Getting back to Boston

Double today, five in the AM, five in the PM. Put me at just about 40 this weekend and more than 2200 this year, with 27 days to go to Memphis (and 53 to go this year). I'm figuring I'll wind up somewhere around 2500 for the year.

DOMS finally hit this morning. Legs very stiff and sore. In spite of that, went out for an 11 a.m. run which was redirected because somebody hit a power pole and knocked lines down across Cheyenne Ave. behind the park. So I turned around and went back through the park instead of completing the run with the West End-Backus loop. Legs loosened up pretty well after a couple of 10:00 plus miles and I was able to pick it up to probably 9:20 pace later on.

Tonight, skipped the park and did the Backus-West End-Pump Station loop backward (power lines repaired by now). Didn't quite get me to the 5 I wanted, so ran up the park driveway to the top of the hill, then turned around and headed home.

Another interesting side note to last night's run I forgot to mention. Went down and looped Lake Springdale early in the run. About halfway around, I saw some sort of animal on the trail beside me. It was too dark to tell exactly what, maybe a rabbit, maybe a possum. Wasn't a skunk, fortunately. But it became startled, and because the other side of the path dropped off into the lake, it ran at me -- actually ran THROUGH my legs as I was running. I made some sort of evasive maneuver (surprised I didn't pull something given my level of stiffness/fatigue) and somehow didn't trip or kick the animal or step on it -- or fall into the lake.

Tried the Stultz route again tonight -- the West End loop, continue past the park, up Stultz all the way to Shiloh nursing home, and in this case past Shiloh to Thompson. Then back on Stultz, over on Pump Station and back on Silent Grove. The Stultz route in this case was about 6.8, so I added hills to the end, which I needed to do anyway, to get it up to 7.3. Ran it progression style; the last three miles plus were sub-9. the last .8 of the main run was at GMP, then the hill sprints after that at I pace or faster.

 Probably will take off tomorrow, or just do a 4-mile kink-shaker, before a big tempo run Wednesday. 

Had originally plannned not to run tonight. Decided to get in a short, hard run, and succeeded. First two miles moderately hard, then put the hammer down, with the last .76 well under GMP. We'll see if that messes me up for tomorrow's tempo run, but tonight that's what I felt like doing.

Tempo time tonight: 5 X 1200 at what was supposed to be 7:00 pace. As we'll see, that's sort of what happened.

Nice night for running, coolish, felt like fog might develop at any minute, and I'm not sure it didn't toward the end. Warmed up running up to the park and then 2.5 laps. Decided I would run half-lap recoveries between the LT sessions, instead of longer recovery intervals.

First LT was 7:26 pace, although I didn't find that out until after the run, I knew it didn't feel quite right. Trotted my half-lap, then decided to go a little harder. This one felt more like it, but again I didn't know the pace until I sat down here and checked the Garmin. Another half=lap, try again. This one felt pretty good too. Another half-lap, then another good one. One more time, pushed the last LT run pretty hard, then a lap and a half and return home.

LT #2: 7:08 pace. #3: 7:02. #4: 6:59. The last one: 6:51. Amazing how many times I do that, run each and every interval faster than I did the one before (of course, if my pace judgment was better I wouldn't need to do that).

Felt kind of interesting as I returned home. Park sits atop a hill near my house, then I run down the hill and a half-mile on flat roads to get home. As I came down the hill, it became noticeably cooler, maybe 3-4 degrees, and there may well have been some fog foring in the dark down there along the creek at the bottom of the hill. And the Garmin clicked over to 10.00 miles as I stepped onto the front porch -- exactly the distance I wanted.

Twenty four days to go. When I sit down to write my race report, will I be glad, mad or sad? We shall see.

Little different run tonight. Explored some new territory in the neighborhood I had not yet run over, although I'd certainly driven it. Started looping in the park -- short loop, medium loop, lake loop, then went out the back and down West End. But instead of turned back onto Overo off Backus, I kept going all the way to Silent Grove, then down the big hill. it ended up being a pretty good progression run. That big hill helped; because of it, my pace for the final .46 was 7:09. but my pace for mile 8 without benefit of the hill was 8:32.

Have to work all weekend and there's another football game, so I'm gonna have to work my runs in around those items. Probably will do 12 tomorrow after work, 6 Saturday afternoon between work and the game, and 18 Sunday afternoon after work. Good thing I really don't care about the NFL (also good thing it's supposed to really cool off Sunday, although I have no complaints about the temp right now -- 51).

Figured out last night that as the training schedule works out, I'll go over 2400 miles for the year DURING the race in Memphis. Appropriate, I think. Also figuring out a pacing schedule, with a conservative start and a slight fade. Let's see if I can make myself hold to that conservative start.

I'm having a really hard time figuring this one out. Ran on the Fayetteville trail system today, which is well marked with signs every quarter-mile. Headed out six miles as confirmed by markers and by my Garmin, turned around, headed back. When I got back to the car, the Garmin read ... 10.5???? The trail does go under a freeway and you lose satellite signal while in that tunnel, but losing a mile and a half??? Weird. Anyway, a good run, once the legs loosened. Needed an MLR, and today I got one.