Getting back to Boston

Decided to shuffle the schedule once again -- the Monday run gets pushed to Tuesday, with another recovery run moved into the Monday slot. The Wednesday sorta-long run gets moved to Thursday. Friday is still the off day. We'll see how that works, and if my legs are able to snap back between a Thursday night 10-miler and a Saturday dawn 16-miler. Might end up doing 19 miles back to back some weeks -- 9 on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday -- or might go back to the Monday-Wednesday split.

Anyway, peripherally connected to all that, did four miles of recovery on the TM. Could have done it around noon when it was cloudy, windy and (relatively) cool -- about 90. But I didn't, and by 5 p.m., when we went to see my brother in the hospital, it was back up to 100 degrees. Scott's doing better, but seems to be quite subdued after getting zapped (zapping does tend to do that). Hopefully he'll be discharged by midweek. The legs were a little bit rubbery after yesterday's 15.6, but no real pain. Certainly not as bad as yesterday -- I tried to get out of bed during my post-run nap, and the left hamstring cramped up massively, even worse than during the marathon. I was able to push my knee back out straight which got the cramp to subside, and went back to bed for another two hours' snooze time or so.

There was a new twinge tonight, though -- after about a mile, my left heel began to hurt, kind of an intermittent, stabbing type discomfort. I shifted my stride a little bit and it soon went away. Kinda reminded me of the Sever's disease I had as a kid, although not exactly. Is it due to shoes that need to be replaced? Possibly. I bought this pair of shoes in January; not sure how many miles they have, but quite a few. I need to work in a couple more new pairs in the next 2 months, for sure.

Not quite the routine recovery run. Three miles at 9:22, then 0.75 at MP, then cranked it up to 8.2 mph for the last lap. Felt the need to run somewhat fast tonight, even if not for very long. Tomorrow, nine miles of more of the same. Legs felt fine, no more twinges in the left heel.

Tonight is what it's supposed to feel like, I think. After 3.25 miles at MP+20%, and roughly 3.25 miles at MP+10%, I decided to let it rip and cranked the TM up to MP. And I was cruisin' at MP -- not straining, not pushing, just maintaining a steady pace without much difficulty. Then for the last lap, I cranked it up another mile an hour and basically sprinted. Capped it off by going over to the parking lot and doing my strides as my cat, Max, stopped by to watch. That pace took its toll a litle bit during the strides, as my right groin felt a little sore -- not strained, just unusual-level-of-exertion sore. Hopefully over the next 17 weeks, that level of exertion will be neither unusual nor cause discomfort.

Amazingly, the problem after last night's 9 is not the legs. The legs are fine. What hurts like heck are my abs. It feels like I did 3000 situps. Sometimes the abs are a little sore early in a run, then I settle in. Not tonight. They never did settle in. The best way I could get through the run was to almost feel like I was leaning backwards as I ran; that at least reduced the discomfort. Was I running leaning forward last night? I don't think so, but the abs seem to be telling me otherwise. I think I'm going to ice down my abs tonight (boy, that sounds strange). But with sore abs, no temptation whatsoever to push the pace (but a whole lot of temptation to turn the TM off and leave).

Good night's sleep last night, which helps, and work was not bad. But the abs were sore even at work, which probably should have tipped me off.

So here I am in another first -- my first marathon-equivalent in 36 hours during training. Tonight, 10-mile progression run on the TM; Saturday morning, 16 on the road. I am pleased to report that the abdominal discomfort, while not completely gone, is much better, The legs, well, not so much. Not painful, but just lackluster. I was able to maintain a good pace, all right, but the energy wasn't there. Of course, a little session of, uh, marriage maintenance before the run might have had something to do with that :)

Started the run at 10:12 pace and just gradually bumped up the pace, spemding about .75 miles at each level before speeding up again. Finally got it to 8:20-something for the last two miles and left it there. Overall average for the 10 miles, right at 9:00. Since Sub-Four remains Plan B, that's kinda sorta MP-B on average, and the last half of the run was faster than MP-B. Never quite got to MP-A level, though, so I'm not going to count any MP miles on the log.

Saturday will be interesting. In my favor, the weather is supposed to be much cooler, maybe even in the high 60s when we depart pre-dawn. Working against me is an extremely hilly course -- Arts Center to Central High to the Capitol, up Kavanaugh, loop around Cammack Village, back down Kavanaugh and Markham to the River Market, then work back to the Arts Center. After this one, though, Memphis, even with cambered streets, should be a snap. And the last probably 6-7 miles is essentially downhill. Hopefully, I'll handle this 16 a lot better than last Saturday's almost-16.

All sorts of firsts for me today.

* First 48-mile week.

* First time to run the equivalent of a marathon in a 36-hour period in training.

* First time I put the hammer down in the second half of a long run.

Finally got a break from the weather. It was 71 when we started at 5 a.m., and 73 when I finished two hours, 38 minutes later. Ran with Pat and Anna for the first 3-4 miles, then Anna peeled off. Pat kept trying to slow down, which I went along with for the first 10 miles, but once we headed back down Kavanaugh from Cammack, I just put the hammer down and pushed about four sub-9 miles. Water stop and traffic interrupted the flow, and I also stopped to eat a gel at about 12 miles, but overall very pleased with the run (9:43 avg. even with the blips).

I think I've finally determined that my left foot must be a little bigger than the right, or else my left shoe on the adizero CS pair is smaller than the right. That's the one that's going to give me trouble if I have any trouble during a run. I definitely like the weight savings with those shoes, though, and will just order a 9.5 next time.

No problems with the abs, although abs have not been a problem anyway on the road runs, just the TMs. Maybe my body is telling me to get off the treadmill and go outside, and if we start getting a lot more weather like today, I can do that.

Slept well last night, but a nap would work too. So I'm gonna go take one.