Houston Half

Here's my half marathon week - too much fast stuff for a good race I think:

M 7(6:53) with strides
T 6(8:00)//4(7:30)
W 12 progressive miles from 7:20 down to 5:30....that was the fastest I've ever gone down to on a progressive which gave me great hopes for the upcoming 1/2 marathon....very nice cool and low humidity morning run.
Th 4 (7:00)
F 5 (6:37)//5(7:12)
S 11.3 (6:53) in 1:17:11 (time on legs run - hoping to go shorter time next day).
S 13.1 in 1:20:50* - 3rd AG (for which I received what I believe to be the worst AG award ever - a Certificate of Achievement)

Total 70.6 (with a few missing puppy jogs above).

*Felt like I should have been able to run it faster. With Master's gone (Sean Wade) and 1st and 2nd AG a couple minutes ahead along with the Houston Marathon Elite Entry Prize (to 2nd AG) and a PR out the window perhaps I didn't fight hard? Don't know - the heartrate was the lowest I've ever done for a 1/2 marathon yet for a warm race it should have been higher which suggests I had another gear but I sure couldn't find that gear out there. Really looking forward to cool racing vs this - 68°F w/ 63°F Dew Point (86% Humidity).

Overall a pretty good week although I thought I'd do that 1/2 marathon a lot faster. Guess I should know better than to expect things on the clock on a hot/humid day. Good news is now 4 of the fast guys around already have their Houston Marathon Local Elite status - with two more races shots left and only one guy I think is competitive with me I've still maybe got a good shot to get it. 26.2k in 3 weeks will be my next shot. Another bright spot is these warmer races don't take near so much time to recover from so I'm thinking I don't need to alter my schedule for next week much. I'll have to juggle around a little to swap out a long tempo run on my schedule for Wednesday with something else - with a 5k race on Saturday and longrun on Sunday on tired legs - maybe I'll plan another progressive run midweek.

oh and by the way - I will NOT be trying that bean/rice buritto pre-race dinner again....I swear it added 3 lbs to my race weight without any "fiber-induced blow out - first thing on race morning"...

Just checked and found 44 fricken ° for Saturday's 5k forecast - I'm excited!!!