Workout weekend

Well that was a busy weekend of working out. Kath and I were out early on Saturday to join a group of Striders for Sandy's 60th birthday celebration, complete with 6k run. I gave it a good shot, keeping my heart rate over 160 (90%+ of maximum HR) pretty much for the duration. It was a fun event with a nice variety of treats afterward, even some fresh fruit. Later that day I spent about an hour doing various exercises with a medicine ball and Swiss ball.

Sunday was yet another early morning, this time to run in a 4 X 1-mile relay with the Striders & Tornados running clubs. Our foursome, the Bayou Badgers, was about 49 seconds off (slower) than our predicted 28:20 pace - our anchor (4th) runner unfortunately - and mistakenly - thought that he had to slow things down. Even so, it was fun and nice to meet some new people. I tacked on 6 easy miles (HR around 130 to 135) along Buffalo Bayou later in the day. And I also spent about an hour on my regular resistance band routine, which is a mix of upper body & leg exercises.

By this morning I was dragging somewhat, so limited my run to 5 miles with 5 short hill repeats. The combination of heat and humidity is extremely taxing. It wasn't until about 1100a this morning, once I had properly re-hydrated (Gatorade followed by white tea), that I started to feel 'human' again.

The idea is to take it relatively easy this week, in preparation for the Lunar Rendezvous 5K at Johnson Space Center Saturday morning. This is always a good race, with a great sponsor (Honeywell). Last year I placed 3rd in my age group with a time of 21:51. As I recall conditions were not nearly as bad as they are likely to be this year, so it might be tough to equal that. Lately, even the very fast 5K runners have had to take their lumps, finishing as much as 30 seconds off their usual time.

Total miles run for last week was 28; I seem to be stuck around 28 to 30 miles per week. There's room for improvement, but with the weather we've been having, I'll take it. As soon as conditions start to improve a bit, will try to up that to 35 miles per week, or so. I honestly don't know how fall marathoners are managing to get their long runs in around here. It is brutal.