Getting back to Boston

After (unintentionally) taking Sunday off, right back at it with a 10-miler including five miles at LT (7:35 pace). Felt a little easier than my last tempo run, maybe because my legs are relatively rested after taking two of the last three days off. Warmed up for three, did the LT run, then warmed down for two. Got in the pool afterward, maybe one last time before our apartment management closes the pool for the winter (in September?). Wind starting to kick up a little bit from the outer edges of the Gustav system, which felt pretty nice. Amazing how a 10-mph breeze can improve your mood when there hasn't been much wind for, oh, about two months.

 Back to work tomorrow for another post-holiday pummeling. Maybe we'll hire a nurse soon and get that load off my desk (I hope). 

Added a mile to the recovery run tonight to make up for part of the run I missed Sunday. I'll add another mile tomorrow and then do a 3-miler Friday night.

 Routine treadmill run tonight as the rain pelted down outside and the wind blew 30 mph (Gustav is definitely here, and will be for the rest of the week). Had a little interruption at 3.75 miles, but picked up the pace from then on and wound up at about a 9:30 pace for the entire run. Started real late because we had a 21st birthday dinner for my niece -- for me, a small steak and lots of carbs: sweet potato, wild rice and a big dessert.

Got pummeled at work even worse than I thought; Ginny's daughter shattered her arm (humerus?) over the weekend and she stayed home, so I had to see 26 patients and handle about 100 refill requests, including some from people Ginny was supposed to see in person today. I sure hope she's back tomorrow... 

Twelve-miler tomorrow; I'll have to decide how to handle it -- slow and steady, 3:1, progression? I haven't done a 3:1 in a while, so that may be the approach, with the last three miles at MP. 

About four miles into tonight's run. I wouldn't have bet a plugged nickel on my chances of finishing 12 miles. Or nine miles for that matter. The legs just didn't want to loosen up, I was dripping water like a shower head, and I just didn't feel good. But I kept plugging, and suddenly at about 7-8 miles, I felt better. Had to  take a bathroom break at 9 miles, but after that cranked up the TM and actually ran the last two miles at MP and a little faster.

Was still a tough run, though, and I may have to reassess the plan to run five tomorrow at three Friday. Might just run six tomorrow and skip Friday, for instance. But chalk one up for perseverance. My wife thought I'd run 11 miles (which is what I told her I was doing) reasonably fast. Even with the MP, I ended up at about a 9:40 average, which is not great. But I finished. 

Good progression run on the TM; started out thinking 5 and wound up running more than 7 in about 64 minutes. Last mile and five-eighths was at MP or faster, and really felt unusually comfortable at that pace. Maybe I need to do more running after getting clobbered at work, just to release the frustration of a bad day.

 So now it's a day off, then 17 or 18 on Saturday. Forecast is for clear skies and temps in the LOW 60s. I'm going to be practically shivering at those temps -- but boy, it will feel good after about 10 miles. 

The 18 miles is an estimate. Thanks to Gustav, the River Trail was blocked off, although apparently the trail was not completely flooded and you could get through. But I didn't know that until the return trip, and I had already taken the Campbell Lake detour to get around the barricades on the outward half, so I did Campbell Lake again on the inward run. Pat is out of town, but I ran the first five miles with Anna, who was a good companion, if a tad bit slower than Pat. But Anna gave up when we got to the second barricade on Isabella Jo and headed back to Allsopp Park, so I was on my own.

Weather was wonderful -- clear, low 60s. Right around dewpoint, so high humidity and a little fog, but it was so cool it didn't matter.

Ran into a skunk at the base of Big Dam Bridge, but he was running away from me faster than I was running toward him. Then right after I got back on the river trail off Campbell Lake, I saw another skunk, and this one wasn't running. He/she was raising the tail and preparing to let loose a blast. I slowed, gave him a wide berth, and he didn't fire his shot. Thank goodness. I don't think I could have run another 11 miles smelling like skunk.

