Getting back to Boston

URD yesterday. Just needed to sleep, and did. Tonight, a full 12 hours, then 10 miles at the track. Took the Walkman and tunes kept me distracted. Felt a twinge in the AT area which reminded me of the tendinosis, but it's not swollen and the twinge went away after I ran 200 meters or so with forefoot strike. Surged the last couple of miles, a bit, but not up to MP.
That's OK. I still plan to do 20 tomorrow, so I didn't want to empty the tank. Now to go refill it with carbs before I sack out.

Twenty miles today. 30 miles in the last 18 hours. Time today 3:05:28. As close to an ultra as I'm ever likely to get... And boy, am I tired and sore. Still gotta drive to Bryant before Red Nelson's funeral tomorrow, too. Gonna go soak, take a nap, eat and drive down.

Started yesterday in Bryant, drove through torrential rain to Arkadelphia (man, I need new tires) for Mr. Nelson's funeral, then back to Fort Smith. Got in a late run at the track, just an easy 6 with strides thrown in.

One of the speakers at the funeral invited us to imagine the inside of the store. Boy, that brought back some memories, since I spent a lot of time in that store. I still like hanging out in sporting goods stores, and Southwest Sporting Goods is why. My running career really began in that store, I guess. The track shoes I wore at AJHS came from there. So did my sweats and singlets and warmups and jockstraps...

But more than that, Red Nelson was just a good, friendly, decent man. You could see why he built such good relationships with his customers. I'm glad I got to know him, and it's obvious that where his kids were concerned, the fruit didn't fall far from the tree.

So what did I do last night after my run? Went to a sporting goods store and bought some sweatbands. Red would have preferred I buy them from him, but I think he'd understand.

Boston's getting closer. I need to call and make one more change to our Sunday night reservation, but that will be it. Down to about 40 days. Dad wants me to back off my training afterward. I'll probably take some time off, but I don't think I'll back off all that much. Enough to have some time hopefully for a love life, though.

Mile reps tonight at the track, on the second try; track practice was in progress when I went over there at 4. Back a little after 5, track clear. Goal was 5 @ 10KP. Not too far off; reps were 7:46, 7:17, 7:19, 7:21, 7:28. I'd say my goal 10KP right now would be around 7:20, so pretty close except for that first rep, when I was still warming up (and with mid-40s and quite a stiff wind, warming up is an accurate term).

Worked on Maclin's pace sheet today trying to figure out a plan. I still think even effort is the way to go for me; take advantage of the downhills without going crazy, relax a tad on the uphills. So I cut out and laminated a pace band for that strategy. Also bought name tags for the FE dinner and a white marker to mark my name on my shirt for Boston. Nope, not obsessed a bit...

Thursday was kinda all messed up (when I finish this, it will be obvious why I refer to it in past tense). Two work-related meetings, on my off day. I mean they were OK, one was useful, one was actually fun, but still they took about three hours out of my day. Plus I got like zero sleep Wednesday night. Finally got some shuteye around dawn and slept for about three hours, but man, I was dragging. Tried to take another nap in late afternoon and failed.

Anyway, so the second meeting (more like a party) was at Fuji at 7. Ate way too much. Fortunately laid off the alcohol, which is more than I can say for some of my colleagues :) But I was still stuffed when I left at 9:15, and I hadn't run a lick all day. Dark force was very strong -- bag it and get some sleep. But I felt I needed to run. Waited an hour to let the salmon hibachi settle, then headed to the track. Stomach was OK. Legs weren't. Dark force again very strong -- walk, stop, go home, curl up for a nap alongside the track, anything but run. But I kept going, and actually managed a "progression" for the last two miles, which probably took me down to 9:15ish. Not sure I didn't snooze during the run, which took 75 minutes and change. Finished at 11:35 p.m. Came home, soaked, and went straight to bed, so the update is being written at noon Friday.

Big earthquake in Japan yesterday. Kinda scary. I know the New Madrid is gonna let loose one of these years; it's been quiet for 100+ years. And when it does, watch out. We won't have a tsunami like Japan and Hawaii are having, but a whole lot of buildings aren't built to earthquake code in the Mid-South and the walls will come tumbling down. And the people inside them...

So we're down to 38 days. Really, really close now. Really only 2.5 weeks of intense training left. Then taper madness. I'm nuts anyway, so a taper just puts me farther over the edge. I've been reading up on Aussie carb-loading (think I'll try it for the half next weekend) and worrying about my paces (they're OK) and whether I'll be able to hit all the key workouts in the next three weeks (we shall see). Ordered some Ultrafuel for the carb-loading, but Gatorade Pro may work just as well (have some of that too). Also expecting a new pair of Nikes to arrive either today or tomorrow. Will those be my Boston shoes? We shall see. If I don't like them, I'll send them back and order some Adidas, I guess. Or I may still use the Brooks GS for the race shoe.

Easy run today, or should I say runs. Went to BG and did two road laps around the tennis courts, but the Garmin refused to lock in. So went over to the track. It still wouldn't lock in, but at least I'd know the exact distance. So I ran 18 laps plus, 4.5. With the BG laps, total of 7.3. Puts me over 50 for the week, 98 for the month.

Craptastic evening at the track. Garmin took forever to lock in. When it did, it was wildly inaccurate with distance and therefore pace. Plus the legs were just dead. Plan was for four miles at HMP. Didn't happen. At least not four miles nonstop at HMP. What it worked out to was one mile, one mile, then I just decided to go eight laps nonstop and see what happened. Turned out that the two miles were better than either one of the miles. Paces were 7:45, 7:28, 7:25 and somehow 7:12. No idea how I got these legs to do a 7:12 tonight. It was 75 degrees, I was sweating like a pig and the legs had no life.

I've decided that at this point, I can't do three quality runs a week. Maybe I could if I cut back (or out) on the recovery runs. I can do two decent interval workouts, or an interval and a long run, but I can't do intervals twice and a long run. With 37 days to go, I guess I'll just muddle through until the taper.