Getting back to Boston

Eight-mile progression run, ending the last two miles at MP + 6%, roughly. Averaged 9:05 for the whole run. Legs felt pretty good overall.

Looked at the schedule tonight: ho-hum, another eight. Hmm, what can I do to spice this up?One word: Fartlek.

So I warmed up for about a mile, then started throwing in bursts. Two laps. Three laps, accelerating into four laps even faster. A few 200 m strides thrown in, then the last mile and a half at about GMP.

Which meant a very interesting run, no boredom, and less than 69 minutes needed to cover eight miles. And the legs feel better now than they would have if I had jogged the eight in 78 to 80  minutes. I think fartlek is going to be a key for me in the next nine weeks as I try to boost my volume and keep things interesting at the same time, plus improve my speed without injury or burnout.

Back with the Crackheads this morning, all 150 or so (first day of the LRM training schedule). Pat was back too, and I ran with him for the first four miles at a nice slow pace. Picked it up from there, and finished my 14 miles at a nice 9:25 clip, even with a couple of breaks. Weather was great -- about 60, a little bit of breeze, clouds. Didn't even go to the third headband until the final two miles, and probably didn't have to do that. I definitely feel stronger now that I'm not getting crushed by the heat and humidity on every run. If the goal of running Benton was to build my confidence, well, mission accomplished. It's just a matter of taking it to the house now over the last nine weeks and getting ready to hammer Memphis.

 Off for a shower and a nap now. Might even wake up and watch the football game. Or might not. 

Got caught up on some sleep, a big pasta lunch, then a 7-mile recovery run. Wore the HRM for the first time in quite a while to see how I did on a recovery run; average HR was only 130 at sub-10 pace. Guess the ol ticker shows my improving fitness as well.

Good, hard progression run tonight with strides tacked on at the end. Averaged a little under 9:00 pace for the whole run. So far, getting crunched at work has not affected my training. Hope that trend continues.

Interesting day for both running and my cellphone (and the two are linked): Left the phone at the fitness center last night after my run and didn't realize it until after 10 p.m., when it was pouring AND the center was closed for the evening. Had to go retrieve the phone after 8 a.m., which made me slightly late for work. Went back to run tonight after dinner, when it was again pouring. During the run -- a 12-miler including seven miles of LT work at 7:35 pace -- my water bottle apparently sloshed significantly from the treadmill vibration and the phone, parked behind it in the treadmill slot, musta shorted out. So now I have a nonfunctioning cell, two more nights of call, blah blah. I hate carrying a cell, always have, but unfortunately, I need one.

The tempo run went better than I thought it might. Warmed up for three miles, cranked it up to 7.9. After about 2.5 miles at LT pace, the treadmill decided to quit (OK, I might have knocked the safety key out of place with my finger). Started it back up, got to the halfway point of the tempo run, then needed to make a pitstop. After that little break, warmed up again for two laps and then did the second 3.5 miles more easily than I did the first half, then jogged a mile and a half to complete the 12. Because of the stops and starts, not sure exactly how long it took me to do the 12, but I know the tempo part was about 53 minutes. So now I'm well on my way to a 68- or 69-mile week. (See that, Sasha?)

The remaining question for the week is will I do the 21-miler Saturday night or Sunday morning. The time I get back to town Saturday will decide that in part. So will how I feel, the weather, and the fact that Sunday is Pam's birthday. But I'm gonna run 21 somewhere in there.

Another nine miles of fartlek tonight on the old TM (kept the cellphone well away from any possible sloshing water bottles; my cellphone remains quite dead, and I took Pam's just in case I got paged through the home phone). Ended up with just under 9:00 pace for the nine after all the fartleking. Also spent the last mile or so fighting the urge to toss most of the evening meal (this is why I wait an hour and a half to run after eating if I'm using the old noodle, but didn't have time to wait that long tonight).

Twelve tomorrow, probably 8 Friday, Fayetteville on Saturday and 21 Sunday. The two-week total will be what it should be, but, hey, I guess I can calculate a Monday-Sunday week to get my 70-mile total.

Now off to bed to make up for all that tossing and turning last night. 