This was my first 18-miler since the marathon in March. I'd forgotten how hard 18 miles is. You think back and remember you did it, but you don't remember how hard it is. I remember now. The last six miles was brutal. Even so, I think I finished in less than three hours (forgot to charge my Garmin, so had neither a timer nor GPS capability). Mapmyrun says I ran 18.72, but that's purely an estimate because many of the trails are not marked on the map (neither is BDB). But I'll go with that estimate.

Fairly routine four-miler on the TM. Still a little stiff from the 18-plus on Saturday (plus plenty of time on my feet at the football game), but got through the run without much issue. This week will be very interesting, in that it's my first week with a VO2 max run on Tuesday. Seven tomorrow (I think), then VO2 on Tuesday. I think I should be OK for VO2 (I'm probably better suited for speed runs right now than a marathon), but we shall see.

Seven miles of progression on the TM. Didn't really get comfortable until I'd bumped it to about a 9:13 pace. Maybe that should tell me something: Run faster, foo'. Had a good night's sleep and not too bad a day at work.

Went back and double-checked my VO2 max pace for tomorrow night: 3:31 for the 800-meter intervals. About what I thought. I think I can handle that OK, although the fifth and sixth reps might be interesting. Maybe some real speed work will bump me up to another level; I think I've kinda stagnated as I've built mileage without much major speed work. Jog a 400 in between, I think, which leaves me about a three-mile warmup and roughly two miles cooldown to get the total of 9. 

Tough VO2 run last night. Decided to run on TM even though weather was reasonably cool because it was getting dark and likely to rain; now I wish I'd run outside. Got through the run OK, and hit the goals for the six 800-meter intervals; now (written Wed. morning) I'm paying for it. Think I may have to shuffle my order of runs this week; the Wednesday 12-miler may have to move to Thursday and do a recovery run Wed.

VO2 pace was 3:31; the TM wouldn't exactly go that pace, but it was like 3:31.5 (close enough).

Easier progression 12-miler than I expected. I'd initially planned to take it easy, almost a 12-miler recovery run, after my legs ached through most of work today. But I felt more comfortable as I bumped up the pace early, and decided to speed up every mile from 4 to 10. That progression took me to about MP+5%, which is close enough to MP in my book to qualify, then I ran the last 400 at actual GMP.

 This, of course, takes into consideration the lesson I described earlier in the week: "Run faster, foo' ." Apparently my legs do not take well to an overly leisurely pace. Too slow is as bad as too fast, plus takes a lot longer. Not for nothing did Bill Rodgers say that he could not imagine what the back-of-the-packers went through in running a marathon in five hours. Faster pace equals longer stride length equals less pounding on legs and feet for the same distance. If I had maintained the original pace tonight, I would have been about 10 minutes slower, and probably also would have been even more tired from about 16-1700 more footstrikes.

Cruised 7 tonight. Little tougher than usual due to lack of sleep, but again felt better once I got the pace into the low-9 range. Sets me up for a 59-mile week if I can do Saturday's planned 20-miler from the Capitol. Funny how I used to look at those 45-mpw training plans and think those were so outrageous. Now I passed 45 mpw a month or so back. Yikes.

Looks like Ike will blow through Arkansas on Sunday after hitting two of my former residences, Galveston and Pearland. The old house on Campeche looks like it will be under water some time Saturday. This weekend is what I feared the whole time I was living down there and never actually went through. Now I'm gone, and they're getting hit. I don't feel guilty for leaving, but I feel bad for the people I worked with and knew who are going through this. Seeing Arkansas hit by a tropical storm, which I HAVE been through, will be interesting.

Words fail me at this point. Bonk. Crash and burn. Where's my IV bag? This run was harder than the marathon last March -- and took almost as long.

Tom called me last night and asked me to run with a woman from Conway named Christina. Fine, I said, and called her to let her know I'd be there in my Prius. Then I went back to bed.

