Getting back to Boston

Slow and easy with Sheri and Pattie over the hills from the Schoolhouse. Except that you can't get to the Schoolhouse right now so we parked on Massard. Legs felt OK. Dewpoint of 73 didn't.

Had a lot of fun and a lot of sangria at Heidi's house last night. Then got up at  4:15 to run with Tiff. As usual, she wanted a hilly course and she wanted to cook me. And she did. We averaged sub-9 and it felt faster than that. The humidity didn't help either. My car said the temp was 77 when I finished; NWS only says 73. Whatever. It sucked, But I got it done. Legs were OK, rest of me was dragging.

 Tiff made some suggestions during the run that I'll have to think about, the implications being that if I do these things, the attraction issue might change. Hmm. Expensive way to get where I want to get, but if I get there... 

Progression run with Sheri and the crew. Humid. Not much else to report.

Recovery run with Sheri's 5:15 a.m. group. Kept it slow which worked for me in the 90% humidity.

800 repeats in the dark with the speedburners. Did reasonably OK for my first speed work in a while.

81 degrees at dawn. Yuck. Got it done, barely

Bailed out on the bike trail loop this morning. I was sluggish, slow and nauseated.Then a thunderstorm hit as I was going back to the shelter and my car. No french fry status fortunately. But not a good run at all. Dewpoint was 78 as we ran.

Struggled with the heat, the humidity, the lack of breeze and very little sleep. But not as much as Jenny, who I saw walking three different times. Managed top 10 AG anyway, so a lot of people were struggling. Hopefully there will be more GP points than that as some weren't GP runners. I couldn't even get to my goal pace at the start, much less maintain it, and from there... My goal shifted to not walking and breaking 25:00 and I managed to do both.

Almost two hour slog through the humidity. Overcast, so no sunshine, and a touch cooler than yesterday, but the humidity was no better. And the legs were very heavy. I told Lionel it felt like someone had implanted two flashlight batteries in both calves; they felt swollen and heavy. We averaged 10:18 pace with walk breaks so not too bad on that front. I had planned to do 15, but another 4.5 wasn't happening.

Thunderstorm wiped out the 5:15 speed work, so I did it indoors at MAFC after work. 6 X 1 mile at 7:40ish pace, warm up and cool down and recovery intervals, total of 9.2. The intervals went better than I had expected after Sunday's slog. Goal pace was 7:50; I was slightly under it (I think) on all six reps, although without the Garmin it's difficult to be certain. New Garmin should arrive soon, BTW. Tonight definitely improved my confidence though.

Out on the road barely eight hours after the speed workout, and I had nothing. Kathy and Sheri ran me into the ground. They were running faster than usual, but basically low 9s. I couldn't keep up, and after 2.5 I essentially punted and let them go. The hammies just did not loosen. Weather was great, actually in the 60s. But that didn't help sore legs.

Ran the amphitheater route this morning with Sheri and crew. Handled the hill better than usual then hammered the downhill. Even with early walk breaks, wound up sub-9 pace average. Nice to have a good run after yesterday's fail. With 51 days to go, I can't afford too many fails.

Easy run with the Sheris and James, then two miles on my own. It was mid-60ish, still warm enough to work up quite a sweat but not enough to get drained. Legs were OK once I finally got warmed up.

Yep, it felt like the last 16 miles of a marathon, exactly what the Hansons want. Wound up with about a 9:15 average after getting to 13.1 in almost exactly two hours. Wound up doing just about all of it solo after the speedburners all left me. But that's OK. I've done many many solo long runs, and at least they motivated me to get out of bed at 4:10 when I finally heard the alarm that went off at 4.

Six miles indoors at MAFC after work, felt comfortable at 9:00 pace. Four laps walk to cool down. Then upper body weights and a four-minute plank. All that and a busy 10-hour day after not much sleep. Up at dawn tomorrow for 1.5-mile reps. This should be interesting.

