Winter Solstice Runs

14 miles in 2 winter solstice runs. 10 mile w/u around buffalo bayou including downtown.
4 miles KW hills.

Followed by seeing Avatar in 3D.

KW -Intervals

8 miles. Intervals at Memorial Park. 2miles, 5MR, 1mile, 3MR, .5mile

Kenyan Way Christmas Party

Followed by gym session

KW - Hills

5 miles. Short w/u and hill session. Little slick underfoot. (Rain continues all week.)

Terry Hershey Park - Long run.

8 miles, THP. 65F. Slight drizzle. Muddy. Felt great.

Friday Run. In the Rain and cool weather!

6 miles. Memorial Park Trails. Lots of rain after cold front pushed in all day. 59F. Rained during run. Bailed to blue trail with Bayou full. Of course very few people out. Holiday weekend ahead(Columbus Day).

KW - MP

6 miles . Memorial Park. 2 mile warm-up. 3 miles of 2 lamposts fast - 2 slow. 1 mil wd.

No run today - working late.

Working

Belaire Run

3 miles. Very slow since morning run. In the rain.

Emergency visit to eye doctor

Checking out at store and right eye exploded with black lava lamp like images. Went home and put groceries in fridge. Googled issue and then called opticians for opinion or urgency. Had to drive straight in as definitely deteriorating hazy vision. So several tests later they said it was PVD - Posterior Vitreous Detachment. I knew the eye was filled with fluid which is almost solid. I didn't know it could change consistency (in my case suddenly) and affect vision. I have a long eye and if you are 6 diopters or more you are prone to this. Basically it detaches from retina (may or may not tear it) and see the shadow of it doing this. After many exams and opticians worried about glaucoma - this was never on the radar as a problem I could have. Really hassled by after having LASIK for 10 years and great vision for first time in life - it is now gone. They say takes 6 weeks to stabilize the detachment and the brain to begins to try and cancel out the shadow (remember brain rotates the image and does alot of filtering!) . Told absolutely no treatment and something have to learn to live with. And always be an issue. I also had a full test in April and 5 months later get this. I go back in a month to make sure the detachment is not causing a retina tear. There was no sign today - was intact and healthy. So lets see when it happens to other eye. I guess have 2 for a reason! Also they said that older people will have it and not know it as it occurs gradually while their eyesight is deteriorating. I had a PVD event. Lucky me.

KW - MP

6 miles. Memorial Park. 2 miles warm-up. 3 miles temp run. 1 mile w/d.

KW - Hills

2 mile warm-up on Tornado's x-country relay course from weekend race. Rain started but lightening kept away. Then 1 mile reps with 90s rest btwn on cloverleaf course. 9:12, 8:45, 8:32. You know you are training when doing mile reps on hills and each has to be progressively faster!

Sunday Run

Started in sunlight and ended in moonlight. Run along Terry Hershey Trail. Kinda slow after having dinner first and a weekend spend doing home construction. Main floor completed. Now onto miles of baseboard and touch up painting. With each wall unique - not the fastest tasks to complete.

Kenyan Way - Memorial Park

Ran e-naked. Garmin didn't make the leave home checklist and remained sitting charging on granite counter top. Probably the first time I forgot it. So no real point doing the scheduled KW interval session without a backup watch. Also this was second run back from illness. Instead enjoyed the first cool run of fall by running classic memorial trails route and finishing with 2 miles round runners loop. Not a sole on the trails. So peaceful and allowed mind to wander as the tree roots, path and ups and downs are second nature after all these years. On the runners loop fun seeing all the large training groups doing "stuff". Lots of groups doing everything but running. One group in particular had people doing some kind of leg kicks and everyone had picked a different style. I know people are all different shapes and sizes but I believe the goal of the exercise is to do it a specific way to have desired result.

Great run! Great day for it. And yes - I saw several run with that thermal jacket on in 72F!

Kenyan Way Hills

OK. This was a tentative session. Been sick for 2 weeks with aches and pains all over and body fatigue. No other symptoms. First run since Labor Day. Had a few crappy weekends. Went to doc on Fri 11 and endured 4 hours there mostly waiting despite having an appointment. All tests negative. Had some more done on Monday. Doc didn't want to give anything until knew what it was.

So run was relatively OK. Am writing this 2 days later and believe I can say I'm finally well again.

Managed 2 loops of all 4 cloverleafs. Did a third one for warm-down.

Sick - Climbing Wall

Trying to muscle through the pain...

Sick - Doctors Visit

This took 4 hours of my life to do while not feeling any good.

Sick - Marathon Kick-off event

Home sick all day and finally able to struggle out to pick up the usual free shirt at Houston Marathon kick-off party.

