Liftoff

AM: 12 miles, another BWI loop.

PM: 6 miles after work. A long day at the client - the intricacies of managing health care data never cease to amaze me. I often find myself in conversations when HealthCare.gov comes up and is cited as an example of Gubamint Fail. The task of mapping the innumerable entities involved in health care enrollments and claim processing to each other is so vast that immediate success would require a miracle. The structure of the records is inherently complex - if any simplication can be made to the entire system it will require a reduction in the number of entities in the care management landscape. This is why most industrialized nations have some version of a single-payer.

Wednesday evening ruminations. Normally I don’t have enough time to think through the things I write on here. So I just post whatever seems apropos at the moment. Since I’m traveling this week, I have enough time to slow down and think a bit.

I ran another 12 miles on the BWI loop after work. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t run and thought I should probably take a day off. I’ve been feeling a little beat up and unrecovered each day – normal signs that an off day is needed. Work was long and stressful, and as I was driving back to my hotel I saw many cyclists and runners on the trail. It hit home that I really wanted to be out there. If I was a professional runner, it would be my job to make the 100% logical decision and focus on recovery. Since I’m not a professional runner, I ran the loop at a decent clip and had a great time.

It’s easy when training for a goal race to think that it’s the gravitational center of my running. But it’s not. Even when one of those rare great races transpires, the value of that moment is limited. You can go back and caress the medal every day, but the moment constantly recedes.

On the other hand, the process of training gives you a well you can return to. Today, I knew I should probably recover, but what I really wanted to do was run 12 miles at a decent clip and just enjoy the ride. Getting into that flow is something very few people have access to, unfortunately. It’s one of the best mind-body connections you can have without illicit substances.

Going back to recovery- normally by Wednesday I’d have done a workout. I’ve been holding off because I’m planning to do my peak workout (16 miles @ MP) on the BWI loop before work on Friday. I expect this to be challenging, and I need every edge I can get.

On the matter of plans, I’m mostly convinced the above is the right thing to do, but I have my doubts. I would hope that anyone reading this, who happens to disagree, would feel free to do so. The topic of disagreement is on my mind since I’m currently working with a client in a role that requires mediation. Often, programmers code a process and become attached to that design. Critiquing the design is akin to critiquing the person’s intelligence, merit, value, etc. I have always had a disconnect with ideas – I feel that they can and should be debated separately from value judgments about the parties involved. There are lines of course – you don’t engage in personal insults in an ideas discussion. But why would you, if the debate is about ideas?

Going back to my plan for Friday – I’ve been scoping the loop on my easy runs for places to plant water bottles, best start location, etc. Although I’ve done a few 10 mile MP runs, I’m pretty unsure about my prospects here. This loop is mostly flat but does have enough roll that I’m concerned my lack of hill training will be exposed. I have enough thoughts on that for another post, so I’ll end there.

Day off. Busy, but mostly off just because I really needed it.

I did the only-slightly-famous marathon Simulator workout today, 16.3 miles at target MP. I did a warmup of just under 3 miles.

Normally this would be a weekend long run, but since I'm wrapping up work in Glen Burnie, MD (just south of Baltimore) it made sense to do it here. My loop had some minor roll, to better simulate the Twin Cities course. And selfishly, my start temps today were 72 F / 69 DP. Not comfortable running weather, but after 3 months where the morning baseline is about 78 F / 75 DP, these conditions felt a whole lot better.

I'm relieved to say it went really well. I held up on the ups & downs, and the pace felt manageable. I did notice a decent uptick in level of effort around mile 14, so I was glad to stop when I did. Probably the hardest thing with this workout is maintaining focus - I found my mind drifting and pace slowing pretty frequently. Time was 1:36:29 for 16.3 miles, right about my 5:55 target.

Thankfully, now I can go to the airport now and look for someplace to sleep.

8 miles. It's good to be home. I didn't run until close to noon, when the girls headed to a classmate's party. I ran on the Miesner Bridge for the first time in ages. It's quite overgrown along the path - pretty cool. I was running slow, but I hit the bridge to keep rolling terrain in my diet. I'm going to try to do that as much as possible over the next couple weeks.

AM: 13.5 miles. Met the Sunday run group late to get a little extra rest. The rumors are true, our long-lost training Sean has returned from injury. He's a great guy & runner, and it was good to see him back. I'm feeling pretty well overall since Friday, but drained. Once we turned into Brightwaters, Mike and Sean turned on the jets and I stayed back with Christina, who was still running much faster than I would have preferred.

