Christoph F. Eick's Training Log—
August 13, 2012 to January 13, 2013

Long Runs Easy Runs Steady Pace Marathon Pace LT-Pace VO2-Pace 1M-Pace Hills Swimming
8:15-9:50 8:20-10:10 8:05-8:20 7:50-8:10 7:20-7:45 6:55-7:10 6:40-6:55 Trails SBY-STR-Y

Day Distance WO Time Place Shoe Eff. Comment
8/13, 7a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/8 T=81-83; H=90%+. 184.2p—time to lose 5-10 pounds!
8/14 40+15min SBY-STR-Y 40 minutes St. Byke + 15 minutes Yoga+Strenth+Stretching
8/16, noon 6.6M easy Colorado Springs, CO PEG28 4/6 T=73-77; going along Cascade Road form DT to Filmore on an unusually cold day, after a 90 high the day before.
8/18,7:30a 5.4M easy on trail 48 minutes North Boulder, CO SPC3 3/4 To to Sage/Eagle Trail Head from Ron's House; T=61+ and sunny.
8/19,7:15a 5.3M easy on trail 45 minutes North Boulder, CO PEG28 3/5 (Almost) to Left-hand Trail Head from Ron's house; T=56+ and sunny. Was quite sore and stiff from yesterday's run; should also do more stretching in the next 4 months.
8/21,7:15a 10.2M easy on trail 97 minutes North Boulder, CO PEG28 5/6 Going From Ron's house on Left Hand Trail to to Sage/Eagle Trail to Boulder Water Reservoir and back.
8/25 38+15min SBY-STR-Y
8/26, 7:20a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/9 Quite warm.
8/28 40+15min SBY-STR-Y
8/30, 7p 27min Swimming
9/1, 7a 10M easy 1:35:12 H-Mem(1)-H PEG28 5/8
9/2 36+15min SBY-STR-Y 36 minutes St. Byke + 15 minutes Yoga+Strenth+Stretching
9/3, 7p 36min Swimming
9/5, 8a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/9
9/6, 7p 33min Swimming Water was quite warm on a 97-high day; decided to swimm 5 minutes less!
9/8 30+10+15min SBY-R-STR-Y 30 minutes St. Byke + 10 minutes rowing 15 minutes Yoga+Strenth+Stretching
9/9, 7:20a 5.3M easy PEG28 3/9 Quite Warm!
9/10, 7p 43min Swimming Water was much colder on a 99-high low hum day! 182.8p.
9/12, 7:20a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/7 T=77+, but low hum.
9/15, 7a 10M easy 1:33:01 (33:34-28:30(1)-31:01) H-Mem(1)-H PEG28 5/6 T=69-71, H=100-93%; not too warm but very humid with a "cold" NE-wind; did not feel great the first 3 miles, but ran surprisingly well in the second half— no walking either. 183.8p.
9/16, 5p 46min Swimming
9/17, 6:15p 5.3M very easy Allen GLYC 3/7 T=81-79, but low hum; had digestive cramps and walked half of the first 2M; however, after eating a gu, I was able to run the remaining 2 miles; also the underfood callus created pain during the run; in general, do not like my runs with GLYC any more.
9/19, 6:15p 6.2M easy 1:01:03 (31:22|29:41) Allen PEG28 3/7 Was supposed to run at 7a due to a downpour moved the run to the evening; T=79-75; temperature dropping quite quickly after sunset. Had problems getting going, but ran the second half quite well, running about 9:30-pace.
9/20, 6p 45min Swimming 182.6p
9/21, 6:15p 10.2M easy 1:44:48 (49:23_LonghornDam 82:12_0-Marker TownL, Austin PEG28 5/9 T=87-82; H=32-37%; rare evening long run in very challenging condidition on the classical Town Lake loop; started kind of late due to a I35-traffic jam, and finished at 8:05p 13 minutes after civil twilight, meaning running in the dark; walked one mile total. Considering the conditions—although it was probably my slowest run around Townlake—anyway, it was still a decent run.
9/23, 6:30p 4.8M very easy TownL, Austin PEG28 2/10 T=88-85; H=40-44%; ran the First Street Loop with a small add-on; the conditions were even worse than on Friday; walked 0.5 miles in the middle but ran the last 1.5M okay. Strange kind of plants are messing up Town Lake and Town Lake looks and smells polluted. I do not recall doing 4 consecutive evening runs in the last 10 years, except when I lived in Seattle.
9/24, 7p 48min Swimming 182.6p; 138-85-55 at 5p!
