Getting back to Boston

Worked from 6:30 to 11, then tried to take a nap (unsuccessfully), then we met T for a late Mexican lunch, then I fixed our leaky washer. Only then did I get a chance to run. Started at 4:15 at the Mud Creek trailhead. Down Mud Creek to Scull Creek, then to Frisco Trail. At the end of Frisco, turned right on to MLK and headed for campus. Turned up Garland and ran up the hill behind T's dorm (calling him as I did so, and he saw me running out his dorm window). Wound around campus, back down Razorback to MLK (only then reaching the halfway point) and back out MLK to the end of Frisco. Then returned from whence I came. When I got back to the car, the Garmin read 18.9. So, being the OCD I am, I kept going, 0.55 up Old Missouri and west on Joyce, then turned around and ran back to the car. A little extra loop around the parking lot at the trailhead left me at 20.06 in 2:57. A definite negative split -- first 13 miles were a little over 9:00 pace, last 7 were well under 9, and some of it approximated GMP.

A pretty darn good 20 mile run, IMO, especially given that I worked both days this weekend and went to the football game and did a few other things other than run both days (which I also did).

Easy run, followed by 10 hill sprints. I get back in the door and my wife exclaims, "that was fast!" Well, actually it was 56 and change for 6.09, including the hill sprints on the street outside the house. I'm encouraged by how easy it is to run at decent pace; that pace tonight felt really easy, even up the hills, of which there were plenty around JBH.

Got a tad tipsy last night on wine when Deb and Brian came over for dinner. So instead of running, I went to bed and slept it off. (Yes, I'm a lightweight, although not normally THAT bad.) After 11 good hours (which I really needed to put some Zs back in the sleep bank), I felt better today and tonight took it out for a hard interval run, what Jack Daniels calls an I run. Six 600-meter intervals at something under 5K pace. Warmed up for two miles (the second one of which was sub-GMP), then hit the intervals. Paces were 6:50, 6:42, 6:28, 6:32, 6:46 and 6:47. Then the last tenoth of a mile coming home was also at I pace, purely by accident. Overalll, 9.18 in 76 and change, with 2.40 of that at I pace. Good VO2 max run, I think, another confidence builder. It's a little hard for me to adjust to the idea of quality rather than quantity being the key to a marathon, but it seems to be working so far.

Weird day at work. I was basically thereby myself for most of the day. like from 11:30 on. Entered patients in the computer, and answered the phone, solo. Strange.

Got home and went for a late run, 5.39 at 9:23 average. Easy, but not too easy. Hopefully I can get out and do my 22 tomorrow, then it will be basically taper time after that.

Wow. Just wow.

Turned on my computer a few minutes ago and my arms were shaking so hard I could barely type my password or make a note in my handwritten log. My fingertips are still numb. Not sure why all of that is happening, but one thing I do know: I ran 22.2 today and it was BRUTAL.

Several reasons for the brutality. One, it's 75 freakin degrees in the Ozarks in November. What the heck is up with that? Two, I ran a new route for me. Online description said there was 2.75 miles of path and 2.75 miles of trail, total of 5.5. Well, what is a trail? Is it flat, packed gravel like in Lincoln Park in Chicago? Is it just a dirt path through a field? Or is it rocks, ruts and roots? You guessed it: Rocks, ruts and roots.

I had planned to run four laps of the total trail for my 22 miles. Lap 1 changed that plan quickly. I I figure the two-plus miles fr RR&R used as much energy as at least three miles of path, maybe more (and that was the warmest and windiest time of the run too). Revised plan became one full lap, three trips back and forth on the paved/flat gravel sections to finish the 22. And even that posed problems. I hadn't eaten enough for one thing, and two gels and a bottle of Gatorade did not correct the caloric deficiency. I was unloading plenty of electrolytes, too, as the dried sweat on my shorts when I stopped at 16 miles showed, and the left calf started going into the familiar twitching that plagued me at Memphis and Newport, fortunately stopping short of full-blown cramp. But if I'd tried to go 23 or 24, I bet there would have been some humongous golfballs rolling around in my gastrocs.

I also suspect another part of the problem is that it had been only about 114 hours since I finished my 20-miler Sunday night, and about 45 hours since the hard interval run on Wednesday. Not enough recovery time, in other words.

Anyway, it's now taper time. Work out some kinks tomorrow to cap off a high-60s to 70-mile week, than start the 28-day sharpening phase for Memphis. And hope it's not 75 degrees on December 5 in Tennessee. 

Nice day. Good time at the football game with Pam and Tyler, nice family dinner at BW3 at which Pam had a bit too much Stella Artois, and a good 7.5 miler after dark. Surprised at how little soreness I had today, as bad as I was hobbling last night. Legs felt even better after about 4 miles. I  remember thinking I could have gone another 5 miles, then thinking, nah, no reason, you've already had a 30-mile weekend and a 70-mile week. Now for taper time.