Trail run Tuesday

Phew... my legs aren't fully recovered from Sunday's race even though I took Monday off, and it showed today. Total run time today: 2 hours 15 minutes. about 10 miles

Met Bruce and Meredith, and of course Flyer and Karma joined in the fun for an hour run... Middle Road, Shady, down the Z to the water and then home. i could feel my left quad misfiring on some step ups. Leaving Karma in the car and Mer and Bruce went on their way, I swapped running partners for Jo Dee and David and we took off Bologna over to the Grotto, to the field, down to the water up to the damn, then homes.

Grotto: It felt like a day to explore a new trail I've run by 100 times but never taken ubt heard about countless times. I won't be taking it too many more times. Not only did it cut off about 15-20 minutes of trail but it's pretty much just a GIANT drop, then a really steep ass climb on the other side. It completely kileld my legs and the little quad energy i had left. it's probably a good trail to take for hill training for Bandera, but not on fun weekday runs. I can find plenty of other hills that are more enjoyable.

I brought my phone/gps along for the second loop, and here's what the grotto drop looks like on Google Earth. Not mt Everest by any means, but trust me it's very steep.

Friday trail run caught on tape.

(In case this looks like the same post, you saw earlier today... I  deleted the prior post, added to it, and shortened the video)

I went for a little 4 mile trail run with Karma at 6:20am and brought along my FLIP camera.  He's been nursing a sore paw for the whole week, and i think I've figured out that it's arthritis more than anything, since he really woke up when I gave him some Glucosamine treats yesterday.  He was a true champ on the greenbelt today, and then was tossing around his "kong with beef jerky tucked in it" when we got back, so he definitely doesn't have a fracture as I first feared.  (I also just saved myself several hundred dollars of vet fees by doing my own testing first!)

 

Here's is a 2 min video of my run from the middle of what I call the 'Z" road down to the water at the dam.  

I'm still trying to learn how to keep the camera steady, and I think it has to do with running speed.  Slower speed will probably create better video. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

or wait for it to load below...

Rumble in the Jungle

Karma and I took a day off from running and instead went for a little hike in the greenbelt.   I brought my FLIP Video Camera I got of woot.com for a mere $79 a few weeks ago.

Here's Karma and I on one of my favorite sections of a nearby trail this morning.

16 miles closer - B-20 days

Yesterday I ran 4 miles in the greenbelt with my dog.  It was fun, but a little too fast at the start because some idiot decided to start running the GB at the same time as me with her 2 dogs.  Why is she an idiot.  Its 7:10am. First light.  There are 4, actually 5 ways you can go right off the start, and she chose to run right friggin behind me.  What the hell?   I want solitude?  Don't you?  Anyway, I looked at Karma, he looked at me and said: "Dad, lets drops those fools." So we did.  We took a couple of turns and within 8 minutes we were up at the big empty and then off towards cedar chop and lost them in time to see the sunrise at the lookout.  I then soaked my legs up, waist deep just standing in the water while Karma swam around until I found him a rock he could stand on semi-underwater.  He looked at me and kept smilin'.

   The highlight was this giant grey Egret flew RIGHT OVER my head, about 12 feet over me.  I don't think he realized the grey statue in the water was a human.  It was great! I can't find a good photo of a grey one that shows how big these things are... so you get a white one. 

Today I ran with the Team, and 16 miles was on the menu.  South Austin Ramble route.  Ran part of it on my own, part of it with someone who never speaks (i've nicknamed him silent bob), and them most of it with Damon.  He said the pace was mostly around 7:30-7:42 are he looked at his watch.  good stuff. 

Whew! What a running weekend! B-22

What a fantastic 3 days of running!

FRIDAY - 5 miles

Friday was supposed to be a rest day for me, but, as I spent so many days at the SXSW music festival, and then knee issues and workouts that didn't include Karma....  Karma didn't get much love from me.  So instead, Bruce and Meredith met me for an easy 5 miles in the greenbelt for Karma to get some fun of his choice.  Meredith brought Flyer, which gave Karma even more fun!  We had a blast, and both Bruce and I commented during our Saturday run HOW INCREDIBLY FRESH our legs felt from an easy 5 mile greenbelt run after some hard running during the week on Friday afternoon.  Knee: 8/10  (10 being perfect)

SATURDAY - 24.5 miles

The doctor has ordered me to run a mile then stretch my knee (IT Band) for a full 5 minutes before running.  That's impossible to do on a trail, but yesterday Nedra who's been having possibly similar issues met me at 5:10 and we ran 1.2 miles then stretched before our group set off for 24 miles.  The route ended up being 23.3, but with my 1.2, it got 24.5 in.   My knee wasn't very happy with me on Saturday, with shooting pains every so often.  Plus, the 24 miles felt like they took for EVER.  Probably because we purposely ran it at a calm pace of just under 8 min/miles.   Knee: 5/10

Saturday afternoon I spent eating eating eating and trying to rehydrate.  I felt hungry and thirsty when i went to bed but knew I couldn't eat anymore.  