Proving once again my high threshold of boredom, or my unwillingness to run outdoors at night and get either mugged or run over, I set out on a 13-mile treadmill run. Yes, nearly two hours on the TM, which consisted of half of the ABC news, the local news, Wheel of Fortune, and a quarter and a half of Wake Forest-Clemson. Fortunately, I had control of the TV remote. If I had been forced to watch, say, Hannah Montana for two hours, I might have intentionally run out onto the freeway.

Pfitz style progression run, with the last four miles at 8:41 pace, and some fartlek thrown in during the early miles just because I was bored out of my skull on the damn treadmill. Not sure of the exact time, because the safety key again got knocked loose at the 8.5 mile mark, but it was somewhere around 1:55, I think. I know the last 4.5 miles took 39:30.

Oh, lest you think I worry too much about running outside at night, may I point out that there have been numerous shootings, fatal and otherwise, in the parking lot of the mall which borders my apartment complex. Not all of those shootings have been at night, but you get the idea. I do not live in the safest neighborhood in Central Arkansas, put it that way.

Another 7 tonight at about 8:45 average pace. No biggie. Until I looked at my written log after I finished. Fourteen miles last Saturday, then 57 miles Sunday-Friday. That, ladies and germs, is a 71-mile week. Or almost the distance from my home now to the house where I grew up. If you'd told me 15 months ago, when I started running, that I'd ever do 70 miles in a week, I would have thought you were completely nuts.

One more thing. I'm really starting to believe that a BQ can actually happen. I can run eight minute miles when I'm tired and sore. I cranked up tonight to sub-MP pace for the last mile or so after 13 last night, after not much sleep and after a very difficult, draining day at work. And after 69 miles since last Saturday, too.

What's it going to be like when I get back into downtown Memphis, late on the morning of December 6? Am I going to have a chance to get under 3:31? Am I going to be in great shape and cruising, or have to put the hammer down for the last mile, or just have a good time in range but not a BQ? And what am I going to feel like when I enter AutoZone Park to finish the race? Exhilaration, disappointment, or just exhaustion?

No running today, just hiking all over the campus in Fayetteville with Tyler. He's really enthusiastic about college, which I'm glad to see, but the walking on campus is really going to be problematic. I think at the very least he's gonna need a bicycle to get around; his feet will not tolerate the amount of walking he'd need to do, even living on campus and riding the bus whenever possible. He really likes the new Maple Hill dorm as well, which has suites and semi-private bathrooms (shared with suitemates not the whole wing). Which is OK with me, although quite expensive compared to other dorms. The privacy is the big issue.

On my part, I discovered that even with the amount of running I do (or perhaps in part BECAUSE of the amount of recent training), hiking those hills on campus wasn't particularly easy for me either. Which didn't come as a huge surprise.

Pam's birthday, but needed to get in the long run anyway. So I drove over to run the route Tom e-mailed me, and realized almost immediately that I forgot my gels. Came up with a plan, though, and set out. After about six miles, I called Tyler on his cell (which woke him up, of course) and asked him to bring a couple of gels and meet me in Burns Park. He got there a little quicker than I expected, so we moved the meeting spot from the boat ramp to the concrete bridge. Sure enough, there he was in his van, in his housecoat, with my gels. Thanked him and told him to go home and go back to bed. Which he did.

OK, back from birthday lunch, where we ran into Scotty Thurman and Corliss Williamson, stars of the 1994 national championship basketball team, but that's another story. Back to the run.

So I'm moving along at a decent clip but not overdoing it, kinda cruising. Took a gel at nine miles, took another one at about 15. Then I get to about 18 and, gel or no gel, the gas tank needle is bouncing on E. I kept going pretty well, probably better than any other long run I've ever done, but the legs were dead. Then I got to the top of the hill leading back down to the Surgical Hospital, my starting point, and I'm running dead into about a 15-mph wind. I had forgotten how much trouble I used to have in my long-ago track career running into the wind; the wind around here is so rarely strong enough to be a factor. But today it was, especially after I'd already run 20 miles. But I chugged it home anyway and finished the run in just a couple of minutes over GMT (goal marathon time). Pfitz said a good 22-mile long run should take you just about as long as GMT. I didn't do 25, but I did 21 and probably some change, depending on how accurate the Garmin is.

