The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-369 – Vybarr and the Muse of Running  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4369.mp3] Link epi4369.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello my friends, and welcome to episode 4-369, of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Rolling into July and the dog days of summer.  I don’t have any race reports for you this week, but I do have an excellent interview with Vybarr who wrote a book about running.  We have a great chat. I kicked the 5 at 5 project on July 1st!  So, I officially made it 32 days.  Now I’m playing around with some speedwork and getting ready to train for a fall race.  There are a couple I’m looking at.  Both reasonably flat.   My old Buddy Brian is back training again so we did a couple longish runs on the weekend. First one was out and about Groton with Frank.  Frank, Brian and I started marathon training together in the late 90’s! It’s cool to run with them.  Now that they’ve slowed down to my pace again.  Frank had that hip resurfacing that we talked about and Brian had a foot problem that caused him to take a year off.  We cranked out 14ish miles. This week, I met Brian and Ryan on the BayState course in Lowell and we did a loop around the river of another 14 miles.  It was hot, but we lucked out because they were having a triathlon in the river.  We got to refill our bottles a couple times.  We closed the last 1/3 of a mile pretty hard.  Felt good. My legs are in great shape and my aerobic fitness is good.  I just don’t have and leg speed. I bought a pair of Brooks Launch off the internet for $60.  They are lighter and less cushion than the Hokas.  It’s challenging to do speedwork in the Hoka Challengers because they are so squishy in the forefoot.  The launch are more responsive.  Takes a while to break them in and get comfortable after running in the Hokas for so long.  I ran to the local high school track the Wednesday after the fourth.  If you ever read any of my stories about track workouts – this is that track.  I have spent hundreds of miles there.  The old track was heavily used.  15 – 20 years ago I learned where every pot hole and puddle was.  I could run that  track in the dark.  A couple years ago they finally resurfaced it.  It was a nice new track.  Then I noticed it started getting cracks and grass was growing through it in places.  They called whoever installed it and made them do it again.  Now it’s a new, new track. Anyhow I was curious as to my leg speed after not having done any speedwork for a couple years.  I ran down there.  Now, in my mind I eyeballed the distance and it felt like 2 – 2.5 miles.  Of course it’s actually 3.5 miles from my house.  That’s a bit of a warm up.  When I got there, I loosened up, stretched out and did mile as hard as I felt I could.   My legs felt like cement.  I was really dragging them, no pop.  I managed somewhere in the 6:30 mile range.  Not horribly disappointing.  I think the next big landmark for me in my slow slide into decrepitude will be when I can’t run a 1600 in the pace I used to run a marathon at!  (My marathon PR is a 3:06:40 at Boston in 1998 – which is a 7:11 pace.)  Not to be discouraged, I went back down this week and did a set of 8 X 400 at an aggressive pace.  They came in around 1:35, which isn’t bad, it’s like a 6:15-6:20 pace, but what was encouraging is that I was able to feel that speed form.  Still not much pop, but good strength and form.  And I went back out Thursday in the rain and did a set of 800’s at tempo pace, coming in around a 6:50 pace. I think in 3 weeks of speedwork I could get most of my pop back.  Not super-useful for marathon training, but at this point I’m really just benchmarking speed with effort and heartrate before I start my next training cycle.  Coach hates when I do useless speedwork.  … Did you see the post I put up about the Chinese scientist who demons