9/25, 7:40a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/8 Houston Humidity: "Welcome back!". Rare Tuesday morning run. Just read that running with Pegasus 29 might lead to Achilles irratations—what about Pegasus 28??
9/26, 5:40p 5.7M easy 54:14(27:30|26:44) RiHerm WR15 3/9 T=86-83 med. hum; run to and along Braes Bayou which turned out a lonely place, possibly due to hot conditions. First Run for WR15! Did this run the last time in late October 2011!
9/28, 7a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/8 Quite humid & T=75+; not running well today: kind of sore and feeling burned out. 182.6p: although I averaged 24 miles the last 2 weeks, I did not lose any weight (yet).
9/29, 8a 46min Swimming Swimming in pouring rain! 141-85-54 at 6p!
9/30, 6:30a 11M easy 1:40:04 (32:30 25:10 33:37 8:40; 9:06-pace) RivOk_R WR15 5/6 First BCRR Sunday Run since Nov. 7, 2011, running the River Oak Course Backwards the first time! T=73+ and quite humid and windy; was still feeling sore (back, left shoulder, and upper leg muscles) and did not run the first 2 legs of the course(averaging 9:15-pace) well but ran better on the last third (averaging 8:48-pace).
10/1, 6p 5.3M easy 47:48 Allen WR15 3/7 Run about 8:50 pace on the last 2 miles.
10/2, 5:20p 46min Swimming 181.2p; 140-89-52 at 7a.
10/3, 5:40p 6.4M easy 58:49 RiHerm PEG28 4/7 T=84- but low. hum. Another WE-Run with enjoying beer at the BCRR Happy Hour at Valhalla!
10/5, 6:55a 10M easy 1:31:02 (33:23 28:03 29:37; 9:06-pace 9:31-9:01-8:27) H-Mem(1)-H WR15 5/7 T=74-75 H=78-73; again did not run to well the first 6.5 miles, but picked up the pace a lot on the third leg in somewhat challenging conditions.
10/6, 10:40a 40min Swimming Rare Swimm-Run double workout; therefore, I swamm a little shorter. 181.2p but 150-92-60 at 8a on Sunday: first time blood pressure above 145 in 6 weeks!
10/6, 6:40p 4.7M easy 10:00-9:00 Allen GLYC 2/8 T=80-75; H=60-75%; temperature dropped really quickly 30 minutes into the run, as the advertized cold front finally arrived. Had problems getting going again; possibly due to the swimm workout 8 hours earlier!
10/8, 7:20a 14.8M easy 2:25:05 (9:47-pace; to_loop:23:47-loop1:50:40-loop2:50:00-back:20:21) East Beach, Galveston PEG28 5/6 Another Galveston long run. T=61-63, H-78-67%, cloudy, 15-20 mph NE winds—faced a heavy head wind the first 3.5M and most of miles 8 and 9. Ran from Hotel Galvez on Seawall to Apffel Park Drive(2.2M), then ran 2 East Beach Loops (Seawall_to_San-Jacito-Ford (1.5M), follosing Boddecker Road (1.25M) next, continuing 0.6 miles going west on the sands of East Beach, hitting the end of Apffel Park Dr. going back to Seawall) of 5.2 miles, then going then back to Hotel Galvez. Ran quite slowly most of the run, except I did fine picking up the pace on the last 2.2M! The good news, I felt a little sore after the run but did not have any problems with running 2 and a half hours and handled the 3.8M increase in long run mileage very well!
10/9, 5:45p 45min Swimming Facing quite cold water, as the low in Houston was 56 today! 146-87-54; 181.2p.
10/10, 7:10a 5M 3x800 f|s 4:04 4:19(?) 4:02 MemPa BLAU 4/7 T=72-74; H=88%; ran okay speedwise in challenging conditions, but felt quite exhausted after each 800; therefore, I decided to cut the 4th 800; probably, I did not properly recover from Wednesday's 15M run!
10/12, 6p 5.3M easy Allen WR15 3/9 No BCRR Scrabble Run—preferred a quite evening run. T=85-: very bad conditions!
10/14 7a 10.8M United Space Alliance 10 Miler 1:28:31(8:51-pace [44:11 44:20] 8:42 8:45 8:44 8:51 9:03 8:50 8:41 9:21 8:54 8:33) Clear Lake, Texas WR15 7/8 First Race of the New Season! Quite bad conditions: T=75-76 H=89-86%; started to feel quite badly after 7 miles; somewhat recovered after running mile 8 easily and ran the last mile strong. 271/732o 18/36a—not a good age-group place! 182.8p
10/15, 5:40p 47min Swimming
10/16, 7a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/7 Rare Tuesday morning run! Rare p/a_m double workout!
