Getting back to Boston

No running today as I recover from 26.2 eight days ago and 6.14 one day ago. But I've pretty much decided where to make my BQ try. I started a where-to-go-for-BQ thread on RWOL, and got a lot of good suggestions, including Newport, OR. So I look at the Newport race website and see the 2008 race winner is a fellow FRB blogger. So, because Newport works for me on several levels, I'm pretty sure at this point that's where I'm gonna go for BQ next:

* Scheduling. My son graduates from high school May 19 and has been wanting to take a graduation trip. He wanted to go to Canada, but that's gonna be hard to do, in part because none of us have passports right now. But he's OK with Oregon. And a May 30 date fits in well with his graduation.

* Course. Fast, and flat. Sean confirmed that to me; so did the guy who suggested it.

* Weather. As much as I hate running in the heat, that's a worry for a late May race, but if there's anywhere I can depend on for cool weather at that time of year, it's the Pacific Northwest.

* Accommodations. My wife's cousin owns a cottage or condo or something on the Oregon coast, about 70 miles from Newport, that will make a great base for a week of tapering/vacation before we move down to Newport for the race. And I've already found a great flight deal on Orbitz for that week (thank goodness that the price of jet fuel keeps going down).

If for some reason Newport doesn't work out (maybe we can't get the cottage), option #2 is Traverse City, MI. Northern Michigan is beautiful, the course at Traverse meets my criteria for terrain and weather, and it's not too far from the Canadian border so my son could get his Canadian trip. Either one would be OK with me.

Finally, a good night's sleep thanks to a nice batch of NyQuil. Maybe too good. The stuff didn't wear off until after lunch, so it was a groggy morning.

While the meds were fading away, the weather was getting nasty. Yesterday it was in the 60s. Tonight, it's in the 20s, freezing rain, the grass is crunchy. Just the kind of night for which treadmills were invented. And I put it to its intended use. Five recovery miles while I watched the football game. No discomfort at all with the legs.

Tyler just learned (it's 10 p.m.) that he doesn't have to go to school tomorrow; freezing rain will do that around here, since chains are unknown and salting the streets almost unknown around here. But the temps are not supposed to warm up much at all (subfreezing all day), NLR is very hilly and I'd rather not my son have to drive that decrepit old van on slick, inclined streets (I saw a high school kid have an accident this morning near NLRHS when I went to drop off some Prilosec for his heartburn). Then again, the decrepit van is still in the parking lot at school; Pam went to pick him up after school because his windshield was iced over and she didn't want him driving anyway.

Heard from my friend Michelle, who ran her first sub-five-hour marathon yesterday in Dallas. It was very warm and humid, and many of the runners (including her) paid for it. She reports being dizzy after about 21 miles, and when she finished, she went to the medical tent where her BP was like 80/40. She recovered before too long without an IV or anything. Classic dehydration; hypovolemia from sweating too much produces hypotension which results in dizziness. Very proud of her running a PR despite adverse conditions; I told her my speed must be rubbing off on her. She feels that her late friend Anne Pressly, the murdered TV anchor, was cheering her on. Wouldn't doubt it.

Six easy miles on the treadmill. It's still icy outside and the forecast is for freezing fog tonight, so tomorrow may be no picnic on the streets and highways either. Six of my 19 patients today actually showed up; only a couple of the others actually bothered to call and cancel. Perhaps they thought we would be closed like most of the doctors' offices in town.

 I've now run 27 miles in 10 days since the 26.2 in one day. It's still hard for me to think of myself as not only a multiple marathoner, but a successful (relatively speaking), goal-achieving marathoner. My athletic career, such as it was, tended to consist of bumping up very quickly against limits I could not overcome. Too small and not strong enough for football, too short and not quick enough for basketball, inadequate hand-eye coordination for baseball and golf, not enough training to do the job in track.One problem I think I had is that I didn't know what it took to succeed as an athlete. I didn't have the concept of hard work as a vital component; why my dad, who was an all-America high school football player and a Division I recruit, didn't try to impart that to me, I still don't know. I didn't lift enough weights and do enough drills to overcome my small size in football, I didn't develop other skills like ballhandling to compensate in basketball, and I didn't build my base enough to become more than a mediocre middle-distance runner in track.

