For Whom the Dogs Bark

59F, 95%, ENE 5 mph.  9.07 miles in 1:21:15, 8:57 per mile, easy recovery miles.

61F, 100%, ESE 6 mph.  Getting hotter every day, but scheduled for cool weather this weekend.  Hope it materializes.  Not a particularly good run today.  Warmed up 2 then tried to run a tempo at 7:00 but didn't last long.  6:55 (165), 6:58 (173) and 7:01 (177).  Went back down to a 9-minute pace to finish off.  I am hurting in a lot of places, but mostly the problem has been joint stiffness too early in the fast runs.  It would feel great if I could push my aerobic limits on fast runs, but too many other things are going on right now.  Hopefully it will all correct itself.  So anyway I pulled back and finished off the miles for the morning but didn't try to go hard.  11.02 miles in 1:32:41, average 8:24 per mile.  This Saturday's race should be indicative for marathon pacing.  It should tell me if my good race a couple of weeks ago was an anomoly or a trend -- it has been very useful to have these half marathons scheduled like this.  Still, it is hard to tell how much to push getting ready for Boston, don't know whether I am doing too much or too little. 

68F, 98%, S 1mph.  Abs and left foot were both hurting, so I quit after 5 miles, going slow wasn't helping.  Considered taking the rest of the week off.  5.14 miles in 48:01, 9:20 per mile.

70F, 94%, S 6 mph.  I wasn't going to run this morning, but I woke up very early and didn't feel too bad.  Wasn't anything else to do so I went through my robot routine and was out the door in 17 minutes.  To my surprise I felt pretty good, kept pace up with a lot less effort than yesterday.  Quit early because I have a race in two days which all of a sudden I am planning on again, and I am hoping to do some hill work on the treadmill.  I went to the gym at noon and all the treadmills were full, so I did a little big of leg work on the weights and came back to the office.  Hopefully I can get a hill session in tonight.  5.13 miles in 45:15, 8:50 per mile.

70F, 93%, SSW 6 mph.  Ran 5 more, which is kind of halfway between tapering and not tapering.  Either the best of both worlds or the worst.  5.00 miles, right at my doorstep.  42:45, 8:33 per mile.  Foot and abs feel so-so, put ice on the foot and that made a big difference, so apparently the pain comes from inflammation.  Tomorrow might be a disaster.  I don't feel properly trained with all of the interruptions and lingering injuries in the last two weeks, and it is currently forecast at 57F for race time with a 15 mph north wind.  All week they have been holding to a 44F forecast, then it turns out they meant Saturday night, after the cold front comes.  We get to race while the front is moving in.  Still warm, but at least it's windy.  If 57F holds that won't be too bad, but I am skeptical, it always takes longer for the weather to change than they predict.  There is a chili cook-off at the church tonight -- might as well go and finish the job.

57F, 47%, N 11-21 mph.  Pretty good race, could have been worse under the circumstances, course was a little longer than my last half, so I am putting the non-standard distance I measured solely for comparison purposes.  Met Allie (a.k.a. allie) very briefly after she finished a very good marathon then had to hurry home as Wade and Linda had responsibilities (unlike me).  Linda got a 4-minute PR, Wade missed his PR by a couple of minutes.  Weather not a big factor.

Met Wade and Linda at 5:30 and headed to The Woodlands.  It was 62F at 5:30 but the cold front was moving in and it was already down to 58F by the time the race started at 6:55, possibly colder than that at the end.  Other than Linda’s big PR, and other than meeting allie, the highlight of the morning was standing in the PoP line.  (Don't go anywhere.)  There was a guy about 5 spots ahead of us in line who had the elite look, no body fat, ripped abs, fast shoes, compression socks -- and no shirt.  By this time it was colder, with a stiff breeze, and you could see skin quivering underneath his goose bumps.  Linda commented to me that he must be very fast.  But something seemed off, and I reminded her that Naked Man hadn’t run yet.  There were a couple of women in line between us and him and he was talking to them like old acquaintances.  That notion was dispelled when his turn came and he disappeared into the open slot.  One of the women turned to the other and said, “I think he is a non-door closer”.  Then it was her friend’s turn because she suddenly saw one with a “green open” indicator on the door.  She hurried up and opened it, froze, then started screaming.  Her friend had nailed it.  It made Linda’s morning, she was so relaxed she went out and ran a 4-minute PR.  When she finished, the first thing she said was “I passed Naked Man in mile 5”.  She is now a runner for life.

So this morning I ran pretty even splits:  7:04, 7:01, 6:58 (175), 7:08 (176), 7:12 (176), 7:14 (175), 7:09 (174), 7:15 (174), 7:11 (174), 6:56 (175), 7:06 (178), 7:12 (177), 7:02 (177) and 6:38 (180) for the stub split -- 1:33:50, which is 3 seconds slower than my last one 3 weeks ago.  But the course measured long today, so my actual pace as measured was 3 seconds faster, not much but something, and more importantly it is the second time I have done it so I know it’s real.  Overall 60th place (top 2%) and 1st in age division.  I found myself running with a guy who probably slowed me down to some extent.  He ran in the passing lane and he would eventually slow down to the point I would pass him, which would wake him up and he would pass me within a quarter mile like clockwork.  Kind of like driving on the freeway.  Finally at mile 10 I tired of the game and hammered out a 6:56 which broke him, he finished a minute behind me.  He is the best excuse I have today for running slower than planned.  I set up the weather, my left foot and my sore abs as the bogeymen, but they were all non-factors -- sometimes you have to dig a little deeper but there’s always one out there if you are persistent.

Six weeks to Boston.  I have enough speed for current purposes, but definitely felt an endurance limitation this morning.  At mile 9 I told myself that Boston would be my last marathon, then I changed my mind after mile 10.  I am considering piling on a bunch of long runs, they seem to help the most.  But I have some more travel coming up and then some vacation, not sure how it will all play out.  It has been difficult to manage a consistent training schedule this year, but my wife is opposed to me quitting my job.