Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

43F, N 12 mph.  6:54 AP.  Feeling good today (I'm in a constant tapered state).  The plan was an 8+8 to see where I was at.  The 8 ez miles outbound were fairly quick and coming back I went way faster than the 6:40 target.  The last 8 miles:

8 @ 6:26 AP (6:37, 6:32, 6:30, 6:30, 6:26, 6:21, 6:20, 6:10).

Mostly aerobic the whole time, except toward the end.  This tells me I've still kinda hung on to a decent threshold speed/fitness.  What I need now is longer runs @ 6:40.  On this lower mileage, the gap between what I can do on a training run and what I'll be able to do in a full marathon is going to be a lot wider.  So if I can complete some longer tempos @ 6:40, then run ~6:45 for the first 17 at Boston (as opposed to the 6:35 I did last year), I think I'll have enough gas left to tackle Newton hills and finish strong, despite the lack of endurance.  Theories are fun.

52F, 8:36 AP.  Dark Monday...

AM: 5 on the TM at work; was going to do 10 outside this morning but my truck (which I only drive about once a month) broke down on the way this morning, so today will have to be a TM double.  I've had that truck for 12 years, bought it right after I graduated from college, but the ol' girl is past her prime and seems to cost money every time I decide to drive it...

PM: 4 in the afternoon on the TM at work.  Would have been easy to blow off running today, but glad I put in the miles; this make-it-happen attitude came easy last year but not so much this past year.

I told the guys at the mechanic's I was going to donate the truck to charity and there was some interest, so I'll probably sell it to one of them at a deeply discounted rate (does that count as charity?)  They are putting their names in a hat in the morning to see who gets to buy it...guess my price was a little too low!  Anyway, I'll miss the truck....went to go clean it out today.  There was actually an old engagement photo in there from 12+ years ago that I'd kept in there.  Danielle and I look like little kids.

52F, N 20-30 mph. 7:13 AP.  About a 10k warmup and then 7 x (3 min on 1 min off) on the way back.  Normally I just do 800/200 at the track but it was a bit too windy.  I got mostly tailwind for my repeats though any wind is greatly muted on the wooded trail I use.  The "on" portions were 10k pace and the "off" portions were active recoveries.  My paces for the "on" portions were 5:59, 6:03, 5:55, 5:52, 6:02, 5:56, 6:00.  A little more variation than there would be at the flat track, but a good workout that I can recover from relatively quickly.  The focus will now lean more heavily toward MP.

44F, 8:08 AP.  In Houston for a couple days.

55F, 7:24 AP.  Ran from my parents' to Memorial Park for a couple loops, and back.  I got passed by a trio running together.  I stayed a ways behind them for a mile or so to see how fast they were going....about 6:50.  I hatched a plan to stay about 50m back until about half a mile before I had to peel off the trail to head home, at which time I would blow by them for the win.  They ended up stopping before my plan could come to fruition though.  Man, there is just something in the brain that cannot stand getting passed by other runners...

64F.  Easy 30-min run before leaving Houston.  Hoping for a decent MP run tomorrow, though I'll be staying out a little late tonight.