For Whom the Dogs Bark

Traveled to Temple, TX last night to attend my granddaughter's baptism.  Lots of company so we stayed at a hotel and I did my run on the TM, since there wasn't time to do anything outside once daylight hit.  6.0 on the TM at LLHR, had my Garmin on to monitor heart rate.  Saw something that I hadn't noticed before -- at 5.7 mph, about 10:30 pace, my heart rate went in long half-mile waves, between 117 bpm and 121 bpm.  Each wave peaked a little higher than the last one, such that I actually finished up about 124, even though the average for the last mile was probably only about 122.  No explanation for any of this, but something to chew on during my next 3-hour run.

54F, 90%, ESE 1 mph.  It will start warming up for the rest of the week, but the 10-day forecast in Richmond is still holding firm in the low 40s, that is the only thing that maters at the moment.  

So this morning was my last of three metric marathons in this training cycle -- I am 12 days out which I think is fine, especially since I didn't run it all out.  Was well-rested from easy or no running in the last few days.  The goal, if I felt OK, was to do 7:45 and that is what happened.  16.0 miles in 2:04:02, 7:45/mile, 159 bpm average, 166 high.  First 9 were under 160 bpm.  Slowest was 7:51, fastest was 7:36.  Took one drink at mile 8.  I timed myself at the 25K mark, thinking I would break 2 hours, but I missed it by about 25 seconds.  Slightly faster than I ran the Fifth Third River Bank Run back in May, but max heart rate was 16 bpm lower this morning at a similar finishing temperature.  At about mile 10 it started to get harder to hit my splits, but it was more a matter of wooden legs than anything approaching exhaustion.  If I concentrated I could still get my speed down.  This means I will probably benefit from some more short speed work in the last part of the taper.

I have benefited from a summer of running low heart rate miles in the heat.  And this morning I seemed to benefit from running a lot of fast stuff lately.  The other two 16-milers I did were 2-1/2 weeks ago: 7:58/mile (53F, 161 bpm 173 max) and 1-1/2 weeks ago: 7:58/mile (64F, 159 bpm, 171 max).  So today was an improvement.

64F, 94%, E 3 mph.  Low heart rate run this morning, 8.0 miles in 1:30:35. 11:20/mile, 120 bpm average.  Very stiff to start, worked some of it out but it will take a couple of more days to work through yesterday's run.

64F, 94%, NNE 5 mph.  Got up at 4:00 but had to wait an hour until some heavy rain passed through, then out the door at 5:20 for a quick 8.  2 warmup:  8:32 and 7:47, then 5 at tempo, 7:28 (162), 7:16 (171), 7:03 (177), 7:02 (180) and 7:01 (183), then 1 cooldown at 7:51.  Couldn't get faster after mile 3, but did manage to maintain good form and maintain my pace, ran almost a 5K at this pace so was happy about that.  Average for the 5 tempo miles was 7:10, overall 8.0 miles in exactly 1:00:00, 7:30/mile, 167 bpm, 185 max.  No water break.  Good run considering it was kind of warm.  Legs felt a little stronger today compared to yesterday.

62F, 96%, N 9 mph, light rain.  Still warm but cooling off soon.  Ran 8 at LLHR, 11:22/mile, 120 bpm.  Developig a sore throat, cold, glad it is now instead of next week.  I don't think it will be serious.

No running today, with whatever I do tomorrow I will have enough for the week, and trying to beat some cold/flu symptoms.  Too bad though, it is cool and dry outside, and a full moon in the west, a magical morning out there.  High possibility of wind, rain and 30F - 35F for the race in Richmond.  No problem, almost exactly like the weather I have been training in all summer.

53F, 92%, and calm. Up most of the night with a sore throat, finally got up and went running at about 5:00. Felt better running than sleeping, which is a disturbing development. Went 5 easy, about 8:50 pace, then 5 x 1K, jogging out the mile. Splits (corrected to mile pace) were 7:44 (156), 7:16 (160), 6:59 (166), 6:55 (169), and 6:50 (172), max 177 bpm. Overall 10.0 miles in 1:23:33, 8;21/ mile. Glad to get the 6s. One week to go, really hoping this cold doesn't hang around. It doesn't keep me from running but it would definitely affect the race.