Overall, definitely my best LR ever. Another source of confidence with 55 days to go to Memphis. Not perfect, but then yesterday wasn't really a rest day with that hike around Fayetteville, so if I'm supposed to do my LR with tired legs, today should qualify. And I have decided that for right now (maybe carb loading and tapering will fix this), my wall isn't at 20 miles, it's at 18.

Pretty routine 8 on the TM tonight. Cruised in the mid-9 range, then threw in seven strides at the end. Surprisingly little aftereffect from yesterday's 21.

By the way, last week's post on why I'd rather do TM runs than go outside could have easily been misinterpreted. There is danger around here for runners, IMO, but it's not from flying bullets, it's from flying cars driven by people who aren't looking for runners. The hills and curves around here look more like a rural area, but the traffic level isn't rural. I'd much rather run in downtown Little Rock at 5 a.m., or even the Central High neighborhood which is frankly semi-ghetto, than run on these blind curves in North Little Rock at 8 p.m. And the trusty blinky light isn't that much help.

The aftereffects of the 21 miles on Sunday hit today, I think. Decided to swap days and run Wednesday's 7-miler today, and quickly decided that was a good choice. The soleus was really barking on the right leg (first time I've had any soreness there) and it took extra stretching plus about 2.5 miles to get it loose. Nothing wrong with tonight's run, just a routine 7-mile recovery run ramping up to just under 9:00 pace.

Now at 53 and counting, with 11 or so miles tomorrow.

Hauled a new pair of Asics Gels out of the box tonight and broke them in on the treadmill -- 11 miles. Not top of the line Asics, but Gels nonetheless, feel pretty good on my feet and PLENTY OF TOEBOX ROOM. I also found a shoe that's a candidate for my Memphis race shoe, a good lightweight adidas model. I'll probably go get a pair in 2-3 weeks in time to get a couple of good runs in them before the race.

Good progression run in the new shoes, ramping up to MP + 6%, then MP, and finally MP plus for the last 400 meters. Finished up in about 98:20 for the 11 miles. No blisters, even though the sock drawer was kinda bare of running socks due to lack of laundry diligence.

Put in my entry tonight for the half-marathon in Conway on the 25th. I'll be able to run, then go back to NLR, shower, rest up a bit and then go to Fayetteville for the football game, and we'll spend the night up there afterward (I think driving three hours back home beginning at 11 p.m. might be a bit much after a 13.1 and a football game).

Another shopping trip tonight, for good, cushioned running socks to replace the pairs that hundreds of miles (and unattended toenails) have shredded. Then a good 7 on the TM, 3/1 progression, Arthur Lydiard style. Had intended to run the final 1.75 at GMP, but felt so good that I cranked up the final 0.50 to well below GMP, probably somewhere between LT pace and VO2 max. Final average pace, 8:42ish. That'll work. I feel like the mileage base is now built to where I can really pound some speedwork in the next seven weeks and accomplish something. First test, of course, is the half in Conway in nine days. I think I'll do the VO2 max workout Monday, push it pretty hard, then ease down the rest of the week until the race.

Got a good night's sleep before I headed out to join the Crackheads. Unfortunately, I think I left my legs in bed. Took for-freaking-EVER to get going. Really didn't get going until 11 miles or so, when the only other Crackhead doing 18 miles caught up with and passed me. I pulled back up beside her and we ran the last six miles or so together, which REALLY helped (so did the extensive downhill in that section, but I ran well with her after the downhill ended). Yet another reason to hook up with the pace bunnies in Memphis: I need someone to run with, talk to, distract me from the pain in my legs, etc.

Ended up taking nearly 3:13 to do 18.2, which is slower than I had planned but a lot faster than I feared when I was stretching my hip flexors at the time Christy passed me on Kavanaugh.

 But I think (and Coach Hobbit agrees) that I've gotten to a back-off point. I need to cut the mileage or I'm going to get hurt -- not a good option with 49 days to go. This week was a bit of a backoff anyway, I'm gonna cut it a few more miles. Probably will still do Conway, but may skip or reduce the VO2 max run on Monday. 

