Boston Training, Week 1

Week 1 of Boston Marathon training is just about in the books. I still have to run an easy pace 4 mile recovery run this morning to make week 1 officially done. I'm going to try to post at least a weekly training log, mostly for myself, so I can go back later if anything goes wrong and look for training errors, etc. So if you're bored by running talk, feel free to skip these posts.

I had been debating whether or not to train with the MIT "advanced" group and finally decided that I needed to go this one alone. Having run Boston last year, I feel like I have a good idea of what I'll need to do to be ready for it this year and I just didn't think that training with a group would be very helpful this time around.

So I'm loosely following the Pfitzinger 18/55 (18 weeks/ peaking at 55 miles per week)plan, but I'll be adding hill work to all of my GA (general aerobic) runs and I'll be modifying my speed work to better fit the demands of Boston. I'll also be running at least 6 miles of hills during every LR (long run).

The Boston course is less about speed and more about mere survival. My training will be based primarily on making sure that my body is able to handle the constant up and down of the rolling hills in the first half and then the monster hills in the second half.

OK. Week 1 was supposed to start with a 7 miler with 10 x 100meter strides. I decided to do a 7 mile hill workout but the freezing rain had other ideas. I was slipping with just about every step as I made my way up the second hill so I decided to detour over to the bike path where it was mostly flat, so that I could at least get the miles in. Once on the bike path, I decided to run Thursday's workout instead since it was 9 miles GA. So I ran 9 slow miles (8:55 pace) on the ice and was just happy to get the workout in. I did manage to run 3 hills, so it wasn't a total loss.

Coming into this week, I was pretty happy about how my piriformis was feeling. I had injured it in April and the heeling process has been slow and gradual. But lately, it has been feeling a lot better and occasionally didn't hurt at all. However, during the 9 miler, I had to constantly adjust my stride to compensate for the ice and my piriformis didn't like it one bit.

Anyway, Thursday night the weather was much better and I was able to do the 7 mile hill workout. My piriformis was bothering me so I took what it would give me and ran at 8:26 pace.

Saturday was a 12 miler. I started with 3 miles of hills, then hit the bike path for 6 miles and finished with 3 more miles of hills. The bike path south of Antrim Lake was just icy enough to be an issue but the piriformis came through OK. I ran at 8:32 pace, which was fine. No need to be out there pushing the pace in week 1. I finished feeling like I could have run a lot longer so that was definitely a positive.

Today will be 4 miles at recovery pace. Nice and easy.

So week 1 starts with 32 miles total. By week 3, I'll be at 40. I'll spend most of January running 40-48 miles per week. February will be 50-55 mile weeks. March will be the same and then I will taper in April and finally race. I have two half marathons scheduled, which will be treated as training runs. One is flat and local. The other is hilly and a road trip. I need a smart training cycle. No mistakes. Last year, I tried to do too much and I'm still paying for it.