15 down, 3 to go

Weeks in the training cycle.  20 miles tomorrow and the taper starts!!  Probably the best marathon training cycle - so far - in at least 5 years or so.  Of course I haven't run a full marathon since 2009 Boston so not much to compare it with.  Most importantly, no debilitating injuries.  If you are 59 and you've run for 40 years, you are going to have some niggling little issues here and there: a tight hamstring that talks to you every now and then, some lingering Plantar Fasciitis, a wonky but perfectly fine left knee, and what not.  On the plus side of the ledger?  Lots of experience and endurance and pain tolerance - all three pretty handy weapons to have in your arsenal when you are racing 26.2 miles.

The pace run this morning ended up being 10 miles at 8:15, which is a good 30 seconds per mile under my anticipated marathon pace of 8:35.  Really thrilled with that, and felt good right until the end, despite pretty muggy conditions.  I am not used to being 'the guy' who outruns the entire training group, but it has happened a couple of times recently, so I guess I'd better enjoy it while it lasts!

Winning the heat Lotto in Houston

We are keenly anticipating morning temperatures in the 60's after a simply brutal August with an average temperature of 90.4 Fahrenheit, a new record. And it wasn’t even close. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle the probability of such a significant deviation from the historical average in any given year is 1 in 10,000. We basically won the heat Lotto.

Finished up week 13 (of 18) of the Hal Higdon Intermediate II marathon training program. Twenty miles today at average pace of about 9:20, not bad.  Saturday's 10-mile pace run at 8:35 was one of the best runs I've had in a couple of years! For once it was not absolutely stifling out there, and my running partner and I did not linger too long at each of the water spots.  This was the second of three 50-mile weeks on the program.  One more long week - and two not so long ones - and it is taper time!! The plantar fasciitis on the left foot is still present but under control; stretching, icing and the occasional Airrosti treatment (another coming up on Tuesday) is keeping it at bay. 

I am not officially taking a break from my ‘150 or bust’ weight-loss program, but running this many miles per week is making it difficult to reduce calories to the point of additional weight-loss.  I am basically stuck at just over 160 lbs,  not likely to make much progress on losing the last 10 lbs. until after the marathon.  Body fat percentage down to around 15% so at least I’m not regressing.