126!

8+ miles Saturday with Misty, Amanda and Greg in Barton Creek.  It was all power hiking.  Greg and Amanda have been dating for several weeks.   He seems like a great guy and is really easy to be around.  I'm really happy for Amanda!!

Today Misty, Amanda and I did the Barton Creek super highway from Zilker to HOL with a short detour to visit Rick's Spot.  We mostly ran today.  It's so neat to watch Misty and Amanda improve and groove on their running.  They have a couple of 10k's and a half marathon planned the next several months.  

This was a great month of running and power hiking for me.  I finished with 126 miles for the month.  For several years I did my running diary/log on a word processor program and can't find my logs from '11.  I do however have all my months from Jan '12 to present on my blog.  This month is my highest mileage month in that time!  What a great feeling this is.  My feet or my running aren't anywhere near right but I have hopes I can continue at my current pace.  A few of the major factors involved are my switch to Hoka running shoes.  What a find they've been for me.  The other factor is running with Misty and Amanda.  They are both on fire with their running lately, and Amanda and I have got a good thing going usually running/ power walking 2 mornings a week while Misty has her crazy bootcamp 3 mornings a week.  I ran or power walked 16 days this month which means I was busy at least half the days this month.  In the past sometimes I've just updated my mileage without posting a run but I'm going to at least do a short post so I can keep a thorough track of my running days each month.  That's what made the difference.  Next month I'll be able to move to more running and less power hiking.  A lot of my power hiking lately has been due to helping Misty and Amanda get familiar with the Powerline loop so they feel comfortable going it alone.  They've got it down now so I'm free to get back more to my thing!!  I'm trying my best not to compare where I'm at now to 7 or 8 years ago when a 126 mile month was fairly routine.  Upward and onward.....

64 full pack miles!

pulled up

Shan, Mark, Sam and I all started the Thursday morning run but only 3 of us finished together.  Sam pulled up about halfway with a calf ailment that seemed to come on pretty suddenly.  Sure hope he can get that squared away.  Sam, Mark and I have Pandora's marathon next Saturday!!

48 miles with full pack for Guadalupe Mtns training!!

brushy creek

4 miles at Brushy Creek this morning with Misty and Amanda!!  Good times!!

powerline

11 miles in Barton Creek yesterday.  Misty, Amanda and I did all the Travis Country side of the cedar chip/ powerline loop together.  When it came time to cross the creek and head back to the HOL I continued on east and then doubled back via Shan's trail and then did a reverse powerline hitting Barkley too.  Everything seems to be gelling nicely.  Excited about continuing training and planning for Guadalupe Mtns!!

44 miles with full pack.  Yesterday I was totally maxed on fluid.  100oz bladder, 20oz bottle in bottom sleeve of pack and 22oz hand bottle!!

happy

Nice, easy 7+ with Misty this morning at Townlake.  We did the Lamar/ Pleasant Valley loop in 1:47.  Misty set the pace running quite a bit of it.  She thinks today was the most she's run in at least 10 years!!  She's very happy!!

33 miles with full hydration pack for Guadalupe Mountain training

100oz

Early morning 4 miler with Amanda and her crazy hound!!  I wore my pack with 100oz of water in it.  Good Guadalupe Mtns training!!

hurting

1:09:54 this morning.  17 seconds off our FKT (fastest known time) for the Pleasant Valley/ Lamar loop!!  Wow, was that a tough run.  I blabbered on for the 1st half and could hardly even grunt out a yes or no the last 3+ miles.  My whole body was Lactic Acid Central!!  That last few miles when I was hurting so bad I just kept telling myself that runs like this morning are what makes runners stronger.  Lets hope it does because it hurt bad!!