Hmm, thought I'd posted a blog entry for Sunday earlier, but I sure don't see it. Anyway... routine 5-miler on the TM. Pretty well recovered from Saturday's 18, I thought. Just routine recovery miles.

However, with 48 days to go, paranoia's setting in. Is that twinge in the lower right leg just a little soleus soreness, or is it a tibial stress fracture? Let's see, doesn't hurt all the time, putting weight on it doesn't add to the pain, pain's maybe a 3/10; that ain't no SFX. But still...

First VO2 max run in a really long time. I was a little apprehensive -- maybe too soon after an 18-miler, a few twinges in the right leg, plus I really don't trust myself on the treadmill at a high speed: one stumble and there's a big plate glass window two feet behind the TM. But off I went tonight. Warmed up for 2.5 miles (during which the safety key disconnected itself once), then started on 1000 meters repetitions at 7:03 pace, with 600-meter jogs in betweem. Safety key came out again during a rep, and almost came out another time (if I ever see who's wrapping the cord up so tight on that safety key, I may garrot them). But managed to get all my reps in at the prescribed pace, no crashes through the plate glass, and the twinges behaved themselves. At least for now; we'll see how the LRE feels in the morning.

A little fartlek at GMP thrown into tonight's 8-miler. Ended up with 1.75 at GMP in a 73-minute run. This speedwork continues to get easier. Will it get easy enough? Stay tuned, Saturday and six weeks from Saturday.

I can say one thing: I learned a long time ago that no matter how much my wife loves Mexican food, and she could eat it at least 10 meals a week, I have to say no, or I pay for it. But I keep ignoring that often-reinforced lesson. Ignored it again tonight, and it almost forced me not to run (for reasons I think you can deduce). 

Six miles progression tonight (TM as usual). Started off at 10:00 pace but ran the last 0.5 at GMP and a smidge faster. Once again, I feel more comfortable at higher speeds. Is that because I am more comfortable or because I run faster once I'm warmed up? Dunno.

Been reading with interest the stories out of San Francisco about the fastest finisher in the Nike Women's Marathon who was not declared the winner because she didn't start with the elite group. Nike decided to name her "a" winner and also decided to eliminate the separate start for the elites. Sounds like this woman must have had the race of her life, but you wonder why, if she even dreamed she had that kind of ability, she didn't start with the elites. I can't remember exactly, but I don't think it's like she ran a 30-minute PR or something. Oh well.

Speaking of which, I registered for Memphis last night and listed my projected finishing time at 3:35. Hopefully that extra five minutes doesn't get me seeded into a later wave where I can't run with the 3:30 pace bunnies. I also listed my age on race day as 47, which was my second case of cerebral flatus of the application process. This Sunday is the day I'm no longer 47, if you're scoring at home -- the 23rd anniversary of the infamous 15K in Tulsa which marked the end of my running career #2. I am now in career #3.

Proof once again that sleep the night before a race is overrated. I was up and down all night -- and then nailed a 31-minute PR in a half-marathon. OK, so the previous PR was at the 13.1 mark of a full mary where I was on the verge of a full-bore bonk, but hey, a PR is a PR.

Goal today was to string together 13 miles at somewhere around 7:45. The even pacing was not there -- splits ranged from 7:32 to 7:49 until I kicked in the last mile and a quarter -- but the overall pace was pretty much exactly where I wanted it. I was fortunate that there were runners just ahead of me that I could lock on. Didn't care if I caught them, but I wanted to keep up with their pace, and I did. Then I ended up passing most of them in the last two miles anyway. The final downhill (more on that in a bit) really seemed to slingshot me toward the finish and I passed several people in the last half-mile to finish 43rd overall out of 496 entries. Average pace based on chip time: 7:41. Not bad for an old dude who couldn't run around the block in June 2007.

This was a brand new race, and I'm not that familiar with Conway, so the course was a bit of an open question. I was told beforehand that there was a decent sized hill at about mile 3. That info was correct; there were a couple of other semi-significant inclines, but also some good downhills. I was able to shorten my stride and rest some on the downhills until the last one at about 12.3 miles, which I pushed pretty hard. Overall, the course was challenging, but not brutal. And the weather was ideal -- 45 at the start, warming into the low 50s during the race, no wind, no clouds. Some cloud cover would have been nice (I hate squinting into the sun), but there was a fair amount of shade along the course, so that helped. The course was kind of a lopsided figure 8 -- four miles on the first loop, eight plus miles on the much bigger loop, with the start and finish about three quarters of a mile from the intersection of the two loops.

