Getting back to Boston

Had planned to do 6 on the TM tonight, but got up there and the fitness center was locked up tight. No TM for me. I was about to give up on the run, it being 7 p.m., dark and pretty cold already, but I remembered that I had mapped out a 4.75-mile loop about a year ago on the USATF website that I had never actually run. So I came back, looked it up, noticed a couple of places I could tack on some extra mileage, and set out.

First, I remembered pretty quick why I'd never actually run this route. It is nothing but HILLS. Actually, the uphills proved not too much of a problem, but the downhills were pounding my thighs pretty hard, especially after 10 miles of Oucho yesterday. Even with that, I felt pretty good, and I threw in another little detour later in the run to add some extra distance.

Wasn't sure how far I had run (my Garmin was out of juice, not having been recharged after yesterday's run). So I got in the car and measured it, both with the odometer and the partially charged Garmin. The result: 7.31. Didn't sleep too well last night due to coughing, but I've felt better today. Hopefully the crud is finally subsiding, but I did get some Mucinex at the store this afternoon to help push it along.

 If the real problem with my BQ near-miss at Memphis was a lack of quad strength due to lack of hills, running this sucker a few times will help fix that. 

After pummeling my quads with 17.4 miles of hills this weekend, decided to take it easy on them tonight. Fortunately, my landlord cooperated by reopening the fitness room tonight, so to the treadmill I went. Standard progression run finishing at slightly sub-9:00 pace, getting faster every mile. Quads were really hurting early in the run, less so as I got warmed up. Discovered afterward that the glutes were kinda sore.

Plan right now is to run 7 tomorrow and 5 on Wednesday to finish the year at an even 1900 miles. That would be equal to running from my apartment to the outskirts of San Jose, CA. Or 450 miles more than running from here to Provo, for you Utahn bloggers (is that really what Utah people call themselves? Utahns? I remember seeing that in some stories datelined Salt Lake City back in my previous life as a journalist.). Or 437 miles more than running from my place to downtown Boston, to get to the real point of this blog.

I know that's chicken feed compared to the mileage Sasha and some of the other FRB bloggers put in, but compared to where I was two years ago, that's incomprehensible to me. And, barring injury, it's gonna pale in comparison to the mileage I plan to rack up in 2009.

Great night. Strong 7-miler with strides on the TM -- and got to watch my Razorbacks beat the fajitas out of Oklahoma at BWA. Of course, if I lived close enough to Fayetteville, I would have been there instead of running, but that's OK too. Watched all of it while running, screaming at the refs, etc. So much for our being picked last in the SEC West. We'll be in the top 25 next week, unless we lay an egg Saturday against UNT.

Five miles tomorrow to cap off the year at exactly 1900 miles. Then go celebrate my dad's 70th birthday with him on Thursday. Except for having to work Saturday morning, this is becoming a very good week. 

Probably shouldn't have run today (or any time in the past week), but I'm OCD, I admit it. I wanted that round number, and I got it. A nice, slow, agonizing 5.01 on the TM put me at 1900.01 for the year (so I could say I went OVER 1900). My sinuses are killing me, I'm producing all sorts of green stuff, I'm not sleeping, and I'm exhausted. Got my nurse to call in a Z-pak for the sinusitis, which I am now taking. So I'm going to call it a year -- literally. I'm going to bed as soon as I finish updating my log. My copy of Lore of Running arrived today and I'll read myself to sleep.

Probably should not run a step until I'm completely over this (or at least until I get some sleep). But I bet I do anyway. Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow's my dad's 70th birthday, and it's for him. 

Intended to get up at 4:30 and get in my first run of the new year. that was before a night of tossing and turning and not much sleeping. Alarm went off at 4:30; I decided to reset it and go back to sleep (and my wife concurred in that decision). Reset the time instead of the alarm; fortunately, my body woke itself up at the right time to get to work for our lovely Saturday clinic. So no 12-miler this morning.

 However, despite my lack of a nap later on, I felt good enough Saturday night to go run 6 on the TM and watch the playoffs at the same time. Ran the first 5.75 at a steady pace, then picked it up to MP for the last 400 just for fun. Run went fine, no twinges or issues. So now I'll be doing Sunday's rescheduled 12-miler on semi-tired legs; we'll see how that goes.