For Whom the Dogs Bark

55F, 93%, calm and clear.  Very nice morning today.  Should have good weather most of the week.  Warmed up for 2, then 10 at GMP, right at 8:00 per mile, heart rate on the last 2 was 155 bpm, my watch says the max was 159 but I never saw anything over 157.  In any event, these were sustainable heart rates, so I was satisfied with the run.  Cooled down for about 0.2.  

Stretching and weights at the gym.

58F, 93%, SSE 5 mph and clear.  Out for a LLHR run this morning, and it went well, 12 @ 10:48/mile, 120 bpm, new LLHR PR.  

Wade joined me for about 5 or 6, his heart rate is almost back down to mine, he'll probably be fully recovered in a week.  Our next race is a 10K in Brennam, the weekend before Boston.  It has enough roller coaster hills to charge admission as a theme park, should be a good warmup for the real thing (Boston, not a theme park).  Wade, his brother Mark and I will each be running in a different age group, maybe we can sweep.

62F, 93%, SW 2 mph.  Trying to get hills in at night, but legs are not feeling it at the end of the day after the endorphins have worn off.  In any event, made it out the door this morning on schedule, goal was to run 10 at GMP - 15, 1 wu and 1.3 cd.  Results:  fast miles averaged 7:39, average heart rate 153, maximum 163, RHR before the run started was 50 bpm.  Last 4 splits were 7:32 (161), 7:35 (159), 7:42 (160) and 7:36 (162).  Heart rate holding steady, but legs still need to get stronger at this speed.

64F, 94% and calm, but wind and rain coming in.  Decided against anything hard, legs are feeling a little stale after running hard yesterday, might be a cumulative effect going on.  Ran LLHR without a watch, 11:06/mile until the rain started pouring down, at which point I quit because I needed to hurry to work anyway, 7.37 miles.  Then last night I finally got on the TM, 5 miles of hills at a little under 9-minute pace, 1 wu, 2 up (3.5%) and then 2 down (-5%).  This works better than alternating, could really feel the downhill in my legs after I quit.

45F, 82%, calm and clear.  Absoslutely beautiful out, hope it carries through to tomorrow for my last long-long run.  Another LLHR run, 12.17 miles in 2:10:19, 10:42/mile, 121 bpm, new low heart rate PR.  Thought at first it wouldn't happen, legs felt pretty unresponsive after running TM hills last night, first mile came in at 11:22, then 11:04, but each mile got progressively faster through mile 10, which was 10:28, and mile 12 was 10:38.  Met Wade at the halfway point for a couple of loops.  

So I am thinking of a somewhat unorthodox tapering strategy, as I am three weeks out after tomorrow.  The competing issues for getting to the start line in optimal shape are losing training vs. getting stale.  I have noticed that my best performances seem to be when I am on the uphill part of a training cycle rather than on the plateau, like this morning for instance.  I'm not sure I have ever figured out how to stay on a plateau, I seem to either gain or lose conditioning.  So the strategy would be to take next week very easy, just run hills at night, maybe vitamin D runs from work during the day, with the exception of my last metric marathon about Wednesday (7:30 goal), then maybe run 10 on Saturday, maybe even let myself get slightly undertrained by the end of the week.  Then the next week (2 weeks out), go back to 60-70 miles, lots of short hard runs combined with outside mid-day runs, with a 10K race on a very hilly course in Brennam that Saturday.  Then the normal final-week shakeout runs before getting on the plane Friday night, April 17.  Especially with the race being on Monday rather than Saturday, this layout doesn't seem particularly risky?

54F, 72%, NE 2 mph to start, 58F, 63%, SSE 5 mph to end, completely clear.  Not much to complain about there -- the last hour was in the sun, but that's the way it is going to be on race day for a lot more than an hour.  

Out the door at 4:23 a.m. for my last long-long run of this training cycle, 30.00 miles in 4:16:37, 8:33/mile, 145 bpm average, 156 max.  Last 4 were 8:34 (151), 8:26 (154), 8:30 (154) and 8:25 (154).  Marathon at 3:44:37, first split over 150 bpm being mile 23.  Watered twice, mile 15.25 and 26.3.  Today was a small but definite improvement over the last one two weeks ago, easy to compare since the temperature was the same on both days; a little less humid today but I don't think humidity matters much in the 50s.  Two weeks ago, the last 4 splits were 8:25 (157), 8:32 (158), 8:34 (159) and 8:37 (159), overall pace 8:38/mile, 147 bpm average, 160 max.  Marathon at 3:47:20, first split over 150 bpm being mile 21.  So I improved by 5 seconds per mile while dropping my heart rate at the end of the run by 5 or 6 bpm.  

Still, my body feels like it is plateauing, especially my legs.  I don't think another 30-mile run would do me much good, even if there was time.  I'm glad I did them and I think they will pay off, but right now I feel like I need to rest my legs as much as possible.  My legs and my heart rate seem de-linked, like they are on two different curves, and unfortunately it is the legs that get you getting along.