Term Limits?

Thanks, Nancy.

By the numbers, it seems as you wrote.  But the 8th mile was tougher and the race is 13, so extending the < 140 bpm might save enough ability for the last couple of miles.  Finishing as fast as my poor, wittle legs will carry me without any heart pain is the goal.  Meaning <165-ish.

Thanks again.

This morning, I went to a different 24 Hour Fitness to see how it was. You may remember my 24 hour fitness is closing on February 7. I had scoped out the new one last night before Bible class.

Everything was switched around to fit the floor space. I couldn't find the kettlebells for 1 of my exercises, but substituted a 25 lb plate and a 35 lb plate, which worked fine.

Overall, my workout went fine. The location is labeled 'Active' on the sign outside. It had a full size basketball court that the closing location doesn't have because it's a plain 24 hour fitness with not enough square footage for a court.

The other 24 Hour Fitness near me is labeled 'Sport' and has a court, a 3 or 4 lane pool and is actually open 24 hours. The plain and Active open at 5 a.m.

I guess I can shoot some air balls, at some point. This will be the last weights session until after Half on the 19th.

Speaking of the Half, it's 10 days away and weather forecasts can now be viewed, although not accurate yet. It's only good for seeing Saturday, Sunday, and Monday's guess to see if the temps are similar or vary greatly (like a front passes through). The average high for the 3 days is 64. Seasonal is 62. So that's good.

Y'all have a good evening.

ounce wrote:Thanks, Nancy.

By the numbers, it seems as you wrote.  But the 8th mile was tougher and the race is 13, so extending the < 140 bpm might save enough ability for the last couple of miles.  Finishing as fast as my poor, wittle legs will carry me without any heart pain is the goal.  Meaning <165-ish.

Thanks again.

That heart pain thing is important Doug!  Good goal.

Where's all the tape madness?????

I figured the explanation of 3 days of weather might've qualified.

I can create a taper madness series. Having Mark involved in it would make it better. Guess I'll post on his thread, so he might chime in on it.

I'm doing 3 miles in the morning. Then I'll start it.

Due to popular demand, the next few days will be a TAPER MADNESS sub-thread of the usual drivel.


Well, my training is ALL shot to hell.    I woke up for the 3 mile run, this morning with 9 days to go.  9 days!!!!!  And I went back to sleep.  I WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!!!  The most CRITICAL run of the WHOLE training session and I went back to sleep.  Arrrrrrrrrgh!  I should go and eat that Milky Way in the frig now because it won't do me any good on race day.  Then, I'll go to the grocery store, buy a box of them, and eat them ALL while binging on "Dynasty." 



I don't know why I went back to sleep.  I might as well lock myself up in the mud room in a fetal position.
WHY DID I GO BACK TO SLEEP?!?!?!?!?!  I guess this is what they call [size=24]TAPER MADNESS!!!
[/size]

ounce wrote:Due to popular demand, the next few days will be a TAPER MADNESS sub-thread of the usual drivel.


Well, my training is ALL shot to hell.    I woke up for the 3 mile run, this morning with 9 days to go.  9 days!!!!!  And I went back to sleep.  I WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!!!  The most CRITICAL run of the WHOLE training session and I went back to sleep.  Arrrrrrrrrgh!  I should go and eat that Milky Way in the frig now because it won't do me any good on race day.  Then, I'll go to the grocery store, buy a box of them, and eat them ALL while binging on "Dynasty." 



I don't know why I went back to sleep.  I might as well lock myself up in the mud room in a fetal position.
WHY DID I GO BACK TO SLEEP?!?!?!?!?!  I guess this is what they call [size=24]TAPER MADNESS!!!
[/size]

Much better Doug.  A race of this magnitude deserves an equally magnificent taper madness thread. 

Keep up the good work...it will help distract you from the things you are actually worrying about as the count down to the race continues.  9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 

But it's SO difficult, Nancy.  I'm going to try to hold out picking what I'm wearing for as long as I can.  I'm so messed up, I didn't even find the below cartoon funny.

ounce wrote:But it's SO difficult, Nancy.  I'm going to try to hold out picking what I'm wearing for as long as I can.  I'm so messed up, I didn't even find the below cartoon funny.

