Ran 56 miles so far this week, some on Town Lake but mostly on the Brushy Creek Regional Trail.  Much of it in the Texas rain.  That’s a really good week of mileage for me considering this is winter.  Haven’t been doing weights or situps; I did try one day but they hurt.  First trick is to establish my routine, then I can enhance it with calisthenics.  One more week of prep before running the Austin 3M Half Marathon on Sunday the 13th.

Not sure how well I’ll do but would like to push myself a bit.  I’ll have been in Texas for 3 weeks at that point so my blood will have lost most of its high altitude benefits.  At least I’ve always been told it takes about 3 weeks for the cardiopulmonary system to acclimate to altitude changes.  That’s to start to adapt, maybe 6 weeks to fully acclimate.  But all I ever really read on the topic is to adjust to higher altitude.  I know it’s critical to hydrate and vitamins are smart.  I’m just assuming it takes a similar amount of time to lose the conditioning.

It’s a funny thing anyway.  At sea level, you can run harder and faster.  Very curious to understand training techniques for adapting to lower altitude.  I suspect speed workouts, fartleks, repetitions on the track are all advisable.  I’m even thinking of running an asynchronous pace in the 3M Half – fartlek style.  There’s really not that much time to train so why not do it in the run itself?  I’ll start out controlled (slow) and rather than smoothly unwinding I might over pace myself, then recover with a slower pace, and repeat.  That will likely annoy other runners pacing with me.  They can suck it, I’m in an experimental mood.  And it won’t be easy to pull off.  I’m gambling that my conditioning is good enough to be able to recover from oxygen debt after each fast pace run.

I am somewhat concerned on how much situps hurt when I tried some the other day.  My core is feeling like it did when I had arthritis.  I’ll be bummed if it returned.  If I have to get another steroid shot, despite what I might have said in previous blog posts on the topic, I think I’ll opt for the anesthesia next time.  Taking a shot from a needle bigger than Dallas in a hip joint isn’t something I care to ever experience again.

A little word on the pic above.  It’s from the 2010  Austin Marathon – which I ran in 2011.  This pic still works for me as it symbolizes running in Austin and it’s free.  I don’t see any good graphics from the 3M Half Marathon which I’ll be running next weekend.  Sort of disappointing considering their outrageous registration fee.  The Boulder Marathon prints up cool posters too.  Cool enough like this one to frame and hang on the wall.  3M better at least have some good swag.