Freethinker ~ Freerunner

17 miles at a 7:35 AP.  54 degrees.  

I began this run still feeling the hangover from last weekend.  I'm starting to feel repetitive saying that on every post this week, but I making sure to clearly document how I'm feeling for future strategy.  I started to feel a little more pep in my step at about the 12 mile mark, which was good because I usually prefer to drop the pace down close to marathon pace on my last five miles of a long run.  Since I was feeling good I decided to go ahead and finish strong. 

My last five miles splits: 7:27, 7:15, 6:50, 6:59, 6:53.

The way that I was able to finish made me feel better about skipping my MLR due to over soreness on Wednesday of this week.  I can feel that my body is going to recover nicely over the course of the next two weeks on the taper. 

Today was a recovery day for me.  It was also marathon Monday.  I was at work and at about 1:00 PM, I got a notification on my phone that there was an explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

As soon as I was able to get to my computer after I was finished working with customers I started checking Facebook to try to find out if the people I knew who were there were safe. This was a tragic day for Boston, the nation, and the running community at large.  My heart goes out to the people whose lives have been touched by this cowardly act.

At the same time I was happy to see the good people on the scene.  Scot Jurek shared an NBC Sports story that reported on runners crossing the finish line and continuing on to the hospital to donate blood to the injured.  The compassion of the running community never ceases to amaze me.   

General aerobic run of 7 miles with 8x100's.  

The north wind was really blowing this morning.  It was 54 degrees.  Garmin says the wind was blowing from the north a 4 mph, but it felt like it was a lot harder than than that.

Taper on!

My last real workout before OK City is done! 8 miles with 3x1 mile repeats. I lucked out because only one of them was partially into the wind. Splits: 6:19, 6:20, 6:22. I jogged for half a mile for my rest between each mile. I'm feeling strong.

 48 feels like 42. 

5 mile recovery run this morning.  Cold!  35 degrees.  8:07 AP. 

I'm recovering from a cold I came down with on Monday.  I feel like maybe I'm experiencing a slight shortness of breath, which is a little bothersome.  I'm just glad there's still 8 full days between now and Oklahoma City.  

Recovery run with 8x100's.  I felt good.  The 100's felt good and easy.  It was 39 degrees, and yet somehow I managed to overdress.  I was soaking wet when I got home.  There was not wind at all.  I can only hope that conditions are very similar to this one week from tomorrow in Oklahoma City.