Getting back to Boston

Kind of a weird day. Started out at the inlaws in Camden, where I turned off my cellphone alarm set at 7 for an early run and stayed in bed for another 2.5 hours. Yes, I needed the extra sleep, but as usually happens when I stay in bed too long, my back was really, really stiff all morning. And much of the afternoon. Finally got it loosened with a prolonged stretching session, and I was fortunate that it didn't lock up again on the drive home. Then I took a nap when I got home before going out for a recovery run.

As usual, the RR was on the river trail, which I'm using a lot because I think it's the closest thing around here to the course at Newport. I started really slowly until my legs warmed up, settled in at a modest recovery run pace of 9:30 or so, but the last two miles the legs felt really good and I decided to put the hammer down after I entered Alligator Alley. The last 1.25 were not only faster, they were sub-GMP. So much for a recovery run, but the legs still feel good.

Trying to decide how to juggle the training schedule around Hogeye. Do I flip weeks so that the MP run originally set for this Saturday winds up on Hogeye Sunday? Or do I do the MP run this weekend and then a mini-taper for Hogeye? I'll think about it some more. 

Good thing I didn't do the early run in Camden this morning, I think. The pine pollen factory is working full blast down there. Just what my asthma doesn't need right now. 

Tonight may have been  more of a recovery run than last night was. Legs were a little sluggish, and I started late enough that an outdoor run was no longer an option, which relegated me to the dreadmill. Nonetheless, I chugged through 10 and change at a fairly steady rate, excepting one water/stretch break, and finished in 93:01. Just your basic put-in-the-mileage miles. Tomorrow, back out for another 15. I may do the complete river loop then; I'm tired of north side only running for a while. Tomorrow also will put me over 700 miles for the year, I think.

Ever since I decided last week to enter the Hogeye Half on 4/5, I had been debating whether to flip weeks in my training schedule, so that the MP run now set for this weekend would instead fall next weekend, and thus in essence be replaced by Hogeye.

Well, the weatherman kinda made that decision for me. A big line of thunderstorms rolled through here this evening, followed an hour later by another one. There was not going to be my scheduled 15-miler on the river trail tonight. But there could be a VO2 max run on the treadmill, which was on the schedule for next Tuesday. Voila -- instant flipped weeks.

So I get on the treadmill, warm up for three miles, and then crank it to 6:35 pace. My legs have one immediate reaction: "What in blue blazes are you doing to us?" This was my first real speedy speedwork since November, and I could tell it. But the legs adjusted pretty well. I really didn't have too much trouble holding pace, or finishing the scheduled 6 X 800 at that pace, and cooling down to finish the 9-miler in 76:29.

So I have a VO2 max run under my belt now. And it will have some time to take effect before I go to Fayetteville next week. Will that help me get down around 1:35? On that mountain range of a course, who knows? (It makes Little Rock look like something out of Friday Night Lights, if you recall the West Texas terrain that depicts.)

More thunderstorms tonight, so across to the AC for 8 recovery miles on the dreadmill. Took exactly 71:59. Then soaked in the hot tub (whirlpool jets disabled because it was too close to closing time, I guess), stretched, showered again and came home.

Tomorrow, my first scheduled midweek double, if I can haul my carcass out of bed in eight hours to do it. Total of 15 tomorrow; four early, 11 later.

Think I'm going to move into the guest room tonight and see if I sleep any better. Sleep seems to be my Achilles heel in this training program; I wake up, I dunno, six, seven times a night because I'm cold or I'm hot or my back hurts or my shoulder hurts or my bladder's full. At last on the memory foam in the guest room, the back and shoulder aches are minimized. Doesn't do the marital bliss any good, but then DW barred the memory foam from our room. 

Midweek double for me today, starting with four easy on the DM at the club before work. Hopefully weather will cooperate and I can get in 11 on the river trail after work. DW and DS have left me to go exploring northern Arkansas overnight, so I'm solo for a while. Meaning I can go run when I want to and go to bed when I want to.

Worked till almost 6 tonight, fixed some spaghetti and then went to the river trail to run. My legs never did really loosen up, but that didn't keep me from maintaining a sub-9 pace for about the last 7 miles of the 11-mile run. I must have had the real marathoners' shuffle going because the left hip flexors just were not going to loosen up and give me normal leg lift.

Not going to do the predawn thing tomorrow; I think I need another hour of sleep more than I need 5 early miles. I'll still do 5, just do them after work. Don't know if the family is returning tomorrow or staying up there. They seem to be having a good time, which is great. Wish I could be with them, but duty calls, and May will be here soon enough. 

Slept in just a tad with the house to myself this morning. Will coll weather in advance of (another) line of stroms coming in, I got in a 6-miler on the RT. Started out very slowly; by the end I was sub-GMP. Go figure. Anyway, this "back-off" week is going to end up somewhere in the 73-75 mile range. Not sure exactly which because I'm running with Pat tomorrow and he's not sure either. He's doing mile intervals at a bit under HIS GMP, which for me should be no real problem (that would be about 8:50 for him), and with warmup and cooldown, it should be in the 16-18 range. So I'll go with him, unless thunderstorms intervene, and we'll see how far we go.

Next week, I think I'll probably do a 15 on Tuesday and then back down from there in a mini-taper for Hogeye. Something like 10-9-15-7-9-8-6-13.1. Which is still a 64-mile week leading into a half. Then a couple of recovery days after that before I knock out an LT and a 24 at the end of the following week. 13.1-7-8-13-12 LT-8-24 equals 85, my big week of the entire cycle.

A bit under 17 today, but far from a routine run. Two reasons: I ran with my friend Pat, who is shooting for a sub-4 at Oklahoma City next month and is doing extended interval sessions at his GMP. Second, a cold front came howling in this morning with 20 mph winds, gusting to 40, and we were running directly into the wind for half of the run.

Eleven one-mile surges at 8:40 pace don't sound too bad, and maybe normally it wouldn't have been an issue, but with the wind, it was HARD. Especially when one of those gusts hit. The quads were not happy, but they responded when I asked them to respond. And on the last interval, I picked it up to pretty close to my GMP, which left Pat behind.

Went over 300 miles for the month today, too -- a new PR for me. Likely to get another PR in April before the taper in May.