Then I got up at 3 a.m. to watch the Weather Channel. Yes, I hated living in Galveston, but it was my home for 11 years, and I wanted to get some idea what Ike was doing to that little island. At that point, the eye was over the San Luis Hotel -- a place I drove by twice a day for the bulk of those 11 years. Then the south eyewall came on shore. So I made breakfast and ate while I watched the report, and headed for the Capitol for the run.

I knew it was going to be warm and muggy, and it was -- maybe the warmest Saturday morning all summer, and not a hint of wind. Christina and I set out at a decent pace, and it went OK for the first six miles or so. Actually, I was still OK after 11. I tried to keep the pace moderate, took an occasional rest and drank a lot. Christina was getting blisters, so we stopped at the Capitol at mile 11 so she could check her feet. She thought she could continue, and we did. But I soon realized that my legs pretty much shut down during that break. Christina turned around at 13.5 to go back to the Capitol to finish her 16 miles, and I was on my own. And walking. And walking. I'd try to run, and couldn't manage a decent pace. My legs weren't cramping -- yet -- but they hurt like hell. The wind had picked up some, which made it more comfortable from a heat standpoint, but too late to help with my dehydration or hyponatermia or whatever it was. So I'd jog a little, walk a lot. Down Cedar Hill, along Riverfront, up Dillard's Hill, down Markham. Still walking. Tried to jog the last mile, and managed -- sorta, run 200 meters, walk some more, run 100 meters. Did manage to jog the last two blocks, and finished in roughly 4:20.

Finished, drank everything I could get my hands on, stopped and got a cold drink on the way home, got chocolate milk when I walked in the door, did an ice bath, then went to bed -- and started cramping. Not horrible cramps, certainly not what I had in March, but cramps nonetheless. Managed to find a comfortable position to lie where I didn't cramp, and got some rest.

Think I'll definitely have to revise my plans for next week unless the legs respond quickly -- and need to get more carbs, more fluids and more sodium in my diet for a while (like the next three months). I got my PR week, but I paid for it.

Routine 5-miler. Legs felt much better than I expected after a good night's sleep; barely any ache at all. Try to do another 20 Sunday after I get back from Fedvul, and hope the weather cooperates as expected.

Seven-mile progression run capped off by six 100-m strides. Strides felt nice and smooth at 8+ mph. Probably started out too slow, but legs were a little achy and I thought it prudent to ease into the run. By the time I got to the strides, I was running at 7.2, which is, what, 8:25 pace or so.

My week's mileage is going to be skewed by the fact that I won't be running my LR on Saturday. I may do a quick run Friday night just so I don't take off two straight days; then again, two days off might be just the ticket before another 20 on Sunday. Then I'll probably take the rest of next week fairly easy before running the 20K on the 27th.

So this was supposed to be a good, hard 11-mile run with six miles of LT. Uh, no. About a half mile into the tempo portion, I started getting new twinges I'd never had before -- right groin and inner thigh. Quickly decided five more miles of tempo, even if doable, was not worth a big muscle pull or something similar, and shut it down. And the 11-miler became basically an 8-mile jog.

Another new pain I need to figure out. Low on my left calf, posteriorly. Pretty sure this one is my soleus. It responds when I do a soleus stretch, but it continues to ache. Doesn't hurt when I run, but it does afterward (especially the next morning).

So this stuff brings into question the planned 20K next weekend. Do I need to push that hard? The 20K basically replaces a scheduled marathon pace run, so if I'm going to stick to the schedule, I might as well run it. Or do I just want to back off to a 16-miler? Assess for the rest of this week, I guess, and I can just sign up later.

Felt a lot better today, even though work was considerably more demanding. So I turned a scheduled 4-mile GA into a 7-mile tempo run. The right groin twinge of last night reappeared during the warmup run, but only for a few seconds, and never returned. If it had acted up, I would have shut down the tempo run just like last night. Instead, I did a little progression on the tempo (as I took the initial pace down just a tad because of last night's twinges) -- 0.8 miles at 8:00 pace, 0.8 at 7:53 pace, 0.4 at 7:47 pace, 1.0 at 7:41 pace, then a half-mile jog, then 1.0 at 7:30 pace.

