Getting back to Boston

The official start of training for Memphis today, unless you want to call yesterday the start. Hudson called for a recovery run with two hill sprints at the end, and that's what I did. Six miles, two 8-second sprints. Paced off the sprints afterward and got about 45 yards on each. Not gonna make the NFL with those times (my all-time best 40 was 5.0 with a rolling start in high school), but hopefully I can bring them down a little, and more importantly, get a little stronger.

These next 18 weeks are going to be a real challenge. Not only am I trying to finally get the elusive BQ, but I'm going to relocate, pack and unpack, plus get my son established as a college student. Will be interesting to be sure.

Easy 6 tonight. Resisted the temptation to pick up the pace. Legs felt good, but no need to risk overdoing it this early in the training cycle. Just plugged along and finished in 58:40. Easy again tomorrow, then some hills on Wednesday. Just trying to get easy miles in and get used to going more than 40 miles in a week again.

Another 6 on the DM tonight. Goal, other than just putting in the miles, was to work on keeping my stride low and quick, not the bounding I tend to do on slow runs, TM or otherwise. I think I succeeded; the cadence/HR monitor showed in the mid-170s, not around 160 as I do when I'm bounding (if you're not holding the HR monitor on the TM and it shows a reading, it's counting your cadence, not your HR). Six days in a row now for the first time in a LONG time. Not quite up to the 40-plus days I had at one point in the spring, but not bad, and legs are handling it pretty well so far.

A not-so-easy easy run tonight. Legs did not want to work. Thought frequently about cutting it off at 5 miles, but kept going anyway until I got to 6. Then I jogged over from the AC to the hill on Commercial St. to run my hill sprints. Didn't count on the Wednesday night church crowd leaving at that time, but managed to get my three sprints in without getting run over, then jogged back to Casa SP. Strangely, the sprints felt better, maybe felt a little faster than they did Monday night.

If I haven't mentioned it to this point, I'm trying Hudson for the Memphis training cycle, sort of a mix between his Plan 2 and Plan 3. Probably will top out at around 80, although I might push it to the full 87 if things go well. It will be interesting trying to do this with all that will be going on in my life between now and December; a real test of my focus/dedication/obsession/insanity/all of the above.

Somebody slap me. Please. Knock some sense into me. I took Hudson Level 3 and tweaked down the first week because my mileage hasn't been that high this summer. Eight-milers became 6 milers, including tonight's progression run. Then what do I do? Run eight anyway. Yep, I need some sense slapped into me before I hurt myself. Anyway, no injury yet, and then run went pretty well. Ran the last 5 minutes at GMP. It was a Beat the Cop run tonight anyway; try to finish before I get tossed off the treadmill at 10 p.m. I made it. The couple on the other treadmill and the elliptical, I'd venture, got tossed; they'd barely arrived when I left at 9:58.

Wasn't sure I was going to run today. Legs felt every bit of last night's tough 8, and today was another typical Friday pummeling at the office. But rested for a while, then decided to go put in my easy 4, which I did without any trouble. Finished my first week of Hudson Level 3 with 48 miles -- not his recommended mileage, but satisfactory for my purposes. Start week 2 tomorrow with 14 from the boathouse.

Not sure what was going on this morning. Felt like I hadn't eaten in a month (I had), or hadn't slept in a week (closer to the truth), or my legs were necrotic (they are). Had no energy at all. Heat and humidity didn't help, but a little bit of breeze was no help. I got through 14 miles, but it took a looooong time.