10/17, 6p 47min Swimming Swapped Swimm and Run Workout as the high was 89 with high humidity.
10/18, 6:45a(!) 6.0M 4x800 f|s 3:56 4:04 3:58 3:52 MemPa WR15 4/7 T=71-72; H=78-57%; 10-15mph strong NE wind. Speedwork mostly before sunrise, then breakfast at Sunrise Taquito—having beans, boiled patatoes, eggs, jalapenos and salsa—, then going to work with consecutive meetings and teaching for the next 4 hours—what a day!
10/19, 7:20a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/7 Somewhat sore: took it easy! 180.2p!
10/21, 7:35a 13.5M easy 2:04:04 (9:02-pace: 8:53-9:12) Beaumont, Texas WR15 6/? T=67-79, H=94-88%. Ran with the Sea Rim Striders—a running group servicing the Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur); their run started really late and the conditions changed from okay in the first half, to quite bad the second half on a humid day; considering the conditions, I ran quite well, except I got somewhat overheated on the last 15 minutes of the run. Running with 4 other runners and we covered a lot of streets and neighborhoods in the areas 2-6 miles east of the Beaumont Airport.
10/22, 5:20p 47min Swimming 146-86-48; 180.4p.
10/23, 6:50a 6.2M ftl: 8x2min f|s Allen WR15 3/8 Rare Tuesday morning speedwork, partially in the dark! T=71-73, H=88%; ran okay although I felt somewhat tight in the hips and lower back—need to do a lot of stretching in the remainder of the week! Wanted to buy a racing shoe, but Luke's Locker no longer had the Mizuno Precision 13 in size 11; I guess, I will have to continue to do all faster running mostly using the WR15, as BLAU is kind of old and tight!
10/24, 5:40p 6.0M easy 56:20 RiHerm PEG28 3/7 T=84-81; another BCRR Run; ran quite relaxed considering yesterday's speedwork. 7a: 143-85-50, 4p: 140-85-56, 182.2p—weight loss does not seem to be happening—yet!
10/25, 4:20p 46min Swimming
10/26, 6:50a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/4 T=61-70, H=82%; running easy with the first 20 minutes in darkness! 137-89-49, 180.8p.
10/28, 7a 16.6M Houston Half Marathon 1:50:46 (8:27-pace; 8:51 8:26 8:33 8:37 8:37 8:36 8:25 8:37 8:24 8:11 8:15 8:12 8:05(?) :50(?); 1:51:23(gun)) Houston, Texas WR156/2 Second Race of the Season! T=46-49, H=71%, 30/104a, 655/2879o. Started too far back and had problems gettig going, but ran better in the second half: started with 8:35-pace on the first 8 miles and finished in 8:12-pace on the last 5 miles. Ran 2M before the race and 1.5M after the race to make it 16.6M. Surprisingly, felt quite fresh and relaxed the afternoon after the race.
10/30, 6:45a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/3 Ran more than 60% of the run in the dark. T=53+
10/31 not 6.4M DNR; felt terrible with non-stop diarrhea and tiredness for 30 hours, starting at 4a!
11/1, 5:40p 5.3M very easy Allen WR15 2/9 T=87- and very humid; was still not 100% and ran slowly in very bad conditions.
11/2, 5:45p 5.3M steady Allen PEG28 3/7 T=84- and med. hum; decent run in better conditions pushing the pace for 2.5 miles.
11/3, noon 43min Swimming 178.8p, 8a: 146-86-54 & 4p: 147-86-62; before the rain!
11/4, 5:45a 18M easy 2:47:17 (9:45-pace the first 3 miles, then 9:15-pace) RivOkMemPa WR15 6/? Due to the end of day light saving time, the run actually started at 6:45a. T=64-66, H=93% with 45 minutes running in the rain including a real down pour. Decided to make the BCRR 10M run part of this long run (running with Tom Radosevich; the first time since a long time) with 10 additional miles in Memorial Park. Due to the sickness on Wednesday, I elected not push the pace at all and was tagging along, and I was really happy when the run was finally over!
11/5, 5:30p 30min Swimming
11/6, 6:20a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/7 Was at work at 8:15a!
11/7, 3:40p 7.0M 5x800 f|s 4:16 4:12 4:10 4:14 4:10 MemPa BLAU 4/6 T=82-80, H=23%; was really slow today, running the pickups 10-20 seconds slower than I should have!
