The Week of 03/31/2014: Seriously.

Out of base building phase, Tempo runs begin!

Monday 03/31/2014

Scheduled:  5 Mile Recovery Run 46º, Overcast.  This recovery run went quite well - It was my first run in my new Nike Lunarglides.  I don't know if it was the new shoes or all the stretching that I did on my rest day yesterday, but there were no real issues during the run today - nice and smooth the whole way through.  I still look at the soles of those Nikes and wonder how on earth they are going to last for 500 miles; they seem way too soft to survive that long.

Tuesday 04/01/2014

Scheduled:  7 Mile Tempo Run 5 @ HMP My daughter has been sick again this week so I was up a good chunk of the night with her.  I ended up sleeping in and doing this run in the early evening.  It was nice to run in the sunshine and actually wear sunglasses.  My right heel started acting up mid to late in the run.  I kept my HMP throughout the tempo portion; aside from the foot discomfort it was a good workout.

Wednesday 04/02/2014

Scheduled:  6 Mile Recovery Run Right plantar fascia was super tender this morning, even more so than usual.  I did lots of stretching and soul searching, and in the end went out and did this run.  It was slow going (By design) and things loosened up a couple of miles in.  But that right heel never really felt "Good," and tightened up again not long after I finished.

Thursday 04/03/2014

Scheduled: 10 Mile Midweek Long Run 37º, Overcast. It could just be me, but I think that I feel a lot better running in the Nike Lunar glides than I do in the Asics. Making time for a 10 miler on a workday morning is no small thing for me.  When I turned off the lamp on my side of the bed at 9:30 last night, my wife's eyebrow went up.  She wanted to know why I was turning in so early.  I told her that I planned on getting up at 3:30 for a long run, and the last thing I remember her saying before I drifted off was, "You're nuts."  As  I got dressed in the dark a few hours later, she rolled over, looked at me and stated, "So you are serious." and promptly fell back asleep. A 10 miler in the dark on a midweek morning is as serious as you can get.  My last marathon experience (The training program and the whole thing) started out with a lot of promise; I had the end in mind, and hung on to that mental imagery up to and well into the race, when my physical limitations finally brought my daydreams crashing down.  Starting is easy; the end is what we make of it.  It is the middle, all the drudgery miles run on lonely roads in the early morning, that allow for those dramatic finish line crossings that we all daydream about.  But to run those middle miles we have to be serious. Seriously.

Friday 04/04/2014

Scheduled: XT (Swimming) Old man winter got one last laugh in overnight.  For all I know the pool was open, but I had no interest in getting up and trudging in.  I took it as a rest day instead.

Saturday 04/05/2014

Scheduled: 12 Mile Long Run Between the standing snow outside and a mild cold that I have been fighting I opted to skip this run.  I adjusted the ramp-up of my subsequent long runs in my plan accordingly. I was briefly tempted to do makeup mileage on the treadmill today and tomorrow but opted against it.

Sunday 04/06/2014

Scheduled: REST