45F, 93%, calm and clear.  Really skeptical it is quite that cold, but maybe it is.  Felt good and didn't feel like I needed long sleeves.  Up most of the night again with flu-like symptoms.  Took aspirin at 3:00 a.m. and finally got up for good at 5:00.  I knew I would feel better if I ran, and I needed to run anyway or risk losing fitness in the final week -- but I will pay for it this afternoon.  So did 8 at GMP, 1:03:59, 8:00/mile, 152 bpm average.  But heart rate climbed pretty fast and I had to push somewhat to maintain the pace.  Got up to 160 bpm average for mile 7, which was a 7:39.  Let it back down to 157 for mile 8, and ended up with an 8:08, quite a difference.  Can't really explain it, but maybe it is heart rate deterioration earlier in the run than I am used to -- not good if that is true.  Would have preferred being able to run 8:00 flat at 155 but maybe I can attribute that to my symptoms.  Mainly trying to get some muscle memory today so I will be dialed in for Saturday.  Off to Richmond in the morning.  Latest forecast for Saturday is clear and cold, would be a shame to whiff because of a head cold.

60F, 94%, calm and foggy.  Visiting my son this week.  We ran together this morning for a final shake-out.  Problem is that my legs are noticeably weaker from flu/cold or whatever I had.  The headache, congestion and similar symptoms are gone for the most part, but not sure there will be time enough to fully recover.  Won't know really until Saturday.  Today I ran 5, a warmup at about 8:30, then 8:11 and 7:53, all with Clint, followed by 2 quick miles on my own, 7:28 and 7:27.  Heart rate peaked in the low 160s, not that bad, but these miles were difficult.  Part of it is the hilly terrain in this neighborhood, I haven't done any hill work this year and the course itself is not that hilly.  But mostly the legs felt weak, like I had gained 15 pounds or that I was running at altitude (there is no altitude here).  That really has to change in the next 72 hours.  Still hoping though.  I am on the ground in Richmond, sleeping well at night and getting naps.

Race morning is predicting about 31F at race start (7:50 a.m.), about 43F at the finish.  Couldn't ask for colder weather, might even be too cold but I doubt it -- the winds will be light, I may even run in short sleeves.  Everything is lining up well if I can get healthy.

28F, 65%, N 10-12 mph.  Pretty good day, even though I didn't get a PR.  Everything pre-race was like clockwork.  Went to the expo on Thursday night and got switched to the marathon.  Drove the course on Friday to remind myself of where the hills were (probably prevented a meltdown in the second half of the race).  Then this morning I drove with my son from his house to the race, had a little trouble finding parking, but we were there in plenty of time for him to start his race at 7:30.  Mine started at 7:50.  Main indecision of the morning was whether to wear a second layer, knowing I would be a little warm in the second half.  I decided at the last minute to keep my short-sleeved undershirt, it was cold out there.  I felt a little warm at times, but I don't think it affected my time.  Stood in PoP lines long enough to miss the start gun, my offset from the gun was about 3-1/2 minutes, started out with the 4:45 group.  Didn't get a heart rate until mile 3, as usual, and it was in the 162-164 range already.  It held pretty well through 10, but still too high.  Hit 170 after about mile 17 and couldn't hold it all the way in, finished up at about 167.  My ability to control my heart rate has been the prime feature of this training cycle, not a good time for it to fail me.  Because of that single data point, I am guessing that the cold/flu symptoms from earlier in the week were still affecting me to some degree, probably took on 5 bpm because of it, a little too much for a stellar performance.

Using my best crowd navigating skills I managed to get 8:01 on the first mile without making any crazy course alterations, running on the sidewalk, cutting off little old ladies, etc.  Second mile was 8:07 so I picked it up a little bit and by mile 3 I was banking time.  Tried not to run too fast, knowing what was coming, but felt pretty good and didn't slow down specifically because of my heart rate.  The half came in at 1:44:20, so a 3-1/2 minute positive split.  Not ideal, but all of the significant uphill was in the second half.  In addition, we turned into the wind for large parts of the journey back.  Mile 16 was a long uphill climb over a bridge, not steep but long and completely exposed to the wind.  A new feature this year was a steep climb over I-95 at mile 20, not welcome at all, not sure who thought of that one.

At mile 20 I was 20 seconds slower than a 3:30 pace, in theory right where I wanted to be but I was wiped out at that point.  A couple of times I had to really fight the urge to break into a jog, but managed to hold it together somewhat by forcing myself to concentrate on the current mile and not worry about the ones coming up.  Mile 25 was 8:35, slowest mile, but I had hit sub-8 paces as recently as mile 22, also got a 7:50 pace for the steep downhill 0.37-mile stub at the end (course measured 0.15 long, which cost me about 1:20, still not enough to get me down to a PR though).  I don't have my Garmin with me, so don't have indiviual mile/heart rate splits; I will add them later.