11/9, 6:40a 6.2M easy Allen PURFL 3/5 T=63+, first run for Brooks PureFlow! The shoe felt quite responsive, but my feet felt a little sore after the run, as these shoes are more minimal, providing less cushioning than my other shoes.
11/9, 4:30p 43min Swimming Another rare Run-Swimm double workout; pushed the pace nicely the last 15 minutes, also looking for a hot shower afterwards: brrrrrr...! 138-83-54; 179.0p. This might have been it for 2012 swimming-wise: tried to swimm the next week, but on days I wanted to swimm the high never got close to 70; as for all fun-things, the end has finally arrived!
11/11, 6:40a 20M easy 3:13:51 (ran the first 14 miles in 9:15-9:05-9:05 and then cratered, walking mile 15 and half of miles 17 and 19) Hershey WR15 6/7 First 20-Miler and run in Terry Hearshey Park! T=73-78, H=85-78%; drizzel rain in the second hour, and then sunny and very windy (15-20mph winds) in the last hour. Tough day to run! I handled the last 2 long run well, but after today's long run I really felt beaten up! Following the tradition from previous years, having Crab Cakes Benedict after a long run in Terry Heashey Park at The Egg & I at Kirkwood.
11/13, 6:40a 6.2M ftl: 9x2min f|s Allen PURFL 3/8 T=43+; had to use gloves and head band for the first run in really cold conditions. Pure Flow worked out fine in its first speed workout. Was attacked by a stomack bug/food poisonning later this day and had to cancel Wednesday's 10M-run.
11/15, 3:30p 5M easy Seawall, Galveston PEG28 3/6 On a sunny, nice afternoon with T=64; stomach still crampy, particularly when pushing the pace.
11/17, 8a 7.7M Sand and Land 10K-Race 53:06 (8:33-pace; 13:33-13:35-13:20-12:35) Galveston, Texas PURFL 5/5 Third Race of the Season at East Beach, Galveston! My digestive problems resurfaced Friday morning; I felt somewhat better Friday evening, and decided to participate but not to race!; was the only one in my agegroup, but decided to leave before the Awards Cermony: might have won a dolphin sculture!
11/18, 10:45a 10.0M easy 1:31:30(9:09-pace; 32:10-28:50-30:30) H-Mem(1)-H GLYC 4/6 Rare Sunday lunchtime semi-long run on a nice day: T=61+ and sunny with low humidity—fell asleep on the second leg, but ran the third leg in 8:42-pace. 135-83-49, 178.0p.
11/20, 6:30a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/3 T=48+.
11/22, 6:40a 21M easy 3:17:51 (ran 9:10-pace most of the way, but slowed significantly during the last 4 miles) Hershey WR15 6/6 Ran okay until mile 17, but then I felt briefly nauseated and exhausted and decided to walk half of mile 19 and not to run 22 miles. T=61-71; H=82-66%; foggy the first hour then sunny.
11/23, noon 15min Y-STR**2-R Yoga+Strenth+Stretching; due to yesterday's long run, no rowing and no leg strenth exercises. Mo@7a: 132-75-53 (Edi); We@8a: 131-81-48 (Edi); Fr@7a: 137-82-54 (Amlo); 176.6p all three days.
11/24, 7:40a 5.5M easy UH_DT GLYC 3/2 T=48+; first run since Jan. to UH Down Town, getting a bottom view of Downtown Houston on a cold, clear days, also seeing a lot homeless cats near UHDT campus.
11/25, 6:30a 10.0M m:3M 1:27:17 (8:43-pace; 34:37 23:01(8:13-pace) 29:39) RivOk BLAU 4/2 BCRR run; last run for BLAU, T=44+ and sunny and low humidity. Still felt not completely recovered from the 21-mile run, and decided to cancel the tempo run, but still ran marathon pace on the 2.8-mile stretch, and particularly pushed the pace for the last half mile, catching people from the fast BCRR group. Ran with Wendy Zhang which was fun; she is much faster than I thought and mostly kept up with me on the second leg!
11/26, 6:30p 25min Y-STR**2-R Yoga+Strenth+Stretching & 12 minutes rowing. Mo@7a: 142-91-50b 178.2p, We@5p 145-84-60 (Edar at 11a), Th@7a 141-84-48b Th@10p 144-84-64 (Edar), Sa@8a: 135-85-53b 176.0p.
11/27, 6:45a 5.3M easy Allen PEG28 3/5 T=61 and very lite drizzel rain.
