Glute

Ran the 7 mile loop at Lady Bird Lake this morning with Shan. Diana couldnt make due to her and Rob't being in Bandera for Cactus Rose. I'm not sure what the deal is with Mark and Steve. Haven't heard from them in weeks.

I hit LBL Tuesday after work with the intention of running the 7 mile loop but wasn't feeling so hot so I settled for the 4 mile loop. I was wearing a new pair of Velocity's and everything seemed fine until I got up to get a drink of water at 3am and felt a strain in my right glute.

That's my frickin good glute too!! It's amazing that something as simple as putting my inserts on top of the factory insole changed my gait enough to cause the strain in my glute. My normal routine is to pull the factory insole out and replace it with the Spenco inserts. Doing this helps alleviate my metatarsal pain.

I got to the parking lot early this morning like usual and did my normal 2-3 walking loops around the parking lot to get warmed up and realized it felt a lot better than yesterday evening. We stopped at the zero marker for a couple of minutes for me to stretch it out and continued on.

I never really felt good the entire run, never hit that, "effortless" feeling. But, the mad part is that we had a really good time of 1:05:30 including the stop. We were both pleasantly surprised!!

Even with everything going on in my life that is affecting my running I am still determined to get to the starting line of the Bandera 100k and Rocky Raccoon 50m

First day with new Velocity's

Ran 10 miles with Shan and Diana at LBL this morning in 1:42!! I got there early like usual and walked 3 laps around the parking lot for a warmup, also some light stretching. However, I didn't feel very good during the run, just never felt strong. Our time for the 7 of 1:05:42 was a bit disappointing but still not bad. I wasn't planning on joining them for 3 more but they guilted me into it, reminding me of the 2 major winter runs I have planned.

I felt pretty good on the last 3. We walked across the Lamar bridge and had one more short walk with less than a mile. With all of that I was very pleased with the overall time.

Oct.......56 miles

Hyde Park

Ran 6.4 miles from the office across to San Jacinto north to 45th via Duval St. Across 45th down Lamar, east on 24th, south on Rio Grande and back to the office in 1:10. Cool down walk included.

Nice slow warm up. Nice easy pace. Mixed in some walking. It was really nice running thru Hyde Park and seeing the old houses. I've mixed it up good this week, running Forest Ridge Monday and Hyde Park today.

Bull Creek ROCKS

Ran the 8 mile loop at Forest Ridge in 1:40 yesterday afternoon. Even after all the times I've run out there I forgot how rocky it is. Or, maybe it's my worn out ass Velocity's. Hopefully I'll get the new one's I ordered by the weekend.

Ran 7 miles at LBL this morning in 1:06:40 with Shan and Diana. We had a really good run and had a good time considering we stopped twice. Once because we ran by Steve and his wife Jane, stopped and chatted with them for a minute and then again when a group of runners running from the opposite direction clipped Diana. The karma police will get them. They didnt even slow down to say they were sorry. It entered my mind to run and yell at someone but then I'd look like a crazy old bastard, yelling at a group of guys not knowing who did it. Anyway, I told them that I'd take the inside from now on and run interference.

Tuesday morning I ran from the office down to LBL and ran the 4 mile loop and back to the office.....7 miles in 1:22. Nice easy run.

Shan, Diana and Steve and I ran the 7 mile loop at LBL in......we don't know our time. Steve and Shan were a couple of hundred yards in front of us. We were having another really good run......I'm going to guess that we'd have finished in under 1:04, but with less than 1/2 a mile to go Diana and I see up ahead that a person is stopped on the trail. We took a few more steps and realize that Shan is down on the trail. She is on the ground in agony with a nasty abrasion on her left knee and cinder mud all over the right side of her body. My immediate thought with her still on the ground was that something was broken. Right away I offered to run on to my car to call 911 but she said not too.

After standing there for what seemed like several minutes she let us help her to her feet. We all stood there for another minute while she continued to gather herself.

After walking the couple of hundred yards to the footbridge she suggested we run slowly across. We did and she thought everything was okay besides her ego.

Two interesting things; she tripped on an embedded rock that couldn't have been protruding up more than an inch and our overall elapsed time was faster by 30 secs than in the heat 5 or 6 weeks ago.

I also got in an easy 5 miles at Kens yesterday after work. I took it easy, enjoying the trails I hadn't been on in months. I also spent time talking on the phone to John P and DD.

I seem to be having no ill effects from running 3 days in a row. I haven't done that in at 7 or 8 years. I did take the time to get in a good stretch after our run this morning.

Week........19

Homies

Ran 7 miles at Barton Creek in 1:30 yesterday after work. I did the 5 mile Rudy's loop and then the 1 mile out and back on the HOL for a total of 7. It was good. The achy knee has sort of returned. Not sure about that. I feel like more running might help it.

I saw Shan's friend Tom twice. We met the first time on the flat as I was coming off the HOL and then again in the same place after I had turned around. We stopped and chatted briefly the first time we saw each other. I think he had forgotten my name but he said he's going to join us on our Thursday morning run next week.

I sent Chuck Dakin, Mark Barr and John Pittman messages this morning about them taking turns pacing me during the 2nd half of the Bandera 100k. I think it would be a hoot to have some old homies get a small taste of what I do for recreation. Chuck seems to have gotten himself into pretty good shape. He's posted on FB several times about running 5 miles. He shouldnt have any problem doing 10 during the night with me. I'm sure John would be cool with it. Even though he's in unbelievable shape he complains about his knees when he runs. The little amount of slow running we'll be doing mixed in with the walking should be cake for him.

And......here's the bonus. It'll be an opportunity for Mark to get back in shape. Thankfully he's not overweight. He said he weighs about what I do. With him being just a shade shorter that really doesn't put him overweight. All he needs to do is start a running/ walking program now and he should be good to go for an easy 5 in Jan. Anyway......I hope it all works out.