Getting back to Boston

Intended to get up at 4:30 and get in my first run of the new year. that was before a night of tossing and turning and not much sleeping. Alarm went off at 4:30; I decided to reset it and go back to sleep (and my wife concurred in that decision). Reset the time instead of the alarm; fortunately, my body woke itself up at the right time to get to work for our lovely Saturday clinic. So no 12-miler this morning.

 However, despite my lack of a nap later on, I felt good enough Saturday night to go run 6 on the TM and watch the playoffs at the same time. Ran the first 5.75 at a steady pace, then picked it up to MP for the last 400 just for fun. Run went fine, no twinges or issues. So now I'll be doing Sunday's rescheduled 12-miler on semi-tired legs; we'll see how that goes.  

Reminded myself again why I don't do doubles. My six-miler last night ended at 8 p.m. or so. Ten hours later, I'm back out doing a 12-miler. And it's 70 degrees with 100% humidity on the first Sunday in January????? Cold front with a nice breeze finally moved in, after I'd already run nine or ten miles, but by then I was already drained. Humidity and I just do not get along; same with me and doubles, even if there happens to be a midnight between the first half and the second half. But I got my 12.33 in, and actually felt up to putting in a decent kick in the last few miles (being downhill helped). Total time, including more Gallowalking than I would have liked, 2:08 for almost 20K.

I have one week to go on Pfitz' five-week post-marathon recovery program. That leaves 20 weeks to Newport, if that's where I'm going to run. So I'll base build for two weeks, then start Pfitz 18/70. Unless my new edition of Pfitz arrives by then, in which case I may start on 18/85. We'll see what it looks like.

Easy 5 on the TM. It was gonna be TM or nothing, because it's 32 degrees and raining. Only the fact that it was 70 degrees yesterday and the ground is still semi-warm prevented central Arkansas from becoming a total skating rink. As it was, overpasses are still nasty. But not a night to run outside.

One month to the day since Memphis, and my best run since Memphis. Started out as a GA with some fartlek, and the fartlek turned into MP surges or intervals or whatever you want to call them. One lap, then two, then three, then six. Legs and GI tract handled it well, even with a tummy full of lasagna. Definitely the most life in the legs in a while. Probably in a month.

Easy 5 on the TM. Stayed up too late Tuesday after the basketball game and then didn't sleep well once I went to bed, so it was a rough day from that standpoint. Run was OK, although I was still dragging.

Good hard 7 on the TM, mostly at 8:34 pace, with nine strides at the end. Finished in 59:01. I've had some 59-minute runs that were about five miles, not seven. I'm starting to think that's the way to go for May -- not do too much with the mileage, maybe top out at 80 mpw but with a higher mpw average, but push the pace more. Get to where sub-8:00 is more routine. Then routine it for about 3:25 in Newport or wherever (I need to pin that down pretty soon).

Kinda pushed the pace this morning out at Maumelle; ran sub-9 for a lot of the way before the hills and then the brown bear got me. And when the bear bit, he bit hard and he didn't let go for about a mile and a half before I got somewhere where I could deal with him (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, count yourself fortunate). Once the bear went away, the rest of the run was fine -- except the cold front that blew through with 20 mph wind turned my hands into icicles. Better that than the 65 degrees it was at 5 a.m. before the front arrived. Anyway, even with the bear, I averaged 9:33 miles.

This started out as a recovery run, but as I went along, I got faster and faster. Before I knew it, I was in the low-8:00 range and ended up averaging almost exactly 9:00 for the six miles. Legs obviously felt pretty good after 13 yesterday.

I've been reading Tim Noakes' book and his theory of a reprogrammable central governor that is the primary limitation on our performance in distance races makes sense. I think that's what I did for Memphis -- reset the popoff valve to tolerate low-8:00 pace. Now I just have to reset it again to, say, 7:35 and I'm golden.

Had a change in plan for the next race. No, it will probably still be Newport, but the family won't be going with me. Instead, the family wants to go to New England, or Canada, or both in the early summer. So it appears that I'll go solo to Oregon and then the family will head northeast, across the border if we can get the passports in time.

Kind of a fortuitous circumstance tonight. Had planned to do 8 on the TM, but I get to the fitness room and the TM is taken. I didn't figure the not-so-fit guy on there was going to stay on it very long, but I didn't want to go home and come back later. Decided to get on the recumbent bike and do some crosstraining, then run when the guy left. So I got 18 good minutes on the bike, which didn't feel like much until I got off and the quads were burning, then did 6 recovery miles on the TM. Almost like doing doubles in terms of targeting the quads and then working everything else.