It's tough to appear to be suffering from taper madness when you are so well prepared for the race...and perfectly sane.

In all seriousness...what does the weather look like for race day?

Prepared?!?!?!?!? I'm NOT prepared and don't you forget it, missy. I wish we could just jump over the 19th like it didn't happen. I feel like Marianne Williamson (former presidential candidate). I am POSITIVE that I'm not ready for the Half.

You asked about weather. Do I look like a meteoriollologistical person? Do I look like I care if the little kiddies wear their jackets at recess?
36 at the start, clear, 52 for a high, but tell me, missy, WHEN have they EVER been right? NEVER!!!
The only thing we know is that it won't be sunny, 36 or 52 degrees on race day.

Mark is SUPPOSED to show up tomorrow night IF he gets back from taking the boy wonder back to college. He picked a HELLUVA time to be gone in my days of need. I thought WSU bandies would have a bus to go around and pick up everyone. It IS a state institution, after all.

Mark's not a lot of help, but I get to chew on him a lot.

Missy, don't you have some carrots to seed or W-2s to fake????

I'm outta here.

The course was changed a little bit for the marathon. But the Half course is exactly the same. Why is it THEY get a tweaking? Don't they think the Half would like a little new scenery, too? After all, we're paying almost a marathon price for half the distance!

Today, I spent a couple of hours planning out what I was to wear, IF ( a big if) I run the half. That was a waste of time. I didn't have any of the fashion items knowledgeable people said I should have. Not even the socks. And now, because the items (especially the mink running shorts) are on backorder, I have nothing to wear.

I'm open to suggestions.

ounce wrote:The course was changed a little bit for the marathon.  But the Half course is exactly the same.  Why is it THEY get a tweaking?  Don't they think the Half would like a little new scenery, too?  After all, we're paying almost a marathon price for half the distance!

Today, I spent a couple of hours planning out what I was to wear, IF ( a big if) I run the half.  That was a waste of time.  I didn't have any of the fashion items knowledgeable people said I should have.  Not even the socks.  And now, because the items (especially the mink running shorts) are on backorder, I have nothing to wear.

I'm open to suggestions.

Looks to me like you answered your own question...if you have nothing to wear then wear nothing...

The name on my race bib IS "Naked," so might as well make it true.

Thanks, Missy.

ounce wrote:The name on my race bib IS "Naked," so might as well make it true.

Thanks, Missy.

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:The name on my race bib IS "Naked," so might as well make it true.

Thanks, Missy.

Would more than likely be the spectator's response.  It's not ready for prime time...or any time in the daylight.

I'll wear this, at least it shouldn't get me arrested.  Still plenty of , though.

ounce wrote:I'll wear this, at least it shouldn't get me arrested.  Still plenty of , though.

I'm sure you could pull it off Doug...  But where would you attach your bib?

Breaking in with a normal post regarding weather. A local weather guy with a following posted this about Sunday's weather that I preface with an almost cold front passing Saturday afternoon:

"The weather for Sunday, and the Houston Marathon, continues to look pretty good if the forecast holds. As we get closer to Sunday confidence is increasing in a cool morning. I’m still expecting start line temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees in downtown Houston, with clearing skies. Highs by noon probably will work their way into the upper 50s. The one concern I have right now is winds, which may blow out of the north at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts near 20 mph. (We’re still five days out, so some of this will change)."

We now return you to TAPER MADNESS....
BOY, you are nosy.  If you MUST know, although I was trying to keep this secret.  Being the trendsetter that I am, I contacted Polar two months ago to come up with a fashion running watch.

And while I can't release the actual photo of the watch, it's going to be yuuuuuuge.


Happy?

ounce wrote:Breaking in with a normal post regarding weather.  A local weather guy with a following posted this about Sunday's weather that I preface with an almost cold front passing Saturday afternoon:

"The weather for Sunday, and the Houston Marathon, continues to look pretty good if the forecast holds. As we get closer to Sunday confidence is increasing in a cool morning. I’m still expecting start line temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees in downtown Houston, with clearing skies. Highs by noon probably will work their way into the upper 50s. The one concern I have right now is winds, which may blow out of the north at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts near 20 mph. (We’re still five days out, so some of this will change)."

