The President's Own

I took in a concert last night at the high school here in town. You know how life comes at you in clusters of three? Well the band in concert was the United States Marine Band, the one that plays for all the White House and other state functions.
They were wearing some mighty sharp uniforms and played with great skill. The audience got very vocal when they played God Bless America as an encore.
So that is Part I of the Few. The Proud. The Marine Corps Marathon is next Sunday. I wonder whether the Marines will pop up in my life again this week or wait until after the race.

Jeffrey all the way

Mrs. T and I watched breathlessly (me anyway) the last installment of Project Runway. I was "breathless" because I was concerned my boastful prediction that Jeffrey would win could cause me ridicule and embarassment over my presumption to know and appreciate fashion better than Mrs. "Fashion" T.

As I watched the show I was liking what Laura did because it was so ritzy. Uli's stuff was impressive and so wearable. I think we all knew Michael was toast about a month ago. He just lost it.

Jeffrey was definitely going where he'd never been before and it actually looked good to me. After following some of the hyperlink threads Jeanne led me down to read an interview with Laura (on a gay site) I was convinced from what I saw and read that Jeffrey would be the winner. I liked the stripes he put on designs very much.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. We had an incident at a high school on Thursday afternoon that resulted in the tragic death of a teen. The principal of the school is the Dave I occasionally train with. He was at the airport ready to board a plane to run the Chicago Marathon this weekend. He was in the concourse and looked at the TV monitor and saw an aerial shot of his high school on CNN and the unfolding story. He kissed his wife and kids goodbye and headed back to school.

We have both been in crisis control mode ever since. It is over for now but, sadly, so are the lives of two kids (one dead, the other in jail), the peace of two families and the innocence of a lot of students. Not nearly as sad but a true bummer is that Dave won't be running Chicago.

I am still hoping all calms down and nothing flares up between now and Marine Corps to sidetrack me.

I had Sherlene work me over Wednesday afternoon as a final tune up. She said my left ITB was tight.

Yesterday morning I overslept because of Project Runway but still got up and ran 8 miles at a slow pace. It took 1:18. I thought about pushing it but, after a massage, I am usually too loose and not tuned for running. After the events of the last 36 hours, I am plenty tight now. We'll see how my last 10 miler goes this weekend.

Faster

I love stats. Which is probably why I love speed workouts. So many repeats to measure and compare!

ITEM 1. The last three speed workouts (one a week) have been 6 x 1200, 7 x 800 and 3 x 1600. Varying distances. Varying aggregate lengths. What's unusual is that my pace on all three has been 7:52/mile.

ITEM 2. Today's 3 x 1600s resulted in my fastest 1600 of the year: 7:44.5 in the second interval - that with a bowl of chewed up Cheerios and fruit bouncing around in my belly.

ITEM 3. Evidence above indicates I am getting faster every week. Today's 1600s were 12 seconds faster on average than my last 1600s. In fact, my last 800s were 6 seconds faster than the time before.

I was annoyed this morning when I didn't have a balanced trio of times. The fastest was nine seconds faster than my slowest. I was also mad I didn't close with my fastest time (I was thinking Flipperhead throughout but couldn't quite get there).

I am feeling as though I am peaking for thise race next week. I have the speed. I am more confident about the distance. I am not so sure about negative splits but that will come down to race strategy.

West Point story. Older son T was in Manhattan this weekend seeing a young lady. Walking along Broadway. Upper west side. Old man walks out of a storefront, loses his balance and falls. Head smashes against a bus shelter wall before it bounces on sidewalk. Before he stopped moving T was in action mode, sprinting to nearest store to call 9-1-1. Asks for telephone. Clerk looks quizzically at him as if he doesn't understand the language. T assesses clerk to be Arab. T says "telephone" in Arabic, the foreign language he chose to study this year. Ahhh! Yes! Emergency responders arrive. Man taken care of. Girl friend duly impressed with hero model who acted on instinct, forged on the battlefield and in military training. Hoo-ah! Go Army. Beat Air Force. Beat Navy.

MCM: 27 miles ahead

Friday was such an accomplishment day. I skipped work. That was a big accomplishment. Then I fixed the sprinkler system that would have cost me $500 if I had bought into what that estimator yahoo told me last Friday. I went to the bank. I bought an external wireless adapter so I could get my laptop back connected to you guys (the internal card went out on me). I changed some lightbulbs. Cleaned the pool. Took the car for a wash. Got all my nagging chores done that I never get to on weekends!

Then around 5 o'clock I went over to Mrs. T's museum office and whisked her off to Park Avenue for a sidewalk cafe cocktail and appetizer while the world whizzed by. That was followed by a stroll looking in shops which resulted in a skirt in a shopping bag that was not for me.

Dinner followed in the college dining hall we spent a lot of time in 35 years ago, although it's a new building now. I can remember strutting on the tables back then in the Mr. Legs competition. I won, of course. I think I have a picture somewhere to prove it too.

For my indulgence on this evening, we took in a soccer game won by the hometown boys in the last 90 seconds on a penalty kick.

Running. So many people I saw Friday night asked how I was doing and how my running was going. Mrs. T was quick to tell them I was running 15 miles Saturday morning which I had not committed to do - in my head. I was thinking more Sunday when I'd see the usual crowd. I had no "date" for Saturday.

When I got up today I thought of Flipperhead racing in Hartford so wistfully imagined I might catch some of her good vibes. I was not really mentally psyched to go but I did anyway. Breakfast was quick. I read Dianna's blog and the WTIC Hartford radio web page. With my cooler packed, I headed out the door. It was about 10 miles later that I realized I forgot to Body Glide my nipples. Ouch.

My goal was to try throttling down my pace, as if it were the first 15 miles of the marathon. After last week, I knew I was going too fast. I was concentrating on keeping my shoulders low and my left arm to be more the leader arm moving forward instead of the one that veered across my chest.

I caught myself dragging rubber too often and picked up my feet more. Then I caught myself running in the yellow zone, above the green (that's tachometer talk right there). The left arm was hitching too high and inwards. I basically examined my mechanics for a good portion of the run. My goal was about 2:30 for the 15 miles.

I pulled in at 2:26 which was faster than everything I have done to this point in long runs which may explain why I am stiff and dragging today. I did not finish in a flurry but I was certain I had some left. It may not have been at a satisfactory pace but I am pretty sure I could have gone 26.2 if necessary.

I realize I am not in peak shape like coach jeff would have me if I was his client but I am in better shape than I had me back in January. This marathon training is like anything else. A little experience can make a world of difference in the training and mental approach.

Next tasks to tackle: enduring the taper, estimating the weather conditions for DC at the end of October, packing right and eating right.

Training is habit forming

The running routine is medicinal or addictive. I haven't decided which. Maybe that's what Runner Susan lacks: the strong addiction.

Tuesday was, as always, a delightful speed work day. I popped out seven 800s at a 10 second per mile pace better than the last time I did 800s; around 3:50 each. After doing the 23 on Sunday I thought I'd be stressed and unable to go. How wrong. I was raring to go.

This morning I only had a measly four miles to run at tempo pace so I just zoomed through that in short order. It was the second fastest tempo pace of the year for me.

I remember in January when I was less than three weeks out from running Miami and I had so many issues. This time around I am just feeling great with no sore spots, health, equipment or life issues.

The Friday night get together with RBF Washington is coming together thanks to Bex. My hosts are cued in and ready to have some fun, even join us for dinner. Another old college acquaintance will come over to see me. Susie and David are coming up from F-burg.

This is going to be fun so long as the Marines don't shoot me for wearing my West Point-Army shirt.