Hola from Puerto Vallarta

Now I remember why I need to keep my job. We’ve been here since Thursday, I got a new tattoo poolside, and I’m off from work all next week. We’re staying in the Marina Vallarta district, with Bahia de Banderas and the Pacific Ocean outside our hotel window. Every day has been spent going between pool and beach and back. It’s been a year since our last beach vacation, and we’re going to make the most of it!

I ran Friday morning. Didn’t pay attention to sunrise time and got up at 6:00 am to pitch darkness. It started to barely lighten up sometime past 7:00 am, and I headed out a couple miles to the main Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio that runs from the airport to town. Once at the main road, I encountered lots of locals heading out or arriving for work. On my return leg, I followed a mass of people and wound up at the Marina itself, which they were using as a shortcut to a major high rise construction project on the opposite side. I continued back to my hotel, ending up on the beach for a post-run dip in the bay.

One night, we took that same road into town for dinner at El Arrayan, a traditional Mexican restaurant recommended by the concierge. It was a simple down-to-earth place, open-air with a small central courtyard. Everything on the menu was recognizable and well prepared with really fresh ingredients, although we declined the daily special – fried crickets. After dinner we walked down to the boardwalk, or Melecon, where we found this wonderful art.

It probably didn’t last the evening, because it started to rain buckets. We caught a taxi back to the hotel, and promptly got stuck in a massive traffic jam. With no A/C, no movement, and high humidity, we had the windows cracked open half-way just to keep from fogging up, but it still felt like sitting in a sauna and shower all at once! Soaked to the bones and going nowhere fast crammed inside this taxi, we just had to laugh off this unexpected adventure!

Tomorrow (Sunday) calls for 1-hr run, more beach, and more pool. Somehow, I’ll survive. The worst part of this trip has been getting tattooed by these artists, and then being forced against my will to pose for this picture. Somehow, I'll survive that too.

El Scorcho Is A First Class Event

Congratulations to Ryan for organizing and running a top notch event last night. The volunteers, the course, water stops, food, timing, parking, all worked flawlessly literally in the middle of the night. Ryan, dude - I'll be back next year for sure!

It was 9:00 pm Saturday night, t-minus 3 hours to race time, and I was at home wondering if I should shower, eat another pre-race snack, or take a nap. I ended up doing all of the above, got up at 10:15 pm and headed out to Ft Worth.

I arrived about 11:15 pm, easily found parking, and ran into fellow DFW runner Kevin while walking to packet pickup. We also found Ryan who had been out there all day setting up, and was looking at an all-nighter on top of that.

At midnight, Ryan sent off the 50K runners. That's some serious mileage. About 10 minutes later, he set us 25K runners off. El Scorcho was underway. 5 loops of a 5K course in Trinity Park just off downtown Ft Worth. Beautiful course lit by an occasional streetlamp but mostly by a full moon. One section ran alongside the Trinity River with the Ft Worth skyline standing silently along the other bank. Long stretches of crushed limestone paths weaved their way under a canopy of tress spread throughout the park. There was even a slight, gently breeze at times!

Under strict orders to maintain my LHR training by running under 144 HR, I wasn't sure if I could keep my HR low enough long enough - it usually climbs the longer I run as the body weakens, and I haven't run longer than an hour fifteen or so without this happening. Well imagine my surprise:

1st 5K - avg HR 143
2nd 5K - avg HR 144
3rd 5K - avg HR 144
4th 5K - avg HR 144
5th 5K - avg HR 146

I've gone from obsessing over pace to obsessing over HR! For the entire 25K, avg HR 144, avg pace 12:16/mile, total time 3:10:34. I think that's one of my slowest, if not the slowest, races I've ever run, but I'm thrilled with the base building at 64% - sorry for the HR mumbo jumbo, but it's a big deal for me to finally maintain some decent mileage burning FAT instead of glycogen! I carried 3 and only ate 1 GU all night, and I finished the race almost as fresh as I started.

After the run, I had some pasta with marinara sauce (yum!), watched some more runners, probably 50K-ers, and then headed home. I pulled into my garage at 4:40 am, showered, and got in bed by 5:00 am. Perfect!

