Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

Ran 6 easy in my trainers (8:10 pace).  Then put on my new shoes - early Christmas present!  They are "flat shoes" that weigh about half of what my trainers do.  Just kinda messed around for a couple miles, and they felt pretty darn good.  The highlight was a little 200m acceleration to start a mile in 36 sec.

I'm testing out photobucket - thanks for the tutorial on posting pictures Burt!  Will have some actual pictures of this place to post tomorrow...

Plan was for 5 warmup, then a 3 x 2 tempo, targeting 6:59, with a half-mile recovery between each 2-mile set.  Total fail today.  I think it's a tough but doable workout for me as long as I'm having a good day; I just felt crappy today for some reason.

The 5-mile warmup felt terrible, even though it was slow.  Just all out of breath for no reason.  But I decided to give the tempo a try anyway.  Kept looking at my watch expecting to see 6-something and would see 7:10 or so - which already felt terrible.  I toughed through one set (6:57, 6:56) and it felt like the last set as opposed to the first.  Anyway, I just shuffled around until I got to 10 and called it a day.  Can't complain too much, I haven't had a bad run in awhile so I was probably overdue for one.

Here's a few pictures of a couple places I usually run over here.

This is Lost Lake which is a 2-mile loop.  The fancy houses are where Saddam's cronies, generals, dignitaries, etc. would stay when they came to Baghdad.

Here's a close-up of one of those houses that took a bomb through the roof in 03.  Too bad, so sad.

Canal I run along every morning.

Right on the other side of the wall is a mosque.  They broadcast the morning prayer every day so loud that I don't even need to run with music.  There are loudspeakers on those minarets.  It's a mix between a chant and a scream.  Who knows what they are saying, but each word seems to take about 5 minutes.  The guy has a terrible voice but he can hold his breath for a long time.

8:15 pace.

This is my 3rd run in a row without anti-inflammatories - so far not too bad.  I can feel the swelling slowly coming back along the tendon, but like the doctor said, that's to be expected until I can take a few weeks off to let it heal.  If it starts messing with my running too much, I still have plenty of magic pills to douse the fire with.

Here you go Burt, this is me on the throne where I sit for my job...as the King of Iraq(unofficial title, crown pending).

Started the first few miles in the low 8's and progressed to a 7:16 finish - 7:49 AP.  Felt way better than Monday; those little recovery runs I've been doing are actually doing their job pretty well.  I definitely like alternating between short and long runs, versus running consistent daily mileage.

8:25 pace.  20 miler tomorrow where I aim to do the last 10 at GMP.  We'll see, we'll see...

7:54 average for this 20-miler -- 10 easy + 10 GMP (target 7:45).

First 10:  1:21:46 (8:11 AP).

Last 10:  1:16:20 (7:38 AP).  Splits were 7:44, 7:41, 7:40, 7:44, 7:39, 7:40, 7:41, 7:38, 7:32, 7:22.

Pretty good run!  It was technically a success but it definitely opened my eyes to how hard it is going to be to go 26.2 miles at GMP.  Maybe too hard.  My legs were really on fire (not in a good way) toward the end.  Of course I went a little faster than goal pace, so that's some of it.  Aerobically, it was ok; my lungs worked a little, but weren't complaining too much.  This time my legs felt way worse than 2 weeks ago.  The faster overall pace, maybe, and the fact that I didn't have anti-inflammatories in my system today probably contributed.  I'm hoping I'll even be able to run in 2 days!

It is pretty important to me not to have a bad bonk/deathmarch to the finish so I am considering starting a bit more conservatively for the race.  Actually enjoying this first marathon is a top priority.

Merry Christmas to all!