So now I'm caught up on my training schedule for the week, with the exception that I've done 4.8 miles of LT instead of 6.0. I guess I could throw 1.2 miles of LT into tomorrow night's MLR. Or not. We'll see how I feel. Then I probably need to do a quick 5 Friday night so that my two-week total will come out right, since I'm doing Saturday's LR on Sunday (that 5 will replace the Sunday recovery run). Five on Friday would bring this week's total to 38, which leads me to the topic of next week. 

I've still gotta figure out how to adjust next week to allow me to have some kind of decent run on the 27th at Benton (I mailed in my registration today). I gotta have some kind of taper. The whole purpose of Benton is to prove to myself that my training enables me to hold goal pace for a prolonged period, and thus build my confidence, and I can't do that with dead legs.

Currently the schedule calls for 9 with strides on Monday, 6 on Tuesday, 13 on Wednesday, 5 on Thursday with strides, then 16 with 12 at MP on Saturday. Maybe 5 on Monday (recovery from Sunday), 8 on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday with strides, then the 20K with some warmup and cooldown. With 20 on Sunday, that's still 53-55 miles in the week, depending on how much warmup-cooldown I do. Hard to imagine a 55-mile week including some taper, but that what I have. Besides, my biggest running week to date before I got into this plan was a taper week -- four light jogs and a marathon, totaling roughly 38.5 miles.

Then I need to adjust the following week to allow some recovery time from Benton. Current schedule: 5-9(VO2)-3-11-7-off-13. Maybe 5-5-9(VO2)-7-11-off-13 would be adequate. Or maybe 5-5-5-9-11-off-13. Or just play it by ear and how my legs feel.

Sometimes I really surprise myself. Didn't sleep worth a darn last night, pretty worn out when I got home from work, had to cook dinner because Pam went to visit a friend, could have easily cooked and gone to bed. Instead I waited my hour or so for dinner to settle, then went for a little 13-mile run. And darn if I didn't run it faster than any 13 I've ever run, including the first half of Little Rock.

I got off to a stutter-start, running 0.11 miles before realizing I needed to stretch and, uh, do some other stuff. Once I got that taken care of, I got back on the TM and was going to finish the last 12.89. Then I realized if I did the full 13 after the interruption, that would give me a half-mary -- 13.11. So I did. As I usually do on TM runs, I did it in progression format, starting at 9:40 pace and working my way up. I ran the last two laps at MP, but most of the second half of the run was at 9:05 and 8:57 pace. Wound up finishing in 2:02:10, including the minute-10 of the stutter start, a 9:19 average. Not bad for being tired before I started. Now I'm REALLY tired. Off to bed.

Quick four miles around the neighborhood at 5 a.m. before leaving for the football game. Through the mall parking lot, down McCain to Fairway, up Fairway through Somers, then take the McClanahan loop and back to the hacienda. Left soleus is a little achy, and it was misting and thus humid, but not a long enough run to get into any heat problems. Just basically wanted to shake out the kinks before going to Fayetteville -- and, OCD here, not take off two days in a row. Still plan 20 tomorrow.

About 17 this morning. I think. Not sure. Tom was supposed to send me a route this week, and didn't. I tried to tweak one I found on the LRRC website, and I thought I'd added at least a couple of miles to what was listed as a 16-mile route. But I measured it in the car after I finished and got 16.8 or some such. Not sure I got all the twists and turns right, though, so I'm rounding off to 17. It was a better run than last weekend; cut way back on the breaks and didn't feel like I needed an IV when I finished (a breeze and 10 degrees cooler helped). Don't really mind that I may not have done 20; I think I need a bit of a break anyway. So I'll taper this week for the 20K on Saturday, and try to get this left soleus thing under control. I don't think it really bothered me much today, but not sure what it will do Saturday when I'm actually trying to race. So taper and stretch and ibu and ice and maybe some ultrasound, and we'll see if it's better in six days. Fortunately, yesterday's sunburn didn't bother me either, thanks to a good bit of cloud cover.