SUNDAY - 6.2 (10km) race + 3.8 warmup/down ( i mapped it!) = 10.0 miles.

I sent this email to my boss (coach) yesterday with my plan of attack.  

Looking at the race course...

I think I'll go for
Mile1- 6:45 slow due to traffic?
Mile2- 7:00 two hills... Rt on congress and up 15th. (Don't blow up)
Mile3- 7 to 7:15 big ass hill over lamar
Mile4- 6:20
Mile5- 6:20
Mile6.2-  whatever I got left

33:40 + 1.2miles of ?? to the finish= 39:59-40:59

Looks good enough to me...  Respectable after todays run, and a knee that doesn't like cold and I don't want to aggravate it so close to Boston.

I heard no response, but this morning I reiterated it, and he felt it was fine.   

The first mile was funny.  I was running and actually laughed outloud.  Why?  Well, watch this video...

My legs felt like wobbly spaghetti strands, and pictured the scene in Bambi where she's slipping on the ice as a fawn. I thought: Oh my, this is going to be interesting! and just chuckled. Not sure if anyone heard but I thought it was hysterical as I had no pressure on myself today.

I missed the 1 mile marker, but Keith who was behind me told me it was a 6:25. Uh oh. Waaaaaay too fast. I slowed up and settled into a slightly slower pace to conserve energy with the hills yet to come. I chatted with a couple of running acquaintances, and kept things loose. Overtime, it was apparent that Chad, Keith and I had a goal of sub 40 as our 'A' goal and we ran together.

I missed the 2nd mile marker too, then finally spotted the 3rd one. 19.49 for 3 miles = 6:36 per mile.

We then turned the corner onto the faster half of the course, and trucked along. Eventually Chad made his move, silently and I knew there was no way in the world i'd be able to hang on to his pace for 2 miles, but figured I'd maybe catch him in the last 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile. (that wouldn't happen). Keith and I ran on, keeping each other loose and I tried to keep things jovial as much for him, but really for myself as well to just think about something other than the tired legs. 

Mile 4- 6:24, and Mile 5- 6:17, exactly where I had planned to be, so I'm happy with that.  Last 1 mile clocks in at 6:21, then the last 0.2 clocked in at 1:07 which apparently is a 5:04 pace. Ha!

I'm happy with my final time. I knew I had taken me 7 or 8 seconds to cross the start line so i sprinted to the finishline and snuck in at 40:06. Clicked my watch, and it rad 39:59. Official time was posted as 39:58. Too cool, beat my desired fast time by a second!

Overall I ran 6:25, which means I ran the last 3.2 miles at 6:16pace, so a 20 second per mile negative split.

Not too shabby with 24.5 somewhat hilly miles on my legs the day before!

Stats:

Time 39:58

Pace: 6:26/mile

35-39 Age Group: 24th out of 565 (timed runners) = 4.2%

Overall 150th out of 18,000+ (including everyone who crossed the start line) = 0.008 percentile ha!

Total miles this weekend = 34.5miles.

Total miles this week = 80.8 miles

22 more days to go

2 more very HARD workouts (saturday long run, and one hard weekday workout)... and it's a date with sub <2:59:59>

When life gets in the way... you adjust.

I had an important meeting at 8:30am on Tuesday and another one at 8:30am this morning, which meant that I couldn't run with the group early on. Not that our runs last till that late in the morning, but I kind of like time to prepare before meetings, and I don't want to feel any bit tired or feel rushed when the meeting is important. I'm happy to report that both meetings went well.