Pfitz arrived today. Right now, I'm leaning toward tweaking the 18/85 down a bit rather than tweaking 18/70 up, but I'll look at it further. Also got some good news in that I may not have to do clinic Saturday morning, so I may be able to do a regular LR instead of something abbreviated so I can get to work. 

One of those runs I didn't think would go well when it started, but got better as it went along. Eight miles GA at sub-9 pace with 8 strides at the end. As I warmed up, the legs started feeling better. Didn't pick up the pace, but the pace got easier. Last two miles were fairly easy, then I did have to push some to maintain the 6:40 pace on the strides. Total time less than 69 minutes for the full 8.

Chalk last night up as DNFLR -- Did Not Feel Like Running. Or remaining awake, for that matter. Got about three hours' sleep, dragged through work (which ran late), didn't get home until 7:30, wouldn't have finished running until after 9. Nope. Wasn't going there. So went to bed by 10 and slept -- hard.

Tonight, felt better. It's in the low 20 and falling right now, so back to the old friend the TM for a good hard 9-miler. Ran the first seven at MP + 10%, then put the hammer down for MP, or maybe even a little faster, for the last two. Wound up with a sub-8:30 average. I think this kind of run will reset the old central governor, if Tim Noakes is right, and get me ready for sub-8 and thus BQ.

Will do a light jog tomorrow night to sorta make up for DNFLR, then do 12 or so on the river Saturday morning, when hopefully it might even get above 25 degrees.

This morning was kind of a test. I decided to go out and push the pace more than I usually do on a Saturday and see how long I could hold it. The answer, it seems, was 10 miles.

Temp was about 30 this morning with a bit of wind, Since I'm once again battling sniffles and coughing, I bundled up more than usual -- tights under track pants, a long-sleeved tech shirt under a wind shirt, a fleece headband, my UA skullcap and gloves. And off I went. Didn't look at the watch for probably an hour, just ran.

The official Crackhead distance today was 10. I started out planning to do 12, but when I got to the turnaround, I kept going all the way to Big Dam Bridge, which equals 14 miles. Started wishing I hadn't done that at about 10 miles when I ran out of gas. But the time for 10 miles was 1:27, which is as fast as I've ever run for that distance any time that I didn't pay for a bib, a chip and a T-shirt. Then I kinda hit an early wall. Probably due to the upper respiratory stuff, which fortunately didn't bother me this morning until after I finished. And I was able to run the last mile in sub-8 anyway.

So now one more week until the Newport training plan begins. I'm gonna try to do a recovery double tomorrow to get used to that.

Yuck. This illness just is NOT GOING AWAY. I lay in bed last night (in the spare bedroom, my wife having kicked me out so she could get some sleep) listening to myself wheeze. Which led me to do three things today: Go home from work at 10 a.m. because my breathing was not any better; have my nurse call in a prescription for an inhaler for me before I left; and finally, get an afternoon appointment with my PCP.

After he listened to me detail what has gone on, starting with the 12/6 marathon which undoubtedly knocked down my immune system and started this progression, he told me he thinks what happened is that the course of antibiotics right after Christmas reduced but did not eliminate the sinus infection. Which has come back with a vengeance, and the resulting drainage has triggered my asthma, hence the wheezing. So he put me on a stronger antibiotic for 10 days. Otherwise, he said the self-treatment was pretty reasonable -- the inhaler, the antihistamine to try to reduce the drainage. He said the first course of antibiotics would have been fine if all I'd had was bronchitis, but it didn't knock out sinusitis.

But in the meantime, I have not been able to run since Saturday. Nor will I for a while. Ten-milers and wheezing is not a good combination. Get this under control, then start to train again. I still have 18.5 weeks left until Newport. If it takes 10 days before Im ready to run again, so be it. My 18-week plan will become 17. Still enough time to get ready. In the meantime, I think the rest of my body will welcome a little break -- especially since it's not feeling too good now either. We'll have to see if I'm ready to RTW tomorrow. Right now, I'd say the answer will be no.

Back to work today, but still no running. Give that one more day, I think. The lungs still feel a little congested. I think the legs feel better; this is the longest break they've had in 18 months. Maybe do a little 3-4 tomorrow night, do 8 Saturday with the Crackheads, then get back into the swing next week. Or maybe not. We'll see how the pulmonary shapes up tomorrow night.

Running at Newport, which is still the target, is getting a lot more complicated. I was informed last night that the kid's post-graduation trip must start on May 22 and that Pam wants to return from New England on May 30. Which, of course, is the day of Newport. Does that mean Newport is out? No, it does not. Here's the plan: We all fly to Boston on the 22nd and roam the Northeast for a few days -- visit Pam's friend in Vermont, maybe go u to Montreal, check out New Hampshire and Connecticut and Maine and Rhode Island. Amtrak may or may not fit into this plan. Then I am to fly out of Boston to Portland on the 28th and go down to Newport from there. Pam and T stay in Boston and play around for two more days. I nail the BQ on the 30th and fly home on the 31st. That, in a nutshell, is the plan.

