Getting back to Boston

After three days off -- two for physical exhaustion, one for domestic turmoil -- back in the saddle tonight. Legs felt good after all that rest, so decided to try a good tempo run. Warmed up for 20 minutes, then decided to do 30 minutes of tempo, mainly by feel -- not check pace on the Garmin, just run. As usual on such runs, my pace was a tad erratic. First mile was 7:48, then 7:31, then 7:40, then the last seven minutes cover 0.95 miles, a 7:24 pace. Thus 3.95 in 30:00, a 7:35 pace overall. If I can run 7:35 avberage in Bentonville, I'll be more than pleased. I'll also be well under 1:40.

Easy run around JBH tonight. Legs still a bit stiff after last night's hard tempo run. so no temptation to crank it up. They loosened up some, but still never got below a 9:00 pace even with the downhill on the way home. Just a solid, routine run.

Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of my first marathon, and of Adam Nichol's death. Learned only yesterday that the winners' wreaths given to Leah and to the men's winner last year were made by Adam's mom. I thought that was really nice on her part. She could have blamed Little Rock for her son's death, but she didn't go there. And how things have changed. Struggled to finish in less than five hours then. Blasted four miles in 30 minutes last night with plenty left, and have a BQ to boot. Oh, and I'm probably 25 pounds lighter too. Weighed this afternoon in the office after everyone left; got down to skivvies and socks to do it. Weight 154. I want to take off 5-8 pounds in the next 13 months before Boston. I suspect I will, if I do the kind of mileage I expect to do.

Interval time tonight. Turned out I ran them at 10K pace or better, which is a little faster than I intended. However, I had teh good sense to listen to my GI tract and cut off the last planned rep-plus, which probably kept me from being REALLY sore tomorrow (we'll see if that's wishful thinking).

Warmed up for 2, stretched a bit, then took off. First rep turned out to be 7:12 pace for one loop of the park (.79 miles). As usual for my nighttime tempo runs, it's too hard to track my pace on the Garmin, so I don't. Jogged for three minutes or so, then another rep: 7:15 pace. Another 3-minute jog, than rep 3: 7:15 again. Three more minutes, then rep 4: 7:14 until the bear intervened. Quickly determined the bear was not going away quickly and scrubbed the rest of the reps. I was able to finish the run at a slower pace, ending up with 8.34. If I'd done all five planned reps, it woulda been 9-ish. Good run, though, even with the bear.

Really slow tonight, and worked to keep it that way. Six laps of LBH. Took 58 minutes, which is just about what I wanted. Planning 12 tomorrow, which would give me 42 miles in five days of running this week. That would probably be a smarter way to train at my age -- two days of rest, five harder days -- but I'm not that smart yet. Or I'm too OCD for that yet.

Bleah. Really lousy run this morning. Legs felt bad, rest of me felt worse. Nauseated, etc. Wish I could have barfed and gotten it over with, but slogged it around. The original plan for 12 went by the wayside, but I may still get in another 6 later in the day if I feel better.