At home, I brainstormed with the girls - what to do for Labor Day? Elise suggested making pumpkin pie - not traditional, but anything involving food sounds good to me nowadays. We headed to the store with a long list of ingredients - a lot of our old spices got tossed in the move. We bought everything but cardamom - I couldn't justify $10 for a 1/4 teaspoon of that. Compared to homemade ice cream, the sugar is manageable, but you are looking at a solid cup and a half of heavy cream.

PM: 3.5 miles with Elise on her bike before the daily thunderstorm rolled in.

AM: 8 miles, another easy bridge run. This time with Quint on the Pinellas Bayway.

PM: 4 miles at night after putting the girls down. I really don't like running after dinner, but this was the only time left. Beautiful evening pretty much made up for a gut full of potato salad and pumpkin pie. Strides.

AM: 5 miles on the TM, easy, some incline running from 1-5.

PM: 9 miles. Went out to track, said hello to the group, then headed north on the Pinellas Trail. In a certain section a bit north of 22nd St. you run into two overpasses within one mile, so I did 2 x 2 miles at MP on that section. I'd head out for a mile, then return- so I ended up with 8 overpasses total.

Splits for both repeats were 11:46, ~5:53 per mile avg, with a 5 minute standing rest. I felt pretty good on the inclines. Initially I was thinking more like 6 miles, but the conditions were bad - 88 F / 79 DP with no shade on the ramps - it felt like the beating from the conditions would take more than conditioning would give beyond what I ran today.

Another minor hill workout of some kind, probably Thurs, then I am going to re-attempt 10 MP+1 / 10 MP on Sunday. Actually, I'm not going to re-attempt the workout, I'm going to crush it. :P

Yeah, it's just a mental gimmick, but you gotta pull whatever you can at this stage.

AM: 9 miles.

PM: 4 miles, treadmill hills.

AM: 8.5 miles on Pinellas Bayway. Ran 8 bridge repeats at steady effort on the climbs, recovered on the descents. My average pace on the climbs was ~6:05. Ideally, I'd love to hit 5:55 for every mile at Twin Cities, but realistically if I could hold onto 6:05 up Summit Ave I'd be pretty happy.

PM: 5.5 miles.

AM: 12 miles. I usually have no trouble sleeping, but accumulated work stress caught up with me last night and I tossed and turned most of the night. I previously committed to helping Christina with her workout today, so that kept me honest. Or sleep-deprived, depending on how you look at it. 2 miles warmup, then 10 miles steady @ 6:56 pace.

PM: 6 miles at lunch with Quint, who was also exhausted, in late from Atlanta. We haven't had a chance to catch up much in the last couple weeks due to logistics, so the run actually flew by.

AM: 6 miles easy on Miesner Bridge. Heavy air with light rain gave way to a steady downpour, patches of cold air and lightning blowing through.

PM: 6 miles, two with Elise on her bike.

Take 2 on a workout that fizzled out three weeks ago. Target was 1 warmup, 10 miles at MP + 1:00, 10 miles at MP, 1 cooldown.

Last time the MP section was a struggle immediately, and I blew up pretty badly around mile 7. I felt confident this time out - before I ran on the Pinellas Trail, with 7 overpasses on the way out, 7 back. I've done a lot of running on inclines in the last three weeks, and the uphill running today was a lot less taxing. Most importantly, conditions were much better. Lots of clouds, lower temps and humidity. We even got drenched in a couple downpours.

Quint and Christina ran the first half out with me, and a couple other friends jumped in near my turnaround. At points it felt a little chaotic in the darkness and rain, but it was a fun time and the pace felt easy. First 10 in 1:08:42, 6:52 avg.

It took a couple miles to really click into MP on the way back, but that seems to be the case in most of my runs around 5:55 these days. It works itself out by mile 3, so I don't force it. I felt as strong on the second half as I have all summer at this pace, and ended in 58:45, 5:52 avg. That's about 10 seconds faster than I ran either of my mid-week 10 mile MP tempo runs.

I think I have gotten a bit sharper, but I attribute most of the improvement today to better weather.

AM: 4 miles. Very nice temps this morning, but not moving fast.

PM: 8 miles at lunch with Quint.

PM: 12 miles. Crazy day, but overall positive. No chance to run until track. I wasn't planning on running hard, but I was surprised by how beat up I felt today. Funny how the day after a big workout can feel OK, but two days later it's ouchville.