11/28, 7a 7.4M ftl: 10x2min f|s Allen PURFL 3/8 T=46+, sunny and somewhat humid; had to run around a lot of trucks and deal with closed portions of the trail this morning.
11/30, 6:45a 5.5M easy UH_DT GLYC 3/6 T=62+; seeing an Igret, and a lot of geese, ducks, and stray cats, sitting in harmony on grass patches along Buffalo Bayou near UH Downtown.
12/02, 8a 14.7M La Porte by the Bay Half Marathon 2:08:59 (8:12 8:23 8:39 8:44 9:19 9:35 8:39 9:49 10:13 11:45 11:51 13:46 8:43 1:13) La Porte, Texas PURFL6/10 Need to run over the 77th Longest Bridge of the World twice! T=66-75 H=100%; even at 10:30a the humidity was still 100%—hottest day of the century in LaPorte with a high of 85. Ran aggressively for the first 7 miles and completely fell apart on the flat mile 8, and walked a lot on miles 10-12, saving myself for the 30K race in a week. Had more fun talking to Theresa Pearsall Torres, who won an age group award, after the race.
12/4, 6:40a 5.3M easy Allen GLYC 3/6 In pretty thick fog!
12/5, 11:30a 6.0M 4x800 f|s 4:08 4:05 4:01 4:01 MemPa WR15 4/7 Rare lunchtime run in surprisingly good conditions: cloudy and T=62; ran okay but heel felt somewhat sore after the run; have to assess, if I should continue doing this particular workout! 178.8p—gained almost 3 pounds in 3 days!
12/6, 6:30p 35min Y-STR**2-R Yoga+Strenth+Stretching & 15 minutes rowing. We@8a: 138-86-54 179.2p; We@5p: 136-84-66 (Edar@2p); Th@7a: 131-79-53 177.0p; Th@11p: 128-67-54 (Edar@1p); Sa@9a:138-89-51b 177.2p.
12/7, 7:30a 5.5M easy UH_DT GLYC 3/7 T=65+; a sunny, quite warm day—compared to last week: the ducks and geese were still there, but I didn't see any stray cat—where did they go?
12/09, 6:30a 20.4M Finish Line Sports 30K Race 2:46:14(8:55-pace [9:02|8:45|8:57] 9:05 9:10 9:07 8:56 8:54 9:01 8:52 8:43 8:42 8:46 8:50 8:51 8:49 8:36 8:51 8:43 8:57 9:21 5:44) Sugarland, Texas PURFL6/2 T=66-69, H=100-96%; 177.2p. Another race in tough conditions; started out slowly intentionally, and then ran well until mile 17, and then slowed the last 1.6M being kind of mentally soft as a could have pushed the pace to finish in 2:44! 17/49a. PURFL passed the test, and I will run the Houston Marathon with this shoe! Kind of a social run: running and talking with Rodger Boak miles 5-8 and Susan Hardwick-Smith miles 8-17. Susan's last race was Ironman Arizona and we both moved to the US in 1986: she is from New Zeeland and I from Germany. After that I had to work as a Road Guard at the Jingle Bell Run, adding 2M of additional walking to today's workout.
12/11, 6:40a 6.2M easy Allen GLYC 3/6 T=33+; first day to try out winter cloths!
12/12, 6:30p 4.8M easy RivOk PEG28 3/6 BCRR's Christmas Lights Run! Was running with a Santa hat, two sets of jingle bells, a snowman/chrismas tree baloon, and blue galands wrapped around my neck. The baloon made it to the end of run, although it was threatened by low trees. After that I attended the 12/12/12 Party at Lisa's house. T=54-50.
12/13, 4:20p 7.0M easy 1:03:30 (33:10-30:20; 9:29-8:39-pace) - Allen WR15 3/3 T=60-56; started slowly but finished strong!
12/14, 6:30p 30min Y-STR**2-R Yoga+Strenth+Stretching & 15 minutes rowing.
12/15, 6:30a 15.8M easy 2:26:41 West Houston WR15 5/7 John's Looooong Run; T=70-72; H=88-83%; another run in tough conditions and I took it somewhat easy, mostly running with Bob Thompson; nice social breakfast at John P.'s house after the run!
12/16, 4:25p 6.2M very easy Allen SPC3 3/7 Rare Sunday late afternoon run after a lot of rain earlier, finishing a week of 40.0 miles; T=70-68; H=80-83%. Did not feel and run well the first 4 miles of the run; the main cause of problem was not the warm conditions or yesterday's 16M run, but rather, I believe, due to the Edibichlor medication, I took 8 hours ealier, which made me dehydrated and was tough on my digestion: no more Edibichlor on days when running in the afternoon or the day before a hard workout!