OK.  I'll help with prayers for a calm day.  Temps look pretty decent.  Warm for me but probably cool for folks that train in Texas.

Are we able to track you?

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:Breaking in with a normal post regarding weather.  A local weather guy with a following posted this about Sunday's weather that I preface with an almost cold front passing Saturday afternoon:

"The weather for Sunday, and the Houston Marathon, continues to look pretty good if the forecast holds. As we get closer to Sunday confidence is increasing in a cool morning. I’m still expecting start line temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees in downtown Houston, with clearing skies. Highs by noon probably will work their way into the upper 50s. The one concern I have right now is winds, which may blow out of the north at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts near 20 mph. (We’re still five days out, so some of this will change)."

OK.  I'll help with prayers for a calm day.  Temps look pretty decent.  Warm for me but probably cool for folks that train in Texas.

Are we able to track you?

Thanks.  Actually, the wind will counter the sun's heat, so I'm fine with the overall forecast.  Cloudy would be best, though. 

They recommend downloading the app or online at http://results.houstonmarathon.com/2019/

Note the corral close time of 7:40...the race starts at 7:00.  The last 2 years, I've crossed the mat around 7:55.  So, a drop dead clock time of 11:00 (3 hours) would be my recommendation to see how things shook out.
Bib stuff:

Doug Spence

2020 Aramco Houston Half Marathon

Bib Number:	40209
Age on Race Day:	62
Gender:	M
Corral Assignment:	D
Corral Gate Closure:	7:40
Citizenship:	USA

It's been about 8 or 9 days since my last run, so I decided to get out there to remind the legs that running still happens.  It was 70 degrees this morning with fog.  As a result, I wasn't expecting a lot of spryness, even though rested.  I was more curious if I could run 1 or 2 miles below 130 bpm at roughly the same split (high 13's).  If I could, this would retain some energy for later in the race on Sunday.

Well, the temperature made that impossible.  I ran 5 miles because, as said earlier, to remind the legs that longer distance running still happens.  I will post the splits later, but only 1 of the 5 splits were under 14 minutes.  I was sweating, but came away with no niggles or exceptions.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to run the whole race, when I'm not passing through an aid station.  Race day temps are still floating between 45 and 50 at the start...probably 50 by the 8 a.m. time that I'll actually be starting.  It may be overcast, which will be great for 10-11 a.m.

Thanks for checking in.

Thanks for the bib and tracking info Doug.  I'll make sure I check in occasionally and follow along on race day.

I appreciate your posting here.  I'm not anywhere near ready for the half I signed up for on Feb 16th.  (Heartbreaker Half...my cardiologist's fundraiser).  I could drop to the 10K I guess but I really struggle with that choice.  Your blog is helping me accept the fact that not running as fast as I'd like is no excuse to quit!

No matter how the race goes you can be proud of the fact that you're out there doing what you can.  You could use your cardiac event as an excuse to sit home but instead you're trying new things in your training...adding weights etc.  You're an inspiration.

Have fun on race day...I'll be thinking of you.

***

Moving on to Taper Madness


OK...you've got 4 days to prepare yourself.  You can get at least two weeks worth of additional training in before the race.  So here's the plan.  Doubles every day between now and race day.  One long run and one interval run...you can choose which one you do first each day.  In between runs you can go to the gym and lift weights.  Don't worry about sleep.  You've got lots of time to sleep after the race.  And nutrition...if you stop eating/drinking completely you can lose 10 lbs before race day.  Just think of the speed you'll gain by lowering your weight.  And don't eat/drink anything on race day morning...you don't want to gain back all that weight.  


You've got your marching orders...what are you waiting for?  Get out there and get it done!

nkrichards wrote:Thanks for the bib and tracking info Doug.  I'll make sure I check in occasionally and follow along on race day.