Sick - Missed Kenyan Way

Not feeling good - straight home.

labor day - kenyan way hills

30 minutes with 5 x 0.49mile laps, 2 min rest btwn. Not a real hill session. Just faster laps each time. Survived session and got little better at end after labor day festivities. K came along so no real warmup (just 1/2 mile). Core after.

Climbing Wall

Interesting LTF closed the indoor pool during lightning. Had some lifeguards pretending to be meteorologists watching the radar loop of storm cell. Everyone understands an outdoor pool needs closed with lightening - not inside. They said 15 minutes to close as a precaution - then they suddenly needed 30 minutes after storm passed by as a saftey buffer. Really? Lightening conductors on the building don't fix the problem? Aren't there higher buildings next to the pool? Shouldn't the showers and spa be evacuated on the same theory :-)

Kenyan Way

6 miles, Tempo run Memorial Park

Kenyan Way Hills

Back in the saddle with warm-up and hill relay. Plan is to start some consistent training. This one I was only good for 8 reps. Last 3 I died on. Core exercises were kinda tough also.

Working late

Missed Kenyan Way Hill session because working late with major coordinated software releases with a midnight hard date due to new financial transactions starting. Lots of issues resolved using all the experience of previous sketchy releases. Amazing lack of a plan B - but we believe squeaked by. Of course doing inevitable hot fixes Tuesday!

Kenyan Way

3 miles. Memorial Park. Start of the Fall evening speed program. But will miss next week as on vacation.

Beijing Airport International School Run

The other direction along the river.

Beijing Airport Run

Managed to leave the airport runways behind and find a river and have a river run this morning. Very hazy and foggy, 75F. Quiet on roads being so early and few people cycling or walking to work. The road followed river and clearly in a flood zone. They were concreting part of the road so just like being at home with the road construction outside my house! Lots of fields, tree lined paths and marshland. Some fisherman were right in the river with hand nets. On the way back saw some local runners. Always great to know find running routes popular with locals. Will post the Garmin route when return home - as forgot the transfer device. Nice to have a rural run in Beijing after city center run in Shanghai. This time I knew google maps would mark the hotel inaccurately and I was able to corrcetly find hotel and recce potential routes much better. Passed goats, sheep being herded along the road. Plenty of people and their dogs that were all not interested in me. And usual amount of morning people standing and do the slapping thing with their arms.

Interestingy my blog ( and all google's) is blocked in China. Add that to youtube, twitter, facebook also blocked. Weird reminder that having an opinion and being able to publish thoughts, etc is a freedom so may of us just take for granted. At least by nature of internet anyone that is blocked can jump over to a non-chinese computer and still use the services. Reminds me of the situation when they had to broadcast the Beatles et al on ships off the UK coast line because the government banned their communication for a while.

Kenyan Way - Classic Hills

4 miles, Classic hill session at Memorial and Shepherd. After avoiding the usual hill session place due to April 28th "100 year" flood, finally returned to old stomping ground. Luckily nearer 93F than recent triple digits. Ran on 2 hill loop that avoided the bayou sand washout. Heart rate graph shows decent session. Brutal start and with 6 minuets btwn sessions, brutal restart. But worked it out. 2 mile warmup.

4th July Holiday run

5 miles. Memorial Park Trails. Very cautious on this one. Middle of the afternoon run as off work early for the Independence Day weekend holiday. Took a Gatorade on run to help with dehydration. Everything dry in trails from the relentless record June heat. It was flooded a month ago. So looked for shade the whole way as had no sunscreen. Crazy hot so really slow - especially with sticking the whole way on trails. Discovered part of my favorite trails are now closed. I had to bushwhack through a section which I finally realized was purposely closed. It had 2 great hills as so close to the bayou. I know like alot of the hike only trails they flood. Didn't see any erosion that would require this part of the trail to close after 12 years running on them. Normally the trail evolves when a tree blocks the path.

Climbing Gym

Finally some time to be back at the climbing gym.

Kenyan Way - 3 Person relays

Great session for the heat being over 100F. At cloverleaf again. Nice for some speed despite injury risk after slow wet workout Monday. I was averaging 42 to 45 seconds. My relay buddies were 1:20 average between them. I got in 12 sprints and concentrated on form over speed. Seemed cooler at end than start. Amazing what get use too.

Hills Hills Hills!

Kenyan Way - 4 leafs of the cloverleaf. Just run those hills! 30 mins. Started after a long needed downpour. Ground was muddy and soft. Cooled the place down until sun came out and steam started. Tried to keep a good session going after keeping busy with all the home improvements after end of April flood.

Swimming and Climbing Wall

Went out to Cinco Ranch LTF where the outdoor pool is way better. Climbing wall challenging as always - but this one is spacious and only 2 stories instead of the narrow 3 story one at City Centre.

