do (run) while (date < 20071231)

December 24 through 30

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOTAL
4 mi		8 mi	4 mi		12 mi		28 mi

Merry Christmas!

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

do (run) while (date < 20071224)

December 17 through 23

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOTAL
7 mi		8 mi	8 mi		20 mi		43 mi

Commence Taper

I can drop one last 20-miler into the log. Now the training schedule starts three weeks of "taper" before the Big Day on the 13th. My legs are hating me, but my runner's heart is feeling fine.

With my morning of punishment behind me I can focus more on actually enjoying Christmas and New Year's. Yippee!

do (run) while (date < 20071217)

December 10 through 16

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOTAL
			7 mi		16 mi	4 mi	27 mi

How to Build a Simple Runner Trap

Ingredients:
One (1) wire coat hanger

1) Bend coat hanger into an irregular loop.
2) Place hanger in a random location on macadam pavement.
3) Expose to elements until hanger is rusty.
4) Wait for runner.

And to think I was doing so well to avoid injury too....

During mile 14 of this morning's long run, I was crossing a school parking lot when I took a mildly spectacular tumble on the pavement. I think what must have happened is that my left foot stepped on the hanger, which popped up and caught my right foot.

I never saw it coming; In fact, at first I looked behind me and thought it must have been the storm drain. And yet, the storm drain was a good fifteen feet away. Only on closer inspection did I see the bent rusty hanger, pretty well camouflaged on the pebbled surface of the parking lot.

The good news is that I'm not seriously damaged bodily -- a few scrapes on my hands and knees, and a bump on my elbow that might bruise later. The impact with the ground popped open the Velcro strap of my Garmin Forerunner 101, but it's fine. However, the Amphipod hand bottle in my left hand was not so lucky. While helping to break my fall, the part of the handstrap that hugs the bottom of the bottle snapped apart. This had become one of my favorite running accessories and I'm not excited at the idea of spending $18 to replace it.

After gathering myself back together, I snapped a picture of the perpetrator and the victim on the nearby sidewalk and then finished up my 16-miler. I went ahead and told the fine people at Sonic to make my burger a double today.

"THEY'RE COMING"

Tonight I was at a shopping center on Memorial Drive, right around the mile 21 point of the Houston Marathon course. In several of the store windows were posters announcing "THEY'RE COMING" and encouraging the public to come out and "shout, cheer, scream!" for the runners.

Seeing these gave me yet another jolt of nervousness and excitement that this marathon thing is "for real."

31 days to go. . . .

do (run) while (date < 20071210)

December 3 through 9

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOTAL
5 mi		9 mi	7 mi			20 mi	41 mi

Sugar Land 30K

Heading Out
My race morning began when I drove down to the mall and parked next to the Cheesecake Factory. (Hey, it was in our instructions!) For this weekend, the RW SmartCoach schedule was requesting a 20-miler from me. So after picking up my timing chip and finishing my usual 10-minute walking warmup, I took a one-and-a-half-mile jog around the mall parking lot. At the end of this, my clothes were already soaked in perspiration. Our temperatures are running twenty degrees above average for this time of year. We'd be starting under conditions of 72F and 90-percent humidity. I joined the crowd behind the starting line shortly before the horn went off. I crossed the starting mat and started my Garmin.

"This Looks Familiar."
If scenery during a run is important to you, then by all means avoid this race course. After leaving the mall, runners run a few miles to Palm Royale Boulevard and then go up and down the boulevard three times. The Sweetwater subdivision of Sugar Land is home to many of Houston's pro athletes, but we didn't see any of them, just the high walls of their McMansions. This triple-loop setup could potentially be very confusing to an unsuspecting racer. To the credit of the race organizers, mile markers 4 through 16 were very visible, even if they were seemingly scattered across the loop. But as long as I kept conscious of how many times I had been around, it wasn't an issue.

Reaching Redline
What was an issue was the rising mercury, not to mention the numbing boredom of the course that was setting in after making six U-turns on the same stretch of road. I had made it all the way through mile 14 locked in on a very comfortable pace in the tens and elevens. But three hours into the race, the temperature was reaching towards 80F and little of my perspiration was evaporating. I could sense my heartrate beginning to race and I started feeling lightheaded.

The Battle of Lexington
I interpreted my symptoms as possible warning signs of heat exhaustion. In miles 15 through 17, I shifted into a run/walk pattern to keep things under control; I was struggling to keep myself relaxed, but leaving that loop behind for good probably saved me from going loopy! As I made the turn onto Lexington Boulevard for the return trip to the mall, the sun was really getting to me and I was fretting about "running out of gas."

As if on cue, a cool breeze started blowing. "Where were you earlier?" I wryly asked aloud. ;) But I wasn't complaining; the battle had been turned! I was able to pick up my run again for the rest of the race, blowing a kiss at the mile 18 marker as I went by. The end was finally at hand.

Watch me finish!

(I'm wearing blue.)
Gun Time: 3:44:29
Chip Time: 3:43:06

Looking Forward
At the end of the race, we got some nifty medals. As much as I've complained about the course itself, I do have to give kudos to the race organizers and volunteers that made the human-controlled part of this experience pleasant to deal with. There was plenty of fluids available on the course and plenty of pizza, bagels, soda, and fruit at the post-race party. They even arranged to make finishing videos (like the one you just saw) available for download to everyone.

Well gentle reader, that's the story of my last race of 2007 and my first race as a member of the 35-39 age group. I suppose I should be feeling fairly good about my level of preparation for next month's marathon. Sure, I'm feeling fatigued and a wee bit sore, but nothing on my body outright hurts. I just hope we get some a "normal" January morning in Houston that won't force me to walk for extended stretches again due to heat issues.

Sonic Cheesecake Bites

Recently both Arby's and Sonic introduced cheesecake bites to their menus. I sampled Sonic's offering today by ordering the "large" 5-piece version for $2.49. For those attempting to maintain a facade of portion control, Sonic also packages a set of 3 for $1.99.

Turning cheesecake into a finger food was a brilliant idea. After being breaded up the resulting units are more than a cubic inch each. After consuming them with the Caramel Cinnamon Drizzle dip, I am pleased to say that they are a warm and timely winter addition to the dessert offerings at Sonic. Turning I suspect that someone realized that demand for ice cream Blasts might decline when arctic blasts come to town.

As of now, this item is not listed in the nutrition information at Sonic's website. I'm fairly certain, however, that this probably falls under the "sparingly" category of the food pyramid. In retrospect, the 3-piece serving would be plenty for one person, and the 5-piece is enough sweet tooth satisfaction for two.

do (run) while (date < 20071203)

November 26 through December 2

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOTAL
8 mi		10 mi	12 mi	6 mi	4 mi		40 mi

New weekly mileage PR.
New monthly mileage PR -- 151 in the month of November.

On deck: A heavy hitter in the middle of the order

This coming weekend on the RW SmartCoach schedule has a "go long" run of 20 miles listed. I still feeling a little rattled at finding myself quitting a 16-mile run at mile 11 last week. I can never get enough confidence boosters in this process, so I've registered for next Sunday's Sugar Land Lakes of Williams Ranch 30K (wow, that's a mouthful of a race title!). I'm hoping that a race atmosphere will help me get a quality 20 miles in that day. I'll feel very relieved if I can get that one because then I'll have two 20-milers in the log. This is the heart of the training schedule and the nervousness is only growing.

On the bright side, I did just log 40 miles this past week and 151 miles for the month of November.

41 days, 22 hours to go!