Boston Training, Week 15

This was the final week before taper. I ended up on the treadmill more than I would have liked but if that's all I can find to complain about then I'll take it.

Tuesday - 9.3 miles at 8:28 pace. This was a tough run. My legs were still weak from the 22 miler plus I was fighting some stomach issues for half of the run. I was surprised when I got home and saw my pace because I felt like I was really plodding along.

Wednesday - 5 miles at 9:02 recovery pace on treadmill. It was raining and I wasn't sure how strong my legs would feel so I went with the easiest possible scenario. Legs ended up feeling fine.

Thursday - 8 miles at 8:06 average pace on treadmill. Another rainy day so I made the most of it. I decided to do a combination speed/hill progression run. Basically a 1/2 mile uphill starting at 7.2 then a 1/2 mile flat but at .2 faster, then the hill at the faster speed, then flat at .2 faster until I got to 8.0. Then finished with 2 miles at 7.2. Turned out to be a pretty good workout.

Saturday - 20 miles at 8:29 pace. This was the last 20 miler of the training cycle so I was hoping for a strong run. I went out at around 8:20 pace and quickly realized that it was hotter and more humid than I had anticipated. I decided to stick with the pace anyway since this was likely to be similar to the race day conditions in Boston. I felt OK and eventually found my zone. All went well through 14 and then I started to crash. By mile 16 I was hurting pretty good and I really had to push and fight to make it through the next 4 miles. I was pretty wiped out when I finally stopped running but it was a good test and good practice for fighting through fatigue.

Sunday - 3.2 miles at 9:22 recovery pace on treadmill. Some nasty weather so I just took it easy with a nice, slow 30 minute easy run on the treadmill.

So this is it. Time to taper and get ready to race. Looking back at my training log for fall '07 when I ran my Boston Qualifier race, my last 20 miler was a walk in the park. My notes say that the first 12 miles seemed "effortless" and I cruised through 20 miles at 7:58 pace. And I remember having to hold myself back from running it faster. Although, back then I was healthy and able to run 7 mile tempo runs and solid, consistent vo2 max workouts. Obviously, I'm no where close to that level of fitness right now but I'm damn happy just to be healthy enough to go out and run a respectable race.

The goal for this training cycle was to train hard while not aggravating my piriformis injury or doing anything else too stupid. So I managed to make it through reasonably healthy. I wasn't able to do any long tempo runs or any vo2 max workouts but I did run a couple of solid half marathons as training runs, and I have three 20 milers and a 22 miler under my belt. All in all, I think I'm OK. The marathon goal heading into the training cycle was to finish Boston in under 3:30. Unless there are some extreme weather conditions to contend with, that remains the goal and I think it will be tough, but attainable.