Getting back to Boston

Easy 6 tonight. Legs still stiff and sore from last night's hard run, so took about 3.5 to really get loose. Kept plodding though and eventaully was able to pick up the pace a bit. I'm having to fight the urge to run too much too fast. May step down a couple of runs later this week. Oh yeah, pretty sure today got me to 2300.

Interesting run tonight. It was supposed to be an easy/GA type of run -- just get out and pile up some miles. Jogged up the hill into the park, turned left and set out on what felt like a comfortable pace. First streetlight I reached, I looked at the Garmin, and it said I was at GMP lap pace. I said, hmm, this feels good, let's try to maintain it. I did more than maintain -- I got faster. Mile 2, 7:73. Mile 3, 7:40, Mile 4, 7:23, Mile 4.9, 7:17. Finished 4.9 in 38:57, sub 8 average pace even with the 9:22 warmup mile. I was supposed to do 3 X 1600 intervals later in the week, but this may take their place. I'll see  how I feel on Wednesday.

Easy three laps of the park tonight, then back down the hill for sprints. Seemed like I was running faster on the sprints, whether that's taper or just rest last night and a short run tonight, dunno. Maybe both. But I was getting past the neighbor's mailbox in 10 seconds, which I don't usually do. Nice and chilly tonight. Ran it in shorts, t-shirt, no gloves. Probably need to acclimate a little since race morning in Memphis may well be below freezing.

I won't know for another 9 days if my legs are ready to go 26.2 miles. But I already know my legs are ready to go fast. The interval work has gotten better and better. Today I had just planned to do 3 X 1600 at somewhere around 7:00 pace as part of an 8-miler. Got up around 8:30 (first day I haven't had to get ready for work in 18 days), had some breakfast, goofed around on the Internets, then went out just after 10:00. Beautiful, clear, cold day in the Ozarks, probably 38 degrees, breezy, not a hint of a cloud.

Ran over to the park, then warmed up with two laps, hit the timer and accelerated. Each mile is 1.25 laps, but the Garmin made it easy, since it would show an end of a lap at the right time. Looked down and saw 6:41. OK, a little fast but OK. Trotted around the rest of that lap to recover, then hit the lap button and took off again. This time, 6:38, but it felt a lot harder than that. Wind was picking up, for one thing. Trotted the rest of the lap, and by this point I was tired enough that I wasn't sure I could push another entire mile, but I decided to do what I could. So I hit the lap button and off I went. This one was HARD, but I kept pushing. Got to the end, looked down, 6:31. Basically I'd just run 3 miles in less than 20 minutes; considering my 5K PR is 21:57, I think I would have smoked that PR.

Really easy 5 today at the park while the fam was at the movies (they've given up on getting me to go; I just don't like going to the cinema). Then Ty and I took advantage of free basketball tickets to go to the game -- which was ugly. The basketball game was more painful than going to the movie, or than the five-mile run for that matter. But at least we got our money's worth... :( Ten tomorrow to cap off the last full week of training.

Routine 10 miles this morning. Tried to maintain sub-9 pace and was pretty much successful. Not a great run, but not a bad one. I'm tapering now, not building; just want to maintain what I've already done, and I think today meets that requirement. Seven days to go now. Race will be over in less than 168 hours.