Cool Runnings!

Lunch - 5.5 easy miles on the treadmill at 8:00 pace. Wore my HR monitor strap again to synch with the HR monitor on the treadmill. Average HR was a bit higher today than last Friday - probably because I didn't get enough sleep, despite getting to bed at a reasonable hour. I woke up at 4:30 with a very sore back, and couldn't get back to sleep. Average HR for the run was about 153, max HR was 160. It also did something really weird that I am sure was not right - when I first started out, it showed my HR up at about 178 for about the first 1/2 mile, then it dropped down to the upper 140's. I will attribute this to the HR strap not having any sweat or other conductivity gel to conduct the electrical impulse from the heart to the transmitter in the strap. That's about the only thing I can think of . . .

PM - untimed run with Adam, may have been as much as 0.25, but I didn't want to pressure him.  0.65 with Joey at 11:30 pace, then 1.5 with Samuel at 10:40 pace.  I made sure today that Samuel was the one leading, and I was just giving him feedback about his pace so that he knew whether to speed up or not.  For the first 1/2 mile, he was having a real hard time figuring out what the right pace was, but towards the end, he found a good pace and was able to do a good job of maintaining it.  One item of concern - just before I started to run with Samuel, my left hamstring kind of cramped up on me a little bit, although it felt fine during the run.  After we were done running, it felt a bit sore again.  I am going to have Lybi apply the hamstring torture treatment tonight.

Lunch - 4.5 easy miles on the treadmill.  0.5 at 8:00 pace, then 4 miles at 7:30 pace.  Average HR for the run was 154, max HR 163.  HR seemed to pretty much stabilize right around 160 after a couple miles at 7:30 pace.  Hamstring still felt a little bit tight, but better after getting the heck scraped out of it last night.  No cramping, stretched it out nicely after the run. 

No running today or tomorrow - I am dealing with a couple very small niggles that I don't want to aggravate before Del Sol.  My left hammy, although feeling much better than the other day, is still a little tender, and my right foot is a little sore.  Better to give them some rest before running what will be, including warming up and cooling down, well over 20 miles.

Leg 7

Our 7th runner was not going to be able to run his first leg due to work (he was a last-minute replacement), so I volunteered to run his first leg for him.  I was hoping to just make this a nice warmup - that didn't happen.  When I got the armband, I took off like a rocket, and didn't look at my Garmin until about 1/4 mile later, when my breathing had started to get kind of labored.  I realized I was actually running 5:10 pace up to that point!  Needless to say, I was full of adrenaline.  I managed to slow down a bit, but completed leg 7 in 29:13, average pace of 6:37/mile.  This was definitely not a warmup for me, and unfortunately  probably set the tone for all of my legs.

Leg 12

This was my actual leg I was scheduled to run, and it was already dark and we were running on dirt roads.  This slowed me down due to the decreased traction on dirt, as well as the inability to see very well, plus there were some very inconsiderate vehicles blazing down the road, throwing up huge clouds of dust.  Not very good for the lungs . . . I actually started off on this leg at about 6:20 pace, but was unable to maintain it - and then the thing that really kept me from meeting my goal was a big superman-style wipeout as I veered off towards the left side of the road and tripped on the soft shoulder.  Thankfully, there were no injuries, and I was able to get back up and start running again, but I was kind of in shock.  It took me a while to recover.  Then, with about 0.5 miles to go, I ended up walking for about 30 seconds, then started up again.  Time for this run was 48:12, average pace of 6:53/mile.  Still below 7:00/mile, but slower than I had wanted.  More details to come later - right now I need to lay down and get some sleep.

Leg 24 - 7.9 miles

I was already feeling sore from my first two legs, so I didn't know what I was going to be able to do on this one.  I started off well, hitting about 6:50 pace for the first couple of miles, but my legs didn't last very long, especially since this was mostly gradual uphill.  I ended up wimping out and walking occasionally about every mile, which was about when our van stopped to offer me gatorade.  When we made the turn, I managed to put together a pretty good couple miles, but then we hit more uphill and my legs abandoned me.  Out of all my legs, this was the one I was most disappointed with.  Average pace: 7:38/mile.  I was absolutely exhausted after this leg.  I had also gotten a blister on my right big toe during the previous leg, and got a matching one on my left big toe to match.

Thankfully, we drove down to Camille's house after this leg, and her husband made waffles for us with orange juice.  We also had a nice place to take a hot shower, which I did.  I downed a couple waffles and had some orange juice, then laid down on the couch and managed to get maybe an hour of sleep.  Then off to our final set of legs.  Everyone was tired and sore and ran slower than we had planned.

Leg 36 - 3.8 miles

I got the baton and surpised myself with how well I was doing - I was running about 6:30 pace and felt like I could sustain it, then got hit with the dreaded stoplight.  I lost at least 30 seconds at the stoplight and had I been a cursing man, would have been cursing the light for taking so long to change.  Another speedy runner had caught up to me at the light, and we took off together.  I tried to stay with him, but he was running a little too fast for me.  I made the turn on to Alma School road, and had to wait for ANOTHER light!  Another 30 seconds (minimum) lost.  Grrrr!  From Alma School, I went on to the canal for about a mile, and the dirt took a lot out of me.  Once I got onto the road again, I was really struggling.  I ended up walking for about 0.1 miles again until I got to Dobson, then ran the rest of the way in.  Oh, and I had two more lights that I had to wait at!  Finally finished, and I was absolutely beat.  Average pace was 7:13/mile, but I feel confident that had it not been for the stoplights, I would have been able to hit my predicted pace of 6:48/mile.