12/17, 6p 16min Y-STR**2 Yoga+Strength+Stretching; worked too much on the grant proposal and had to finish grading Tuesday; therefore, I decided to replace Tuesday's speedwork with a 9M run on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
12/19, 3:10p 9.0M m:4M 81:18 [41:30|39:48] Las Vegas WR15 5/3 Bellagio-Flamingo Road(West)-passing_JonesRoad-to_Redwood-&_back; had a so-so run, but picked up the pace a lot on the way back; had to navigate a lot of pedestrians on the first&last 0.5 miles. It was almost dark when I finished, with the Bellagio fountains just going off, when I returned to the Bellagio.
12/20, 12:30p 5.4M easy Las Vegas, Nevada GLYC 3/2 T=43; quite a horrible run route-wise, running in a lot of deadends when I did not succeed to connect to Flamingo road twice and Harmon does not have much of sidewalks, and it is difficult to get into the Bellagio when running the back_Strip road, as the Bellagio has only one tourist entrace: I had to beg that they would let me go through the employee entrace on the back of the hotel!
12/22, 7:40a 21M easy 3:15:53 (81:01 Bellagio via Strip to Flamingo Rd. then going east to 217; 23:39 going north-west on Western Beltway Trail and turning off Town Center Drive (with a 3 min. addon, making up for taking an too early exit from the Beltway Trail) going north to Desert Inn, 1:02:14 continuing on Desert Inn Rd. going east to Decatur, 9:58 on S. Decator going south to Flamingo, 18:58 going east on Flamingo back to the Bellagio) Las Vegas, Nevada WR15 7/3 T=36-47, H=54-35%; with water carrier, running the first 9 all mildly uphill miles at 9:45 pace and averaging 8:45 pace for the rest of the run. I decent run in the second half—I had deal with a lot of traffic lights, uneven footing, a lot of entrances and ran with the water carrier, and saw the Punk Rock group Social Distortion—the singer of this group is really good—the night before, standing and dancing for more than 3 hours in the LV House of Blues. I felt fine the rest of the day, and still saw the late show of O which was quite enjoyable and artistic: sort of a water ballet! It looks to me that Las Vegas is a very runner unfriedly city, probably one of the worst of the bigger cities in the US: there is very little useful information where to run on the internet, and the few running clubs that exist do not respond to e-mail. Anyhow, using Mapquest and some older, short running routes I found in the internet I designed a completely new long run route myself which worked out fine; in general, going west from the Strip Desert Inn, Colson and likely Sahara are the best streets to run on!
12/23, 11:40a 5.6M easy 51:48 (26:30 25:18) Las Vegas, Nevada GLYC 3/6 T=47+ and partly cloudy; running Flamingo west again, then north at Valley View then west on Desert Inn a little beyond Arville St. then going back via Wynn Rd. Kind of stiff and tight, but loosened up a little on the last 20 minutes. This concludes at 41 miles week, that was more like a 45 mile week, considering all the walking I did in Las Vegas We.-Su.! I will be seeing Absinthe at Caesar's Palace tonight!
12/25, 12:30p 6.2M easy 56:40 (9:25|8:50-pace) Allen PEG28 3/6 T=68,H=45% sunny and very windy; 179.2p: gained 2 pounds in Las Vegas!
12/26, 10:30a 7.0M 5x800 f|s 4:02 3:56 3:54 3:45 4:02 (7:51-pace) MemPa PURFL 4/4 I decided to run 3 hours later, but it was still quite cold (T=42) with a very cold wind; ran fine, except I ran the 4th 800 too fast, and therefore slowed on the fifth!
12/28, 1:45p 6.8M easy 1:02:12 UH_DT PEG28 3/6 Last run for PEG28; ran the UH-Downtown route with a 1.3M addon; somewhat struggling with all the food I ate at 10a in the morning—having a big Chinese Breakfast meeting Ruth at Central China on Bellaire in China Town.
12/29, 6p 30min Y-STR**2-R Yoga+Strenth+Stretching & 15 minutes rowing.
12/30, 6:30a 17M easy 2:29:47 (8:48-pace; 1:37:07(11M RivOk 42:38(L)-23:51-30:35)-26:00(3M)-26:41(3M)) RivOkMemPa WR15 6/3 T=36-41; H=60-49%; sunny and then mostly cloudy; 11M BCRR Sunday Run Route with 6M in Memorial Park added! Ran with a big BCRR group with 7-10 people and then ran 5M with Wendy who showed up late and who is happy to leave for Qingdao, China tonight, spending 2 weeks with her family. 177.2p.
