Getting back to Boston

I'm gonna run later but decided to put a few thoughts down this morning.

First of all, I've been sleep deprived for some time. Don't think it's because of running; I get stiff lying in one position whether I run or not, and have to wake up and reposition, then there's the old BPH rearing its ugly head (if you're not familiar with BPH, and you're a male, count yourself lucky, but know it's coming your way). And I do need more sleep than a lot of 48-year-olds might, always have.

Anyway, yesterday I kind of hit the wall. Took a nap from 9:30 to 11:00 after my run, then took another one from 4:30 to 6, then went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 8:30 a.m. That means I slept for 13 of the 23 hours. When I stay in bed that long, I wake up with a headache. Don't know why, but I do. And I realized it had been a LONG time since I woke up with a too-much-sleep headache; the headache I had last Sunday morning wasn't one of those. But now that I caught up on my snoozing, I do feel better.

I think I will take advantage of the week off before Memphis to make sure I'm well rested. That may be a key for me. Instead of getting up at 7 to get ready for work, get up and do a morning run, maybe take an afternoon nap, then I can go to bed earlier instead of having to do an evening run. My schedule would be much different if there weren't the little issue of having to work for a living...

I think if I were among those who didn't have to punch a timeclock five days a week, I would actually be able to pursue BOTH of my obsessions -- running and golf. Run, hit balls, maybe play nine holes on a regular basis, an occasional 18, maybe go do some intervals in the evening. Right now, there's just not enough energy (or daylight) to run 50-70 mpw and spend any time on golf.

Also, I would like to incorporate more crosstraining if I had time, particularly weightlifting. If there's been something I thought I needed to do in this training cycle and didn't, that's it. Our little fitness center has been invaluable (free access to the TM seven days a week), but it doesn't have much in the way of lower body stuff. I do a little upper body work, which helps some. I would have killed for access to a leg press machine and a hip extension machine -- but I wouldn't pay for it or drive several miles to get it, I guess. I think that's what I have needed to incorporate in my training, to get my glutes and hamstrings as strong as my heart and lungs are. I very rarely get out of breath, except when I'm running intervals, but my legs tend to give out. If I had a bicycle (or a place to keep one), all the hills around here would probably have helped me develop those muscle groups as well.

We keep talking about getting a family membership to a city-owned fitness center in Little Rock which has weights, an indoor pool, an indoor jogging track and a basketball court. Perhaps we'll finally pull the trigger on that and I can include that in my training program for Boston....

Finally, the run. Started off really slowly, legs felt good, so I cranked it up pretty good, got to MP with a mile to go, then with 0.5 to go, blasted it up to MP - 10%. I'm trying out a little mantra, sort of a phrase to mentally crack the whip over my head, and at least for a 1600-meter surge, it worked pretty well. Seven miles in 64:11 overall.

Originally scheduled to do a slow 12 tonight, but I didn't get home from work until after 6:30, then had to make a store run, make dinner and THEN run. Twelve miles was just not going to work under those circumstances, especially since the TM room closes at 10. So instead of a slow 12, I did a fairly quick 7, progressing to 8:20 miles and then with seven strides at the end. The 12 now comes tomorrow, when I won't have to go do a pump fill at a hospice. She says she has about six months left; I don't think I believe her. But I've had quite a few patients pass away in the last couple of years. Cancer, heart attacks, mainly. This one is cancer too. Hopefully none of them died because of something I did, but you're never quite sure in this business. I know every time I fill a pump I could kill this patient if I screw up.

Now that I'm thoroughly depressed...

Don't know if I can really describe tonight's run as 12 "easy" miles. Did I get to marathon pace? No. Was it easy? Not a chance. Ran the last 10 miles at better than 9:00 pace, and averaged 8:50, which is MP + 10%. Push, push and push some more. If the goal of tapering is to decrease mileage but not intensity, well, tonight had the intensity.

Ah, the joys of being on call. After my wife kept me up an hour longer than I wanted watching reruns of "According to Jim," the medical exchange decided to become my alarm clock at 6 a.m. Then again at 6:30, in case I wasn't completely awake. Seems our schedulers forgot to notify the hospital that we planned to do a procedure there at 7 a.m. today, and when the patient arrived, they're like "who is this guy and why is he here?" So to answer those questions, they called me. Poor guy did not get his procedure, and the boss had the scheduling girl in his office when I got to work this morning. No pink slip, alas.

Anyway, decided on a recovery run tonight with tempo run tomorrow. The legs were a little slow to respond, but did better as I stepped up the pace later in the run. Finished up 6 miles in exactly 56 minutes, which is a good recovery pace for me.

Good solid MP/LT run (pace was just a touch faster than MP, so I guess you could stretch it to LT) for five miles, with two warmup and one cooldown. Last significant tempo run before the race. I thought it would be more difficult on me than it was, since I was kinda dragging after work and did not have anything to eat for more than 5 hours before the run. It took the warmup and a mile at MP to really get going, but after that it went pretty well and I really didn't have to push all THAT hard to maintain for 40 minutes.

Ordered a pair of red RaceReady shorts, which I may or may not wear in Memphis. Hopefully they arrive by Monday and I can try them out a couple of times to decide if they make the raceday cut. 

Very, very good run. Nice shot of confidence with two weeks left in the taper.

Easily the coldest morning so far this morning, cold enough that my wife questioned my sanity in running with the sniffles I've had this week. It was 25 degrees when I met Michelle and Michael at the Surgical Hospital. A friend of Michelle's from Dallas was supposed to meet us there but didn't make it, and we left at 5:10 or so (she showed up later, I think, and ran with the Crackheads). Clear, no wind, just cold. And we set off slowly, well over 10:00 pace. Legs felt good. Through the hills, around the Joe K. Poch Loop, back down to the river, still generally a slow pace with a little bit of surge on the loop.

Then, shortly befre I was supposed to turn around and leave those other two (they were going 18), Michelle and Michael both slowed to a walk, and I just kept going. Then I accelerated up the hill past the wooden bridge, hit the turnaround at the quarry, and kept going, hard. Michelle said stuff like "nice run" when I saw them again a few hundred yards later. Michael said "have I told you how much you suck?" which made me crack up. I suck to him because I'm a lot faster than he is, and he knows it, and I know how hard I worked to get this fast. In his abusive way, that was a heckuva compliment.

Anyway, back down the hill to the wooden bridge, over the bridge, past the golf course and the concrete bridge and the dog park and the soccer field, and I'm still running fast. At the soccer fields, the 12-milers come back from their Poch loop, and now I'm passing them left and right. Past the field where the Boy Scouts camped and the skunk was ready to blast me a few weeks ago. Turned on to Campbell Lake, still passing people left and right, and still going hard. But a comfortable hard. I'm not straining at all, just smoothly running at MP, maybe a little faster. Turned off Campbell Lake, up the path to the back of the hospital, around the hospital and back to the car. Last four miles plus at marathon pace. And it was still 28 degrees when I got through, after 2:33 and 15.14 miles.

About 45 miles this week as the taper really kicks in. I can definitely feel the difference now. My legs do not feel like I ran 15 this morning, much of it hard.