For Whom the Dogs Bark

73F, 84%, SSE 12 mph (gusting to 18 mph).  Hot and windy out there.  Tried 5 slow miles and was feeling it pretty good in my lungs and joints.  Legs were strong, amazingly my lower abs still hurt after not running for 9 days.  Heart rate started out OK but the drift was steep.  Could definitely still feel the flu, will try again later today if I am feeling OK.  5.05 miles in 44:50, 8:53 per mile.

72F, 93%, SSW 13-25 mph.  Hot and windy, perfect running weather.  My Garmin was out of juice, so I ran without it.  Had to quit early because a thunderstorm was starting up.  By the time I drove to a dentist appointment a half hour later it was raining 2 or 3 inches an hour, very heavy.  Felt slightly better than yesterday.  Abs were a little less painful, but can definitely feel the leftover flu, it will be a while before it is gone.

58F, 85%, WNW 7 mph, light rain.  Cooling down a little from yesterday, which was welcome.  Ran 11.07 miles in 1:37:37, average 8:49 per mile.  Still have the flu, heart rate was at 160 by the time I finished, too high for this speed.  Legs felt decent, but heavy by the end.  Abs are still sore.  Just playing it by ear on Boston -- really don't want to go to all the trouble of getting up there and dealing with all the expenses and logistics just to do a training run.  I read yesterday that if you don't run at all for a week it takes two weeks to get it back.  Possibly even slower for me since everything is easy-paced right now.  Nothing to do but wait and see.

56F. 77%, S 3 mph.  Very good weather today, got out a little late and so I was still out when the sun up, which was nice, haven't seen the sun in a while.  Abs and flu are slowly improving.  I didn't really want to go out today because I knew it would hurt, but it wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, and even less than two days ago.  Heart rate for mile 12 (8:52, 155 bpm) was close to mile 10 yesterday (8:50, 156 bpm).  Still too high, but getting a little stronger.  Overall 12.13 miles in 1:48:31, 8:57 per mile.

53F, 100%, NNW 3 mph.  Didn't feel good this morning, woke up with sore abs, so decided to only go 6 and check my reaction throughout the day.  The 6 went fine, obviously my legs and cardio are much better now that I am a week away from the flu, only a little bit of it is left in my system.  But my gut hurt pretty much throughout the run, although it didn't get worse and it wasn't a sharp pain.  6.07 miles in 51:53, 8:31 per mile, then stretched and rolled.  Right now I don't feel like I can run fast, though interestingly it didn't hurt to run almost 30 seconds faster today than yesterday.  I am going to make an honest try at a hard long run tomorrow.  If it doesn't go well I will probably not do Boston this year, really don't want to go there unprepared.

55F, 100%, calm and 50-foot fog.  Could barely see out there, which was good, because it was ugly.  Simply couldn't hold a marathon pace.  Started out at a 7:30 pace and got so tired I pulled up after about 1K, then picked it up again on miles 2 and 3, where I hit 7:30 and 7:29, but mile 4 was 7:42 and my heart rate hit 166 and was climbing.  Overall 4.06 miles in 31:37, 7:47 per mile.  After running two halves at 7:09 and 7:06 pace, I know that today's speeds are not close to my potential.  Amazing how much havoc a few bad weeks of running creates.  I will not be ready for Boston and it takes too much time and money to go there just to go.  I know others don't feel that way about Boston, and I certainly look forward to the time I can go there prepared to run my best, but for me it isn't important just to be there.  Realistically, I would run about 3:35 to 3:40 and that isn't good enough.  It's hard enough to get a good marathon time at peak fitness; I have no desire to run one unprepared.  I might be able to find a good marathon somewhere this summer -- suggestions welcome, nothing hot and nothing at altitude!  But mainly I need to keep training and chipping away at the granite mountain.