1/1, 7:45a 6.4M easy Shoal Creek, Austin GLYC 3/6 Somewhat beaten up, running kind of slowly!
1/2, 8a 9.8M easy on hilly route. 90:23—the time is misleading, as had to do road scouting frequently slowing down or switch sides of the road to avoid getting hit by a car on Stratford and Redbud. TownL, Austin WR15 5/5 Running a different, quite hilly variation of Townlake route (Hyatt-BartonSpr-Congress-TLTN:to_Mopac1-Stratford-Redbud-LakeAustin-TLTS:to_Hyatt) with breakfast afterwards at Magnolia Cafe—this time at the Congress Av. location: a long tradition! The Sratford-Redbud-LakeAustin loop has 4.2 miles; had a lot of problems with the uphills, did not make the first very steep uphill without walking and was breathing hard at some stage, so I decided to rest for 2 minutes. Outside of right ancle quite sensitive and sore today! T=35-37 H=72% with very cold wind and cloudy!
1/3, 7:30a 6.6M very easy TownL, Austin WR15 5/5 Mostly running the Congress Av. Bridge Longhorn Dam loop; moved Friday's run today, and the planed 4M tempo run to the weekend. Kind of tired muscles for yesterday's hilly run; I therefore took it easy on a nice sunny morning with a lot rowing boats on Town Lake, as they were running 2's today—perhaps running three days in a row should be avoided; right outer ancle still sore, but at least did not get worse.
1/5, 7:15a 8M t:4.4M 1:09:15 (8:21|8:08 (?) on the 36 minute tempo run part) Utopia, Texas WR15 3/6 On Texas 189 between Utopia and Savinal; T=40-41, H=93-90% and cloudy; ran fine, although lower back was slightly sore; this was the last harder workout—the Houston Marathon training is basically over: the tapering can begin! This week I still ran 31 miles, after running 37 and 41 the two weeks before. WR15 has 255.3M at the time the Houston Marathon.
1/7, 7:30a 5M easy Castroville, Texas GLYC 3/4 T=34; H=86%; From Hotel Alsace on old 90 via Houston to town and back on Washington: needed to add a 0.8M addon—the town is even too small for a short run—with a last mile climb.
1/7, 6p 16min Y-STR**2 Yoga+Strenth+Stretching
1/9, 4p 16min Y-STR**2 Yoga+Strenth+Stretching; 176.6p.
1/10, 7a 5.3M ftl: 7x2min f|s Allen SPC3 4/6 T=62+ & humid; had to run today, tried running yesterday at 9a and noon, but decided to move run to today due to strong rain! That's it as far as running before the marathon is concerned!
1/11, 6:30p 16min Y-STR**2 Yoga+Strenth+Stretching
1/13, 7a 26.2M Houston Marathon Finish Time: 3:54:21 ( [1:56:20 1:58:01] 5K-Splits: 27:56 27:50 27:19 27:14 27:16 27:11 27:58 28:58 12:39(Residual 2.195k) ) Houston, Texas PURFL9/5 T=43-44 H=100% and windy (15 to 28 miles per hour winds); the race started with crazy downpour in the first 15 mimutes—giving nobody a chance to warm up—and then drizzel interrupted with showers in the first half; in the second half even more windy but no rain except a little drizzel. I started of slowly the first 7 miles (the plan was to run the first 5 miles at 9:00-pace, the switch to 8:xy-pace with x>1)and then got passed and decided to run with the 3:50 pace group until mile 21; in general, a decent race considering the conditions; the concrete got to me and I got quite sore and my running form became quite bad the last 3 miles losing about 2 minutes, but overall I ran well the first 23 miles and was in good spirit the whole race, being happy to finish my 26th marathon! Ran with Davide Harvey miles 2-5. 56/310a; 1640/6666o; in general, we had 16800—a little over 10,000 in the Half Marathon—finishers in both races and not 25000: a lot of people dropped out and other never showed up at the startline!

