was still pretty warm. My splits for the 2M were 6:14 and 6:10 and my 1M was a 6:09. Overall average was 6:51 mpm for 5½ miles.

The ankle still feels good. I don't think I'm going to keep on running these tempo runs. Today should be a longer slower run (especially with this heat).

So Far, So Good

I had a couple good tests of the ankle this week. Wednesday evening was the first one. I ran 5 miles on the track and the ankle didn't give me any problems at all. Mile splits were 7:12, 6:38, 6:30, 7:05, and 6:52 for an overall average 6:51 pace. It was a pretty warm and humid evening, so I was really happy with this workout (81°F). I skipped Thursday's run and I ended up missing Friday's run.

Today (Saturday) was another local 5K. It was a very warm sunny morning with no wind at all. This race was up in West Columbia, about 15 miles from where I live. I was a little late getting there, and when I did arrive I didn't see anyone near the starting line. I continued down the course a little to see if they'd moved the registration area. There were many cars at another park down the road but they were all there for a swim meet. I went back up to the start and finally saw where everyone was. About the same time I had a call from the power plant about one of my pumps. I finished the call in the parking lot, grabbed my checkbook and ran to the registration area. After I registered, I noticed I didn't have my keys with me. Sure enough they were still in my locked car. Duh

The race went a lot better. I was ready to back off as soon as my ankle didn't feel right, but I ran the whole race with both ankles feeling great. I was able to run with another guy for almost the whole race, so that helped me quite a bit. I passed him near the end of the 2nd mile and thought I had him, but he caught me and kicked it in from about the 3 mile point. He deserved to beat me, he set the paace for most of the race and had a strong finish. I really didn't expect anything today, so I was pretty happy to break 19 minutes.

Here's a story from the local paper.

I was going to take some pictures, but with my camera locked in the car...
I did win an obscenely large trophy. My wife says I should put some glass over it and use it as a coffee table.

The trophy and the finally unlocked car: