Getting back to Boston

I looked at the calendar this morning and realized it was July 7. So what? Because July 7, 2007, is when I made the commitment to be a runner again, with the simplest of starts -- lacing up the old adidas and running two miles around the neighborhood on a hot Sunday evening.

Since then, there have been 1138 miles, and who knows how many hours on the treadmill and the roads to complete that many miles, a lot of Advil and Celebrex and ice baths and stretching, seven pairs of shoes, a 5K, two 10Ks and one very painful marathon. There have been 27 pounds lost, never to be found (I hope), several pairs of pants I can't wear any more, several more I can wear again that I couldn't then. Some of my patients are actually worried that I've lost TOO much weight.

Was it Dick Beardsley who said in "Spirit of the Marathon" that once you cross the finish line in a marathon, your life has changed forever? I couldn't agree more. I'm not the same person I was last July 7, not by a long shot. I committed to achieve a very difficult, time-consuming goal and I achieved it, and as a result, I don't look at myself the same way I once did. Now I'm committed to doing it again, better and faster. Before I was husband, father, medical professional, proud Arkansan, Razorback fan. I'm still all of those things, but I'm also an obsessed Crackhead, and a marathoner, and proud of it. Finishing 26.2 is something I can be proud of for the rest of my life. Ditto a sub-four-hour, when I get there, and a BQ, when I get THERE.

OK, enough of this retrospective. Year Two began with a nine-mile run with a lactate threshold run tucked into the middle. It was supposed to be 4 miles of LT at just under 8:00 pace, after a three-mile warmup run. The warmup went just fine, but I realized shortly into the LT that my legs still haven't recovered from the back-to-back whammy of an all-out 5K and a 12-miler in 100% humidity on consecutive days. Three miles of LT at that pace was all I could coax out of my legs, and getting in three more miles at 10:00 pace to finish the 9 was not much easier. Tomorrow is down for an easy 5-miler, and I do mean EASY. I think I'm still a bit dehydrated/glycogen-depleted as well, and I need to really pound down the fluids, and the carbs, for the next 48 hours or so. But at least I've caught up on my sleep, somewhat.

Routine five-miler on the treadmill. Legs seemed to bounce back after last night's attempt at a tempo run; maybe a tiny twinge in the left hamstring but not as much as I frequently have after a hard run or two. Was able to gradually pick up the pace during the run until the final mile was at 9:00 pace -- and the heart rate barely crept above 140.

Kinda have a few distractions for the next few days. My son turns 18 on the 17th, and that's not even the major distraction that day. I have to take my recertification test that day, the every-six-years pain in the gluteus I need to keep my PA-C title. I don't HAVE to pass it -- I won't lose my license or my job -- but if I don't pass, I either have to retake and pass the test or I lose that title. Nobody really knows what that certification means except for another PA, but I still don't want to lose it.

The bad thing about that test is that it's going to cover a whole lot of things I never deal with. Imagine if you were a chemist working in, say, the oil industry, and you had to pass a test every six years about organic chemsistry -- stuff you absolutely never use in your day-to-day job. That's what I face next week. I have to be up to speed on treating high blood pressure and taking care of surgical patients and a whole lot of stuff I'll never use again -- until I have to take the test again in 2014.

Oh well, get through the next 10 days, and then I can hopefully zone in on family, job, and running -- in some order :)

Not quite sure how to classify tonight's run. Started out as a routine 9-miler on the treadmill at 10:00 pace, but as I went on, I felt better, so I kept cranking up the TM. By the 4-mile mark, I was at 9:00 pace (AKA sub-four), did two miles there, then cranked it to 8:34 pace for 2.5 miles and ran the last half-mile at 8:00 pace.

Run started late. My boss decided it was time for everyone in the office (including him) to recertify in CPR. In my case, it was loooooong overdue; my CPR certification expired in like 1996, and the guidelines have changed a lot in the last 12 years. So a nurse came over after work and we all took an hour and a half giving mouth-to-mouth to mannequins and doing two-finger chest compressions to baby dolls. But I still think if somebody hit the floor in front of me and I had to do something, instinct would take me back to what I learned in 1994, not what I learned today. Anyway, because of that, my nine-miler started at 7 p.m., not 5:30. Yet another incentive for me to start getting out of bed at 5, not 7, and running early. But still not enough incentive for me to actually DO that.

Actually, it poured this morning around 10 and temperatures dipped into the low 70s. That would have been as perfect as Arkansas running weather gets in July -- cool and rainy. But, unfortunately, I was seeing patients and filling pumps, not putting in miles in the rain.

So this week will mark two milestones in my running -- Monday's one-year run-iversary, if you will, and my first 40-mile week. So far, so good. I've done 23 miles in the last three days and feel pretty good. Recovery (4) run tomorrow, take off Friday, 13 on Saturday. I think I'll adjust my schedule for a recovery run on Sunday instead of what I've done the last three days; when 23 in 3 becomes 30-plus in 3, I may not handle that so well.

Easy 4-miler on the TM at 9:40 pace. A little bit heavy-legged tonight after two nine-milers in three nights, so a good night to do a recovery run. Take tomorrow off, then 13 around downtown LR on Saturday to finish my first 40-mile week -- then take my kid to the theme park for his 18th birthday. Fortunately, I don't have to take him around by the hand any more. I don't know if I'll be up for a major hike after a 13-miler.

Capped off my first 40-mile week with a very good run in the company (most of the way) of Pat Koss. Pat's a good influence on me in that he helps me keep from going out too fast. We started at the River Market, crossed the Broadway Bridge, did the reverse Karrot loop, came back across Broadway, then turned up 3rd and headed for the Heights. Pat twisted his ankle in front of the Blind School both coming and going, got a piece of glass inside his shoe (it looked like someone had gone down the street for about 100 yards breaking out car windows), didn't bring enough water or any carbs. I finally left Pat in the last 2.5 miles; Tom saw him when he came in and said he had the wild-eyed look of someone with low blood sugar. And a twisted ankle, no doubt.

Anyway, after going up Kavanaugh all the way to the Van Buren split, and thus retracing a good part of the Firecracker course in reverse, we turned around and headed back down Kavanaugh to 3rd and back to downtown. As usual, I picked up the pace on the Kavanaugh downhill. We stopped on the Promenade to refill Pat's water bottle, and I left him shortly thereafter, or actually when he stepped on another rock. So my splits for the last three miles, including on the downtown flats, were sub-9:00, which is pretty much what I was hoping for. And I felt much better once I got a gel down around the 9-mile mark. Those things are complete yuck, but they work. I'll take yuck under those circumstances.

Weather was no bargain; it was about 80 and very humid when we started. Saving grace was an intermittent breeze which was particularly helpful as we descended Kavanaugh from miles 8-10.

So, in a training run, I ran 13.2 six minutes faster than I ran 13.1 in the marathon in March. So I guess I could count this as my half-marathon PR, but I won't. I'll save that for Soaring Eagles in October, when hopefully I can knock another 13-15 minutes off my time.

However, the sleep issue has to be resolved, somehow. I went to bed at 10:15 and got up at 4:45, but that does not mean I got 6.5 hours of sleep. I think the five hours I listed above is overly generous, frankly. I just could not get comfortable, I had to get up to visit the loo several times, the room was too warm even with the fan on, etc. I think I finally got some solid shuteye after I got up for the last time at 2:30 or so.

So on to another 40-mile week, after I take Tyler to the theme park for his birthday. I think I'll spend my time at the water attractions getting wet. But first, it's nap time.