Winning Back What I Lost

830PM: Easy Recovery Run to work out some of the lactate from yesterday's hard effort. Ideally I should have cooled down w/ some post race mileage yesterday but the schedule was too packed. A little sore in the hips & glutes at the beginning. Felt better by the end. One more week until the taper!

615AM: Easy + Speed: 10 x 100m strides. Ran a few miles last night and my old body does not like the back to backs.  Good thing I only do that once a week. Left piriformis muscle still barking at me and beggin for some treatment. It's not an injury, just bothersome.

In other bad news, just found out that Lance Berkman is likely out for the year. Cards have a lot of depth at 1st base (Matt Adams was raking before he was called up from AAA and Allen Craig is an All Star in waiting once he comes off the DL) but he was definitely the leader in the clubhouse.   

545AM: Raining so I headed over to the club for some TM miles. This was supposed to be my Medium Long Run but my left heel was hurting and I can only tolerate the TM for so long.  May get in a couple of miles tonight, maybe not. 

Last T-Ball game tonight. Kids have asked that we go without the tee for the last game.  I guess that means this season has been a success. Gonna be sad to see it end so quickly.

615AM: 5M easy then last two miles just under goal MP (7:25; 7:21).  

Nearly tore an ACL after a careless dog owner let her golden retriever run off leash.  I didn't see or hear (headphones) the thing until it came up from behind me and jumped on the back of my legs. Almost made me eat it hard on the asphalt but my superior old man reflexes saved me. I kept on truckin and the dog's owner comes around the corner totally oblivious.  I tell the lady she might want to put that leash she was holding to good use and she just gives me a blank stare.  Nice.

Noon: Easy + hills: .75M warm; 8 x 15 sec, 2 x 20 sec hill sprints; cool.  Very mild temps and a strong breeze today. The rest of the week is supposed to be like this and then a warm up for next week. Now is when I start looking at the long term forecast for the marathon. So long as we don't get overnight lows in the 60's, it should be pretty cool at 6k feet on June 9th.   

6AM: Easy aerobic run. Did half of this run on the MVHS track. I think I'm still dizzy from running all those ovals. Distance running on a track is one small step up from a treadmill. 

6AM: Easy recovery run. Wasn't raining when I left the house but it was pouring by the time I returned. Sped up the last mile because I was terrified that the rain would soak threw my pocket and damage my iPhone.  

Tomorrow is my last long run (17M) as I'll begin a 2 week taper for UVM.  The Pfitz Plan calls for a 3 week taper but I'll log 65M this week v. the 53-55mpw he recommends. I find that a 2 week taper is more than enough.  Actually, I think a 1 week taper would probably be enough.  

430PM: Easy + fast finish. Progression on last 4+ miles, shaving 10 secs mi on each successive mile. Began @ 8:00ish mi and finished @ goal MP (7:25 mi). My fitness felt great but my legs felt below avg. Good practice for being able to push when the legs feel like anvils the last 10 k of the Mary. I think I'll get a massage next week to work out the calves, PF and hammies.

Last longish run of this cycle. Goal from here on out is to sleep well, eat well and fine tune.