I probably would have done the same as a marathon-wannabe if I hadn't found good resources like Pfitz' book, and this blog, and the RWOL forums. There, I found out what other people who were succeeding did, and not only that, I got encouragement that I never got from my coaches as a kid. I never showed enough natural talent for them to really bother coaching me, and they spent their time coaching the kids who had the talent. 

But with all the help I got, nobody ran a single step for me. I had to push myself out the door six times a week, and put in the miles whether I felt good or not, do the LT runs and the MP runs and the VO2-max semisprints and run the hills, and make the effort to read the books and the forums and apply what I read there to my own situation. Much of it helped, some of it didn't, and I had to decide what applied to me and what didn't. 

So now I'm in uncharted territory for me. I've achieved two major athletic goals -- running a marathon, and breaking four hours. I'm now a better-than-average marathoner (in 2007, the average male finisher in an American marathon ran a 4:29:52, according to marathonguide.com, and only 15% broke 3:30; I'm a lot closer to 3:30 than 4:30 now. The average for my age group was 4:24:40). But now I've got to press on and see what else is in there. BQ, 3:15, 3:00 -- what is my limit at age 48-plus, and how can I get there? I ran a 5:05 mile and 11:02 two-mile in high school; how much of that speed is still there? Can I learn to run 26.2 at 7:24 pace? How about 6:51? Right now I haven't even run a 5K at 6:51, although I think I could do that now much better than I could last July. Is BQ going to be enough for me? Is 3:15 enough? Will my wife let me find out?

Back to the icy weather: my TV-reporter friend Michelle, fresh off her first sub-five marathon,  was doing a live remote tonight standing near an ice-clogged stretch of freeway. She was wearing a blue Brooks jacket and earmuffs. I cracked up when I saw her; I've seen those exact earmuffs and jacket at 6 a.m. on a Crackhead run. But her hair and makeup were a lot nicer than they are at 6 a.m. :) (I know you sometimes read the blog, Michelle; that's why I'm picking on you).

XT today, trying to target the quads and hip flexors -- those muscles that fatigued first at Memphis and pushed me above BQ time. Half-hour on the recumbent bike with the resistance turned up, trying to maintain 90 RPM cadence (= 180 steps per minute running cadence, which is what I want). Pretty successful on both counts. Maintained a high-80s cadence average, and the hip flexors and upper quads are the muscle groups that were burning when I finished. Then capped it off with a couple of sets of upper body work; there were some twinges in my infraspinatus muscles during the marathon, although I had no trouble properly carrying/using my arms for 3:33.

Back on the TM for five. Legs did not want to go. Neither did the rest of the body. Then I realized it was the old pattern -- I wanted to run faster. Turned up the TM decently, and I felt stronger and finished the run with some energy. I would still classify it as a recovery run, just a little more intense.

At some point I have to get over this cold or whatever it is I have. My sinuses have been draining for two solid weeks. Yes, I'm aware a marathon batters the immune system, but somewhere I have to get back to normal. Sheesh. And taking stuff for symptomatic relief has just left me feeling dopey.

You'd think I'd learn by now, but I keep doing it: Setting my alarm clock 12 hours LATE. Wanted to get up at 4:45 a.m. to go run with the Crackheads, set it for 4:45 p.m. Then woke up at 5:45. I was supposed to meet Sparky30 from RWOL this morning. Got to the Capitol at 6:06, just as Tom sent the Crackheads out on their run. Tom said no one had been asking for me, so maybe Sparky didn't show. So, with no stretching or warmup whatsoever, I headed out on the run. And just passed people left and right, first walkers, then joggers, then runners. Finally looked at my watch and I was cruising at 9:00 pace. And just kept cruising. Couldn't read my directions properly in the predawn light and went too far before turning around and heading back, so my planned 8-miler wound up as almost 9. Maintained a near-9:00 pace, then put the hammer down the last half-mile or so and ran it at about MP.

 Off to Fayetteville this morning to see Spamalot this afternoon and a basketball game tonight. Then spending the night, waiting for the latest Canadian cold front to arrive. It's supposed to be about 20 tomorrow morning up there, 17 tomorrow night down here when the front makes it to central Arkansas. It's 44 now and the temperature is already falling.