Getting back to Boston

Hilly and slow before work, including 66th  Street. That's about all I remember.

Planned to do 18 today, but that was without consulting the forecast. Mom Nature dropped 40 degrees, wind and horizontal rain on me, and silly me didn't wear long pants. I made it 6.7, realized that hypothermia was a real possibility and bailed. For once, I made the wise decision.

Since I didn't get my 18 done yesterday, did it today. Ran across the Garrison bridge and back to Creekmore on my own, met up with the Wednesday evening crew there and did 6.7 with them, then ran back home. I think there were 10 significant hills on that run, and right now I'm feeling every one of them. Got it done, slowly, but got it done.

Slow, slow, slow recovery run. I felt beat up when I started, barely able to go faster than 11:00 pace. Loosened up enough during the run to get below 10:00 for the last mile, but still sore. Glad I got the kinks out, although I think the kinks had some kinks of their own.

Out at 5:15 with Sherrie for an easy 5 from Marketplace. I worked until 11:30 last night, so that 4:15 alarm was really early -- especially since I was still awake at 1:15. Got the run done, and the legs felt OK. What will I have for the 10K in the morning? We'll find out at 8. George and I (and maybe Rose) are leaving at 4:30 am to get to Two Rivers Park. I know the layout there, not that that will help me any.

Good run at Two Rivers this morning. I'm a little ticked at myself for losing focus in mile 2 and slipping to a 7:50 mile, but once I locked back in, I actually negative split a 10K, which I think is a first for me. No chip time, so results are gonna take a while, I suspect, but Garmin time was 47:24, which is my best 10K in a while. I was hoping for top 10 AG and top 100 overall and got both. One of those runs where I substituted toughness for lack of speed. Which, come to think of it, applies to any run where I do semi-well, because speed ain't part of my game.

Gun time was 47:26. I got to the line within five seconds of the gun, I think, but then again I'm not entirely certain where the finish was. I'll stick with the Garmin time. 

Ran Phoenix with Tiffany again. As usual, she pushed the pace as we went farther along, but nothing I couldn't handle. We wound up just under a 9:20 average. I thought about continuing for another 4 to get to 10, but decided I'd do a double later today. I didn't eat before the run, for one thing. Better to be smart and spread the mileage out a bit, especially with 18 looming tomorrow. Then I can rest some during the work week. Got the double done in the evening. Two straight days with doubles; can't remember that in a long time.

Up at 4 to run with Jamie and Tiff at 5. Tiff bailed early; her Achilles was acting up. Jamie just cooked me. Then she'd double back until I caught up and cook me again, over and over. I just wasn't feeling it, but I still did 18 7 minutes faster than last Wednesday. Total of 72 during me week off, and I still have to run with WRA tonight. I am NOT looking forward to that, but with Staci not back from STL yet, somebody gotta do it. Got the 4.1 done tonight in spite of upper 70s and humidity. At least there was a breeze. 22 today, 75+ this week.

Slow 5 with Kathy and Erica. I was too sore from yesterday to call it easy, but I eventually loosened up after 3.5 or so. First mile was like 11:30 pace. Ugh. Gotta figure out how to mix quality training with rest. Probably should cut back on some of these shorties.

Hilly 8 at dawn with 10 hill sprints at the end. I was really stiff for the first 2 miles, as usual, and didn't really get going until the middle of the horseshoe. But the rest went well. Lot of traffic, as you would expect, and had to be on my toes, but no major issues. All in all, not a bad run. Now for work.

Bed magner got me this morning, so that and need for stress reduction obliged me to get out after dark for 6. Ended up pushing it pretty hard with the last 0.7 at roughly MP. Legs felt pretty good once I got atop the hill by Hardscrabble, which is probably why I pushed it. That and I wanted to get through with it, eat and get to bed.

Up at 4:30, did 6 with Sheri and Sherrie, then 9 on my own. Ran faster without them. Pretty good run,. all things considered. Then I got slammed for 10 hours at work. Bleah. The 15 wasn't the problem at work, the up at 4:30 was.

Took Saturday off, bed magnet got me this morning after Tiff cancelled, so I felt obliged to get in a fish after work. Waited until almost 9 to let it get below 80 degrees, and it wasn't much below 80 even then. Warmed up slow, finally felt like running the last mile. Tiff is supposed to actually show up in the morning. We'll see ;)

Tiff showed up this morning (knockout as ever) but her AT isn't ready to run yet. So she cut it short after 0.9 and I kept going for a total of 6.33. Humid as heck. Got it up to MP going back to the Support House on M. I think I lost more fluid in 6.3 than I have in a couple of 18s this winter. Now for work and stalking Mary Jo, Abrena and Cindy in Boston.

