Recap

Here's a recap of my workouts over the past five weeks.

Half marathon - excellent!
4x2 tempo - not good, not good at all
Long run - okay
3 easy, 3 tempo, repeat - off pace
4x1, 10 miles, 4x1 - not bad
8 easy, 6x1 tempo - okay
Long run - good enough
5 easy, 3 tempo, repeat - okay
Marathon pace - complete bust
4x2 tempo - slow

In a word, I am nonplussed. I am unsure how to interpret my performance. I haven't felt fatigued going into workouts but the results indicate otherwise. Is it my legs. My breathing. My "heart". My energy. The last two seem culpable. It has been difficult to get fired up and work really hard. The corollary is that I have had low levels of energy. I feel like the energy is there somewhere. Like a resource waiting to be tapped, a people yearning to be liberated ; ) But I don't know. In the past five weeks signs of progress have not been evident. The question on my mind is what pace should I run. Yikes.

It was long

These long runs are intimidating because your body starts thinking, wait, I have to run this far plus several more miles and run it at a faster pace. Who signed me up for this? I ended up running 23.4 on Sunday. I ran over to Dimitri's house and we ran the rest together, finishing at my place. It's great to run with friends. Afterwards, we had brunch with the Drekonja's and Anderson's. Feast!

FYI

I've taken the Friday before and the Monday after the marathon off from work so anyone with flexibility in their schedule is welcome to come early and stay late if that tickles their fancy.

Longest Run

Saturday morning here. Michelle and the kiddos have been out of town since Thursday visiting my sister and niece in Bemidji. She tells me I need to be finished with my run by 1:00 PM as they will likely be back by then. Today's run will equal my longest ever. If memory serves, I ran 22 in Central Park the summer before my senior year at Mac. I was visiting my brother in New York City at the time and rain, cold, and a failure to communicate conspired to stretch my run from 18 or so to 22 when Per wasn't where he said he would be at the end of my run. Brutal.

Anyway, it's been a while since I posted an update here. As Tim pointed out earlier, I got sick after we left Ashland on Easter Sunday. Truthfully, I knew it was all over for me when I couldn't stop shivering after our Sunday morning run even though I was practically sitting atop the fireplace. Bad news. I missed 5 days of running and two days of work after that.

Coming back, I was resolved to take it slow, but didn't want to sacrifice my mileage entirely. The end result was a 60 mile week (ideally it would have been 75) with 3 runs early in the week where I averaged over 8:00 minutes per mile. Again, brutal. The good news is that my weekly mileage is now back up where it needs to be (the last two weeks were 68 and 53 respectively) and now I'm just waiting on the pacing to restore itself. Talking with Tim yesterday, it sounds like I'm not alone in feeling disillusioned about my last 2 workouts. On the positive side, I had splits ranging from 5:59 - 6:14 per mile in the 8x1 Mile workout with 30 second rests 10 days ago. On a less positive note, I only managed 10 miles at a 6:40 pace for my last marathon pace workout and stopped halfway through last Wednesday's workout because I feared spontaneous combustion. Both runs were completely demoralizing at the time. Luckily, the disappointment hasn't lingered and I mostly feel hopeful again. In my experience, "down weeks" (especially workouts in the middle of "down weeks") are often the hardest and these last two workouts did nothing to dissuade me of this notion. Mostly, I'm looking forward to the taper and feeling fresh again. 75 miles this week and it's all downhill from here.

Yo-Yo Ben

2:41 is definitely not within reach. This week has been arse. I came down with a cold Saturday night, courtesy of Levi. I have struggled with a sinus infection since Monday. I should probably give up hope of my body winning the battle against bacteria, but I would like to think I don't always need to resort to modern medicine. Sunday's run was slow. Tuesday was an easy run replete with snot rockets. Thursday was horrible. 4x2 mile tempo (5:50). Maybe I had more fatigue from the half than I thought. Maybe it was the 80 degrees that actually made me sweat. Maybe it was the kid germs. It doesn't matter. I figure I should be able to finish the workout at pace, just with more effort than usual. The first two miles were on pace, but the breathing was more labored than normal. The second two were +20 (uphill) and +17 seconds. Not good! What am I accomplishing here? Build character, toughness, iron will. Right? The next two where +17 each. Grind out a subpar performance. Refuse to quit. The first mile of the last set was +27. Then I bagged it part way into the last mile, completely enervated. Arse. It's amazing how variable the body's performance can be from week to week. I don't entirely understand why. It ain't easy.