Back on the run tonight after taking last night off. I had planned at least a recovery run last night, but I had to go fill a pump at Baptist and then my son had an induction ceremony for the National Honor Society starting at 7. Which meant no time for dinner, or a run, before the ceremony. So, after the ceremony, I chose dinner and bed over a run. Chalk it up to my taper for the 20K.

So tonight, I decide to do my first extended MP run in quite some time, kinda practicing for Saturday. Warmed up with 2 miles, then ran 5 at 7:53 pace, then cooled off with a mile. Felt comfortable, probably more comfortable in the last two miles. Hopefully I can stretch that out for another 7.4 Saturday morning. But this run was a confidence builder, not only for Saturday but for December -- I can hold a sub-8 pace for at least five miles.

One more reminder that I do better at a decent pace than at a semi-jog (the "Run faster, foo'" rule). Did a 5-mile progression run, my last run at any speed before the race, and felt much better once I got warmed up and got up to about a 9:00 pace. Ended up at MP+10, maybe a little faster, over the last 0.75.

Getting pummeled at work, as Ginny is having early contractions and has stayed home all week. Which makes me wonder what it's going to be like once she's on full maternity leave (which for all I know, may have begun this week). Am I going to have the strength to train like I need to train and work that hard every day? We shall see.

Anyway, a brief RR tomorrow and then the 20K. 

Pure tape-type easy job, four miles at 10:22 pace. No muss, no fuss, little sweat.

Hilly, out and back course. My first 20K, or anything in the half-marathon ballpark, so I'm not quite sure what to expect. I know the first/last two miles are quite hilly, because I drove in over that part of the course. Not sure about the other 4.2. Temps around 60 as we get started, low humidity, hint of a wind, zero clouds, so favorable weather (at least as compared to what we've lived through since, oh, mid-May around here).

My approach for this one is as the long MP run required in Pfitzinger 24/55, so I settle in at a smidge under 8:00 pace. The first two miles are net downhill and, as it turns out, miles 3-4 are flat, so I settle in at a good pace. I have a couple of guys to run with at my pace (no guarantee considering there are only about 100 people entered and most of them are already behind me). Cross over Interstate 30 at 2 miles, hit the flat section, and I'm cruising. Ah, but then we come back to the I-30 frontage road just as the hills begin. Up and down for two miles, then get to the turnaround. Look at my watch: I'm almost two minutes under my 10K PR. Very encouraging. Gulp down some Gatorade and head back through those hills. Still maintaining a good pace, but it's taking its toll. By the aid station at about 8.2, I'm starting to drag. The pace is just not there even on the flat section; those 8-minute miles are now 9-minute miles. Back over the freeway and back into downtown Benton, where I'm going UP those rolling hills. I'm starting to cuss myself, don't be such a wimp, etc. And for the last 1.25 miles, I'm back under GMP.

With such a small field, I was able to estimate that I was in 24th place at the turnaround (counted 23 people headed the other way). I got passed by four people on the inward 10K, didn't pass anyone, but that still leaves me in 28th unofficially (we'll see if the official results agree when they're posted). When I hit the finish, the digital clock reads 1:42:39. No chip time, but then with such a small field I didn't need a chip time. Not quite GMP, but still 8:15 average -- and the average of BOTH 10Ks was less than my previous 10K PR. I'll cut myself a little slack for a hilly course, and it's a learning experience to try to run that kind of pace for 100 minutes. In four weeks, a half-mary, and then six weeks after that, the real thing. (Official results say 26th in 1:42:38.07).