The Harp

Catching up by spending evening on deck at the Harp.

No Travel for a while

So spent all day working on one room in the house after flood devastated all rooms. Just a bunch more to go! Good to have one room finally done. No travel for a while while completing all this. Plan to keep running for recreation (and sanity) instead.

Kenyan Way

5.5 miles. Enjoyable workout. 25 minutes in which do some long loops separated by 2x100m sprints.

Kenyan Way

4 miles. Hill session at cloverleaf. 25 minutes of Hills. 2 courses. 3 reps per course alternating. walk down hills. train - not strain on the continuous graded inclines.

Kenyan Way - National Running Day

Fun workout with varies running groups and random runners meeting up at Memorial Park for National Running Day. Just a 3 mile loop of Memorial Park with warm up and warm down. Start of some summer heat!

Kenyan Way

4.5 miles. Spotts Park. 3 speed fartlek, of course fastest on 2 killer hills. Kept the session together pretty good.

Kenyan Way

5.5 miles. Progressive run. 0.59 mile loops. Kept the session together for first 3. Did a warm down on last loop and then another real warm down loop.

Kenyan Way - Memorial Day

Fun session. 2 separate hill loops on cloverleaf.

Memorial Park

Memorial Park Trail Run. Trails still saturated from rain. Bayou full with George Bush reservoir being full.

Kenyan Way - Kenyan Nights

25:00 Interval training near base area. Great session. Way more sociable after the small group 5k run Monday.

Baseball

Made it out to an Astros game in their 10th season at downtown ball park.

Kenyan Nights 5K training run

3.1 miles. 26:18. Great weather. Tonight's "Beat the Heat" training run was a straight 5K around the bayou. Leaving in groups with same goal pace. Had to fight hills, sand from recent flooding and people. Garmin 405 behaved and 1/2 mile splits matched the yellow marks on ground. Last mile was faster than first despite dog park hill at end.

Bike to work Day

20 miles cycling. Terry Hershey Trail. Finally got the bike out on trail normally run on. It was bike to work day and I was on a 9/80 day off.

Swimming

Kenyan Way Time Trial

1 mile. 8:00. Start of 3 month training program time trial. This time just 1 mile instead of past years 2 miles due to recent running hiatus. Did the run on own at local park - 4 x 1/4 mile loops on grass.

Climbing Wall

Managed to make a trip to climbing wall. Meant to be every Tues!

Tour de Bayou - race 4

4.7 mile trail race at Memorial Park. Since the 5 race April series switched from Tue to Thu, this is the only race I can make this year with family commitments. Also, on a running hiatus, so no warm-up and tried to keep things under control. Legs really hurting after 20 minutes so no risk of running too fast. After a bad patch finally found some improved form to push as best I could the last mile. Clearly some training won't go wrong! Planning on starting up Kenyan Way training sessions in May.

Memorial Park Trails

5 miles. Memorial park Trails. Garmin couldn't find satellites for some reason and started well into the run. This run had path blocked at every ravine due to downpour Fri and Sat. Spent alot of the run exploring new paths and trying to reconnect after bypassing each. Even a complete circle one time! Great cool weather. Low hunidity.

Street Flooding

At climbing gym and saw street flooding outside. Have a neighborhood drainage project only half complete. The new streets draining correctly now. Unfortunately the old streets that cause flooding in my home are not done. Had to abandon car and walk to house. Open up all the drains and wait and see if it was going to rain enough to flood. Fortunately the cul-de-sac didn't overflow into my yard. The construction caused my last flood as they had blocked many of the drains. This time the water in the park was held back because entire park road was dug up. Amazing that some places in Houston got in 2 days more rain than hurricane IKE last Oct. Can't wait for neighborhood drainage project to be completed!

Leaving Shanghai Run

7 miles. Made sure to get up early to avoid people and cars and get out for a run. Been too hectic working for 9 days to get a run in earlier. Found some parks to run in with everyone there doing the Chinese thing. For some that was badminton without a net and sometimes rackets in both hands.

In Shanghai

Fly to Shanghai

Travel day to Shanghai, China for a last minute work trip. Thu and Fri had been spent doing the Chinese fire drill at their consulate to get a visa. Traveling via Narita, Tokyo. Will lose a day - all of Monday - due to date line.

Travel back to Houston

An early start to travel back to Houston via Edinburgh after a non-stop weekend.

Day in Edinburgh

A leisurely day in Edinburgh with a Sunday morning visit to walk in the Pentland Hills. Found 99 pence excellent Duchars beer in afternoon - so rest of the day was very mellow.

Stewart and Cath's wedding

Kilt on and off to a wedding and celebrations.