So yesterday I missed the group 16 mile medium long run. Mid afternoon, I came up with an idea that worked to perfection! I met my old coach and friend Panther at 4:30pm for a run. At 5:45, his current group training for Austin and Boston met up, so I ran with them to the track and then while they did their workout, I ran the track to get extra mileage. I was able to get 5 miles in on the track. The only issue was the miles on the track were fast as it's hard to run easy when going in circles, and the return from the track was painful as Jo Dee and AJ were racing each other home. So I ended up with 16.5 miles with 5 miles of 7:30, 7:10, 6:20, 7:00 and 6:50 on the track followed by mid sevens on the run home, instead of nice recovery miles after my track workout.

This morning I caught wind that Lulu was hopping on the greenbelt today, and I talked her into going at 10:30am with me and Karma instead of at 3pm as she had originally planned. We ran the same loop I ran on Monday, and i'm glad to report that Karma had much more energy on the backstretch than he did on Monday, and even had enough giddy up to dash into the trees to chase after a roadrunner on our way back along the dreaded powerline. Karma ran 5 plus miles two times in a row like a champ, so my next Greenbelt outing with him, will be an attempt at 7 miles! (as long as the weather stays cool)

So, what I thought would be 2 days of crap running, turned out to be 2 days of great running! That's all I got for today.

Happy Running.

T - 30!!! = how could i skip today!

Today is officially 30 days from the marathon!
Woo hoo!!!

There's no possible way can can opt to NOT run on day T minus 30, so I took my 4 legger, headed over to the greenbelt entrance and let him choose the trails to run on. If he made any type of move towards a trail at any intersection that's the way we went. He usually will run a few feet one way then look at me to see which way is right. I bet he thought he was ultra smart today as he didn't have to back track once. And surprisingly, we got us home safe and sound!

just a little scamper around the greenbelt to let Karma sniff some sniffables, and get a little tired - about 3 miles

Playtime for Karma at Barton Creek

Doesn't get much better than a fun little adventure on a Monday morning before work with your favorite furface.










Here he is checking out "Phil the Turtle".

T - 40 = Greenbelt 3 miles with Karma

Decided to take a day off from running, so I grabbed Karma and went for a fun little 3 miler in the greenbelt which included a 25 minute hangout down by the water. (hence the "goodmorning" photo yesterday, sent Live from the water)
I'll post a few more pictures later.

We had a great time, and Karma's tail-was-a-waggin' the entire time which means: Mission accomplished!

T - 56 : Ready for Halloween

Kerry and I met up for a 45 minutes greenbelt run this morning at 5:45. Running at 5:45am in the rocky, hilly, greenbelt above moonshadow drive means darkness, which means headlamp. It was a great 4 mile run, and karma performed like a champ in the cool 58-62 degree weather!

Unfortunately, my headlamp needs new batteries, which is evidenced by the root I didn't see which sent me flying onto rocky ground. My upper forearm is pretty sore from landing on a rock/branch/root, and one of my hands got a little scuffed up. Kerry also took a tumble, but she only drew a little blood on the hand, so she was quite disappointed.
All in all, a nice little non-flat 4 mile leg stretcher, that is the perfect little tune up for tomorrow's less than friendly 27-28 mile Long Run that inlcudes Enfield, Red Bud, Stratford, Barton Hills Drive, before we hit the Track at mile 20 for 6 miles of nonstop speed work! Bring it on!

The good news is, I think I've figured out my costume for Halloween.

I call this costume:

The clumsy midnight trail runner.

What do you think?!?



Note to self: Buy new batteries for the headlamp.

The big scare

I met up with Kerry for a trail run this morning, and brough karma along.4:30 came early today, and it was tougher than usual to get out of bed. As the commute to the trail entrance is 13 minutes shorter than driving to meet people downtown, I had one extra snooze allowed!
The weather was better than it's been recently, as it was only 70 with 75% humidity, instead of 80 with 90% humidity as it had been the prior 5 days.

Karma was really excited this morning when he realized he was coming along! (pretty safe bet when i put his leash and reflective bandana on him 30 minutes before departure!)



We took the long road down to the water, and at one point Karma disappeared. We stopped and figured he was just lagging as usual, but there were no Ewok eyes comig towards us. Eventually we heard him coming through the brush, panting heavily. Obviously, he had smelled some animal (rabbit, armadillo, deer, oppossum?) and had gone on a chase.

