M'kay

Woke up after 11 hrs sleep with headache from yesterday. Obviously needed the rest. Ate a bagel, OJ, banana and waited for the headache to fade. 1 hr before run, took 2 tylenol.

Felt surprisingly good (other than headache) for having raced 10k yesterday. Have never run particularly good long runs on the days after races in the past. Often struggled and other times cut the long run short. Didn't feel like that would be the case today.

Decided to run up and down Scott Turner twice (9 mi round trip 1st time, 8 mi round trip the 2nd). Outbound legs gain about 500 feet elevation total with rolling hills throughout.

Outbound trip felt good, so kept pace relatively fast with loose and easy effort. Outbound avg was 8:17/mi. Hit halfway point in w/ 7:43/mi avg pace (PMP +:32; GMP + :16). Finally shook the headache somewhere near the halfway mark. Drank some powerade at my stash at the halfway point, which was the extent of my rehydration plan.

Second trip outbound, legs started feeling a bit tired....about what I'd expected for the start of the run today, given the race yesterday, so not bad overall. Decided to increase pace/effort for second half, but stay within the easy realm (okay, so maybe moderately/hard easy, but still "easy").

Second outbound trip in about 8:04/mi pace. Still felt pretty good and loose most of the way, but started tiring the last uphill mile. Ran across neighbor walking dog in last mile, asking how far I was going. I replied "13 miles on my way to 17". On my return trip, she called out "I'm proud of how far you're running!" Now, I don't really know this neighbor other than I've seen her driving up/down the road before, so needless to say this anonymous boost helped me stay focused on staying loose and knocking out the miles. Started feeling my leg muscles the last couple of miles, and last mile I started gradually feeling like I was running low on gas (some mild brain fog). 2nd (downhill) return leg was in 7:03/mi.

2nd half pace was 7:33/mi (PMP + 0:22, GMP + 0:06). Overall pace for run was 7:38/mi (PMP + 0:27, GMP + 0:11). Great confidence booster given the 10k race yesterday, how I felt before and after this run, and the aggressive pace. Now I need to sit down and settle on a race strategy for the marathon, and let the taper do it's work, without suffering from the normal stress and self-doubt period I inevitably experience during taper.

I'm thinking I'll keep my mileage a bit higher than normal for the taper, since my last taper felt like I cut too far back and was a bit sluggish the last week. Will see how that works out.  Also put a few long run miles on my new Adrenaline shoes to make sure I had no issues.  I plan to save them now for the marathon...they felt great!

Recovery run in ugly weather (rain, wind) this afternoon.  No idea pace/time since my garmin died around mi 3, probably since the power went out last night and just came back on before I left.  My laptop has a nasty habit of turning my garmin on when I shut the lid and it hibernates.  Kept the effort very easy (recovery zone) throughout.  Felt like a sauna heading up the hill and I thought I'd worn too many clothes.  Coming back down the hill, the wind, rain, etc. picked up and it got colder, and then it felt like I didn't wear enough.

Did some plyometric drills after run.  Then clean a couple of clogged gutters since I was soaked anyway. 

Woke up with my hamstrings sore from some new exercises (lunges) I started yesterday after my run....guess I need to do more so they don't make me sore in the future.

9 mile easy effort run followed by 8x100m Strides w/ 100m rest. 9 mi pace was 7:54/mi, right in the middle of my easy run pace. Striders run in :16, :16, :17, :17, :19, :17, :17, :18.

Run was marred by yet another dog encounter (guess my problem isn't solved) and by smoke from logging cleanup fires across the roadway....tried to slow down and only nose-breath for about 1/2 mile to prevent completely polluting my lungs, but since I smell like smoke, I'm sure it did no good. Other than that, good run.

A nice and easy recovery run.  A bit of difficulty keeping it slow enough on the uphills to keep my HR down, especially with the windy/gusty conditions, but all in all a nice and easy effort.

Followed up with some plyometric drills and some lunges.

Tough wake-up this morning, tired. Wound up working thru normal lunch/run-time and didn't get started until nearly 1pm.

Today is last VO2Max workout (warmup, 3x1mi intervals, cooldown) before Seattle 07. Decided to run on roads instead of heading down to the track. 3 mi warmup felt a bit tougher than normal, but discarded as being in my head.

Intervals in 6:29, 6:20, 6:00. Target pace was 6:12 for level ground. 1st interval uphill...very tough and couldn't have held pace past the 1 mile mark. Started feeling some significant GI distress towards the end. Walked the 2 minute rest. Second interval half uphill, half downhill. Tough judging proper pace w/ rolling hills...wound up out too fast uphill, took a 10 second pause (to avoid puking), continued out and back in 6:20 overall (slow). Some bad GI distress.....considered terminating intervals, but took an extra 1 min rest. Third interval mostly downhill (some flat) in 6:00. Probably should've run it a bit faster given the downhills, but with GI distress best I could manage. Average interval pace 6:16. Slow end of new range, but dead middle of old training ranges (prior to 10k race adjustment), so not too bad.

Continued on 3 mi cooldown (with interruption at 1 mi mark for a bathroom break). Again, cooldown tougher than normal. Need to take it easy the next few days; next significant workout scheduled is13 miler this Sunday, so should be in good shape to recover.

Not my best workout ever, but I managed.

Assessment later in the day:  Boy, did that hurt.  Effort definitely took quite a bit out of me...trouble concentrating for the rest of the day.

Still feeling the effects from yesterday's hard effort in my GI system, but no real soreness or pain anywhere in muscles. Kept today's recovery run very easy (8:55/mi avg pace); no problems keeping HR below threshold going uphill, and despite speeding up it stayed very low on the downhill. Pace in middle of recovery zone (getting very good at judging this pace on this course).

Core exercises following run, then some stretching.

Doubts started surfacing during today's run as my mind wandered (of course)...probably due to yesterday's "felt like disaster" run. Kept knocking them down as fast as they surfaced, but it'll be a struggle not to push too hard on a run (to prove to myself that I'm ready) between now and next Sunday. Must stay focused!

7 mile recovery run (9:00/mi, 4 uphill, 3 downhill), followed by 8x100m Striders w/ 100m rest (Striders in :17, :18, :17, :17, :18, :18, :17, :16).  Felt strong out of the gate, but ran into difficulty keeping HR below threshold on uphills.  Being overdressed for the wx probably didn't help (when will I learn?)

Pre-marathon phantom pains started this morning with the left knee and my right foot (under the arch).  Quickly disappeared after I started running, and haven't returned yet.  At least I recognize them for what they are.

Striders felt particular good today.  Very loose, very relaxed.  Walked most of the rest to get HR back down before next stride, but probably best set of Striders I've ever done.  Good omen.

Another good omen.  The power that went out in the 3rd quarter of the Michigan/Ohio State game and forced me to go run was back on by the time I got back home.