Speed is relative

I'm sure Einstein said something about that. So I tried speed work this week. Like I said last week, I haven't done tempo (hard, sustained effort, such as 4 or more miles at a specified pace) or speed (very hard, shorter duration effort, such as mile repeats with half-mile slower recovery running between each mile) work since before the marathon last October. What a difference four months makes! Well, that and the 15-odd pounds I've put on (hey! stop that! round is too a shape!).

I had worked up a revised schedule based on what I thought were realistic target paces. Uh. No. I can run 1 mile at an 8:00 pace (outside, we're not talking treadmill here, people), but not three of them, even with rest in between. Maybe it was because it was the last day of running 5 consecutive days, which I just don't do (5, 13, 8, 5, 5). little boy giggled at me, asked how fast "speed" was for me and said he wanted to do speed work with me.

So back to the drawing board! I shorted my runs, because they crept up on me and suddenly were longer than I had time or energy for. I ran 31 miles last week and am on track for running 40 this week, with a 12 mile long run on Saturday. I ditched the Irish 10 Mile Race, because it was too expensive. I'd thought it was $30, but no, it's $50. For a 10 mile? With only a short sleeve t-shirt for swag? No.

In work-related news, the judge finally came out with the report on our proposed rules and a large part of them were shitcanned. Eh. The mountain of work the judge just created for us is amazing. Because the section that was disallowed was connected to lots of other rules and retained stuff we'd repealed elsewhere, there are a million loose ends that have to be located and tied back up. Without making substantial changes to what's actually been approved. Fun!

In dental-related news, I now have a temporary crown. Ok, people, if you're got some nice 70's era amalgam fillings in your teeth, and they're not falling out or breaking or anything, LEAVE THEM ALONE! Don't let some cute little 12 year old dentist talk you into replacing them and having a crown put on. NO NO NO. Don't do it. Unless weeks and months of smoothies, soup, and near-constant pain is something you're really into, don't do it. Given that the procedure is similar for bridges, despite the fact that for some godforsaken reason the insurance companies love them and will pay a small pittance towards them, don't do that either.

In other dental-related news, forget about that New York Times article you read about the new painless dentistry with actual pain relieving drugs used during procedures, that ain't what's happening, people. I got 4 shots of lidocaine the other day when my cute-as-a-bug-but-still-evil-torturing-dentist student spent two hours drilling on my tooth (it's tooth #3, in case you were interested). And I only got 4 shots cuz I complained (read: nearly jumped out of the chair) when the stuff wore off and I could feel everything. When we asked the real-dentist-in-charge if I could have something for afterwards, cuz student-dentist had been yanking hard on my jaw and drilling on my tooth for a really long time, Dr. Dentist said I could take tylenol. Gee, thanks. Could I have a drill or one of those sharp, metal poky things to go? I'd like to stab myself in the eye to take my mind off my tooth!