For Whom the Dogs Bark

74F, 98%, WSW 3 mph and clear.  Rained most of the weekend, violent thunderstorms with lots of debris left over.  Calm this morning, though.  Today I definitely benefited from cooler temperatures, a day of rest and not running too hard on Saturday.  I will probably travel later this week, so I am trying to get in more up-front miles. 

Ran the first 10 at sub-150 heart rate:  10.00 miles at 8:56/mile, 143 bpm, 150 bpm max.  Mile 10 was  8:52 (149), best mile I have run in this training zone in a while.  On April 2 I ran this:  73F, 94%, SE 6 mph.  7.10 miles in 1:02:55, 8:52/mile, 146 bpm.  That run was in a sweet spot between getting over the flu in March and injuring my back in May, so I think it is a fair comparison. 

Then, on the theory that I still got the base-building benefit out of the first 10, but I have a marathon coming in November, I sped up the next 4.  The plan was to do 4 at 8:15, but the first one came in lower than that without a significant sacrifice to heart rate, so I did a progression run instead:  8:03 (158), 8:00 (165), 7:43 (170) and 7:38 (175), trying to kick it in on the last quarter.  I don't have a pace for the last quarter, but I think it was low 7s, not sub-7.  Overall 14.00 at 2:00:39, 8:37/mile, 149 bpm, 182 max.

73F, 88% WNW 2 mph.  My eyes got big when I saw this weather report, figured I would run like Meb this morning.  But my legs were still tired from yesterday, not an ideal day for a workout.  The plan was 7 under 150 bpm then 7 x 1000 at 7:00 pace.  The first 7 were at 9:00 per mile, 140 bpm, so looking good to that point.  Then I got a call that I had to take, following which I launched into the 1K repeats, jogging out each mile.  They didn't go so well.  Translated into mile paces:  7:29 (158), 7:27 (158), 7:02 (163), 7:17 (167), 7:14 (171), 7:15 (172), 7:31 (174).  The last repeat was all I could do, felt like I was alone out there, but it finally ended and I was done.  Overall 14.00 miles in 1:58:50, 8:29 per mile, 179 bpm max.  A lot of work to get 2 seconds per mile better than yesterday.

The call was from Australia, but it related to my travel to Taiwan this week.  There is a big taifun headed toward Taiwan, scheduled to arrive about the same time as me.  The Australian was thinking I shouldn't go, but it isn't my choice.  My client is Chinese, and the other party is Japanese.  So my client sent an e-mail to the Japanese along the lines of "gee, there seems to be a large taifun bearing down, not sure your plane can land, would you like to re-schedule?"  Whereupon the Japanese write back in 5 minutes, to the effect of "no, we are busy next week, we will see you on Friday."  I love the Japanese, used to speak Japanese, but there is definitely some intra-Asian oneupmanship going on here.  Bottom line, if the Japanese go, I have to go.  If the taifun hits I may not get out for a while, so I guess I'll take my yellow Helping Hands shirt and join a cleanup crew, not like I haven't done hurricane cleanup before, but this will be my first taifun.  Not sure what any of this has to do with running, just had to explain my possible absence in the coming days.

73F, 81% and calm.  10 miles @ 9:00 per mile prior to leaving for the airport.  Blogging days later, and I don't remember anything about this run, except that my Garmin was (and still is) broken.

10 miles on hotel treadmill at 8:50 per mile.  The typhoon in Taiwan did not materialize, meetings happened on Friday as scheduled, then left for Beijing.