Getting back to Boston

No treadmill for me; they changed the access code on the fitness room and I don't have the new one yet. So I just went down to the river and ran from the I-30 bridge to the skateboard park and back. Very warm and humid, but a nice breeze made it almost tolerable, especially as the sun set. Ran the five in less than 9:00 pace, which seems right now to be what my body wants to run if I'm not conscious of exactly how fast I'm going. Wasn't a great run, but better than yesterday. That blister on my right foot is still bothering me; it keeps getting rubbed. Put a bandage on it for the long run which slipped off within the first three miles (big help there).

Hmm. Starting to develop some theories about last week's case of dead legs. Did I need a stepdown week? Absolutely. But was that the only issue? I doubt it. Seems like I had gotten into a rut -- running the same types of workouts at the same speeds, recovery/GA/MP+20/MP+10. Needed to do something different. So last night I did my whole recovery run at basically MP plus 10, and tonight I turned my GA run into an MP run, first one I've done in quite a while.

I think my nutrition and hydration is still not where it should be, although I'm working on them, so tonight was probably tougher than it should have been. But I managed to hold MP for more than four miles tonight, then did some strides at the end at MP-minus speeds. Then I got in the pool, which felt REALLY good (oh, I got the new fitness center code today, so back to the TM).

Tomorrow I'll do a slow four, then another eight on Wednesday, four more on Thursday, then 13 Saturday before I go to Fayetteville. 

Just cruised four miles on the TM tonight (and retrieved the t-shirt I left up there last night). No muss, no fuss, just put in the miles. It was harder getting through work today (given the unshakable desire, all day, to curl up and take a nap) than running, by a long shot.

Good progression run tonight, starting from 10:00 pace all the way up to MP-6%. Ran for exactly 72 minutes. Energy level was good, thanks in large part to a huge lunch that had me fighting off the urge to nap all afternoon, but not starving six hours later. Then the pool afterward felt REAL good.

Saturday's a stepdown day, only 13 miles, but we go back to Oucho's -- the West Little Rock Alps. You Utah people on this blog would feel right at home on the Oucho's run -- all they'd need is snow and some chairlifts and you'd have at least a medium difficulty ski run on much of this route.

Cruised for 40 minutes, which wound up being 4.22 miles. Felt easy, didn't even sweat much (got away with a cotton t-shirt). Legs feel a little stronger after backing off this week; I guess Saturday's 13 will be a better test. Saturday will also test some psychological things I need to work on, like not letting myself take walk breaks.

Now that's more like it. Solid 13-miler today, no walking, good pace, even picked it up the last four miles on an EXTREMELY hilly course. Only three miles run at more than 10:00 pace, all of those on the big hills, and none slower than 10:30.

Which tells me two things: Poor nutrition has been part of my problem, as well as the legs just needed a break after five weeks of continually mounting mileage. Weather was not much help today (75 and humid pretty much throughout), but it didn't clobber me like it did last week, even with a less than satisfactory sleep last night (I don't sleep well anyway, but particularly it seems when I'm going to be getting up at 4 a.m. to run). So weather didn't bother me, lack of sleep didn't hamper me, but lack of fuel in the tank and tired muscles did.

So now for a recovery bar, a shower, a nap, then get up and get ready to drive to Fayetteville. One more reason for the nap: I'll probably get back from Fayetteville around 1:30 or 2 a.m., which makes this a 22-hour day. Good thing I don't have to work Monday. I'll need most of that day to do the laundry and other things I won't get to today or Sunday.

Oh, one more thing: Today pushes me over the 200-mile mark for this month, which I'm pretty sure is a PR for me (even counting high school track, for which I did very little base training; that's probably why I was so mediocre. Oh, if I'd known then...).