Austin Hill Country

We just got back from a week in Austin. Even though I had to work, it was nice to get away and the kids always enjoy a hotel stay. This was an impromptu trip - I was looking for a place to stay and stumbled upon an incredible price on Expedia - $105/night for the Barton Creek Resort which is a a fantastic place. So my client gets a great deal on my expense report, the family gets a free hotel stay, and everyone had a great time.

We drove down Sunday morning, arriving in time for lunch poolside. It was HOT, but perfect for hanging out by the pool all afternoon. Barton Creek is set in the hills of West Austin, and the area is just gorgeous. While you can't stop all development, Austin has done a pretty good job keeping the hills from being overrun. Some areas are kept off limits altogether, and others are used sparingly, which means the few homes that do get built are just magnificent. And expensive.

Being the sucker that I am, I just had to try running the hills. I had a 45 min run on Monday and a 60 min run on Wednesday to keep up with my LHR training. See those 2 white water towers dead center in the picture? Looks far away but it's only about 2.5 miles one-way. 5 tortuous hilly miles round-trip. With inclines that busted my heart rate. With declines that could wipe you out if you didn't run with your brakes on. But it was all good. I ended both runs with a solitary dip in the pool (yes, I did shower off first, duh). And it was still only 7:30am :-)

I'm glad I ran, because I sure as hell ate. After work each day, I was so ready to meet up with the family again. I don't know Austin well enough anymore to know all the good places, but there are a few reliable local favorites. We hit Magnolia Cafe, Chuy's Tex-Mex, County Line BBQ, and tried a new place Gumbo's. Along the way, there might have been a Shiner or two.

The pièce de résistance? Our new discovery - the kids only saved half of one for me, but it was absolutely the best I've ever had. I'm not kidding. I take my cupcakes very seriously.

What's Next, Daisy?

Daisy had a rough start. Before she turned two, she had already delivered a litter, been abandoned overnight at an animal shelter with her puppies, contracted heartworms, and was severely underweight. After we adopted her, we spent the next twelve years trying to make up for those first two. I like to think she’d say we did her alright.

Daisy left us last week. Our Crazy Daisy is gone.


The night she passed away, I lit a candle for her in our bedroom. Her bed was still on the floor next to our fireplace, where a few hours ago Daisy had taken her last nap. I put the candle in the fireplace, switched off the lights, and was stunned to see a sight we had never seen before. That single flame picked up the curling fleurs-de-lis pattern in the fireplace screen and projected a magnified silhouette of it across the entire room, floor to ceiling, and all four walls. In silence, we watched as the flame flickered, and the whole room came alive as the shadows tossed and swayed all around us. After nine years with us in that room, Daisy had left us one more surprise gift.

The next morning, we found two ducks swimming in our pool, a rare but not uncommon event. Since then however, one of both of them has returned every morning, waddling around, swimming a few laps, and generally resting in a patch of thick groundcover next to the pool. I went out yesterday and found a nest with 4 eggs in the groundcover, now up to 5 eggs after this morning’s visit. Could it be another Daisy surprise?

We didn't call her our lovable Crazy Daisy for nothing. Bye sweetie.

Pick Wisely

My first instinct after NYC's 3rd strike was to sign up immediately for a replacement marathon, like I did in 2006 (MCM) and 2007 (Memphis + Disney). I needed an outlet, something to focus on, anything. Only one problem - my LHR training - had yet to deliver the goods and was stuck in a bad rut. I did some soul searching and decided I had 2 options:

1. Suck it up and just run another fall marathon = probable Disney crash 'n burn sequel
2. Suck it up and re-commit to LHR training = possible early 2009 marathon PR

I picked #2, got in touch with my friend B. who first introduced me to LHR training, and he agreed to train me if I agree to put in the effort - no cheating on schedules, put in the miles, stay on pace, work within the HR. He gave me a new LHR training plan, mixing up different runs at different heart rates.

So my next marathon won't be until 2009. Big deal. If there's a PR at the end of that wait, I'm all in baby!

3rd Strike

In just three short years, I've earned (paid?) my way into NYC. 3 strikes, I'm out. They don't call it a "lottery" for nothing.

NYC 2009, here I come! Who's with me?