So I managed to hold it together on what turned out to be a tough day despite the very cold temperatures. Probably would have had a better day at 55F with light breezes.  I left everything out there and was happy with my effort.  The good things:  My second fastest marathon to date and only my third marathon under 3:40; I got a BQ time for 2016 (23 minutes under); got a good enough time to move up a couple of corrals for Boston 2015; and beat my previous best time on this course by 9 or 10 minutes.  But the truth is, I should have run 3:25 today, and someday I might.

From the race I got directly in my rental car, drove to Dulles airport and am now on a layover on my way to Perth, Australia, still wearing my warmups, I look pretty ridiculous sitting in the lounge.  Legs are pretty stiff but I seem to be recovering fine. 

UPDATE: Back from Australia now, here are my splits for this race:  1:  8:01; 2: 8:07; 3: 7:40 (166); 4: 7:48 (164); 5: 7:51 (164); 6: 8:00 (165); 7: 7:37 (161); 8: 7:57 (164); 9: 7:44 (165); 10: 7:54 (164); 11: 8:15 (166); 12: 8:06 (165); 13: 8:02 (166); 14: 7:57 (166); 15: 7:48 (165); 16: 8:18 (168); 17: 8:06 (169); 18: 7:50 (170); 19: 8:04 (168); 20: 8:24 (168); 21: 8:05 (169); 22: 7:58 (168); 23: 8:11 (167);  24: 8:09 (166); 25: 8:35 (165); 26: 8:29 (163); stub 7:50 (159)

Here is a photo right before the I-95 overpass:

Interesting, because this is what I thought I looked like:

59F, 94%, ENE 5 mph.  Been back in town since Thursday night, I have some nasty back pain from sitting on too many airplanes this week.  The stress from racing on Saturday and then sitting down for day after day caught up with my fragile lower vertebrae structure.  But decided to see what would happen if I ran this morning.  Turned out that running is no problem, at least for now, the stress is apparently in a different part of my back.  Ran 8 miles without monitoring heart rate or pace.  According to my phone I think I ran at about 9:20 to 9:30 range, though it felt faster than that.  Still have a few cold symptoms left, amazingly.  Traditional turkey trot coming up on Thursday with Wade, not sure what is going to happen at that one.  Definitely didn't feel this morning like I will ever be fast again.

51F, 94%, 66%, NNW 9-18.  5.0 miles at 11:58/mile, LLHR 120 bpm.  This seems like a good way to recover and start a new training cycle at the same time.

42F, 84% and calm.  10.0 miles at 11:53/mile, LLHR 121 bpm.  Managing some pretty severe back pain, but managing.

42F, 92%, N 8 mph, gusting.  Left the house early for a quick 5 at 8:55/mile (145 bpm), medicated with vitamin I, then took my son-in-law down to play flag football with the local church group.  My flag football days are long past, but there was a .7 mile track at the park where they were playing, so I ran around and around, 15 times altogether.  Running in the bright sunlight felt remarkably good.  First mile was 8:37, everything else was in low 8s, high 7s.  Overall 8:02/mile, 162 bpm average, last mile 170 bpm.  Legs felt good immediately afterwards, but were pretty trashed by the end of the day.  Back is still a big bother.  I'm OK as long as I am up and moving but sitting is lethal.

37F, 96% and calm.  Superior running weather this morning.  Bundled up a little bit.  Started out extremely stiff and sore, but loosened up after 2 miles of LLHR running.  First mile was 12:09, then everything else was below 11:40.  Last two were 11:11 and 11:18, overall 11:35/mile, 120 bpm average.  Never really had a heart rate run with that profile before.  Back is still bothersome, however.

59F, 94%, S 2 mph.  Warming up considerably for the next few days.  More LLHR stuff, 10.0 in 1:59:40, 11:58/mile.  I had 11:54/mile through 7, so 19 seconds slower than yesterday, which in turn was coming off of a hard run on Thursday.  Conventional wisdom is that you don't start to slow down until 60F, but these numbers seem to say differently.  Looking at it another way, I might have missed a huge opportunity in Richmond.

Back still hurting, but it doesn't seem to affect running itself, just everything in between.  Took my grandson to the zoo yesterday to ride the train and totaled my car (apparently) on the way home.  We are both OK, but there is nothing good about a car wreck.  Too many folks in this town with international driving styles, can't look out for all of them.  Three-car accident (two more fled).  I was the only legal driver.