We continued on down the path, at a nice pace. When we almost reached the water, there was no Karma. I shined my light back up the path and this time I could see his eyes, and his reflective bandana up there. He was not moving towards us, but you could see the bandana moving ever so slightly.
I ran back up there and found him panting big time, his mouth open way wide, sitting in an uncomfortable position. His entire body was shaking and he clearly was not doing good. I honestly thought this might be the end f the road for my little buddy. I really did. He was not doing well at all.

About a minute in, he finally drank water out of my hand/Kerry's water bottle, as if he hadn't drank for days. He then agreed to stand up, and slowly make his way down the trail the remaining 50 or so yards to the creek at the dam. He went straight into the water, drank a gallon, and just stoo in there.
I walked in after him and encouraged him to first just sit his ass down in the water, which he clearly agreed to. I then managed to ge him to come over to shallower water where i got him to lie down in the water. He sat/layed there for a good 10 minutes drinking, and slowly started panting less and less.

A clear case of overdoing it on his chase, then running in the new heat, and humidity. Karma had bonked and overheated. I poured water on the parts that weren't submersed and eventually went and sat down next to Kerry. He'd attempt to walk around, but his back feet were wobbly, so I'd get him back in the water.

But, within about 20 minutes, Karma was eventually walking around, and even went to pee off a bush. When done, he scratched up the ground like a bull and bounced off the ground like a rodeo bull. Hey! He's alive and has some pep!

We decided to head back letting him lead the way. It was a slow run/walk back of about 30 minutes (vs. the usual 18 or so) back to the car where we walked most of the up hills, and took our time on the flats and downs. Upon our return, I fed him a half ration of his daily food, so he gets some energy back. I'm happy to report that he's feeling plenty fine now; just chillin' with his tennis ball and slowly getting more and more tired.
I'm thinking a long nap is in his near future! I'm so jealous.

7+3 = 10

I met Jen for a 7 mile run around Townlake today. Had to get 7-10 in today, or there's no chance in hell I'd get to 80 miles this week. Weather was great and we laughed hard when we came up with a little skit of what goes on in the lives of the bats under the congress bridge. I may type it up, but it's probably not as funny that way.

It then occured to me, that i could drive home, pick up Karma, and go run another easy 3 with him, so he would get excercise and i would get the miles. it was surprisingly easy to keep going on the GB. I thought my legs would be shot with cold muscles but it worked just fine.

So now, I've strategically reached 50 miles going into the weekend. (51.5 to be exact) Yep, you guessed it, i'll be going 30 miles this weekend. 20 miles tomorrow starting at 6am, and another 9 greenbelt miles on Sunday.

No Go

This morning's trail run ended up a 'no go', but it wasn't for lack of trying. Didn't hear anything from my co-runners, so i figured we were ready to run. Rain was coming down pretty hard, but that hasn't stopped me before. Especially when you spend 90% of your run in the trees. I've been out there after HARD HARD rains, freezes that paralyze the city, and other acts of god, and the trails have always been in good shape. A few mud pits here and there, but I know where they are and simply avoid those trails.

Eventually I got word that I would be alone, so i looked at Karma and his propped up ears, his tail wagging, and decided to just go do it on my own.



As expected, the rain was almost non existent inside the tree line, but I still turned around within less than half a mile. Something about lightning every 4 or 5 seconds made me not feel too safe in there. I'll try again at lunch, I think.

(at least Karma got a little outing from it, and he seemed somewhat content to at least get to sniff some things, and he knew it sucked out there when he stood just inside the door, waiting for me to dry him down with a towel. A seasoned veteran, he is.)

Wednesday Trail run - Take 1

Karma and I met Kerry for a 4 mile headlamp run in the greenbelt this morning at 5:45. It was a nice run, but it honestly took me just about the entire run to get warmed up. I hope this isn't a sign that because i'm doing so many 10+ milers that it'll take me 4 miles to just get warmed up. ugh.

On a more interesting note, i let karma out to pee this morning at 4:45'ish. As i walked out my door and headed down the hallway, i saw something light swoosh between two cars. Then, to my surprise, it reappeared and stopped in the middle of the road. It wasn't light colored at all, it was a green like blob, but see through, and floating in the air. It turned around, i guess it sensed i was there, and i saw it. It had a giant mouth and looked like it had hotdogs sticking out of it. When it spotted me, it flew right at karma and i, then through us and just shmeared us in sticky gup. No, wait, that's ghostbusters. *<];^)

Ok so really though, the light thing stopped in the middle of the road just outside my apartment building, 30-40 feet from me. It was a Coyote. Now I've seen a coyote or two around the neighborhood, and i've spoken to fellow trail runners from the neighborhood who have told me that all outdoor cats have 'disappeared', so I know it's not really news. However, this guy was INSIDE my apartment complex. I thought that was pretty gutsy. He was about the height of Karma, longer in body, but skinnier too. I'm pretty sure Karma would have beat him up in a fight (if it came down to it). He was a little apprehensive and ran over to a patch of grass and stared at us. Karma stared, I stared, and he stared back.