The reason I picked the pace I did is that I figured a 1:41 or 1:42 finish correlated pretty well with the pace I'll need to BQ in Memphis. Think I don't have some confidence now? Yes, I tapered more than Sasha would recommend, but I figure the added confidence is worth more than 10 or 15 miles of routine training, and I still have three weeks to bust it before the real taper begins. Especially now that I KNOW that my hard work is paying off in faster times.

It's my birthday, I'm an even older geezer...

Spent the night in a hotel in Van Buren after the football game. Bed was a rock, as usual, so didn't get much sleep. Came home, had birthday dinner with the family, took a nap, then ran eight miles. Legs didn't feel too bad, was able to ramp up to 8:45 pace on the run. I think I'll juggle the week's schedule to push the VO2-max run back a day or two, but I may add some miles overall to the plan for the week.

If you're into Jack Daniels stuff, Saturday's half-marathon time pushes my VDOT figure up to 45, the best I've done in running life #3 (my high school VDOT, based on my 2-mile PR, was 57). A 45 also corresponds with a BQ time for me in the marathon, so I'm right on track. Doesn't guarantee I'll get it, but it does tell me my training has put me in position. Just have to keep working for the next three weeks and even into the taper.

Ten miles of fartlek on the TM tonight. With temps in the 40s, it would have been a good night to run outside, instead of inside with the heater on(?) That ended up dehydrating me more than sweating in the summer; found myself taking sips of water purely for cottonmouth.

Anyway, good run once I got loose after 2 miles or so. Surges lasted from 200 to 600 meters; I think I surged seven times. Wound up taking about 93 minutes for the 10 miles. 

Rarity tonight -- an outdoor run in midweek. But the weather was just so perfect -- high 40s, no wind, clear sky -- that I couldn't do another TM run in a heated fitness room. So I drove six miles to run on the old familiar river trail, where at least my chances of getting flattened by an automobile are minimized. Getting flattened by a bicycle, that's another story -- and it easily could have happened a couple of times, especially since I forgot my blinky light. Fortunately, all the cyclists had their headlamps and could see me anyway, and a couple were even courteous enough to yell out a warning, although I heard all of them coming anyway (an advantage of not wearing an iPod).

Wore the Garmin, but it was too dark to see it much anyway (started about 15 minutes before it became completely dark). So I just tried to keep a constant, comfortable pace. Turned out that pace was a smidge under 9:00. I used to think sub-9 was hauling-A, now it's comfortable. Total distance: 8.21 miles, which equals roundtrip from the boat house to the Burns Park boat ramp and back through Alligator Alley. Took 72 minutes.

I guess I'll do the VO2 max tomorrow, but may wait until Thursday. We'll see how I feel. 

Think I did that math right, if it adds up to 9.33. VO2 max run on the TM, 5X600, with enough warmup/cooldown to get me up to 9.33. Pace was good, not too difficult. Probably could/should have run a tiny bit faster; I was at slightly sub-7:00 pace. But still a good tough run.

Perspective is a strange thing. A year ago, I looked at marathon training plans calling for 45 miles a week and thought that was way more than I can handle. Right now, I feel like I'm taking this week kinda easy, and I'll do 60 miles this week. Next week, near 70; the next, over 70. But I know I can handle that, because I've already done it.

Tonight, back on the TM for an 8.5-mile progression run, topping out at GMP for the last 0.75. I stepped up the pace a little more quickly than usual, and the result was an average nicely under 9:00 pace. Almost had a TM mishap of the type I've been fearing; no stumble, but I wasn't quite paying enough attention to my cadence and the belt almost took me off the back of the TM until I realized what was happening and scrambled back to the middle of the belt.

Off tomorrow, then 16 on Saturday, and then I'll go do my civic duty Saturday afternoon and vote early with my family -- including my 18-year-old son casting his first official ballot. So, since I'm not running on the last day of October, I end the month with a new monthly PR of 244 miles.