Getting back to Boston

New week, same old beginning -- wake up with a sore back that gets worse as the morning goes on. Just what I need with six weeks to go -- something to plant doubts in my  mind, like what if I wake up on may 30 and my back feels like this? Anyway, hit the whirlpool at the AC when it opened, plus some stretching in the sauna, and that got it loosened up enough to do 6 on the dreadmill at recovery pace. Back felt pretty good during the run, but now it's trying to stiffen again. Guess I need to stretch some more. Anyway I'll do another 4-5 this evening.

My taper starts 21 days from today. Forty-one days to the race. Yikes. Just cross my fingers that the rest of the preparation goes well, I don't get hurt, and I give myself the best chance I can when I line up in Newport.

Anyway, Pam and I went back to the club tonight. I did my 4-miler, and Pam swam and hit the whirlpool. While she was in the whirlpool and I waited outside, I believe I identified the recurring Sunday morning problem wit my back: Failure to properly stretch after the Saturday LR. I bent over to try to touch my toes and couldn't get within six inches -- and the pulling was in the back, not the hammies. A few more reps got the fingertips down to the tips of my toes, and the back felt much looser. Will do some more stretching tonight before bed, and try to maintain the stretching through the week. I would have to say that my stretching has not been what it should have been during this cycle, but I have enough time to fix that.

It's probably just as well that I was too busy this morning to think much about the fact that this was Patriots Day, and that my office firewall (and my schedule) prevented me from watching the Boston Marathon webcast or following the race online as it unfolded. Because I probably would have been beating myself up, that if I'd just run a little smarter race in Memphis, I would have been there instead of plowing through a Monday morning clinic.

That, by the way, might actually be true, but it's water under the bridge. My task now is to make sure that I'm not doing clinic NEXT Patriots' Day, that I'm in Hopkinton instead. Toward that end, I had what may be my toughest workout of the entire cycle tonight -- 6 X 1200 at VO2 max pace, dropped into a 12-mile run. Had thought about doing it at the track at the nearby high school, but it was just a bit too warm and windy today, so decided to do it inside, where I could at least make sure I maintained the proper pace on the dreadmill. So I ran all six reps at 6:40 pace (9.0 mph). Finished the 12 miles in 1:40, including warmup, 600-meter jogs between reps, and cooldown.

Did have a little time today to think about strategy -- strategy for the Toad Suck 10K, and strategy at Newport. I think I'm just going to try to go out and run steady 7:00 miles at Toad Suck, since I know the course and it has no brutal hills. At Newport, I think I'll start fairly conservatively for the intown four miles, pick up the pace a bit after I clear the hill at mile 4, and try to pick it up even more after the turnaround at mile 15+. If I run the kind of pace I want to run, I'll have a chance to break 3:20 entering the last 10K, and I'll also have some cushion for cramps or whatever. I'd like to break 3:20, but breaking 3:31 is essential, and I want to build in some cushion for that. Then the last six miles, balls to the wall with whatever I have left -- something I really didn't do at Memphis.

The reasonable thing to do tonight would have been to cruise through the 14-miler after a tough interval session last night. Uh, no. Not old OCD here. Ran the first seven in 1:05, then turned it up a couple of notches on the inward half. Last seven in 56 minutes, the last five at GMP. Now is the time to back off a bit before a hard MP run on Saturday. Let's see if I actually back off a bit.

A short blog entry tonight; I really need to make up for that 3.5 hours of sleep last night. Hit the TM starting at 8:30 for a 10-mile cruise/recovery run at a steady 8:57 pace. Left leg felt kinda weird, not hurting, but felt weak, particularly the quads. But that improved after four or five miles, and I maintained the steady pace throughout.

Found out today that my son has a test three days after his graduation -- the morning we're supposed to leave for Boston. It will cost more to revise his ticket than it did to buy it in the first place. Fortunately, buying a new one-way ticket is cheaper than that, so we'll do that, get him to Boston on the night of the 22nd, and Pam and I will fly up as scheduled, then pick him up at the airport after we go to the Sox game. He can still use the return half of the original ticket.

Speaking of Pam, tomorrow is a difficult day for her: the 22nd anniversary of her father's sudden death from a heart attack. She had thought today was the anniversary, was going through all that today, and then her mom told her the date was the 23rd. So now she has to go through two days of that anguish. She was definitely Daddy's girl and April is consequently a very emotional month for her. Hopefully next April she'll have the distraction of another trip to Boston to cheer on her marathoning hubby.

Reminded myself once again why I hate running in hot weather. Waited until 8:00 to let today's record-setting temps go down (a little), set out in 85 degree weather, and it was still 80 when I finished nearly two hours later. It could have been worse (low humidity, a bit of a breeze), but still I got light-headed in the last mile, which obliged me to back off a bit lest I pass out or something. Still finished the run in 1:49, barely over 9:00 pace.

Have some decisions to make. Tomorrow is my niece's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, both of which I am supposed to attend. But since the rehearsal is at 4 p.m. and there is no way I can leave work before 5, that ain't gonna happen. And both of them are an hour-plus drive from here, so I don't think the dinner at 7 is going to happen either. Not for me, anyway; my wife will have to represent us. But I'll be at the wedding Saturday afternoon. the question there is whether I run 20 before the wedding, or put that off until Sunday morning and do 8 or 10 on Saturday morning. Weather may play a factor there too.

Five-miler on the DM just to work out some kinks, and boy, are there some kinks to work out. Glad next week is a bit of a backoff week. I'm still debating whether to do my MP run tomorrow or postpone it until Sunday. Weather when I get up may be a factor. I'll probably do it tomorrow, then wish I hadn't at the wedding tomorrow afternoon.

Put off the 20-miler until tomorrow, but that doesn't mean I got off easy this morning. Did 10-plus at Murray Park with the Crackheads, and once I got warmed up, I pushed the pace pretty well. Averaged 8:30 for the entire run, at least the last 0.71 was at GMP, and probably more than that, since the Big Dam Bridge downhills were part of miles 9 and 10. Get a nap, go to the wedding, and try to do my big MP run tomorrow morning. It was humid and 60ish this morning, but again a bit of a breeze kept things more tolerable.