Quandry…

I had managed to convince myself that I should not try to run Cal. International, but that I should wait, recover, train and run in February. Then I ran a better workout than I expected today. ~18 miles of which about 8 were hard. I managed to average 6:51 on the hard part. Last week I had trouble running that pace for 3 miles (and slowed to 7:02 and then 7:10 after that).

So… If I do run Cal. International I might have a chance of breaking 3 hours. I’ll almost certainly get a PR. And then I’d be qualified for Boston, and could watch Melissa (and maybe Annie) run in the Olympic trials.

On the other hand, I was hoping for more than just a PR, more than just breaking 3 hours, and if I wait until I’m fully recovered I can do better. I had wanted to do the best I was capable of, perhaps to set my lifetime record (I’m only getting older, soon I’ll be as trained as my body will take and I’ll start getting slower).

Another downside is — how long will it take to recover? At 10 seconds a week, I might be running 6:35 pace again in two weeks. If all goes well. Which would mean starting marathon training in November and racing in Feb. If all doesn’t go well, who knows? But some of the Feb races are filling up. I should decide soon.

Maggie tells me I shouldn’t run unless I’m completely well. Jim tells me that I’ve spent so much time training I should just trust that it will all come together. I think the training I did was months ago now and is largely irrelevant. I think it likely that I will be recovered (but not as trained as I’d like) by Cal. International.

Or… I could just sign up for a race then, but retain the option of doing Cal International?

I think I’ll start a new hobby: Signing up for marathons and not running them. I realized the other day that I’ve already scratched three marathons I was signed up for (injured before the race). I’ve only run 3 total. If I scratch Cal. too, then I’ll have failed to run more than I’ve run.

Lady Bracknell:We have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more would expose us to comment on the platform

To miss any more marathons would expose me to comment at the starting line?

Slow improvements…

I seem to improve my mile pace at a rather steady 10 seconds per week. Weeks ago when I was struggling to run a tempo run at a 7:10 pace this was depressing. Today I ran 5×1K intervals at essentially 10k race pace. That’s still a little slow, but it means that I’m almost there now. Only another week or two. And now 10 seconds per week doesn’t seem so bad.

At least for speed work.

I’m still disturbed at how little endurance I have. Last saturday I tried, and failed, to run a 5 mile tempo at 6:50 — after doing a 10 mile warmup. The previous week I’d done 5 miles at 6:40 (after a 5 mile warmup) and so 5@6:50 sounded easy. It wasn’t. The extra 5 miles beforehand did me in.

I was so pleased after last week’s interval work, that I went and signed up for Cal International. I was so down after the tempo run that I was sure I’d never be able to run it.

On verra.

I did not race a marathon today

😦

Rats…

For once I’m not going to talk about my running difficulties. I want to talk about my socks.

(OK, they are running socks)

My socks are vanishing. Now I come to think of it I’ve probably lost 4 pairs in the last week or so. I wasn’t really paying attention.

But I know I left my socks stuffed in my shoes after yesterday’s run, and they aren’t there now. Most peculiar.

Well, I got out some new, clean socks and went running. …and as I was cooking dinner just now, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something streak across the floor. Ah, ha! I’ve got a rat.

I wonder… do rats build nests out of socks?

I’ve already put out some traps, but I didn’t bait them with cheese, or peanut butter — I’ve baited them with sweaty running socks!

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Sigh. Unfortunately the rat did not take the bait. It seems to have given up on socks — last night it took my bathing suit.

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(Still, if anyone could lend me a spare cat for a day or two, I would appreciate it.)

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Around midnight there was a snap! Got it! Vanilla and Peanut butter seems to have done the trick — unless there’s another…

There is a second rat. The evening after I captured the first, this second seems to have gone nuts. It’s running all over the room, showing itself to me four times. I was sitting reading the newspaper and it ran right up beside me — I was so startled I didn’t even strike at it that time.

Time to clean out and reset the traps.

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Got it too. I really hope there isn’t a third.

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Drat, there is a third. I don’t believe that. There must be a hole somewhere. No have-a-heart traps this time. Something with jaws.I do not like killing things. But I don’t feel I have a choice.

In an old, unused door to my kitchen I see a hole that is too small for a rat. But, I guess rats can squish down to a very small cross section. So I block it up.

The trap goes snap not long after I set it. One rat down — but there’s another scuttling around somewhere. This one is trickier — it takes me two days to trap it. This second rat seems to have a penchant for high tech — no socks for it — instead it destroys two ethernet cables, two phone cables, and (somehow) my ethernet switch, it made a start on one of my power cables, but (un)fortunately gave up before any sparks flew.

And I still can’t find my socks.

Rats.

I found them! Four years later