For Whom the Dogs Bark

72F, 93% (69 DP), N 1 mph.  Cooling off at least temporarily. Everything else this week is supposed to be under 60.  14 miles in 2:02:04, 8:43/mile, 148 bpm, 161 max.  Pretty good run despite leftover miles from Saturday still in my legs.

66F, 71% (56 DP), NE 5 mph.  Not a typo, the north wind is a miracle worker, moves all the GOM moisture offshore where it belongs.  Plan today was to do speed work.  As I got into the run I thought about switching to a long GMP run, but my goal is to work on speed right now so I stuck with the plan.  4 miles warmup, starting at 9:20 down to 8:19, then 10 x 2 minutes on, 1 minute off, then 2 miles cooldown at 8:40, 8:18 (151).  Hadn't tried this one before, didn't time the individual splits, but overall pace during those miles was in the 7:30 range, so the intervals were probably in the low 7s, maybe even high 6s.  The best thing was hitting the last mile at low heart rate.  Probably as good as it has been in a while for that late in the run.  10.09 miles in 1;23:25, 8:17/mile, 149 bpm, 170 max.

One sad note, the bottom of my shoe started flapping at mile 8, had to come in and change.  The old ones went here:

It appears that there are no more Jingas in my size for sale worldwide.  A similar shoe, Taygra, is being made in Brazil.  They are ultra-lightweight but don't last long.  I have a pair that I race with.  I have another pair of Jingas that is almost in the same condition as the ones I threw away, and another newer pair.  After that it is a dark void in my life until I find a new hobby.

64F, 76% (57 DP), NE 4 mph.  Almost chilly out there.  Ran 6.0 in 53:41, 8:57/mile, 136 bpm average, 141 max; a little short on time and trying to keep it easy anyway.  Was surprised that I could stay under 9:00 pace and under 140 bpm, last mile was 139 bpm.  The miracles of reasonable temperatures, almost forgotten after these long months.  We aren't out of the woods yet, but end is in sight at least.

70F, 81% (64 DP), NE 5 mph.  DP 7 degrees warmer than yesterday, but not bad.  3 miles wu, then 6 at GMP, followed by 1 cd.  Overall 10.00 miles in 1:20:15, 8:02/mile, 157 bpm, 177 max.  Was targeting 8:00 on the GMP miles but the first one came in at 7:43 and after that it was off to the races -- forget the training plan.  Splits on the GMP miles were 7:43 (156), 7:54 (157), 7:49 (161), 7:31 (167), 7:34 (172) and 7:19 (175), average 7:38/mile.  

This run was fun, and the results made me start to wonder if a half-marathon PR is in the range of possibilities.  Probably not quite there yet, my PR pace in the half is 7:06, set 2-1/2 years ago.  The weird thing is that my PR pace in the full is 8:00, from 3 years ago.  Right now a full marathon PR seems more achievable, even though I am trying to concentrate on shorter races for the next couple of months.  I have a big 10-mile race in 2 weeks.  I'm pretty sure I can hit 7:30, but 7:10 would be in the range all of a sudden.

71F, 88% (DP 68) and calm.  Warming up again, but probably not much warmer than this at least in the next week.  Time crunch, was going to do 14 but settled for 12.  1:43:14, 8:36/mile, 148 bpm, max 160. Good run.

71F, 85% (67 DP) and calm.  Similar to yesterday.  Ran 20 this time, 2:58:50, 8:57/mile, 146 bpm, 162 max.  Didn't hit 150 bpm until mile 14, didn't hit 151 until mile 16.  At that point I was running a straight 9s but sped up in the last 4 by about 15-20 seconds/mile.

I was planning to do 24 today but was starting to fade pretty fast, so saved it for another day.  I'm learning.  I really believe that running an honest number of close-to-marathon long runs would be helpful in developing the needed reserves for the real race.  I know that is by no means a unanimous viewpoint in the running community, but I was thinking this morning that maybe a bonk isn't purely a muscle mass versus weight thing like many researchers say, i.e., at a certain distance you use up all the glycogen in your muscles and at that point you can't really run much further, at least not with any resemblance of normal speed.  Maybe you can actually beat it by training around it?  The extra 3 or 4 miles is a real mental adjustment that I haven't fully made yet.  I'm pretty much a 20 and done guy, although this morning pulling the plug was the right thing to do.  But I will say, I don't think those types of distances bring much benefit to shorter racing distances, there are better ways to train.

A bunch of running friends from the days when I used to run out of the Y were out in my neighborhood this morning.  Met two different groups of them and they were both yelling my name and congratulating  me for getting in to Boston.  Honestly, people really look that up?