Where Am I

Sorry folks, I'm so far behind. I've tried to stay up on reading, but it's been long stretches in between. Same old same old on this end, working, traveling to no place particularly exciting.

I'm still stuck on my 3 mile limit each time I run. LHR pace is 10:30-ish now. I wish I could get it down below 10:00. It's been warm even in the mornings, and I think the weather is easily offsetting any meager efficiencies my heart is gaining.

I've got El Scorcho coming up July 20. It's 20K. I'm screwed.

NYC registration closes tomorrow. Then I wait to see if I get in this year. If I do, I've got to start training July 1. I'm screwed.

I think I'll go take a nap and sleep on this ...

Opryland

I'm back from a week-long annual sales conference in Nashville last week with my new employer. It wasn't the boondoggle I've experienced with other companies. A maniacal boot camp would be a much more apt description.

Starting Sunday night, it was close down the bar, get up early, work sessions all day, dinner, back to the bar. In anticipation that each passing day would make it more difficult to run and drink, I dragged myself to the hotel gym at 5:30 am on Monday, ran outside at 6:00 am on Tuesday, 6:30 am on Wednesday, and threw in the towel after that.

We were at the Gaylord Opryland all week, which was quite nice actually. Regrettably, the crazy schedule didn't allow me to meet up with Rae and Brent. I did run by the cultural highlight of their town, I think, as the Grand Ole Opry was right next to the hotel. Not that exciting though, at the crack of dawn.


All was not lost, as I stumbled across this gem on the outskirts of the hotel, which I think would be exciting at any time of day (and twice as much on Daisy Duke day):

Heart Don't Fail Me Now

When I'm within sight of a 5K finish line and my lungs are on fire, there's always a few more drops of gas to be found to power me on home.

When I've busted through the wall on a marathon and my legs are screaming bloody murder, it's still possible for the mind to tell the body what to do. Not easy, but possible.

Yet when I'm barely breaking a sweat but my HR is too high, no amount of mental toughness can get the heart to beat any slower than it wants to. It just doesn't work that way. Invoking every cuss word I know doesn't work either. Feels like it should work, but has quite the opposite effect on the heart. Dammit.

After 7 consecutive weeks of steadily decreasing average mile pace (12:21, 12:03, 11:40, 11:28, 11:26, 11:10, 11:02), my 2 runs this week were back at 11:30 pace - why, I have no clue. It's like my heart forgot how to run. I'm going to blow this week off and start again next week.

MS Run Walk 5K

The forecast called for thunderstorms last night, with more showers today. Neither happened. Instead, under an overcast sky, I reached the race site at 6AM this morning as organizers and volunteers were scurrying around in the darkness. We've only had 4 planning meetings leading up to this event, and I missed #2 and #4 because I was out of town. Even so, despite countless emails and calls, it wasn't clear what I was supposed to do today, until, well, about this morning. Somehow, it all came together when it needed to.

As the only volunteer on the committee assigned to work with the local race company (Racing Systems), I was supposed to make sure they did what they needed to do. Turns out that once the MS Society signed them up, Racing Systems pretty much ran on auto-pilot. They showed up a little past 6AM and started laying down the timing mats and usual stuff. The course was already laid out, and I went out with one of their guys to lay down cones. Ryan has a day job and works with Racing Systems on the weekends. He also trains runners for RunOn, and has a 3:18 marathon PR!

The course is a simple out and back. I stationed myself at the halfway point turnaround and waited for the run to start, along with Dennis the City of Addison cop, and Jeff with the City of Addison Streets Dept. I was going to comment that do you really think we needed to stand there in case anyone didn't know what to do at the turnaround, but if you look closely at the sign, it really is quite confusing.

The runners came through fairly quickly. There were only 130+ of them. The winner finished in 20:23. After that, the walkers came strolling by, and that took forever! It's all for a good cause, so the more the merrier, but I was out there from 8:00 until almost 9:45 waiting for the walkers to finish. Finally, Ryan swung by again to get me, and we picked up the cones on the way back.

Back at the finish, the usual festivities were going on, including these:

Er, don't ask me, that must have come up in the meeting I missed! All in all, I'm glad I volunteered for this. It was much less work than I expected, and I was happy to help out any way I could. I'll probably sign up next year again!