Strider for a (Rainy) Day

One of the Houston Strider's Master Men teams ended up short a runner for today's Bayou Bash relay. Since I have not affiliated with any club for racing, Steve Shepard contacted me yesterday and asked me if I could stand in (or should I say run in). The day before I had posted that I did not intend to race again until May 13. So it took me two seconds to say "Sure I'll race". I've done the rest of the HARRA Spring Series, so why not the Relay as well?

Being a Strider for a day has allowed me to understand a little why the HRB members of the Houston Striders are always so positive about this club. For Steve, certainly an ubiquitous and talented runner in Houston, to track me down for this shows how well organized and energetic the club must be. They fielded 17 teams this morning and have an enviable record of success. I enjoyed meeting my teammates and picked up some knee recovery tips from Tom Woltz during our warm-up.

They gave me the A leg, while Tom would take the baton from me for the B leg. I told Tom I would likely finish in 18:30 plus or minus 30 seconds. Despite the wind and thundershowers, the race started on time. As I have done all this year, I started too fast. I get sucked out there by faster runners. In this case I had my eye on the tall guy in the yellow jersey, fellow HRB'r Steve Bezner. I hit the half mile sign in a way too fast 3:17. From there on it was hang on sloopy as Steve gradually faded into the horizon ahead. I did the handoff to Tom at 18:17 and hit the line at 18:20 or so. So in the end my time was pretty good for me, averaging 7:20/mi. But I do wonder if I took that first half mile in 3:30 or 3:35, whether I could have run an 18 minute flat race.

Tom took off quite briskly as the weather deteriorated. Several minutes into his race, the race was called due to bad weather as the thunderstorms had worsened. Tom was out there, so of course he finished his run in an excellent 16:20 or so. He was able to improve our place by passing a few runners. However it was all for naught since the race was scratched. Nevertheless I had a real good time and am thankful for the A placement since I got my run in. I don't mind running in the rain at all. I am not sure I would have been any quicker in a more typical warm and humid Houston morning.

I hardly ever wear a heart rate monitor at a race, but I did today since I thought I could get a good fix on my maximum heart rate via an all out 2.5 mile race. My average heart rate ended up at 176. I did not look at it during the race, so I have to guess the maximum. Based on what I know based on training, I will declare my MHR as 178 and my LT heart rate at 15 bpm lower or 163. This means my tempo runs should be in the high 150's, my endurance runs in the 140's, my over distance runs in the 130s and my recovery runs in the 120s. This fits quite well with my understanding based on training this year.

I see the HARRA website has some updated results for the Spring Series. It shows I was one of 19 runners (so far) to win the Ironfoot award for completing the whole series. That was one of my goals, so I pretty happy to have done it without any problems.

I enjoyed the opportunity to run for the Strider's for a day. Funny thing is I just joined the Bay Area Running Club, since I've been going to their Monday or Tuesday training runs in the neighborhood. So many great running clubs in Houston, it is hard not to feel part of them all.