Just jogged and caught up with Charles and Jim. I thought about crossing the street to the Pinellas Trail and running a few overpasses, but even that sounded like too much.

Day off. Not planned, but it made sense. I worked late, and had a crazy day, so the extra time came in handy. I also pretty ragged on my afternoon run yesterday.

An interesting thing happened at work today. A client lost the admin password to their SQL Server, and had no other account with admin access on the machine. I had read about a method of elevating privileges and got to try it. I was kind of surprised that it worked. I'm glad it did, but the implication that anyone with admin access on the host machine can gain admin access to the database instance is pretty crazy.

AM: 9 miles. My plan for today was a 6 mile wave tempo alternating 10k / MP every 1/2 mile.  This is a tough workout, and I was feeling pretty broken down and amotivated this morning, but I gave it a try. My target splits were 2:57.5 / 2:36. I got through 3 miles and threw in the towel.

2:56.2 / 2:40
2:58.0 / 2:39.8
2:58.0 / 2:42.7

I felt pretty comfortable recovering to MP, but I haven't run much at all sub-5:20 lately, and it showed. I'm not worried (maybe too unconcerned?) about it. It would have been nice to hit this workout, but after 4-5 weeks of good workouts I'm due for some downtime, and taper etc.

PM: 6.5 miles at lunch with Quint, good therapy session / blowing off steam.

Headed to work early to finish proposal, was done by 3. Met Quint in downtown St. Pete for a run - we decided to do our descending 1/2 mile game. No looking at your watch except when it beeps every half mile, and every half needs to be faster, or GAME OVER.

About midway through we ran into Sean. He resumed full training three weeks ago (injury recovery), ran the Eerie Marathon in 2:47 last weekend, and came along with us for descending halves. He's a beast.

Elise's first swim meet. A lot to take in as a parent. I'm not sure if it always works out the way it did Saturday, but parents are expected to volunteer. I chose concessions since it seemed the hardest to mess up. This meant arriving at 6:30am and finishing at 1. Somewhere in there, Elise swam two races which lasted a little over 30 seconds each.

Crashed for an hour, then moderate 8 miles, fed, bathed kids, babysitter arrived, dinner with Allison.

Not really a great week training-wise, but there was a lot going on.

AM: 18 miles running the Clearwater Bridge Loop with Mike, Quint and Cory. It was a good time, although I was a little tired and sore. I got 6 bridge ascents with a couple of them being good quality.

8 miles with Quint at lunch. It was very hot, but noticeably less humid.

4 miles after work, feeling like Florida fall.

AM: 4 miles. After two nights of solid sleep and calmer mind, I'm feeling a whole lot better today. 800s at track tonight to sharpen up.

PM: 9 miles at track. I usually run 800s about 1.5 weeks out from a marathon as a sharpener. Mike was kind enough to make the drive and meet up.

My legs felt like lead on the warmup, and the early going in the workout was tough. I just do not have much top-end speed right now. I started falling off on the second and third repeat, but then made it over the hump and started running a bit more fluidly. By the end I felt at least some of the dust was blown off, a good feeling.

Workout was: 4 X 800 WITH 200 REST, 2 SETS WITH 400 REST BETWEEN SETS

Splits:

2:30.4
2:32.2
2:33.1
2:29.6

2:29.4
2:30.0
2:31.4
2:28.3

8 slow miles at lunch with Quint.

AM: 6 miles.

PM: 3 miles at lunch.

AM: 9 miles, moderate fartlek. My legs feel like junk, sore left hip and hamstring. This is absolutely normal for the beginning of a taper for me, so right on track.

Probably because it's darker in the morning, I was almost hit three separate times while running. For good measure, someone tried to merge into me during the morning commute. Bring on the robot cars.

PM: 6 miles at lunch with Quint.

AM: 7 miles, felt decent.

AM: 14 miles, easy to moderate. A strange mix of peaceful recovery, self-doubt, static noise and expectation. Taper madness.

8 miles on the treadmill during the quarterly company call.

Technology's relentless dehumanization does have its moments.

AM: 7 miles. Standard 5-day out tuneup. 1 warmup, 5 miles MP (29:32, 5:55 avg), 1 cooldown. Felt pretty easy, and taper kicking in.

Light rain and humid, tail end of summer running. I'm ready to run this race and turn the page.

6 miles at lunch.