Training Log for a 2:30ish Boston Marathon 2018

ShreddyEddy wrote:

This is my past week. I'm doing a short cycle for a 10 mile race two weeks from now, before my Boston cycle starts.

M: 10ez

T: 5x600 w/90sec jog (~1:49), 5X400(~69) w/60sec jog, 5ez PM

W: 10ez

T: 11ez, 5ez PM

F: 9ez, 5ez PM

S: 10ez

S: 15, progression (to 5:50min/mile, 6:27avg)

Total was 90mi. Best week I've had since I raced a marathon in early Nov.

Good week! Well done!

86 total miles for the week

m: 10 easy

t: 10 easy

w: 3*[6 x 20 sec bridge sprint, 5 min @ 5:25 pace on flat, 2 min standing rest]

th: 12 easy

f: 8 easy

s: 10 easy

su: 22 lr pace

Have a 1/2 marathon planned for Jan. 14th, and my goal race on February 18th, with Boston following 8 weeks after.

Nice week, what’s goal pace for the half?

I did 84mi this week:

M: 8

T: 5

W: 10/5

T: 11/5

F: 4mi tempo (21:45) then 8x200@34, 5mi pm

S: 10

S: 14

One of the best workouts I’ve had in a while on fri. Hopefully that translates roughly to 10mi race pace, but will start a bit slower race day

Thanks! Same to you.

Looking for a 5:55 min/mi for the half and a lofty 6:15 min/mi for the full. I guess we'll see what happens. Happy training!

You ran Boston 2015?

Nope. Boston 2917 was my first Boston. I ran Chicago 2015 (2:30).

Obvious typo - I ran Boston 2017.

Smoove wrote:

Nope. Boston 2917 was my first Boston. I ran Chicago 2015 (2:30).

Very good William or Jackson (both 2:30:52), nice effort at Chicago that day as you almost got under. Didn't quite make your pace, injuries suck:( Good luck in your next race.

training update

can't remember if I posted my week with the 50k a few weeks ago...

dec 11-17: 52 miles with a 50k race. 7x1min hard earlier that week, took monday and sunday off.

dec 18-24: 44 miles. longest was 11mi on sunday, but was still definitely fatigued from the 50k

dec 25-31: 53 miles. took the 25th off as the day was busy and didn't want to ditch my family to run. 14 miles/1:50 on sunday and I'm feeling recovered enough now to start working out next week.

I hit 3170 miles for 2017 according to Strava, which is something like 60.8 miles per week average. My worst month was February (~145 miles) and my best month was October (~388 miles). In 2013 and 2014 I hit around 3400 miles (each year) and I'd like to beat that in 2018. The best way to do it is to keep myself motivated by running more workouts. For me, the more I run, the better I feel. Doing workouts regularly will definitely have big impacts, so my "resolution" is do do them more regularly EVEN ON DAYS WHEN I FEEL BAD.

So it looks like my Boston buildup sort of begins now.

so I just did my first workout of the year/of this boston buildup...

Plan was originally 3x2mi in around 10:50s but that was assuming I had already done a couple other workouts in the last week or two, so I changed it to 2x1mi around 5:30-5:35 pace. Then I chickened out while warming up because I didn't really have a well-lit loop or stretch of road that was safe to run on. I started at like 5:30 so it was totally dark after my 2mi warmup, plus it had rained for an hour or so, lightly, which meant all the roads were now slippery. In the future I need to get myself to a track for these workouts as I have a hard time running under 6min pace in the dark, and with a headlamp it's actually worse. So anyway, did the 4x1 in 5:26, 5:31, 5:25, 5:20 with 90sec jogs. None were flat or without some kind of obstacle or sharp turns, so I figure that the effort would've produced low 5:20s on a better route. I might repeat this workout soon on a track in the daylight just to get a sense of how the darkness impacts my pace.

Comparing it to other "first workouts back" it's not bad for me. I actually did 4x1600 with 2min rest once during my last marathon buildup in the fall of 2016 and averaged like 5:16s, while in pretty good shape, so this actually wasn't too bad. I did notice that my heartrate wasn't very high and the biggest thing slowing me down was turnover, which I probably already knew would be the case.

