Getting back to Boston

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.