Wow. Since my last post, spent much of my time, not tracking runners in Boston, but trying to find out if friends were safe after the bomb blasts on Boylston. That hit me hard, not the least of which I was running down that same street 104 weeks ago. So I decided to organize a little memorial run this afternoon. Daniel, Brenda and I did 5 miles at 1 p.m., then Jill and I did 4 at 2. I still owed Jill a cold beverage from the Guess Jeff's Mileage contest a while back, so we decided an 86-degree afternoon would be a fine time to collect. And we went to Applebee's and got margaritas. Boy, did they hit the spot. The run? A struggle with the heat and humidity. Jill could tell I wasn't doing well, and I wasn't. Just too damn hot for me. I felt like I was breathing soup. But I got it done.

About 35 degrees colder than yesterday, and with the wind, felt like a lot more than 35. Great day to do 9. Felt like running, and running fast. At least the part where I was on my own. The second leg with the WRA group, I reined it in.

Eighteen this morning in three segments. First, 5.7 with the Angels, basically practicing race pace for OKC. Went well, and my HR hovered around 120 the whole way. Then 6.1 with Travis, who kinda invited himself to join us but seems to be a nice guy. That was about 10:00 pace. Then 6.2 alone, pushing it to try to get the overall average down to 10:00. Didn't quite get there, but got to 10:02. Legs responded OK when I asked them to move faster even though I was tired. I think I know now how to shift gears in a race.

This run actually took place on Wednesday and I forgot to log it. So the "Wednesday" run happened Thursday and the "Thursday" run happened Friday. This was the Wednesday evening session from Creekmore. Temperature 87, humidity plenty, wind also plenty, which helped keep me cool but also made me work harder. Jill and I were struggling just to do this at 10:00 in that heat.

Out before the Fayetteville trip for an easy 6 with a litle progression built in.

Up way too late last night after some extremely disappointing information obtained from Facebook about someone I thought I knew. Guess I was wrong, and it upset me, thus up until 2:30 and up again at 7:30. Wasn't sure I could actually get myself out the door, but a group run with Kathy, Daniel, Michael and Jim F. was the ticket to get me going. Wound up with a decent run despite mid-70s temps.

Eight plus this morning on the SHS-Free Ferry loop. Went OK once my back loosened up. Tonight, speed work at Ramsey with the clinic group. Not sure how many of them will actually show up. Staci won't be running after her 50K, I know that. Now off to my work waste, uh, monthly meeting.

Intervals actually went well. Needed six laps to warm up even though it was 80 out there due to stiffness from this morning, but then 5x660 went ok.  Reps were 2:45, 2:36, 2:42, 2:34 and 2:36, and 2:37 was target pace.

Easy run to and from SHS, dodging high school kids all the way (no issues, just a lot of traffic). Felt pretty good on the return leg and decided to do 100m strides; wound up doing 8 of them. I think that's going to have to be a major feature of the next 4.5 weeks. The legs have to learn to go fast again. My knees were really achy for the first mile, but that eased up too, thankfully.

Twelve miles progression on Phoenix. Perfect running weather. If it's like this in OKC, or TC, I'll be very pleased. Legs tightened up a couple of times, but I was able to shift gears and keep going, and they loosened again. I wish I'd known how to do that in Boston instead of folding up. Runs like this make me think it just might happen.

Pushed a 10K a bit after work, with last two-thirds of a mile at sub-MP. Felt good. Back it off now for OKC, but maybe the pieces are falling together.

Easy before work with Tiffany. Now off to OKC.

Ran OKC this morning with Sheri. Wasn't going to go fast, knew that months ago. The plan was to get Sheri (and hopefully Sherrie and Heidi) a big PR. Heidi got hurt last month, and Sherrie got caught up in the crush of people and never found us before the race. But Sheri and I stuck together for nearly five hours, and she got a 13-minute PR. Which I find extremely gratifying. She put her trust in me today, and I helped her get what she wanted. And I like Sheri very much, which makes it that much better that she reached her goal.

As for me, I was treating it as a training run, forgetting that no matter how fast or slow you go, 26.2 is a really long way. I didn't cramp during the run, but boy, during our mid-afternoon lunch... Left hammy and quad both locked up within a couple of minutes. I had to quit eating and stand up to get them loose. And then I faced three hours plus in the car back to FS, but with cruise control and one stop, got home with no further issues.

Worried about whether to run today because there's been a tender spot in my left calf since Sunday night, and I'm thinking, what if it's a partial tear? But icing this morning seemed to help, and I decided to try it. It was a little stiff at first, but nothing too bad, and it got better as I went along. Wound up doing 7.40 and got down below 10:00 for the last 3+ miles. Dunno if I'll be ready to do a fast 10K at Toad Suck, but I'm not injured, anyway. Might just go out later for a double to get to 260 miles for the month, 'cause that's the kind of OCD fool I am.