Anyway...that's a long description for such a simple workout but I always get a bit excited when I start training harder again.

Great job! If I could run that workout, I'd be almost ready for 2:30!

I missed my MP workout last Saturday, but did another short tempo - now down to 5:45 pace for 3M. Hoping I can still handle 6:10 pace for 12M on Saturday. Moving forwards to 6mm pace...

Pantman wrote:

Great job! If I could run that workout, I'd be almost ready for 2:30!

I missed my MP workout last Saturday, but did another short tempo - now down to 5:45 pace for 3M. Hoping I can still handle 6:10 pace for 12M on Saturday. Moving forwards to 6mm pace...

rest of my week was alright considering my vacation.

M 9.5 easy

T 6.5 easy with strides

W 8.8 w/ 4x1mi 5:25s, 90sec rest. in the dark/on roads. maybe 5:20s on a track

Th 5 easy on trails during drive to Tahoe for family vacation

F 6.5mi (65min) on hilly trails in Tahoe, feat. snow and ice.

Sa 7.2 easy on hilly trails in Tahoe.

Su 11 easy

total 55 miles and 7hrs of running. No long run this week hurt the mileage but I didn't skip any runs which is tough to manage on vacations! Avoided any hangovers which probably helped.

I'm still not feeling the surge of motivation that allows me to hit 80 mile weeks without suffering, but hopefully it will appear soon. I'm looking forward to doing my second workout back which I expect to be a tempo run or some 800s.

Just keep it up, man! 5:25s for the mile reps isn't the worst place to start. You still have 3+ months. I'm not in the best shape right now but as my main marathon this spring is at the end of April I should know what I'm talking 'bout... Lots of time... But get those miles up and start to run more steady and tempo type stuff. I don't wanna be a jack*ss but 55 miles at 7:40s are going to get you nowhere when you wanna run 2:30ish. You need 2-3 sessions per week and some bigger chunks of roughly 5:30 - 7:10ish miles IMHO.

Keep it on the crete, of course ;)

Pikachu

Finished up my "pre Boston cycle" this morning with a 10K time trial, 33:03. It was ok, but not great. I was planning on doing a 10 mile race that was cancelled this past Saturday due to the crazy weather on the east coast. Plan B was the 10K.

Track this morning was icy pretty much all around, but was ok with spikes on. My buddy who came out to do 6x1200 to help pace me did not bring spikes, however, and slipped a bunch of times. Overall, pleased to be in decent shape this early in the year.

Will be taking the rest of this week and next easy before starting to kick it back into gear

Sorry Pikachu but I don't take no advice from rodents

jk, but ignore the 7:40 avg pace. I did like 4 runs on trails last week and Fridays 6.5mi was at 10min pace due to the terrain. I'm doing a trail 50k 6 weeks before Boston so have to get in the hills and trails whenever possible, plus I'm weartesting some new trail shoes and need the miles.

The 55 miles could use some work though, obviously.

Tomorrow I'm hopping into a buddy's workout doing 10x1k at 3:20. Should be some good volume if I can get it all done smoothly

Any of you guys use Strava and brave enough to share?

Pantman wrote:

Any of you guys use Strava and brave enough to share?

I just assumed anybody would've already found me if they were looking

Same here. My identity is pretty easily discernible from my posts.

https://www.strava.com/athletes/4565928

second workout of the cycle done.

last wednesday I did 4x1mi on the roads in 5:25s in bad conditions, which I thought would be equal to about 5:20s on a lit track. Well, maybe it wasn't...as yesterday, 8 days later, I only managed to run 5:22s for 4x1600 on a track (still dark though) with the same recoveries.

split 5:25, 5:23, 5:22, 5:18. again, I wasn't aerobically very challenged by this but it was tough to turn it over. I put in some effort on the last 600m of the final mile after hitting the 1000m in 3:21 but barely ran any faster.

I guess the next step is either to do some hill repeats or something like 8x200m on the track. I will do the 4x1600 workout again but will give it a few weeks and hope for some improvement. I figure I'd need to be doing 4x1600 in 5:05-5;10 with the same 90sec rest or 5:00s with 2.5min rest to feel confident about my fitness