For Whom the Dogs Bark

67F, 80%, N 5 mph.  OK, so here's the story.  I've been thinking a lot about the last 10K in the marathon, and I'm not convinced it has to be terrible.  I had one race where it wasn't, Richmond 2011, and a couple of others where it wasn't bad, including St. George 2012.  I attribute that to running a lot of miles, for me at least.  But this training cycle, for various reasons, injury and travel mostly, I haven't done many 20-milers, at least in one continuous run.  And I haven't run a marathon in a year, which is starting to look like a bad combination.  So I thought if I could get in a couple of 20+ runs, not counting the one more long hard run I have to do, I would be better prepared. 

So out the door at 4:30, back in at 8:05.  24 miles in 3:34:36, 8:56/mile, 148 bpm (167 bpm last split).  I started out in the low 9 range, ballooned to 9:30+ in miles 8 - 15, then found that my legs felt better when I sped up.  They didn't feel better when I finished, though, which I am looking at optimistically as a sign that I needed the workout.  Better than thinking I ruined my upcoming marathon.  By noon I could move around unassisted, no problem.  The endorphins lasted all day.

59F, 100%, N 1 mph.  Met the group for a track workout, 6 x 1200.  I got there late because I had to answer some e-mails from Asia that came in overnight, and they had already done one repeat.  Wade got there early and had told them about yesterday's 24 after racing 10 on Saturday, so I was the uncomfortable topic of conversation when I walked up.  No problem, maybe next time they'll run it with me.

Didn't take my watch and ran with Wade this time; according to the times being called out we were mostly in the 7:20 pace range; but the last one, which I ran alone, was 4:57 (6:36) pace.  So I'm calling it 5K pace, though that is a stretch.  Legs were tired of course, but it wasn't too bad.  Later today after the endorphins wear off will tell the true tale -- until then I'll think I'm an athlete.  Cooled down for 1.5 miles.

62F, 100% and calm.  Back to my normal workout today, 5 slow and 5 fast, trying to teach my legs to run GMP.  They are not very teachable.  Ran the first 5 in 43:04, 8:36 pace, heart rate 145 or below.  Next 5 in 37:49, 7:34 pace, heart rate readouts 158, 162, 165, 169 and 174, max 175.  I think the heavy work this week is catching up with me.  Overall 10 miles in 1:20:53, 8:05 per mile.  We have low temps the next two days then back up to mid-60s on Saturday.  I'm thinking I might do a long run on Friday instead of Saturday, but it depends on what work allows.

52F, 100% and calm.  I saw ideal weather coming this morning and took yesterday off to rest up.  Pretty much a perfect morning for another assault on 20 at 7:30, but alas another fail.  15 at 7:44, ballooning into the 8s by the time I finished.  I could have run a little more but a nagging pulled muscle just above my left knee at the base of the hamstring started to talk to me so I called it a day, didn't want to try and run fast with it.  My heart rate monitor went out during the run so I really have no data other than I know I was getting dramatically slower the last couple of miles.  It is what it is, a year ago I could have run this in my sleep.  It is possible my legs have some fatigue from racing a medium distance on Saturday and from running hard early in the week, and maybe that will be worth a few seconds per mile, but I am not going to run this marathon at a 7:30 pace.  How much slower I don't know, you never know what race morning will bring.  So I'm now going into a taper with lesser expectations, I'll just make the best of it and reassess after the race.