For Whom the Dogs Bark

67F, 98%, NW 4 mph.  Slightly cooler but very humid.  We got our best rain of the year yesterday, rained most of the day, but the aftermath is very heavy air that has rain in it even though there are no clouds.  This is the only place I have seen it.

Felt pretty good this morning.  Since I am almost ready to pull the trigger on a followup marathon in Richmond, I thought I would go ahead and start on my next training cycle, but ease into it.  Started out with 5 LHR at a 10:08 pace, really not as good as I would expect.  Then ran 5 x 1K, 7:17 (160), 7:34 (161), 7:07 (165), 7:05 (168), 7:08 (172), recovery by finishing out the mile, maxHR 179.  These were easier than I expected, perceived effort for splits 3, 4 and 5 was about the same as for split #2.  I really need to start running these faster and do more of them.  Probably 7 or 8 at 6:50 pace would be about right if I can sustain it through the cycle.

I tried to put my foot down right under my body and push off, and get good leverage with my arms.  I think that helped some.  Need to really crank it up on maintaining good form, it's more a mental thing.

Overall 10.12 miles in 1:32:40, average pace 9:09 per mile.  I have some travel to Asia later in the week, so it is going to be yet another low-mileage week.

66F, 94%, NNW 2 mph.  About the same as yesterday, but ran harder today.  Warmed up 3 at 10:00 per mile, LHR.  Then 7 x 1000 at tempo pace:  7:13 (158), 7:05 (163), 6:52 (166), 6:55 (171), 6:58 (173), 6:44 (175) and 6:56 (176), average 6:58 pace.  Sub-7s are getting toward my limit, not really comfortable at those speeds.  The goal is to be able to do these consistently at 6:50, so today was a step in the right direction but not there yet -- today's run is currently not repeatable except once or twice a week.  Total 10.08 miles in 1:25:55, average overall 8:32 per mile, maxHR 181. 

Indoors. Ran 10.07 on the treadmill at the hotel in Beijing on Friday night local time. This week has been stupid busy, and it takes a full day to fly here, so this is the only running I have been able to manage. Was hoping to get out this morning (Saturday morning) because it is a rare clear-air day here and there is a river only one block from the hotel with a running path on it. Temps are cool and dry as well. No such luck, up all night working because U..S. was still doing their Friday thing. I was lucky to get in the run that I did, finished up about midnight.

So last March when I ran a half marathon in Beaumont I met a guy who was my nephew's father-in-law (still is, in fact). He is almost the same age as me and almost beat me. That same nephew sent a link to both of us yesterday about a 31-year old runner in England who hopped a bus for the last 10K of a marathon and snatched third place before his dark deed was discovered. I had wanted to initiate a dialogue with this Mike guy, so I replied back to him that I thought that was an awful thing for a young guy to do, but it was probably OK for guys our age and since he is local, do they have buses along the half marathon route in Beaumont? He was not amused. He wrote back, "They do not operate along the course during the race. I wouldn't dream of taking a bus. Only cheaters and quiters do that. I would rather be slow but do my thing the best I can than hop on a bus. Why waste the time to train, the cost to enter if you are going to cheat? Hope your running is going well Mark."

Oops.

I asked my wife about it and she said the report through the back channels is that he is used to winning the geezer division and didn't take kindly to me coming in from out of town and edging him out, especially since I am a semi-relative. Apparently his family has been giving him a hard time about it. I wanted to go back and do this race next year as a tune-up for Boston, but I am looking for alternatives now, this is not good and I want none of it. Besides, he would probably tell the bus driver to not let me on, or at least charge me extra.