Getting back to Boston

Recovery run on the TM

Another Lakewood loop, which means lots of hills. Averaged about 10:00.

Had planned to run tonight, but the GI tract had other ideas. My running was to the bathroom. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.

Hill intervals on the treadmill -- 400X5 at about 7:40 pace. Fortunately the digestive tract behaved itself.

Recovery on the TM

On the TM for marathon paced four miler, then out to the church parking lot for strides. Hard to do strides after an MP run.

Back at Maumelle with the Crackheads. It seems like I never have a good run at Maumelle, and today is no exception. Very humid, dead legs, walked a LOT. Started out running with Pat and just told him to go on ahead, I was not able to keep up. Not encouraging.

30-minute recovery run covering 3.77 on the TM

Today's my 24th wedding anniversary, so had to keep this one short. Tempo run of 3 miles and a short cooldown run in 31 minutes.

3:1 run on the TM. Overall average about 9:11.

Hill intervals on the TM, stepping up the pace from 7:40ish to 7:20 as I went through them.

Fartlek run through the neighborhood.

Back to the Capitol for our little trip up Kavanaugh into the Heights.

Little recovery run. Only a week to the start of my marathon training program. Yikes.

Little 3:1 run on the TM tonight. Averaged 9:07

TM recovery

Actually a track workout today. Jogged over to the track at East Campus, ran 8X200 intervals at splits ranging from 41 to 47 seconds, then jogged home. Almost felt like track practice used to feel, although no threat of technicolor yawning this time.

Tempo run at MP - 10% for four miles, then cooldown.

Routine Saturday morning on the River Trail. Marathon program starts tomorrow with a scheduled off day, so I'll crosstrain or something.

My first day of training under the Pfitzinger 24/55 program. Goal race: Memphis St. Jude on December 6. Hit the treadmill due to temps in the 90s for 7.5 General Aerobic miles in about 69 minutes, then went outside for 10 100-meter strideouts. The strides felt better than previous strideouts I've done; whether that was better conditioning, better technique or pure coincidence, I have no idea. Still 166 days to go to Memphis, but a good starting point. I'm glad I built my base up to 33 mpw before I started this program.

I thought long and hard about putting off the start of the training program until August, going with Pfitz 18/55 instead. The reason is the summer heat; running outside in July is not going to do much to prepare me for a December marathon, and there is a real risk of heat-related problems. But I decided to go ahead and start now. I don't want to look back after Memphis and wish I'd done more to prepare. If I put in the work and still don't get the goal, so be it, but I'm gonna put in the work first. Plus the extra weeks give me more cushion in case of injury or illness.

Speaking of looking back, I think that looking back on my prior running lives is why I'm so committed now. I was pretty mediocre as a high school distance runner (undertrained) until back surgery at age 15 shut me down. Nine years later, I decided to lace back up and go for a 15K on my 25th birthday, which happened to be sponsored by my employer. I trained hard for three months, finished the 15K in 63:00 or so (if there had been chip times in 1985), and then shut it down for another 20 years. What if I had continued to train then? The calculators say a 63:00 15K correlates to about a 3-hour marathon, but I never gave a thought to continuing my training, much less to running a marathon.

But I just think that the ability to run semi-fast is still in there, somewhere, and I want to unearth it. So far, so good; running decent distances at decent paces is getting easier and easier. Can I string together 26 miles at 9:08 pace? Can I go lower and maybe get into BQ territory? That's what I want to find out.

My "failure" in my first marathon was due to poor tactics, poor hydration and inadequate training (30 miles per week tops, mistake #1). I started out with a 4:30 pace group, but ran off and left them after 3-plus miles (mistake #2) at the second aid station and didn't start drinking soon enough (mistake #3). Felt really good for 11 miles, then started to get really thirsty. Still finished the half in 2:12, which would have been good enough to get my goal if I had enough miles in the bank, but I didn't. And when I started cramping in mile 17, the goal shifted from breaking 4:30 to just finishing. The last nine miles were run-cramp-walk, run-cramp-walk. Never mind any time goal, I wasn't sure I could get there, but I was going to finish if at all possible, and I did.