Took Tuesday off after I woke up with an extremely tender left knee, somewhere around the tibial plateau. Decided to test it today. Should have done that at dawn but decided to wait until the resumption of the Creekmore Wednesday evening run, complete with heat index of 96. Yuck. Felt like I was swimming, and 5.15 was a serious struggle. Any longer and I would have been courting heatstroke. But I got through without hospitalization, although the pee was a bit on the amber side when I got home.

Plan was for 4 x 1.5 miles at 7:50 pace. That didn't happen but I got in 3.5 at sub-8 pace which is not too bad given the heat and how I felt. Another 2.5 might have been dangerous.

Did 1.5 warmup, 1 mile in 8:00, .25 recovery,  400 in 2:00, .25 recovery, mile in 7:42, recovery, mile in 7:41, recovery, 400 in 1:49, recovery for 0.9.

Seven in the soup this morning on the Necessary Loop. Tiffany had wanted to run with me but backed out last night, so I had to get motivated to go solo. There was some cloud cover and a bit of breeze, so not as bad as it could have been (and was yesterday), but it was bad enough, Kathy L. and David were out there too slogging through the soup. I wore the HRM and tried to keep it below 130. As it got warmer, the sun came out and I sped up slightly to get the thing over with, not so much, but the average was 134 which is acceptable for this humidity I guess. Definitely the socks and shorts splashed when I threw them in the washer.

Not easy. Tried to start out at 9:00 pace, maybe a tad under, from the Schoolhouse, but couldn't maintain that (and was getting left behind anyway). Humidity got me bad. There was dew on the car when I got back, so I assume we were at 100% humidity. It sure felt like it. Got 11 done somehow at an overall 10:20 pace. The legs just had no snap this morning. Hopefully they have some next Saturday when I'm racin'.

Predawn run cancelled by GI issues, so I waited until after lunch and went to MAFC for indoor run. Got going as the run went on (with one GI interruption) and was near MP for the final two miles. It seemed a little warmer in there than usual but got through with two water breaks, none in the last six miles. Legs definitely felt better than yesterday. Everything felt better than yesterday in fact.

This was supposed to be a recovery run. And maybe it was until the last two miles, which were basically hills, one way or the other. And now my legs don't feel recovered at all,. Also lost three pounds of fluid in eight miles. Dewpoint of 72 will do that. Not much sleep either, so I'm about to go catch up on some of that.

Waited until after work to do my speed/strength workout, which wound up indoors at MAFC. Worked better the way. I just don't think my legs are awake at 5:15 a.m. Plan was 3 X 2 miles at sub 7:50, and once I got the pace down after the first mile, I nailed it. Splits 7:56, 7:41, 7:50, 7:43, 7:50, 7:46. Total with warm, cool and recovery was 10ish. Pretty happy with that one, and it's about time to start having some good workouts with St. George only 38 days away. Now I have to figure out how to handle the rest of the week with a race on Saturday.

Slow and easy on Phoenix this morning. Wore the HRM and tried to keep it below 125 as much as I could. Didn't entirely succeed but the AHR was 122, so I guess that achieved the goal. I was pretty stiff for the first 1.5 then loosened up. I found myself having to consciously slow down to keep th heart rate down.

Progression run over the bike trails. Didn't realy get loose until the water stop at 3.5. After that, I was mostly under 9:00 with the aid of a buncha downhills. Coincidentally that's what I'll see in Utah. Hmmm. Felt much better at the finish than I did at the start or at the water stop. Alyza texting me at 2 a.m. didn't help any; kinda messed up my sleep. Hopefully this sets me up for a good run in Dogtown Saturday morning. Short and easy tomorrow, maybe 4 indoors or something.

Started a little stronger and held on better today than I did at Hope. And almost caught Jenny at the line. I think my chip time would have been faster than hers because she started ahead of me but I just couldn't find enough acceleration to catch her at the end. Top 5 in AG works; hoping that will move me up into top 10 and I should make up some points next weekend at Batesville. Then I roasted at the football game for five hours. Sheesh.