I finally pulled on Karma's leash to go pee, as... well... I was outside in mid 50's weather in only my boxers. (Yup. It's the one and only time I've EVER not thrown on a t-shirt and flip flops that the coyote appears) When Karma was done, we ventured back in, and he just stood there, looking at us.

Pretty cool.


Funemployment is fun so far: Dinner with friends last night. C. Hunts for a couple of cold ones. Coyote sighting. Trail Run. Warm Shower and Foam roller and Breakfast. Then at 10am, meeting a different friend for an 8 mile trail run! Then lunch somewhere.

Too bad Funemployment will only last a week. :(

Sunday Trail Run vote

Which picture shows the fun we had the most while we ran in the rain on the trails?
1- Dirty and wet shoes and legs.
2- A wet, dirty Karma just sitting there, trying to catch his breath.
3- Towel after I wiped myself then Karma off.

Micrathene Whitneyi

Kerry, Karma and I saw an owl exactly like this one this morning as we were walking back to our cars from our trail run. Only about 5-6 inches tall. He was just chillin' on a branch above us about 5 feet away. So cool!

From doing a little research it turns out he's known as an Elf Owl, and only lives in Texas for a few months, spending most of his year in Mexico. He eats insects and lizards, but has also been known to catch small birds or small snakes. They're great in flight, and cath most of their prey while in the air.
Read more about the ELF OWL here.



Trail run was good too. Plenty of spider webs, water in the creek, about 4 miles.

They're back, and they were happy to show it.

I went on a trail run this morning with Karma before work. It's rare that I run a headlamp run on my own, so that, combined with overcast skies made it for for quite the dark run, even with new batteries in the light.
The run was nice, as it was in the mid-50’s and as always, I was the only 2 legged mammal for miles around. I’m not too glad to report that I got caught unprepared was greeted in the face by a giant spider web about 8 minutes into the run. Before the cold season, I’d automatically grab a stick and wave it like a car’s windshield wiper as I ran.
Today, I got webbed. What a treat! Then I grab a stick, but obviously didn’t start waving, because I got “webbed in the face” again a couple of minutes later.
I still had webbing in my hair when I got home and got in the shower. Good times!

About 4 miles in total, and no IT Band pains.

Unexpected workout

Karma hadn't been out to the greenbelt in a couple of days, so I decided to go run him for a few easy miles this morning. Weather was perfect, about 44 Farenheit (about 13 celsius)

Upon reaching the Moonshadow entrance, Meredith (my nutritionist) and her friend Larry were right there infront of me. Meredith's doggies Daisy and Flyer were along for their 7 mile jaunt, and I decided to join them.
My plan for a "leisure romp to get Karma some legs stretch action" flew out the window and next thing I know, I'm running, what is quite a faster pace than what I was planning on.
Sounds like bad news for me, but it really wasn't. It was a ton of fun to surprisingly have some running partners, and people to chat with. Karma had fun running with Mer's pups too. He got his butt whooped by them, but he had blast running with other 4-leggers. Boy are Flyer and Daisy in shape!!
I ran with them towards Cedar chop, but took a right and did the loop I usually run the other way, down to the water. Hung out for a few minutes at the Dam/waterfall while the pups drank and cooled their legs, then ran back. Curiously, i kept the pace up, instead of slowing down to grandpa pace.

After that, I met up with Erin and drove up to IKEA. As I didn't eat any pie over the christmas break, I couldn't resist buying some Swedish Apple Pie and some Vanilla Sauce. I just finished eating two pieces, and I gotta tell you: The warm pie, and fridge cold vanilla sauce tasted almost as good as when we made it during my summers in Sweden.

...also bought swedish hard bread, Kalles Kaviar, Hallonsaft (Rasberry juice concentrate), Frozen Meatballs, couple of packs of swedish Gravy for the meatballs, Marabou milk chocolate, Rasberry boats, and a couple of cool rectangular plates (pictured). Should I lick the plate?

