Run fast, now slow down

I have a problem slowing down on my recovery days. This doesn't bother me so much in my base building, but with a little over two weeks until the Pittsburgh Half, I am worrying more about an actual taper.
It's hard for me to just go out and run easily.

I thought it would help to run with a bunch of girls, so I went to the Lululemon running club Monday, the day after Cherry Blossom. Technically, it's the "run club" but I absolutely detest their resistance to using the gerund form of run. It's obnoxious and I hate it. Every time I see it in use, besides in its pure root intransitive form, I want to break something. Not focefully, by punching, smashing or crushing it, but by removing a few vital pieces so it's structurally deficient. Anyway, I didn't count on this dude Eric pushing the pace. Every time someone asked him if he ran the day before, in reference to Cherry Blossom, he said, "no, but I did go running." Dear Eric, nobody cares. After he decided to run ahead, I joined up with a nice fellow named Josh and ran with him for a bit until we gathered the rest of the group at the base of the Capitol. We had a more relaxed pace on the way back. That, and with a few miles I did beforehand, made nine miles.

Tuesday evening it rained a bit and I was reticent to go outside, but since nobody else would be outside I decided to see just how small a medium pair of shorts was. As it turned out, way too small, though they weren't constrictive. I ran a pretty easy 10 miles out and back on the W&OD trail, keeping the pace at about 7:00.

Wednesday, I gathered at the track with Dirk, Dickson, Mike C. and Jimmy for some repeat miles. I was hoping to do 5-6 between 5:10-5:15. My legs were tight for the first few laps of the first one, but I broke out of that rhythm with a 76 third lap to bring it to 5:12. The second mile's fast lap came in the second- 75, though I slowed it down to run 5:13. Mike took the third one, out in 75, and we slowed it down to 5:11. I then had to go to the bathroom, which is a trip up the stadium to the school, and I told the others to not wait for me. They heard me only say "wait for me," and when I came back they were still jogging around. Knowing that they had been waiting, I rushed into the next interval, which I split 80 for the first quarter, though I felt I was pushing as hard as I could. I rushed back after the bathroom- bad move. After that I jogged about and watched the other guys finish up their workouts.

Thursday morning was great for running the 12-mile route to work, which I averaged about 7:10.

After sleeping in Friday, I took the day off, because my travel plans for Boston are a little complex. I will take a 1:15 Greyhound bus, which is scheduled to arrive around 11:30 am. I will be heading to sleep for a few hours, shortly, and then will get up and take the metro to DC to catch the bus.

I have been hatching my plan to try to view one of the most spectator unfriendly metropolitan marathon courses. Sometime after running the BAA 5k on Sunday, I will rent a bicycle, take it with me as I do whatever for the rest of the day, then Monday morning get up in Brookline, take the subway out to Riverside then bike the 17 or so miles to Hopkinton to see my friends before they start the race- mainly to see Jake Marren's Goodwill warmup outfit, then see the race from selected spots parallel to the course until I get back to Shara's house in Brookline for omlettes and smoothies. Absolutely foolproof.