Back on the road this morning with the Crackheads after a week on the DL with this asthma/sinus stuff. Only ran eight, but pushed the pace hard -- 8:44 average. I was the first eight-miler to finish, as far as I could tell. Lungs cooperated, although there was of course a little drainage to stir things up (unavoidable for me when I run in 35-degree weather; the nose WILL run, period). Legs felt a little weak, for lack of a better word, but I was able to maintain the pace and even run a negative split, if you can negative split an 8-mile training run.

Going to finally go join the athletic club across the street this morning after I get my nap. Let the family work out, swim, get active, etc., and it gives me more options for crosstraining and treadmill use than just depending on the little fitness room in the clubhouse.

First venture onto the track at the neighborhood fitness club, 12 laps to the mile. I think I ran 72 laps, but not sure; losing count was a real issue. Also not sure how long it took. Had to constantly look out for kids wandering across the track oblivious/wired into their iPods. So boredom wasn't an issue. Then I did a little crosstraining -- upperbody weights, some work on the glutes -- got in the whirlpool, showered and walked one block home. Nice workout overall. Now if I can just get the family over there to join me.

Still a little stiff after last night's 6-miler/crosstraining session, but the schedule said LT, so LT it was. LT on the TM, of course; that bane of Mid-South winter weather, the ice storm, is in full display tonight. I darn near busted arse on the sidewalk going over to the fitness room. Once I got there, I warmed up with 3, then cranked the TM to about 7:20 pace. I could only do 2 miles at that pace, so I jogged another mile at about 9:15 pace, then cranked it back to 7:20 for another two miles. So I got my prescribed 4 miles at LT, even it it took two tries.

Schedule says 12 tomorrow. Not sure that's going to happen. May have to shuffle Wednesday's 6-mile recovery run up a day and run 12 on Wednesday, but we'll see. Maybe cruising 12 won't be that bad.

Talked an old high school mate who is getting started in running into coming out Saturday to join the Crackheads. She's planning to run the half in Little Rock in six weeks. I figured a good dose of Crackhead at Oucho's would be just the ticket for her. Surprisingly, she agreed.

Tried out the TMs tonight at the athletic club. The TMs were fine. The lack of ventilation around them wasn't. There was one fan in front of one TM (occupied, as was the one next to it). I was at the other end, sweating like a cochon, until the ventilated TM came open. That was five miles into my run. So I moved down for the final two miles. I had already determined the legs were too sore for the originally planned 12 miler. So I just kept a steady pace, on both TMs, until I completed the 7 in about 62 minutes.

Probably now will run 10, maybe 11, tomorrow night on the old familiar TM at the fitness room.

 Also took the spousal unit over for her first workout  at the club. She did 7 minutes on the bike (about all her post-surgical knee could handle after months of inactivity since she finished PT), then we went downstairs and did mostly lower-body strength stuff on the machines -- leg curl, leg extension, abductors, adductors. Then she went home and I went to find a treadmill. 

Torture time on the dreadmill tonight. Fartlek/progression run, ramping up to GMP + 10% for the last four miles plus surges, and about 1.5 miles of GMP surges. Averaged 8:30 for the entire run. As hard as it was, this is the kind of run that's going to get me to Boston. So, I did it.

Back on the dreadmill tonight for another running/basketball watching session. Really took me about five miles to get warmed up where the thighs quit hurting. Gradual progression tonight; ended up averaging about 9:05 for the 10 miles. Really need to do an ice bath tonight -- after the basketball game ends :) Hogs might even win this one!

Back to Oucho's for another torture session. Oucho's is our name for a run through the Himalayas of West Little Rock, starting at what used to be Gaucho's Restaurant, hence the name. You need ropes, crampons and a Sherpa to run Oucho's -- particularly today when I was dodging patches of black ice; those crampons would have come in handy. It was about 28 and clear this morning, but there was still frozen runoff from the rain earlier in the week. I'd say Oucho's is like running up and down a ski slope, for 16 miles. But it was a good run. I pushed  on through when the quads were screaming at me, felt better once I picked up the pace, and finished at less than a 10-minute average. I thought that was decent for my first 15-plus run in two months, especially with all those hills.

So I've completed week one of the 18-week plan for Newport with 60 miles. I'll get up over 80 a time or two in the program, but this is a good start. This is building the base that I need to have to get that 3:30:xx with time to spare. Newport doesn't have hills like this, but a few Oucho's runs will help me get the quad strength I need to carry a sub-8 pace.