Run Update and My Secret Revealed

This morning, Wednesday, I met Kerry for a greenbelt run with Karma. Brad had all the intentions of joining us, but I received this text message from him at 5:57am:

Go without me. I'm locked in the gate of my apartment

We ran a nice easy pace around the Pantie loop, and managed to duck UNDER the concussion tree escaping any injuries. About 4 miles worth of running in a nice, cool 40 degree dark morning. I'm starting to get used to cool runnings.

On Tuesday, I had a track workout with my Dallas Marathon colleagues. Sorry Gordon, for boring you with more Dallas stories ; )

After a 10 minute warmup run, that was definitely needed in the 38 degree weather we had... on the agenda were 4 sets of 2000 meters at CV pace. 12 to 15K pace is considered the CV pace, or Critical Velocity pace For me, that's about a 6:30/mile pace.
5 laps around the track is 2000 meters, and my times clocked in as follows:
Set 1: 8:07
Set 2: 8:09
Set 3: 8:07
Set 4: 8:05 (sped up in the last 50 meters to finish in good running form)

Some friends apparently marvel over my ability to keep my pace consistant in workouts. (Tim and Shorey)

So who is this masked man, and how DOES he do it?

Well, it's actually a mixture of two things:
One: Really concentrate on my workouts to feel the pace, so I can learn what paces feel like. The more you run paces and really pay attention to what they feel like, the more you can start hitting those fairly well. I'm very good at 8:15, 8, 7:45-50, 7:25, 7:15, 7, 6:45, and 6:30paces... I really suck at faster than 10K paces. 10k pace being my 6:30'ish pace.

Two: I use my watch a ton, but I also have to know what my workout is. If i'm running a track workout, I use a Pace Calculator like the hyperlinked one. I'm currently slowly reading a book about improving the mental part of my running which eventually marries the mental and physical better. (I'll share more on that when I'm done reading it.)

In the book, the guy suggests to increase your goals by 7%, and from there, decide on a time that you think is achievable.
In other words:
My ultimate goal is a 3:15 marathon. He says to take off 7% percent from the time, and from there(3hr 01min), start counting back towards the initial goal, until you mentally feel like the new time is achievable based on your absolutely perfect race day. Anyway, my time I feel is achievable under perfect conditions and feeling fantastic is around a 3:07, so that's what I go with for all my workouts.

That is the time I plug in as my Marathon Goal in the calculator. Now I have my splits I should be hitting on the track for different workouts. Here's my breakdown. I actually sometimes write the splits down and bring them with me so I remember them. As you see in the link, I need 8:06 for a 2000, which is 48 seconds 200's to hit my 12K pace (the fast side of my CV pace)

Here's the key to my consistant pace though... I don't keep track of 400 meters. Instead I always track the 200 meter splits. It's much easier for me to do math doubling a time than dividing a time. Plus, 200 meters comes up more frequently and I can then adjust my cadence in the 2nd 200 of a lap to hit my required goal time. (hope that makes sense). I also sneak a peek at the 100 meter mark during the first few laps until the cadence is perfect.

There are some other non-track workouts that we do. In those, I really look at my watch on specific points of the particular loop/course/street.

For example, we do a workout called the Warhurst, where we run out off the Austin Highschool track, up veterans towards Magnolia Cafe, then back down around Deep Eddy and back. It's a 1 mile hilly loop. I have 2 markers on that course for a 7 minute mile time. One is the post at the top of the hill as I turn onto Lake Austin Boulevard(3min10sec), and the second is by Deep Eddy pool. There is a metal plate on the ground, and I need to be on it by 4 min 20 seconds, to know that I'm on pace to come in around a 6:55 mile.

I have the same type markers on other courses. It's really just a matter of paying attention to your first lap, and guesstimate where, for example, the 1/3rd or 2/3rds are, or where the half way point is. Remember those times for that workout's subsequent laps, adjust your paces, and do your best to rememeber them for the next time around. (Overtime, adjust the times to get faster.)
Oh yeah, don't pick a car, pick something that will be there like a post or a tree.
There you have it, the secret behind my consistant paces!

Souvenir from the trail.

We went on a trail run before work today with Lulu and Brad.
Karma loved it so much, he brought home a souvenir.

"Dad, I'm telling you, it's just a small scratch."

"Nothing a little Neosporin won't cure."