Boston Training Weeks 14 & 15 Re-Cap
In precisely 3 weeks I will (hopefully) be basking in post marathon glory, but for now I am just looking back on the last 2 weeks of training and planning my taper. I have been visualizing the turn onto Boylston street an many oyhet key race moment the past couple weeks and get a huge surge of adrenaline every time I do. The past 2 weeks have been interesting and - per usual - somewhat of a roller coaster. Week 14 ended up being a very low mileage week but included 2 days of backpacking at elevation (yay!) and week 15 had a failed speed workout but a kick-ass tempo workout followed by a really awesome last long run. I'd much rather end on a high so all in all I am feeling really good. I am also just feeling thankful to be able to run and to have been able to log 500+ (and counting) training miles. This point has been brought home several times already this training season through a variety of tragedies and serious injuries of loved ones, the latest of whom was my brother. Last Sunday he was in a really bad mountain biking accident and suffered a fractured neck, back and a clean double break in his right arm. He will be fine after surgery on his arm and many weeks in a neck and back brace and we are really thankful that he walked away, but he is pretty immobile and we live together, so he is a really good and constant reminder to be thankful for health and mobility. It's really easy to get obsessed with every small change in training and performance or to focus on the next PR, but it's equally, if not more, important to find joy and gratitude in the process. Because at the end of the day, I will spend (hopefully) about 3 hours actually racing for that PR but so far have spent close to 70 hours training - and that's just the running part of training. Week 14 (March 15-21)
Monday: Rest, PT & Core
Tuesday: "Yasso 800's" 2 mi warm up, 10 x 800 (2:50, 2:52, 2:48, 2:52, 2:50, 2:54, 2:54, 2:56, 3:00) 2 mi cool down. So yeah.. probably just a tad (har har) faster than goal marathon time but a great workout nonetheless
Wednesday: Am recovery run & NP, Lunchtime recovery run. 10.8 miles @ 7:45 average
Thursday: Rest / PT & Core
Friday: "Oh shit I decided to go backpacking this weekend, I better get in some miles" 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at Half marathon pace (kind of) 6:44 min/mile, 4 miles at marathon pace (kind of) 6:55 min / mile
Saturday: 9 miles of backpacking with 3,000 feet of elevation gain
Sunday: 9 Miles of Backpacking with 1,300 feet of elevation gain + 9.5 mile progression run @ 7:06 min/mile average
Total: 40 miles
Week 15 (March 22-28)
Monday: Easy 8's.. 8 miles, 8 min/mile, 800 calories.. felt great after the extra cross training over the weekend
Tuesday: Attempted speed workout on the roads.. kind of failed..was too distracted by the people, dogs and little hills and couldn't focus.. 2.5 miles warm up, 4 x 1 mile (6:08, 6:07, 6:12, 6:20) 3.5 miles.
Wednesday: Rest / PT & Core
Thursday: most awesome tempo ever. I slowed it down a tiny bit to be closer to marathon pace and mentally, that made all the difference. 2 mile warm up, 10 miles @ 6:45 avg, 2 mile cool down. I also met with a new PT who very quickly diagnosed my glute hamstring issue on my left side.
Friday: rest, PT & Core, acupuncture (yes!!!)
Saturday: most awesome long run ever.. and it was super hilly! 18.3 miles @ 7:29 / mile with 1,300 feet elevation.. plus 1.2 miles of cool down. The miles flew by on this one even though it was pretty hot... having a buddy to pull me up the hills made all the difference!
Sunday: Got up ass early to cheer on the rock n Roll half marathon runners, logged some lazy hilly miles on my local trails. 5 ish miles @ 8:45 min/mile
Total: 57 miles
Up next.. my tapering plan.