Where has Geoff been?

I got back yesterday from a great vacation in Hawaii. We spent a day in Honolulu to visit Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head and then spent a week in Kauai. I ran half the days I was there. I rolled my ankle at the end of a hike our first day in Kauai so I took a couple of days off after that. Fortunately I didn't injure it too badly and I was able to resume running and it seems to be ok now. After looking at all our pictures I realized that I really need to get some non-running t-shirts. Here's a few pictures from our vacation-

Sunrise in Honolulu

Diamond Head during my run in Honolulu

View from the balcony at our resort in Kauai

Golfing at Poipu Bay Golf Club

View from hike along Napali Coast

Saltwater Lagoon Pool at Resort

Overlooking Wailua Falls

Beach at Hyatt Resort

Bird

Today I got back to the hard workouts. I wasn't sure how well it would go after not doing any speedwork in a while. On the flight back I was reading an article in an old Runner's World about Jim Ryun's high school and college coach from Kansas and how he would basically push his runners to the brink of exhaustion and injury and those that could survive tended to excel. His philosophy was that there were a lot of talented runners that didn't know how to push themselves to the limit. I was thinking about that during the workout today and thinking that no matter how tired I got I needed to keep pushing hard. My interval workout goal today was 2 miles in 10:50, 5 minutes rest, 1 mile in 5:10, 3 minutes rest, 800 at 2:28. My actual times were 10:41, 5:10, 2:30. After a 3.25 mile warmup, strides, stretching and drills, I started the 2 miles and felt great. I think I probably could have done another mile right there at close to 5:20 pace. I got into a groove and hit mile 1 at 5:24 and then picked up the pace for a 5:17 second mile. I really didn't even feel like I was working that hard. I could tell I was feeling some lactic acid build up in my legs during the 5 minute rest. I started out a little quick the first couple hundred meters and then had to jump over a scared armadillo that darted across my path. After the 1st quarter I got back into a groove and cruised for the 1 mile segment. The 800 was really tough because my legs were really tired. I went through the 1/4 mile right about 76 seconds and I knew that I needed to push it hard the last 1/4. I was able to pick it up and hit the 2nd 1/4 in 74 to finish at 2:30 and then I did a 1 mile cooldown. The cooler weather today made a huge difference in my workout. The temperature was in the upper 70's which was a welcome change from running with a heat index in the mid 90's. This weekend I'm planning on trying to hit 17 or 18 miles on my long run which will be my longest run of the year to date.

Unfortunately my racing schedule this fall isn't working out quite so well. I'm going to be out of town and miss the 10 mile races in 2-1/2 weeks. I'll run the half marathon in later October, but I'm not sure what's after that. I wanted to go run the 1/2 marathon in San Antonio in mid-November, but I realized one of my friends from work is getting married that weekend and I'll be at his wedding in Austin so I'll need to find some other races instead. Last year I ran the Dallas/White Rock half marathon in December, but I didn't particularly care for the course - hilly and windy and the logistics of getting into downtown was a nightmare. I'll have to see if I can find some other good half marathons or similar races to run in November or December before the marathon in January.