Ummm, I went to run 12 miles but no one showed up...

The Woodlands Running Club site says, Sterling Ridge, 12 miles, Sat, Dec 21st. It's now Sat, Dec 20th....So I'll assume that Saturday, December 21st is actually going to happen tomorrow....that was a waste of time and fuel...maybe I'll try again tomorrow...

OK, it's time I set a couple of goals...

Having run a 22:04 (7:06 min/mile) at the RTW 5k race last weekend, it SURELY begs the obvious. Sub 22-minute 5k. If it's a 21:59, I'll take it. That's there for the grabbing.

Next, I wanna run the 5k in sub-7 minutes per mile...this'll be a tad tougher and will actually require me to WORK at it! That equates to a 5k time of 21:41 (6:59 min/mile)...that's a sizable jump. Ahh, the challenge.

I don't recall where my 5k times were back when I was running fast, but I think I was just about in the low 21's and maybe bumped into a high 20 minute 5k.....I'm not a fast 5k runner. Also not a fast 10k runner at about 44:20ish, back in the day. The point I'm making is that my 5k pace isn't much quicker than the 10k and so-on for the 1/2 and full marathons. But the distance doesn't seem to be a problem. I guess I'm more wired for endurance than speed.

I just went to the Wednesday Night Track Workout with The Woodlands Running Club. Damn these people are fast! Tough crowd! I now recall why I hate speed work at the track. I thought I was gonna cough up a lung. Not too bad, but running fast DOES hurt! I'm going to stick with my new-found Wednesday night regimen and see if I can't make good on that 21:41 (6:59 min/mile pace).


Tonight we did 1-mile repeats with a 3-minute cool down. I warmed up for a mile, then ran 4 repeats. So YES, I ran 5 miles DURING the week! Woot!

Ran a 6:35 pace for the 1st mile, then a 6:38 for the 2nd.....toned it down for the last 2 miles....so I guess I CAN run fast, but damn the fortitude is hard to come by!

I met my running buddy Sabrina and told her we have a standing appointment for Wednesday nights. After all, I AM training for the Houston Half-Marathon in 1 month! Training, yeah, that's what it's called....

WG Jones Forest is Open! Good running...

After Hurricane Ike, the WG Jones Forest was closed. There's a local group who runs there and it's convenient for me to run my dogs there. The runners kept going in after the closure, until the next incident occurred, the crash of the news helicopter.

This time the Forestry Service had white signs made with big red letters that said, "CLOSED". And they posted them all around the place. Umm, that tells me that they seriously didn't want anybody in there! Finally the signs were gone on Friday and I took my dogs in there for a 4 mile run before the Run The Woodlands 5k. The RTW race started at 8 am, so I had to be efficient.

Old pics, but valid:



The little Border Collie was on fire! She had boundless energy, running WAY ahead! I'd call her and she would turn around and run FULL SPEED back to me. So she prolly ran 5+ miles. We got home and I had a plan to sneak her back out and take her to the 5k to further whittle away her super high energy level. I fed the cat and the big dog, then whispered for her to jump in the truck....she KNEW exactly what we were doing and jumped up there without alerting the big dog. We escaped, unnoticed.

At the race, she just took off! I had to keep calling her back. Then about half way through the race, she began to hang with me, finally burned off some of the energy! WE ran a nice 22:04! Not my quickest, but not at all bad. Good times!

OK, I'm back...How rude to have bailed!...

OK, running update...day before Thanksgiving, 4.5 miles...Thanksgiving, 5 mile race...Friday, 5k race(1st place Masters' WIN [still milking this all I can!])...Saturday, 5k race. LOTS of fast running in 4 days!

Before the "Run Thru The Woods" 5 mile race on Thursday, me and my buddy, Laura:


Receiving my TROPHIES from "Puffy the Pine Cone":


Thanksgiving day, admiring a beautiful Ford Model A (it started rolling down the driveway as the guy was taking my picture...so here I'm posing for the photo AND arresting the car's movement...multi-tasking to the max):


WTF? The WG Jones forest is STILL closed!!?? My poor dogs haven't been running with me in months! Good grief, open the forest, already!

Last Saturday, I just had to show up at the Sunmart Endurance Race. Roger Soler has been sponsor and Race Director for the Sunmart event for MANY years. Having met Roger and his running stores/running groups in San Antonio/Helotes, I'd always been 'too busy' to travel all the way to Huntsville to run a really long race. Because I now live pretty close to the Sunmart event, I was fresh OUT of excuses this year! I saw many friends from San Antonio and plenty of friends from the Houston area, too. What a GREAT venue! Schucks, I'll run the 50k race next year! I ran about 9 miles with my buddy, Sabrina...good time!

Sabrina getting a little breakfast before the race:


Chatting with Randy Reina:


Donny, Evan, Roger Soler:


Jon Walk and Roger:


Jim Braden, Debbie Tripp, Bill Dwyer, the usual suspects:


Thundering thru the woods with Sabrina: