I have been thinking a lot about race day, what it all means, why I run, and the meaning of life (ok most of what I just said). But for now I'll focus on the training highlights from these final weeks.
Week 3 Featuring Hopkinton to Heartbreak
M: 4.1mi, 34:08
Matt and I were both recovering from tough long run workouts from the previous weekend
T: 7.7mi intervals, ~53min:
warmup, 5x800m at tempo effort with 2:00 recovery, then 4x200m at fast effort with 1:00 recovery, cooldown. The 200m intervals added to a feeling of "weight" that this final hard training week represented.
W: 12mi in 1:27:38,
Joe and I turned the final 9 miles into a tempo run, 7:00 - 7:20/mi with many miles close to 7 minutes. The course is shorter than 12 miles so we had to spontaneously add on little neighborhood loops to get the required distance. In other workouts it had been Joe who would add on these loops, or (cruelly!) throw in a spontaneous hill climb on one of the toughest, longest hills around. This day it was me, feeling strong at mile 10. There, I used the creative licence that is running in the lead, and took a sudden right turn onto a road with a pretty decent hill climb.
T: 8.6mi in 1:03: 8mi + 6x150m strides
F: off
S: 23.16mi in 2:43:06: Hopkinton to Heartbreak Hill and some - with Joe Loureiro, Scott Graham and Peter Floss
This run by itself could be considered an "event" and would take some time to recover from.
Joe and I ran a marathon-specific workout that included 3x10K with goal paces ~7:20/mi, 7:07, and 6:55/mi, followed by 4K at max effort at the end. We ended up beating the 10K goal paces, so it was a very successful run at a considerable distance. Since we started at the actual starting line in Hopkinton, we would be doing the 4K max effort portion as we ran up the Newton hills, culminating with the world famous Heartbreak Hill - what a perfect workout plan for the final long run!
S: 3.3mi in 23:30 - ran faster than I imagined I should after saturday's monster long run, but it was good to get the legs moving as part of the recovery.
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| Me and Joe at the top of Heartbreak Hill after the 23 mile training run |
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| Scott Graham finishing up the Hopkinton to Heartbreak run |
Week 2 The Taper Begins, And a Personal Best 5K Race!
M: 4.1mi in 29:46 - with Justin Burdon.
I felt like I was going to run easy, then Justin and I got going and picked up a little speed. It was nothing out of the ordinary. As we were finishing up, he said he hoped he didn't slow me down too much, while I was thinking we had gone just a little too fast vs. my "easy run" goal!
T: 6.36mi in 44:41 - 3x 400m @ half marathon pace, 3x @ 10K, 2x @ 5K, 2x @ 3K with 200m recovery @ goal marathon pace.
We didn't necessarily hit the goal paces in this one, feeling a little sluggish as we entered into the taper period, and still recovering from the 23 miler.
W: 9.1mi in 1:05 - a welcome downturn in mileage after running 11-12 miles on wednesdays for the last 2 months!
T: 5.94 in 45:51 - 4.7 mi + 6x 30sec hill sprints
F: 9.94 in 1:09 -
2 mi warmup, then 6mi at marathon pace (goal 6:52/mi, ran 6:38/mi pace), 2mi cooldown. First part of the tempo interval was run uphill, so I put a lot of energy into making sure I started out at pace. Once I got to flat ground I still had energy to push, and ended up running faster than planned.
S: off
S: Beacon Dash 5K Race
17:33 PR - second place overall. This time beats my previous PR of 17:49 set as a 17 year old! This course was very flat and fast (although windy), situated in South Boston's waterfront area on the campus of UMass Boston. And my previous best was done on a hilly cross country course. But of course I'm very excited to be running at this level of fitness - peaking at the right time I hope!
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Apr7_Beacon_1_set1.shtml
My sister in-law Colleen Locke works at UMB and was taking video of the event. It was also a very nice day with the family, enjoying time with Colleen, my brother Jon and my three children one of whom also ran the race!
Leading the Beacon Dash 5K before the first mile marker. "5:30, 5:31, 5:32!" shouted by a race volunteer: scary! Photo credit Jonathan Cain
M: 4.1mi in 29:46 - with Justin Burdon.
My sister in-law Colleen Locke works at UMB and was taking video of the event. It was also a very nice day with the family, enjoying time with Colleen, my brother Jon and my three children one of whom also ran the race!
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| Leading the Beacon Dash 5K before the first mile marker. "5:30, 5:31, 5:32!" shouted by a race volunteer: scary! Photo credit Jonathan Cain |
Week 1
M: off
T: 5.6mi in 39:31 - with Will Swenson. 5x 1000m intervals, 1:30 recovery in between
Plan to run these at goal marathon pace 6:52/mi. Ran faster, but not too fast: 6:23/mi, 6:14, 6:23, 6:24, 6:46
Plan to run these at goal marathon pace 6:52/mi. Ran faster, but not too fast: 6:23/mi, 6:14, 6:23, 6:24, 6:46
W: 4.54mi in 33:46 -
Plan was to run only 3 miles, such a huge contrast to the usual wednesday workout that had built up to 12 miles before the taper. While this felt nice and easy these final runs leave me asking "what is the purpose of these workouts and when can we just race? !!!"
Plan was to run only 3 miles, such a huge contrast to the usual wednesday workout that had built up to 12 miles before the taper. While this felt nice and easy these final runs leave me asking "what is the purpose of these workouts and when can we just race? !!!"
T: 5mi + 6x 100m strides
Planning to run with Matt Story and Paul Pennell.
Planning to run with Matt Story and Paul Pennell.
F: off
S: TBD
S: 2mi
Here is a picture of what 22 weeks of training for Boston looks like! I hope to be able to point to this body of work, and all of the stories behind it and be able to say "that is what it takes to..." do (whatever will happen on April 15th in Boston).
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