13+ Miles Long Run Schedule

Mo, October 8: 14.8M (Seawall and East Beach Loop, Galveston, Texas)
Su., October 21: 13.5M (In neighborhoods and streets all over Beaumont, Texas)
Su., October 28: 16.6M (including Houston Half Marathon race)
Su., November 4: 18M (River Oaks & 10M Memorial Park)
Su., November 11: 20M (Terry Hearshey Park)
Th., Nov. 22: 21M (Terry Hearshey Park)
Su., December 2: 14.5M (including La Porte by the Bay Half Marathon)
Su., December 9: 20M (including Sugarland 30K race)
Sa., December 15: 15.8M (John's Looooong Run through River Oaks and neighborhoods in West Houston)
Sa., December 22: 21M (Las Vegas)
Su., December 30: 17M (RiverOaks + 9 miles Memorial Park)
Su., January 13: 26.2M (Houston Marathon)

Shoes

BLAU:= "black" Brooks Launch 110065 1D 007, size 10.5, same shoe as LAU10, except not red but black/silver/nightlife; bought on December 30, 2010; in use since January 8, 2011, retired on November 25, 2012.
SPC3:= Salomon Speedcross 3, pop green color + red with fell-like bottom, size 11, trail running shoe good for hilly and wet trails, not so good for running on the road and rocky(??) trails; bought on Sept. 20, 2011, first run Dec. 8, 2011.
GLYC:= Brooks Glycerine 9, size 11, bought on Nov. 6, 2011; first run on Nov. 8, 2011; to be retired March 16, 2013.
PEG28:= Nike Air Pegasus 28, black and green, size 11, bought on December 26, 2011; first run on December 27, 2011; retired on December 28, 2012.
MV15:= Mizuno Wave Rider 15, white-silver-blue, 8KN-20209 410458.009D, size 11; bought on September 21, 2012; first run September 28, 2012; to be retired an April 14, 2013.
PURFL:= Brooks PureFlow, size 11 medium, 110107 1D 499, light, low lying shoe for tempo runs, pickups, and races; bought on November 3, 2012.

Running Routes

MemPa:=Memorial Park 2.93 miles packed dirt trail loop
Allen:=Allen Park Way 4.75 miles loop; mildly rolling mostly on asphalt, also call Eleanor Tinsley Park and Buffalo Bayou Trail
RiHerm:=Rice University and Herrman Park Loop
RivOk :=River Oaks Loop
RivOkAll := River Oaks Loop with Allen Park Way Loop continuation
TangArb:=From Memorial Park Tennis Center following Memorial going south on Chimney Rock and then Tanglewood, returning via PostOak, doing 4 additional miles on the 2.2M outer Arboretum trail and coming back to the start. (14.15M)
Blalock:=Starting from Memorial Park or from Elenor Tisley Park going on Memorial towards Blalock and back.
HoChi:= Ho Chi Minh Trail south of Memorial Park, is a jungle-like trail going through dense bushes and forrest with ups and down; however, the purple trail (estimated length 1.93M) has very good footing and can even be used for speed work.
H-Mem(Y)-H:= from home going to Memorial Park via Montrose/Pedestrian Bridge, then doing X loops in Memorial Park and back the same way; 10M, 12.9M, 15.8M, 18.8M for 1, 2, 3, 4 Memorial Park loops.
Hershey:= going through Terry Hershey Park (TH-Park Map) and also running on Barker Dam on the other side of highway 6
TownL:=10.2M loop around Town Lake in Austin
Shoal-Cr:=going down Shoalcreek in Austin towards Town Lake usually starting at Northcross continuing east on Foster Kane and then going south on Shoalcreek and back, running on the bike lane.
East Beach= Going from your Galveston hotel via Seawall to the east end of Galveston Island, then following the 5.2M East Beach Loop: south on Boddeker Drive, continuing on the beach going west for about a mile connecting via Apffel Park Road going north then west and then north again back to Seawall, possibly repeating this loop multiple times, and then running back to your Galveston hotel, usually seeing a lot of fisherman and birds along Boddeker Road.
MemTr:=Memorial Park track; warmup and cool down on Memorial Park trail
UH_DT:= going to Sabine Bridge and then continuing north east on a new narrow bike path along Buffalo Bayou to the door steps of UH-Downtown and back---a 5.5M run from where I live.
TM:= on treadmill

Yearly Summaries

Yearly Mileage: 1996:1511; 1997:1619; 1998: 1689; 1999:1877; 2000: 2125; 2001: 2157; 2002: 2392.5; 2003: 2101.0

Past Training Logs

Beginning 2000, Beginning 2001, Beginning 2002, Beginning 2003, Beginning 2004, Beginning 2005, End 1999, End 2000, End 2001, End 2002, End 2003, End 2010, Mid 1999, Mid 2000, Mid 2001, Mid 2002, Mid 2003, Mid 2004, Early 2010 , Late 2010, Early 2011, Late 2011.

last updated: January 14, 2013.