Training done (7/24): None. Standard post-long run rest day.

Training done (7/25): 5.0 miles in 40:27 (8:05/mile). I finally did the Glendale Firehouse Race course, which conveniently sweeps right by the house. It’s a tough sucker, hills everywhere. I focused on solid running on the ups and took some breaks on the downs. Around 3 miles I saw Gregg Kennedy outside his house finishing up a run and so I stopped to talk with him for a little bit — amazing guy doing some great, great things. After that I jumped right back into my pace and finished off the run. Pulse 160-164. Turned out to be a really nice run, which was good because I’m forced to take a few days off now that I’m getting four wisdom teeth yanked in the morning. Ick.

Running under excessive heat warnings doesn’t carry many perks, but there are exceptions. Being bleary eyed and half asleep for a mile or two is made more bearable with the reward of such early-morning images. Simple things like a big orange ball rising over an interstate shared only by a few big-rigs and other cars can go a long way to raising spirits. It’s almost as if I can look at the sun later in the afternoon and say, “I know where you came from.” For some reason that doesn’t make the sun seem so imposing.

Training done (7/23): 12.0 miles in 1:52:59 (9:19/mile) at Forest Park with John, Steve, and Laura. I felt good on the first loop (8:33/mile) and actually felt some pep in my legs going up Skinker. I drank a little too much liquid after the first loop though and never got back into it. The time is a little slower than it should be because it includes nearly a half mile of slow jogging at the beginning of the second loop, as I waited for the other three but didn’t want to stand still. I was supposed to do 14, but I stopped at 12 because I lost significant speed until the last half mile or so. The weather has to let up sometime, doesn’t it?

I knew I had a lot on my heart, but the words didn’t come very easily. The process was disjointed, with little bursts here and there. But, I finally got it done, and my professor got back to me and said it was “good beyond words.” This comment surprised me a bit, because the words felt sterile and trite. Perhaps that’s just the nature of the beast I wrestled. I suppose the process of doing that helped, though it also hurt.

Training done (7/22): 7.0 miles in 59:50 (8:32/mile). I ran by myself at Grant’s Trail at 7:30am – a liittle later than I had been there with John, and with the sun rising over the tree line, I could sure tell. After a day off though, I felt pretty good throughout. I turned around on the out-and-back trail in 30:07 and came home in 29:43. Pulse was a little high at 172, but nothing out of the ordinary with the hot temps and slight surge I put in over the last mile. Tomorrow is the weekend long run, and this will be the first time I’ve followed Higdon’s suggestion of doing the LR a day after another legit run.

Training done (7/18): 2.96 miles easy around Glendale.

Training done (7/19): 6.00 miles in 52:44 (8:47/mile). This was a tough one. I went at 5:30 in the evening in Forest Park, and I think the heat index was close to 110F. I made a point to count how many other runners I saw. Normally there’s too many to count. This day I saw 12. The sun and heat were tough, but I made it around on my feet.

Training done (7/20): Total of 5.5 miles, broken up in a track workout. I ran 800s again at Hixson. 1.5 up, then 800s at intended 3:20 pace with 400 jog recovery, 0.5 down.
. I went at 9:30pm to avoid the sun. It was a lot tougher than two weeks ago when I did it, but the pace was faster this time. I had stomach problems and didn’t feel like my legs had much life, so after the fourth rep I told myself I’d bear down for one more good one, so I wouldn’t end with a dud. 3:16, 3:23, 3:20, 3:22, 3:14. Didn’t feel as successful as last time, but at least I got five decent reps in.

Training done (7/21): None. Took a day off after two tough days in a row.

Training done (7/7): 3.01 miles around Glendale in 23:39 (7:51/per mile). Felt good pushing it a little bit. Ran through an actual light rain this time, along with the customary gallons of sweat.

Training done (7/8): 8 miles at Grant’s Trail, 1:13.04 total time for 9:08 per mile. Ran with Steve and John, although much of it was on my own. Felt like I was going faster than I was. Maybe there’s something about out and back trails (and beginning at 5:30 am — apparently such a time exists!) that slows me down. Ah well. Served as my step-back long run for the week (since I was going to be out of town Sat/Sun and not in a long-run friendly environment).

Training done (7/9): 3.71 miles in 30:00, for an average pace of 8:05/mile. This was on a treadmill at the Norman, OK La Quinta Inn, only my second treadmill run of the training. Started out very slow (about 9:30 for the first mile) and eventually cranked it up. Was moving pretty good by the end of it and felt great.

