EAS 10 Miler - Revisited

Last night on our run Shorey, Carri, and I were talking about how we seem to be all over the map in our runs. One mile is at our goal pace, the next is too fast, and then the next is too slow. Repeat over however many miles we are running. We also marveled at how Wiley consistently nails his miles within a few seconds of each other.

So today I was revisiting the EAS 10 Miler results page to get my time and input it into the pace calculator to figure out what I want to run this weekend, and I was greeted with this little surprise.

Time for the first 5 miles - 46:30.5
Time for the second 5 miles - 46:29.5

So not only did I run a very slight negative split but in an actual race I was really consistent. Very shocking. So here is what I have learned...

YES, I am slow, and I am fine with that, but at least I am slow at a consistent pace. Woohoo.

Not Your Typical Thanksgiving

Above you will find your not so typical Thanksgiving plate. While there is turkey in the middle that is all that I would normally find on my plate for Turkey Day.

Items on the plate:

Turkey
Chilled Octopus Salad
Warm Pasta with scallops, shrimp, oysters, etc.
Ahi Poke
Purple Potatoes
Sweet and Sour Pork
Pork and Peppers and Onions

BTW this was my second plate. On the first I did have some mashed potatoes, stuffing, and sweet potatoes for the traditional items but also had:

Kim Chi
Seaweed Salad
King Crab Legs

Rain, Rain Go Away and Come back on...Sunday?

Yes, it rains even in paradise. After only getting a short amount of time on the beach yesterday we decided today would be our beach day. A full on day of nothing but beach. Of course making plans only leads to heartbreak as it has rained off and on all day. So we made the best of it.

About 5AM local time I was awoken by some pretty loud and recurring thunder. Luckily I went back to sleep and we woke up at about 7AM to a light rain. After breakfast the rain was still falling so we decided it was a good time to go for a run since the beach was out at least for a bit. We did an out and back of about 4 miles, and luckily today's course was relatively flat and my calf did not flare up.

Got back to the condo and the rain was still falling so we decided to do a little reading as we sat on the lanai and finished the books we had been reading. Luckily we got a brief break in the rain and decided to head to the beach. Of course once we got there it started raining again, so back to the condo. After a few more of these to the beach, then rain, to the beach, then rain, we decided what the heck and just sat on the beach in the rain. Finally it cleared up a bit and I did a bit of body surfing, while Carri sunned herself.

Now it is about 4PM local time and it is raining again. I guess that means it is time for a Mai Tai.

Maui Invitational

When Carri and I first talked about coming back to Maui it was because she could use three vacation days and we could be here for 8 days due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Our second reason was because Oklahoma State was in this years EA Sports Maui Invitational basketball tournament. After some slight deliberation we decided to go to the arena and see if we could get tickets to OSU's game against LSU. We found a guy selling tickets for $10 below face and we were in.

The game was held at the Lahaina Civic Center and this venue is very tiny. Basically bleachers on the sides and a few at each end and that is it. We sat at mid-court and were about 10 rows up from the floor with only 2 rows behind us. So this is essentially a small high school gym. This makes for a great place to see your team up close and personal.

Oklahoma State had a huge halftime lead and was able to hold off a barrage of three pointers by LSU to come away with a 6 point win.

Apparently Texas is the Big XII representative next year for this tourney and I highly recommend using the excuse of coming over to see the Horns for a Maui Thanksgiving getaway in 2008.

Sunday is still about NFL, even in Maui

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early, 6 AM to watch NFL pre-game. That is the beauty of NFL in Hawaii the first game starts at 8 AM and the afternoon game begins at 11. We went to the Maui Brewing Company for some of their tasty beers. Nothing like watching two sets of games and being back at the condo at about 2:30 PM. After a short nap we had a great dinner on the lanai (porch/balcony) as we watched the ocean. Another fantastic day in paradise.

Pack your Bags We'll Leave Tonight

Saturday morning we got up bright and early. Me at 4, then 5, then 6, before finally getting out of bed at 6:30. After a nice breakfast we headed to the beach to soak up the sun and enjoy the perfect weather. After sunning for a bit we decided to go snorkling. We were very lucky to see a few sea turtles, and I was able to get a few shots of one...

I got two tickets to paradise

Aloha,

Carri and I arrived in Maui on Friday 11/16 at approximately 4:30 local time (HST is 4 hours behind CST) and headed for the Costco to get supplies for the week. After getting into the condo we had dinner of Ahi Poke and Udon soup. Very delicious. We also had some fantastic island inspired drinks. After the dinner and drinks it was hard to stay up until 10 PM, which was our goal to try to get somewhat accustomed to the time difference.

This is the view from our condo...

I wanted to post more but blogger is giving me errors and the stories are not as good without the pics. I will try again later. Mahalo.

EAS 10 Miler

Yesterday was the EAS 10 Miler. This was the first strictly running race I have done in over 3 years, but since it is still 2 months until the 3M Half and 3 months until the ATT Half, I was not sweating it. This run departed the flat lands on central Austin and headed into the hills of west Austin. The EAS was by far one of the toughest running races I have done as the hills really take it out of you. My goal going in was to running 9 minute miles. As the splits below will show I slightly missed my goal.

Mile 1 - 8.57
Mile 2 - 9.24
Mile 3 - 9.23
Mile 4 - 9.03
Mile 5 - 9.33
Mile 6 - 9.41
Mile 7 - 9.23
Mile 8 - 9.18
Mile 9 - 8.49
Mile 10 - 9.18

So overall I finished in one hour and thirty three minutes with an overall pace of 9.18 per mile. A little slower than I would have liked but considering the course and that fact that I am running 10 miles with 2 months to go until 3M, makes me very happy.

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend Carri and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, and we had a great time. We stayed at the Flamingo for the first time and upgraded to their new GO rooms. These rooms are only a few months old and are very modern with frosted glass bathroom doors, 42" plasma TV, nice sound system, a TV in the bathroom mirror, etc. We were thoroughly impresses. We were also on the 25th floor and had an excellent view of the strip. So the first night was typical Vegas get in and gamble until late.

Saturday we woke up pretty early and scouted around for breakfast, unfortunately we missed the cut-off by 10 minutes and had pizza and pasta for our morning meal. Then it was time for a little gambling. Then back to the room to change and get a couples massage, this was a nice diversion and was very soothing. Back to the room to shower change and go grab some dinner before going to see the show Spamalot. This show is based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and was very fun and probably the best show I have seen in Vegas. Then time to gamble most of the night/early morning away.

Sunday was all about football and more gambling, of course it should have been about eating something, but that is another story entirely.

Monday was another day of some light gambling and then the late night flight back to the ATX.

In all a fantastic weekend for both Carri and I - one wonderful year and we both came back with more money than we left with. Viva Las Vegas indeed.