Oh, there was also a marathon in Benton this morning. I arrived 1:15 early for my race to make sure I didn't run into marathon runners, and saw a guy warming up as I arrived who had a good, efficient, rapid-turnover, shuffle-type gait. I said "that guy looks like a marathoner." Fast forward three-plus hours, I'm leaving after my race, no marathoners had finished yet, and the first marathoner I see on the course is that same guy. Very hilly course for the full 26.2, I'm told, and it's a very small field (only 37 finishers last year), so not likely to have elite runners; thus, a slow pace. Last year's winner ran 3:13:25. Looked like this guy was on about that same kind of pace.

So I've already topped my monthly PR this month with three days left. Hard to tell what October is going to bring, since I know I'm going to taper again for the half in Conway on the 25th; just don't know how much (although this week's taper seemed to be OK, with the exception of running 17 on Sunday instead of Saturday). One 20-miler in October, one more four weeks out from the race, then back down from there. One advantage of this 24-week plan -- it allows me time to tweak, taper a little more, even taper for these two races, and still get in semi-adequate preparation.

Weird night's sleep. In bed just after 9, asleep by 9:30, awake at 11:30, couldn't go back to sleep thinking about my race, got on the computer, up until 2, went back to bed, still couldn't sleep (brain still wired, cold, and sore). So I took a hot bath at 2:45, which addressed all three issues well enough that I fell asleep pretty quickly. Then I slept until 9 when Max the cat woke me up. Pam the wife was in Camden visiting her friend Debbie, so she was not involved in all this.

Still no official results on the 20K, unless they were posted within the last hour. Nope, I checked; still not there.

One of those five-mile recovery runs where the legs were fine but the rest of me was half asleep. I think sometimes I could snooze while running, and maybe have from time to time. Kept the pace around 10:00 to give the legs a little break. I'll do another easy run tomorrow to recover from the 20K before I get back into GA runs and strides and stuff. 

 Do have one more race result from this weekend. My long-run partner Pat was doing the Omaha Marathon this morning as basically a training run before Detroit next month. Pat ran a 4:13:44 on his training run. Attaway Pat! If he can do better than that in Detroit, more power to him. Now I have one more target to shoot for -- if I can't break 4, I still have to beat Pat. Unless he breaks 4 in Detroit, which he just might.

Having been duly chastised by Coach Sasha, tonight's run changed from five miles recovery to eight miles GA-progression, winding up at MP for the last half-mile. (Sasha didn't suggest a progression run; what he did suggest is more miles, less speedwork). I threw in the progression on my own. I've got ten weeks to get ready for a BQ, and if more miles are the ticket, then I'll do more miles. Tuesday night was supposed to be a nine-mile run with VO2 intervals. I'll probably do 11, no intervals, but maybe some strides.

Anyway, the run went well. I again seemed to get more comfortable as the pace increased; whether that's because I finally got warmed up or just run better at a more aggressive pace (or both) is uncertain. The weird distance is because the TM refused to let me shut it down when I finished the run for a few seconds, hence an extra .01 mile.

Now I need to find time to sit down and tweak the schedule for the next few weeks to reflect the change from speedwork to miles. Under pure Pfitz, this is when the heavy speedwork starts.

Scrapped the VO2 max run tonight in favor of more miles, with strides thrown in at the end so my legs don't forget how to move fast. :) Ran the 11 miles in almost the exact time Saturday's 12.4 took me, including strides and recovery jogs at the end.

September ends up with a training PR of 232 miles. I figure October will be closer to 300 before I start the prerace back-off. Intuitively, I know I need more miles; what I have to do is spice up the extra mileage to prevent complete boredom. I figure I'll leave in some of the speedwork in October just to add variety, although I have to be careful that the variety doesn't put me on the DL. To work this hard, this long, and get a stress fracture in late October would REALLY suck. Thus, I'll really have to be aware of what my legs are trying to tell me about the load I put on them in the next seven pre-taper weeks.