Training done (7/10): Same 30 minute treadmill run as the day before, this time covering a leisurely 3.02 miles. I counted it a victory to be in Norman, Oklahoma, where the temperature was about 106 degrees each day, and have done two 30-minute runs.

With this fade, I awoke to an intense, overnight summer storm. Thunder cracked repeatedly and the rain pounded the roof. I remember a bittersweet moment of realization before the rain rocked me back into sleep.

Training done (7/3): 12 miles, at Forest Park, at a pace of about 9:03/mile. Total running time was 1:48:41. John and I met Laura early, 6am, to beat the heat, which in the summer only works to an extent. By the end of the run, I still felt like I had gotten out of a pool. The last few miles challenged me pretty well, but it felt good to complete the 12 in tough conditions. I was shivering by the end of it, but I think that was more of a sign of the sweat drying than heat exhaustion … though I was quite exhausted.

Training done (7/4): 2 miles in Taylorville, easy pace. Megan and I went for a run around her house. I think it was good for me to spend the holiday in a different, small-town setting. Went to the parade in the morning, had ice cream in the afternoon, and Megan’s family hosted a big cookout that night. To end the night, everyone put chairs out in her yard and watched the fireworks over the lake next to the house. Good day.

Training done (7/5): Nothing. I hoped to run in the evening, but I had been painting at Joe’s house all day and had a little too much food and brown water. Nothing hurt by a day off!

Training done: No running. 37:07 of lap swimming in my pool (100 lengths), with a pulse of 152. Today is miserably hot, and I thought a day of cross training in advance of this weekend’s running might not be a bad idea. As I expected, it wasn’t easy (and I’m sure it wasn’t too pretty, either), but it was a good change of pace … and my pulse was in a good zone.

This process of dead-end-discovery is interesting to me. First of all, you think you’re going the right way. Why wouldn’t you be? But then, things don’t look as they should. Street names become unfamiliar, the road bending in ways you don’t think your route did. You begin to get a sinking feeling. Then, you see it: the dreaded dead-end or cul-de-sac. At that point, unless you want to run through someone’s back yard, there’s only one thing to do.

Never do you throw your hands up, sit down on the curb, and wait for the cicadas to get you. No, you turn the hell around, perhaps cursing yourself under your breath for being an idiot, but you begin to figure out a better path.

I should try to more often tell myself the same thing whenever I find myself sitting at the curb with a dead-end in front of me. What’s the point of sitting there and dwelling on it? It’s not going to make anything one lick better.

Training done (6/29): 1.35 miles of easy running. This was supposed to be a rest day, after yesterday’s long midweek run. I met Megan to walk around the path Forest Park, and after a couple miles of that I decided to see how far we could make it running. She did well!

Training done (6/30): 4.33 miles in 38:47 (an average of 8:57 per mile) with a pulse of 156. This was one of those late summer afternoon Glendale runs, a.k.a., hilly hell. I found a map of the Glendale Firehouse Five Mile race and tried to do a circuit of that, jumping on the course where it swings only a few hundred feet away from my house. Things started out okay, but I stopped to stretch the calf at 1.75 miles, realized how dehydrated I was, and never really got back into it. I tried to do the course from my memory, but I missed a turn and got way off, and when I tried to get back on it I hit dead end after dead end. I had to turn around completely and retrace my steps. By this time I was fried, physically and mentally, and had to walk in the shade for a couple of minutes. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

This is a picture from right after my last marathon. Despite my smile and shiny medal, I recall feeling like I was in the third layer of hell at this point in time. But look, the people around me, holding me up: Dad, John, and Mom. Others in the family were there too, behind the photographer. I’m so blessed to have had the support of loving parents, siblings, and family during my life. That’s probably really why I’m smiling.

Training done (6/28): Eight miles in 1:12.42, for a pace of 9:05 per mile (and no stops). I joined John and Steve at Grant’s Trail at 5:30am (I don’t think I was awake until mile three). I’d never been that far on Grant’s Trail. There was a pretty nice ascent to mark the four mile turnaround. I went out in 37:26 and came back in 35:16. Though I picked it up by two minutes (going down the hill helped this), Steve left John and I behind with about a mile and a half to go. Soaked in the pool and the sun afterward. And napped. Hard. Ah, summer…