I appreciate your posting here.  I'm not anywhere near ready for the half I signed up for on Feb 16th.  (Heartbreaker Half...my cardiologist's fundraiser).  I could drop to the 10K I guess but I really struggle with that choice.  Your blog is helping me accept the fact that not running as fast as I'd like is no excuse to quit!

No matter how the race goes you can be proud of the fact that you're out there doing what you can.  You could use your cardiac event as an excuse to sit home but instead you're trying new things in your training...adding weights etc.  You're an inspiration.

Have fun on race day...I'll be thinking of you.

***

Moving on to Taper Madness


OK...you've got 4 days to prepare yourself.  You can get at least two weeks worth of additional training in before the race.  So here's the plan.  Doubles every day between now and race day.  One long run and one interval run...you can choose which one you do first each day.  In between runs you can go to the gym and lift weights.  Don't worry about sleep.  You've got lots of time to sleep after the race.  And nutrition...if you stop eating/drinking completely you can lose 10 lbs before race day.  Just think of the speed you'll gain by lowering your weight.  And don't eat/drink anything on race day morning...you don't want to gain back all that weight.  


You've got your marching orders...what are you waiting for?  Get out there and get it done!

Thank you, kindly, Nancy.  If I were in your shoes on your February 16 race, I'd be looking at the course closing time and see how you can execute the Half.  I'm always checking that for a race, due to me being speed-challenged.  Sunday's Half time cutoff is 4 hours.  You have reason to show up.  If you can't calmly finish the Half in time, drop to the 10K without shame.  He'll be happy to see you in either event and you've paid money for the Half, so you're fully vested.

I am doing what I can.  I still want to do 2 more marathons to have 10 official Houstons, but feel like I need to do more preparation.  So I'm looking at 2022 and '23 for those 2 marathons.  So, this year is prep for the '21 Half.

I will have fun on Sunday.  Now, what's the second half of your post?  Let me look.

-30-

I've wasted day one of 4.  Alright, Missy, that just means that I'll double up on the double up.  Wait...wh??????  What kind of a nut case do you think I am?????  I'm not running this to break any records or pass any people.  I'm running it to get on TV as much as possible.  If I need a new PR, I'll just switch bibs with a fast person.  Isn't that how you got your BQ??????  It's how I would do it.  I don't care if my bib says "Miche1e."  She's run enough of those things anyway and she needs to let the slower people qualify.  She'll be in our shoes, soon enough.  And while I don't want Michele to suffer any genuine problem with her enlarged heart, does the below picture give an idea what will happen?



So, no, I'm not going to do a damn thing.  I have my unitard singlet/shorts.  I have my race watch and I found a pair of  flip-flops that coordinates with all of it.  Saturday night, I'm having Thai food.  I hear the spices will give me extra get up and go.  Sunday morning will be pancakes and sausage....carbo loading.  Just think of the speed I'll get by the pancakes fueling me out the wazoo!

What else am I missing?  I just hope the aid stations have brisket or enchiladas.  Nothing denotes Texas better than brisket and Tex-Mex.

As you can see, I picked up my packet.
Oh my God. OH my God. OH MY GOD!!!!!!
It is marathon weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So many things to do and SOOOOO little time.
I wish I could sleep at night. I feel so underprepared. The only thing I know is ready are the watches. Let me check them, though. Yeah, they haven't moved since checking them 5 minutes ago. They're the back up, in case Polar doesn't get that big clock to me tomorrow.

Uhhhhhh, weather. The cold front is due here Saturday noon. It's 67 degrees now and in the morning it's supposed to be...67 degrees with rain around 11, before the front. I have volunteered to marshal the 5K downtown from 6:15- 10 a.m. Then, home. Maybe a movie. I hope I don't regret volunteering the day before the race.

Sunday morning, SUNDAY MORNING!!!! The cold front blows through on Saturday leaving Sunday at 43 degrees with a 10-15 mph north wind. Wind chills in the 30s until 9 a.m. 54 degrees by noon. I hope to be done before 11...maybe 10:40.

So it seems like I'll wear 2 short sleeved shirts and my plastic, dry cleaning bag and gloves. Miles 10-12 will be butting against the north wind. I might swap out 1 shirt for a long sleeved shirt.

I'll check in tomorrow.