Getting back to Boston

Fairly routine four-miler on the TM. Still a little stiff from the 18-plus on Saturday (plus plenty of time on my feet at the football game), but got through the run without much issue. This week will be very interesting, in that it's my first week with a VO2 max run on Tuesday. Seven tomorrow (I think), then VO2 on Tuesday. I think I should be OK for VO2 (I'm probably better suited for speed runs right now than a marathon), but we shall see.

Seven miles of progression on the TM. Didn't really get comfortable until I'd bumped it to about a 9:13 pace. Maybe that should tell me something: Run faster, foo'. Had a good night's sleep and not too bad a day at work.

Went back and double-checked my VO2 max pace for tomorrow night: 3:31 for the 800-meter intervals. About what I thought. I think I can handle that OK, although the fifth and sixth reps might be interesting. Maybe some real speed work will bump me up to another level; I think I've kinda stagnated as I've built mileage without much major speed work. Jog a 400 in between, I think, which leaves me about a three-mile warmup and roughly two miles cooldown to get the total of 9. 

Tough VO2 run last night. Decided to run on TM even though weather was reasonably cool because it was getting dark and likely to rain; now I wish I'd run outside. Got through the run OK, and hit the goals for the six 800-meter intervals; now (written Wed. morning) I'm paying for it. Think I may have to shuffle my order of runs this week; the Wednesday 12-miler may have to move to Thursday and do a recovery run Wed.

VO2 pace was 3:31; the TM wouldn't exactly go that pace, but it was like 3:31.5 (close enough).

Easier progression 12-miler than I expected. I'd initially planned to take it easy, almost a 12-miler recovery run, after my legs ached through most of work today. But I felt more comfortable as I bumped up the pace early, and decided to speed up every mile from 4 to 10. That progression took me to about MP+5%, which is close enough to MP in my book to qualify, then I ran the last 400 at actual GMP.

 This, of course, takes into consideration the lesson I described earlier in the week: "Run faster, foo' ." Apparently my legs do not take well to an overly leisurely pace. Too slow is as bad as too fast, plus takes a lot longer. Not for nothing did Bill Rodgers say that he could not imagine what the back-of-the-packers went through in running a marathon in five hours. Faster pace equals longer stride length equals less pounding on legs and feet for the same distance. If I had maintained the original pace tonight, I would have been about 10 minutes slower, and probably also would have been even more tired from about 16-1700 more footstrikes.

Cruised 7 tonight. Little tougher than usual due to lack of sleep, but again felt better once I got the pace into the low-9 range. Sets me up for a 59-mile week if I can do Saturday's planned 20-miler from the Capitol. Funny how I used to look at those 45-mpw training plans and think those were so outrageous. Now I passed 45 mpw a month or so back. Yikes.

Looks like Ike will blow through Arkansas on Sunday after hitting two of my former residences, Galveston and Pearland. The old house on Campeche looks like it will be under water some time Saturday. This weekend is what I feared the whole time I was living down there and never actually went through. Now I'm gone, and they're getting hit. I don't feel guilty for leaving, but I feel bad for the people I worked with and knew who are going through this. Seeing Arkansas hit by a tropical storm, which I HAVE been through, will be interesting.

Words fail me at this point. Bonk. Crash and burn. Where's my IV bag? This run was harder than the marathon last March -- and took almost as long.

Tom called me last night and asked me to run with a woman from Conway named Christina. Fine, I said, and called her to let her know I'd be there in my Prius. Then I went back to bed.

Then I got up at 3 a.m. to watch the Weather Channel. Yes, I hated living in Galveston, but it was my home for 11 years, and I wanted to get some idea what Ike was doing to that little island. At that point, the eye was over the San Luis Hotel -- a place I drove by twice a day for the bulk of those 11 years. Then the south eyewall came on shore. So I made breakfast and ate while I watched the report, and headed for the Capitol for the run.

I knew it was going to be warm and muggy, and it was -- maybe the warmest Saturday morning all summer, and not a hint of wind. Christina and I set out at a decent pace, and it went OK for the first six miles or so. Actually, I was still OK after 11. I tried to keep the pace moderate, took an occasional rest and drank a lot. Christina was getting blisters, so we stopped at the Capitol at mile 11 so she could check her feet. She thought she could continue, and we did. But I soon realized that my legs pretty much shut down during that break. Christina turned around at 13.5 to go back to the Capitol to finish her 16 miles, and I was on my own. And walking. And walking. I'd try to run, and couldn't manage a decent pace. My legs weren't cramping -- yet -- but they hurt like hell. The wind had picked up some, which made it more comfortable from a heat standpoint, but too late to help with my dehydration or hyponatermia or whatever it was. So I'd jog a little, walk a lot. Down Cedar Hill, along Riverfront, up Dillard's Hill, down Markham. Still walking. Tried to jog the last mile, and managed -- sorta, run 200 meters, walk some more, run 100 meters. Did manage to jog the last two blocks, and finished in roughly 4:20.

Finished, drank everything I could get my hands on, stopped and got a cold drink on the way home, got chocolate milk when I walked in the door, did an ice bath, then went to bed -- and started cramping. Not horrible cramps, certainly not what I had in March, but cramps nonetheless. Managed to find a comfortable position to lie where I didn't cramp, and got some rest.

Think I'll definitely have to revise my plans for next week unless the legs respond quickly -- and need to get more carbs, more fluids and more sodium in my diet for a while (like the next three months). I got my PR week, but I paid for it.