So I'm correcting these issues. Doing Pfitz 24/55 will give me a much better preparation. I know a lot more about hydration and carb-loading now. And I'm working in my training runs on fighting my urge to start faster than I should. Will 55 mpw get me ready for a sub-four? We'll find out in 166 days.

Not a good day on the Riverfront Trail. After a really hard day at work, I decided to go straight from the office to the trail. The idea was to finish the run early to spend time with my wife before her knee surgery tomorrow morning. I got there at 6 p.m. to find 93-degree heat, plenty of humidity and plenty of Canada geese along the trail -- plus the things that Canada geese leave behind them.

Again, I tried to restrain myself as far as not starting out too fast and I started drinking early and often. Nice try, but not enough. Thoroughly miserable run, most of which I spent saying "I'll never run in this kind of heat again," when I wasn't stepping over and around goose guano. I'd like to say I ran all the way, but I didn't. Just not a good day. Plus my wife got impatient waiting on me to finish.

One of those live and learn days. I've had bad training days before and will again. Oh well, off to the hospital in the morning.

All in all, a good day. My wife's surgery went well, when it finally happened. We got to watch the DVD afterward, and the torn meniscus was big and obvious. It's all smoothed out now, and the damaged articular cartilage isn't as bad as I thought it might be. Hopefully she'll be pain-free and able to straighten that knee out, which she hasn't done for quite a while.

Mother-in-law Lil came up as well, which freed me up to go run tonight. In fact, I walked about a mile with Lil to show her a walking path around the neighborhood, then went to the TM for four recovery miles which went well.

Friday will be crush day at work again, so it was better to get the TM work done tonight than wait until tomorrow.

Starting point from the Arts Center. Starting temperature 75 degrees at 6 a.m. The usual Central High/Capitol/Heights course, turning around at Hillcrest and Kavanaugh. Definite negative split -- 48:14 for the first five miles with Pat K., 57:19 for the last 6.35 after I left Pat. Sub-9:00 pace for the last 3.35. Finished just before a major thunderstorm hit, so quite windy for the last half hour. Overall very good run.

One of those days where, if I weren't in training for a marathon, I probably would have come home from work, eaten something, and gone straight to bed. I got pummeled at work, and will again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (holiday weeks are always like this). Instead, I came home, changed clothes, and put in a darn hard workout: Four miles of warmup on the treadmill, three miles at marathon pace, the last mile at something approaching LT pace, then go outside for 10 100-meter strideouts. This time the strides were HARD, probably reflecting that I was less than five minutes off a tough 74-minute training run.

Which brings me to pacing questions. I'm not sure where to go with this. I'm basing my MP for training off what I ran in the 10K two months ago, which gives me an MP figure of somewhere in the 9:00 to 9:10 range depending on whose tables I use. It was a good 10K, PR by six minutes, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't an optimal run (I walked for 200 yards, a temptation I always find hard to overcome in mid-run or mid-race). But when I base my pace off heart rate, like recovery runs, for instance, my HR at 9:00 pace is barely out of the recovery zone. And following Pfitz's advice to do longer runs at MP + 20% then MP + 10% is frankly too darn easy; I have a very hard time running that slow. My 11-miler on Saturday averaged MP + 3%, and the last three miles were well UNDER goal pace.

Not that there would be anything wrong with running four hours at recovery pace if that got me a sub-4, but I'm not going to unearth that hidden potential I'm trying to find by running at less than 70% of my heart rate reserve. Specifically, I'm not going to get to Boston that way -- unless there's a helluva lot more hidden potential there than I think. And yes, I have to quit the Gallowalking if I'm gonna maximize my ability.

So I'm now officially in mini-taper for the 5K. Take tomorrow off, an easy four- or five-miler on Wednesday, maybe a light jog Thursday, bust the 5K Friday morning, then a SLOW long run on Saturday (I know, I always say that and then end up busting it). But if I can get in the 22s or low 23s Friday, I'll deserve a bit of a break. And if I don't, I still need to take it easy on Saturday.