Edinburgh, Bathgate, Armadale

Some great beers and catching up with friends.

Travel to Edinburgh

After the Glasgow weekend trip a month ago, getting ready for Edinburgh was easy. Just had to remember to get a wedding present that could travel in hand baggage.

Sick Day

A lot better today - but want to be sure. Also get to go to the Harp...

Sick Day

Still ill- managed a small amount of yard work. Great weather today.

Sick Day

Day 2. Taking medication so can get through family events.

Sick Day

So I managed to get what everyone around me has been suffering with the past 2 or 3 weeks. Hoping it goes away fast! Try to take it easy. Not a very productive day.

Home improvement

Slate tile laying - Day 3. Finishing the third area.

Day off

Trouble at mill....

Second run since Houston Marathon

6.2 miles. Memorial Park trail run. Great weather.

Show

Comedy night. Enjoyed seeing Joel McHale.

Valentine's Day

Chocolate covered strawberries anyone?

Beer night

Alabama Alehouse and Griffs.

Day off

Walked a mile to buy tickets for a show instead of paying on-line convenience fee. However lots of sickness going around - and ended up taking it easy since thought coming down with something. Changed evening home project plan to go to Nick and Nikki's and caught up on AI.

First run since Houston Marathon

6 miles. 1:10. Running hiatus is officially over. First run since Houston Marathon. Run through the woods on scenic Memorial Park Trails and finish with half a loop round golf course. Garmin had lost charge with lying in running gear bag for 3 weeks so no GPS track to upload. Ran usual course. 75F. Fun route to start back with. Decided on a break from Kenyan Way training. Sean has an 11 week season to gain back speed. Group Hill workout on Monday are always good. However it is free for all at Memorial Park Wednesday and an urban group long distance run 6am Saturdays. Finally Tour de Bayou kicks in in April - so decided to many negatives and just to train on own. Note to all coaches - I'm just looking for a regular before or after work program which focuses on group training.

So despite the run being fun quickly hit usual after effects: Tired legs. Tough to wake up the next day. Sore. As if had no break!

Climbing Wall

Did first top rope climbs at LTF climbing wall.

Swimming

Swimming to help recover from all the effort helping with moving last few days.

Houston Marathon

26.2 miles. 4:10:12. Warm sunny day. Running without a long run under belt with being injured at New Year. But churned out 19 decent miles. Then cramped at 25. Happy to finish! Using Garmin on first major run. Switched auto-lap from training mode of each 1/2 mile to 1 mile to match the mile markers. GPS showed early in race 0.2 extra miles so the auto laps were out of-sync. Caused by not being able to take the best lines with amount of runners. Decided despite how crazy it looked to put on usual split timer watch as well and hit that at each mile marker. Saw I was hitting 8:53 pace for many miles despite the hills or water stops or how feeling.

With it being my 4th Houston marathon in a row this race was kinda routine. Except I was down on the long conditioning runs. I knew anything over 18 miles would be a struggle. But in the back of my mind I knew it would be just a case of toughing it out. I thought I was on top of the cramp situation as I'd cramped during some of longer workouts and new it was the warmest marathon I'd done. So took plenty of Gatorade - well - in small amounts consistently. Tried some electrolyte capsules I'd gotten from trail races. Also had a Gel at 14.5 miles. Was expecting a Gel to be handed out at mile 20 like in the past 3 years - but there was none. So no extra energy source for Allen Parkway hills. Instead had the beer and stopped to savour it. Definitely the highlight of the run. After a slow uphill mile on Allen Parkway (just in time for the photos!) I tried to kick up the pace on downhill for last mile. Bad move - cramp in both legs under Pierce elevated freeway. Had to stop and jump around awkwardly, causing concern for all! So then it was just a case of finishing without cramping stopping me run. Still wanted to "race" at the end - but cramp returned and it is a fun finish line video as a result.

So all things considered escaped a desperately bad run. Definitely nice to just complete after all the other preparation and know can tough it out on basic fitness without having to do marathon specific training. Oh. Decided to hang out with the 4 hour pacing group. Shame to see their main guy holding sign having issues 24.5 miles and not able to finish strong. Just shows each persons race is unique and personal despite camaraderie and team work.

Kenyan Way

11 miles including 27:00 hills - 15 reps of a 2 hill loop. Ran round Allen Parkway Buffalo Bayou park - sticking to bayou and looping including Police Officers memorial. Approx 44F with a breeze. Decent run after traveling and hip injury.

Travel Day back to Houston from Reno

Got the red-eye - so managed a leisurely day in Reno while getting ready to go home. Rain and windy weather and along with hip injury wasn't able to get in a Reno run.

Travel Day back to Reno from Midas