Getting back to Boston

Decided to run tonight to get out the kinks from the 5K. Just a routine 4 on the TM at 9:30 pace. It poured this morning, which only succeeded in making it MORE humid.

For now, I think I'll do a recovery run on Sunday and reduce my other weekly runs except for Saturday to keep my weekly mileage unchanged. That may change when Wednesday starts to become a 14-miler, but for now it works, and we'll see how I tolerate six-day weeks at slightly lesser mileage.

(Written Tuesday morning -- our DSL, and the phone line that goes with it, crashed Monday evening, right in the middle of my son's online final for his summer school class. No stress around my household from THAT, no sir.)

Back on the treadmill Monday for a tempo run. Warmed up for 2.5 miles, then cranked it up to 7:41 pace for four miles, then warm down for a mile and a half. Which means I ran 5K faster last night on the treadmill than I did in the race Saturday night <shrugs>. The run itself went OK, but then about three hours later the pain arrived in full. The quads were howling. Ibuprofen and stretching controlled it enough to let me get SOME sleep Monday night, but they're definitely still very sore this morning. I guess the second hard 5K in 48 hours was a little more than I was ready for. Pleased with the run overall, though; that's the kind of workout I need to get to my goals. Get that lactate threshold up a little higher.

As the heat wave continues (another 100-degree day expected today), I asked Tom and Hobbit to e-mail me the route for Saturday's run so I can start at 5 a.m., before the rest of the Crackheads. They asked me where I wanted to run, since they haven't decided on a site. I think they'll probably put me on the River Trail loop, which will be the first time I've done the entire loop (about 14 miles) on both sides of the river. Four tonight, nine tomorrow, four Thursday and 15 Saturday would give me 44 miles, my new weekly high. I could just maintain that level, which is equal to the max in Hal Higdon's Intermediate plan, for four months and probably run a decent 26.2 at Memphis, but I'm not interested in decent. I want fast, or at least fast for me, so we'll keep working on the Pfitzinger/Necessary 24/60 plan.

Four routine miles at 6.3/6.4 on the TM, followed by a refreshing (?) dip in the pool with Pam. The water temperature was about 90, I think, so the cooling factor was zero, and there wasn't even enough breeze to cool you after you got out.

One thing I've noticed. When I first start runs, especially on the TM, my lower abdominals really hurt for the first 400 or so, as if I'd just done about 150 situps. Once I get into the run, or maybe once I get my core muscles activated, the pain subsides, but it's weird to have my abs hurt more than my legs on a run. Yes, I'm still working on core strengthening, including doing planks for 150 seconds.

I REALLY needed a good run this evening. Work was highly frustrating (an underling who acts completely unprofessionally and tries to undermine me, and I can't do a damn thing about her attitude, because I'm not her supervisor), and I needed to burn off a lot of steam. It took about eight miles to get me to stop cussing her and focusing on the run.

The run itself was a standard Pfitz GA -- warm up slow for 3, go to MP plus 20% for 3.5, then up to MP plus 10% for 3.5. Took an hour-33-plus to do it. It was tough, but not horribly so, and my legs feel pretty good now, two hours later. Maybe the busted 5K on Saturday served as a springboard, or a motivator, because I've had good runs this week so far. The real test, though, will be that predawn 15 on Saturday. Which, by the way, will cap off a 45-mile week.

Fortunately, it's supposed to cool off -- a little -- for the rest of the week. Doesn't mean it won't be 75 with high humidity at 5 a.m. Saturday, but at least it won't be 80 with high humidity.

Wrapped up my best month of training with an easy 4 on the TM. It was one of those evenings where I could have easily come home at 5:30 and gone straight to bed, but no. Went out with the family for a nice dinner, then after letting dinner settle/digest for about 90 minutes, I did my run. Monthly total: 168.89.

Took the bull by the horns a little bit and I think the problem with the underling at work is settled for now. As usual, there was some fault on both sides. Yesterday wore me out, but not because I was stressed over this situation.

What a way to start a new month of running! Five a.m., temperature above 80, heat index above 85 -- and dawn is still an hour-15 away. Six of us really deranged Crackheads showed up, only to find our meeting spot occupied by a fishing tournament. So we moved a quarter-mile down and set out from there. Pat and I really tried to go out slow, drink a lot, walk occasionally. Pat set out his cooler where we would run by it twice, and we raided it for ice-cold water both times and stopped to rest. And even with all those precautions, and our gels and my four water bottles, we all crashed in the heat. My 15.66 miles took just about three hours. And all of us looked like we needed an IV when we finished.

Thus ends my 45.66-mile week, my most ever -- until next week. Now, back to bed. So I finally get back up at 1:30 p.m. It's already 102 degrees outside. That ain't right, y'all.