groove

Samuel and I had a great 7 mile run at Townlake this morning.  It took me a while to get into a groove this morning but at least I found it for a change. We ran along the north side of the trail to start and Sam allowed for us to walk the ramp up at I35.  We kept it slow across I35 but when we got down to the boardwalk Sam picked up the pace a little bit and I stayed with him.  We kept at a pretty fast pace all the way to about the .75 mile mark and I was totally spent.  I told Sam that I needed a walk break and he agreed!  We only walked for about a minute or so and then ran it in.  Sam pulled away in the last half mile or so but I caught him and passed him on the Mopac footbridge!!  It was too funny!!  Our time was 1:08:44.

11:06

I was a brave man this morning.  I put myself in harms way by going downtown to run in what could have been very rainy conditions.  I was strong and persevered and did not get rained on during my 1:51 10 miler!!  Very happy with that time and negative split.  My 5 mile split was 57 minutes.  11:06 minute miles is what it's come to now.  Oh well, I'm working on it.

doggie training

Saturday Misty, doggie and I went down to Barton Creek for some water training.  We went down the POS to the dam.  Before Saturday doggie had never really been in any water.  We crossed the dam okay and she did fine, getting a little wet but not submerged yet.  We took a left after the dam and attempted to do the inner stuff that lead over to the outer loop but I missed a turn and we got sort of lost.  It was great, I knew we weren't really lost but it was really neat being on some unfamiliar trails for a change.  If I've ever been on those trails before I have no recollection.

We meandered around mostly under cover of trees making snap decisions about which trail to take.  It was great.  After about 30-40 minutes we stopped and gave doggie a good drink.  When Misty asked if we should bring some food for doggie I said probably not.  Well doggie Mommie packed up some Milk Bones and sure enough doggie scarfed down a bunch of them.  

My pack is inadvertently perfect for running with doggie.  The pack part holds at least one 100oz bladder for plenty hydration for me AND it's got a slot on the bottom that a 20oz bottle slides into which is perfect for carrying water for doggie.  Also her portable water dish folds up nicely and fits easily into one of my front zipper pockets.

We meandered around for a while and then ended up very near the dam again. This time I picked up doggie and carried her into the water and submerged her and she had her very first swim.  I did that several more times to make sure her core temp was cooled down really well.  After her swim we headed back towards cedar chop but continued straight to Lost Creek Blvd.  We got to the creek there and doggie plunged right like it was no big deal.  I was very happy to get her past that hurdle.  We headed back over to the dam, crossed and headed to the base of the HOL.  We got there and Misty checked our mileage.  We were almost at 6 miles.  I sort of wanted to get in 7 but I could tell Misty thought that wasn't a good idea.  Doggie was in great shape not lagging at all so I figured Misty was right, lets head on up the hill and doggie finished strong.

One more new situation remained.  I knew that she wouldn't be able to ride inside my truck after getting wet and muddy so last Saturday I put her big cage in the back of the truck and drove her around the 'hood for a while to give her a little taste of back of the truck riding.  She seemed fine so I got out on Duval and got up to 45mph and she was good.  The folding cage is so handy.  I had it folded up in the back of the truck, got it set up quickly, loaded doggie up and we took off.  She did fine on the drive on 360 to home.  

 

All in all a great morning on the trail.  An easy 6 miles and lots of good doggie training.

fuzzy foot

Mark and I had a good 7 mile loop at Townlake this morning 1:13.30.  We've had plenty of togetherness the last several days.  He managed to only insult me twice this morning and not once during our 2+ hour run Sunday.  Oh well, source considered.

On a positive note as of today I've got 35 miles this month so far.  The bonus is that I'm pretty healthy.  I wore the Soles this morning to give my right heel just a bit more cushioning and it worked very well.  I didn't do any buildup for the neuroma and got away with that.  Almost forgot, we did ZERO walking this morning too.  If we'd walked at all I'm sure the neuroma would have flared.  I like the Soles but they give me that weird fuzzy foot feeling that I think turns into that burn that I started experiencing a couple of years ago.  I get none of that with the factory insoles.  Maybe Thursday morning I'll try the old trusty green Spenco inserts that worked so well for years.  Oh, the combinations of things we do to keep running....

south austin

Mark L and I had a solid 10.5 run in some trails in south Austin near his house yesterday morning.  We did it in 2:15.  Mark set a nice pace and we did no walking but we did stop several times at overlooks and intersections.  My heel was bugging me some but not too badly.  After we finished I went home and got doggie and we did a 2 mile hike on some Kens trails.  This morning doggie and I got in an easy 3 mile run/walk in the hood.  Great last couple of days running with an old pal and doggie!!

full stop

Another great Thursday run is in the books.  Mark, Shan and I started but Mark bailed at Congress so it was just Shan and I for the remainder.  It felt like we had a pretty decent pace going so I asked Shan to tell me when we got to the 6 mile mark so I could check our 10k time.   59:52!!  I'm sorry to say that I was pretty happy with that time.  We walked up the ramps to I-35 and then actually stopped at the 6 mile point.  Shan wanted to stretch a bit, then we walked a little bit too AND our total over all time was 1:10.23!!  Very happy with that.  That matches last week with the walks and the full stop!!  I'm definitely starting to get in shape.

morning

Great 5 mile run with Mark and Sam this morning in 49:44.