Getting back to Boston

I'll get in a recovery run a little later. Just wanted to get a couple of things down this morning.

I'm really happy with my run yesterday. It would have been easy to say in the first 5K that my glutes hurt, it's cold, it's windy, let's shut it down and just get through this race with minimal discomfort. Instead, as Coach Hutchins would have said, I competed. I set my goal on passing people rather than running a certain pace, and lo and behold, by passing people I got a good enough pace for a 59-second PR.

Looking back 30-plus years, there were two things I did (or didn't do) that doomed my running career at the time. I didn't know how to train, and I didn't know how to compete. I went to track practice four or five days a week, but I didn't build a base for all those 440 reps. I should have figured out something from those early morning workouts in 10th grade, which allowed me to get better. But when Jimmy quit going, I quit going too, and my progress was halted. Maybe I would have figured it out later if I'd been able to resume running after the surgery. Or maybe not. I never quite understood that there was a price to pay for being good. I had some talent, I think, but I never gave myself a chance to excel.

Competing was another issue. My races were essentially time trials. I can only remember one time that I actually was focused on passing people -- that 880 in eighth grade where I stumbled trying to pass the kid on the final stretch. Why I didn't learn from that, I dunno. I remember that being exhilarating, actually competing and having a chance to win, but I never replicated that afternoon. Until now.

I'm not fast enough any more, if I ever was, to win races, or even win AG unless I luck into a really weak field (like the "5K"). I'm not gonna run a 5K in 18 minutes, or a 40:00 10K, or a 1:30 half, or a 3:10 marathon. But I can compete. I can pick out that guy ahead of me, and reel him in, and pass him. I can keep that woman behind me from passing me, or pass her back, as I did yesterday. And the other thing I can do is put in the work. The long runs, the tempos, the intervals, the hill sprints, the fartlek. That way, when I want to reel in the guy in the Think Teal t-shirt, I have the training base so that I can. When others are lagging up the Crystal Springs Trail, I can go by them. When the woman passes me on the downhill, I go back in front on the flat.

And now I have another little goal. Someone on the local running scene I want to beat. She doesn't know she's my target, but she is. She's 21 years younger than me and a lot faster, but I don't think she really knows how to train or to race. Her splits tell me she doesn't pace properly. If she did, I couldn't beat her. But just maybe I can keep working and beat her once before she figures it out. I figured out her splits from yesterday. After the 10K mark, she averaged 7:57 miles. I averaged 7:33, which is a negative split. But she'd built up too much lead in the first 6 miles for me to catch her.

OK, scratch that. I now know that I HAVE beaten her. I beat her at Memphis in 2008. Same thing. She was ahead of me for the first half and slowed down, while I maintained my pace better. She's gotten a lot faster, but her pacing is still bad. OK, I still want to beat her now that she's gotten faster.

One more thing: the new VDOT number is 45.39, according to the calculator at attackpoint.org. First time I've pulled it over 45. Which corresponds with 21:39 5K, 44:53 10K, and 3:26:46 marathon on their tables. McMillan correlates it to 3:29:51. Merv says 3:28:53. Runworks says 3:26:44. Runner's World says 3:27:27. Can't get runbayou to work today, for some reason. Now I have to work on getting the rest of my PRs into the 45s (or 46s).

On the road today: 7.01, low and slow. Originally planned 5, then 6, ended up doing 7. Legs felt pretty good considering. Could have gone further, but nah. If I do what I plan to do this week, I'll be up near 60 miles anyway.

Not quite sure how to characterize tonight's run. Started out as just a GA. Then I felt pretty good and decided to push it, and got faster and faster and faster. By mile 5 I was approaching marathon pace. In mile 6 I was sub-MP. In mile 7 I was running as fast as I ran the half Saturday. And in the final tenth of a mile I was at sub-5K pace. Wound up with 7.09 in less than an hour.

Marked St. Patrick's Eve with a low and slow 6 miles at JBH. Noteworthy aspects: started after work and finished before sundown; and ran quite comfortably in singlet and shorts. Both of which are welcome changes after a winter of running after dark, on ice and snow and subfreezing temps, or raw blustery days like Saturday and Sunday.

I'm about to talk myself into entering Hogeye, if I can scrape up $75. That may be the real challenge. It may also have to wait until payday on April 2. But I think a spring marathon would be good experience, even if I'm not out for BQ/PR.

OK, this ought to be interesting. Literally just walked in the door from my first set of ladders. Know times and approximate paces, don't know what mileage that translated into. Lost track of laps in the park, focusing solely on minutes and pace. Let's check the Garmin and see.

Warmed up for 2.02 miles, 19 minutes. Ran a minute at 3K pace (or faster). Jogged a minute. Ran 2 minutes at 5K pace, jogged two minutes. Ran 3 minutes at 10K pace, jogged three minutes. Two more minutes at 5K, jog 2. One more minute at 3K pace, jog 1. Two more at 5K, jog 2. Finish with 3 at 10K pace. Then about 1.7 cooldown to get home.

That adds up to 2.03 miles at pace, 2.02 warmup, 1.72 cooldown, and 1.17 miles of recovery. Total 6.94 miles. Average pace 8:31 even with all the jogging. Finished in less than an hour. Efficient, but painful. A man was out walking his dogs and I jogged by him (the first time) during one of my recovery intervals. His comment was, "That looks like work." All I could muster was, "Yep." I'm thinking, you got that right, mister, it is work. Ladders are a BEAR. Hopefully a productive bear in terms of making me faster, but a bear nonetheless.

I tripped on a stump and did a faceplant about 8 miles into tonight's 9.45 miler. So what? That face plant was about the least painful thing that happened tonight.

An emergency session for Pam and I with John today. I've had about all the emotions I can handle, but there's no end in sight. Just have to keep going and keep coping, somehow. Work actually helps; it's a distraction. Got in 5.15 this afternoon. Legs very heavy. Not sure if that's from increased mileage or decreased sleep; could be both. Gonna try to do 20 tomorrow, then I'll decide about Hogeye.

It will be spring in a few days, but I'm sitting here watching the sleet accumulate in the grass in my front yard. A half hour ago, I was running in that sleet. Twenty two miles, to be exact. Mapped out a new course this morning and set out just before noon. It was just raining then; the sleet came much later, but temp was in the mid-30s and falling. Ran past my office, then down Turner St. all the way down to Lake Fayetteville, then down the hill to the Fayetteville trail system, and turned around at the fence of the UA cross country course. Funny thing -- the Garmin said 11.01 miles at the turnaround and 22.09 when I got home, and I ran exactly the same course.

One thing I can say, I'm not ready for a marathon right now, at least based on this run. This run may have been a HTFU, but it was also kinda dumb on my part. I haven't run more than 14.5 miles in one day since Memphis (and that was last Saturday) and here I add another 7.5 miles to that. Not smart. I finished, but not smart. And given the weather, fairly dangerous. I could easily imagine hypothermia on a run like today. And I probably wasn't far from it. Took a hot shower to warm up when I got home, then a lukewarm "ice bath." Have my feet propped up now as I type and listen to Hog baseball (we're winning). Unless I bounce back very quickly from this, I don't think I'm gonna run Hogeye.