For Whom the Dogs Bark

58F, 62%, N 7 mph and cloudy.  Really good morning to air it out a little bit.  Ran 6 wu at about 8:55 per mile, then 5 tempo miles, 7:15 (161), 7:03 (170), 7:07 (174), 7:08 (177) and 7:04 (179), average 7:08, then a very slow cd mile to finish it off.  I was hoping to do the tempo at 7:00 flat, but that was pretty optimistic, I haven't run anything sustained in the 7s since the Huntsville half, which was exactly 3 months ago today.  So I'm hoping this is just a matter of knocking the rust off.  The plan is to do about 3 hard days a week (combination of speed and stamina), all in a row, then use the rest of the week to recover and work on base miles.  I'm thinking that will teach me to run better when I'm tired, but still get the recovery I need to improve. 

54F, 66%, ENE 5 mph.  Another good running morning.  So today was wind sprints, just like high school.  Ran 6 miles at about an 8:50 pace then 15 x 200 as fast as I could go.  It wasn't very fast though -- mostly in the low 6s, a couple of high 5s and a couple of mid 6s.  Neural feedback was telling me I was taking long, fast, smooth strides -- so much for neural feedback.    Endorphins are starting to wear off now and I can feel my legs and my feet, hopefully I haven't damaged anything.  Went back to original speed to finish off the run, did leg weights at the rec center at 12.0 miles then ran home.  Altogether 12.30 miles in 1:45:20, average pace 8:33.  Maybe 1K repeats tomorrow, then back off for the rest of the week.

Went out the door early and the wind was 41 mph, looked at the computer and it had a tornado warning on it, so I bailed.  Went to the clubhouse and ran 6.0 on the TM.  This was based on heart rate and length of the run, not mechanical feedback on the clubhouse TM, which was inaccurate.  I planned to do 6 more TM miles later in the day but got busy around noon and my legs were hurting late, so I bailed again.

50F, 90%, W 9 mph and cloudy.  Very nice running weather this morning, just on the cusp between short sleeves and long sleeves, which is ideal for me.  Left early and ran 5 at 8:45 pace, then did what was supposed to be yesterday's workout, 7 x 1000 at threshold pace with recovery jog to even out each mile:  4:26 (7:06 mile pace)(160 bpm), 4:27 (7:09)(161), 4:19 (6:49)(166), 4:07 (6:39)(170), 4:10 (6:41)(172), 4:05(6:32)(172) and 4:09 (6:42)(174), average 6:48 per mile.  (The metric numbers are a little off because my watch is set to miles rather than kilometers, I was trying to manually hit the lap button at .62 miles but it was off by as much as 2 seconds).  According to a McMillan printout I have, a 7:30 average marathon pace is equivalent to tempo intervals in the 6:44 to 6:58 range, and 1000 meter cruise intervals in the 4:09 to 4:14 range, so I managed to hit that about right.  It was hard but not impossible, which means I might be in the range for a 7:30 marathon pace.  It was interesting that if I went ahead and ran faster than I thought I could sustain, I was able to pretty much sustain it through the end of the interval anyway.  So I ran faster than I thought I could, which at least is better than the other way around.  I would eventually like to hit 3:44 for 1K intervals (6 minute mile pace), but that appears to be a distant goal at this point.

Went to the clubhouse and did leg weights then jogged home.  Altogether 12.17 miles in 1:41:59, average pace 8:23 per mile.

39F, 100%, calm and clear.  Started out bundled up a little bit but soon lost everything but the long sleeves, really didn't seem that cold with no wind blowing.  Got out very early and ran 20.07 miles in 3:00:32, average pace 9:00 per mile, average heart rate 141, although it went up in the last 4 miles as high as 147.  Fairly difficult run following yesterday's workout, legs started to get pretty stiff in the last third.  I was trying to keep the overall pace right at 9:00 -- I'll play tomorrow by ear, but I'm trying to do as much as possible this week because of travel again next week.

Highlight of the run was passing a parked teenager's car with writing on the windows celebrating her 18th birthday:  "Finaly Leagle".  Just in time for the election, couldn't be happier for her.

50F, 99%, NNW 5 mph and clear.  Normally I would have really enjoyed a run like this, but too many hard runs this week.  Was all I could do to drag my sorry Jingas out the door.  Left at 4:30 and ran a few miles in the neighborhood, then ran down and caught up with Wade.  We ran another 9 or 10 together and then I ran home.  Legs felt heavy the whole time, definitely found my limit this week.  All appears to be OK though.  15.54 miles in 2:27:19, 9:29 per mile.

On the other hand, Wade and I had a great time.  We are signed up for two half marathons (Baytown in February and Woodlands in March) and the Kingwood Marathon next New Years Day (in addition to Boston for me), and we'll undoubtedly do more.  But we spent most of the run talking about how fast we used to be.  Should have heard us bragging in the dark.