Boston Marathon 3 weeks to go

#1401. DNS.

Yesterday made two complete weeks off from running. Last week I reported on my injury and some of you guys helped me narrow down from just the sciatic to the piriformis. Thanks for all of the advice and stretches. Got a massage on Tuesday am. As painful as everyone said. Massage lady couldn't believe how tight my muscles were. Went to the physical therapist that night then, per the doctor's orders. Complete joke and waste of time. Phys therapist lady says I probably just slouch too much at work, which causes the disks in my back to hit the nerve roots, which in turns causes the muscles to tighten. She gave me some stretches for my back that were completely irrelevant. After that, no progress or improvement until Friday morn's massage. Noticed some improvement later that day and was nice and went back to the physical therapist on Friday night then too. Still a waste of time there. I have three PT appts this week and one doc appt. Canceling them all. Got better advice off LetsRun and think that I am ready for an easy run tonight, again will be the first in two weeks. Not feeling 100%, but certainly well enough to run.

That said, I have been on the stationary bike to maintain some fitness, but don't think I would be ready for the marathon so soon. Will likely only be doing half the mileage that I was doing for these first two weeks back, which will be 45-50 mpw. I'm sure I could finish the marathon, but it wouldn't be a time that I'd be happy with and it'd probably be a risk doing it that soon after injury. I ran Boston last year, have ran 6 marathons, and will plan to go back to Boston, so its disappointing, but not the end of the world.

I'm going to eat the $90-95 entry fee and cancel the hotel. Already have the flight booked, so am going, going to rent a car, head up to Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire for a few days. Scrapping the training, starting back from scratch, and hopefully reloading for the Buckeye Trail 50K in July - got to defend my title.

That's it for me. Good luck to everyone and thanks again for the help in identifying the injury. Think I'm definitely on my way back.

68 miles with an outstanding 20 on Saturday morning....I'd been up and down mentally and after running very well on Saturday, it gave me the mental boost and confidence I needed to realize everything is going to be fine and the work is paying off. Everything appears to have come together nicely and according to plan.

The way I see it, from here on out, it's all about maintaining my present fitness level and not doing anything stupid to compromise my race. I'll cut back a bit on the miles, and rest a bit more, but will only taper for about 10 days or so....anything more than that and I get sluggish.

Good luck everyone!

#1196 Only 41 miles for the week. Had done a very hard 18 last Sunday and took 2 days of very slow short runs to recover. Wednesday was the best workout of the week -- 3 mile warm-up followed by 6 in just over 34:00, finishing very fast. Saturday a fast 2.

I am running short runs nearly as fast as ever but my mileage is much lower than my past couple of marathons. Leaves me hopeful but very uncertain. Will definitely need to be cautious in the early miles.

Began the week feeling sluggish but things seemed to have turned around. Had a decent MP workout on Tue. AM (~9 miles at MP) and a long (18 miles) MP+30 sec. run on Wed. PM. The interval workout on Fri. AM was something new; we alternated 1- and 2-milers (1-2-1-2-1-2) with 60 sec. rest. Hit the miles at ~5:50 and the 2 miles at ~12:00 (last was 11:50). Long and easy on Sun. One more week and then it will be time to ease up.

Mon. - AM 12.1; PM 5.1

Tue. - AM 15.2; PM 5.3

Wed. - AM 7.0; PM 18.3

Thr. - AM 12.0; PM 3.8

Fri. - AM 14.1; PM 4.5

Sat. - AM 11.7;

Sun. - AM 20.4

~130 miles

P.S. -- #16XX (Goal: 2:50)

OUCH!!!!!!!

#2749

I pulled something in my leg doing a track workout last Tuesday. 3 miles warm up 6*1200 3 miles cool down, took off Wed and Thursday, ran 3 on Friday and 14 on Saturday, started to hurt again, took off yesterday and probably today. If I am still in pain at the end of the week I am getting a cortisone shot.

Anyone ever have something like this....

about 1 inch up from my ankle in the front of my left leg, hurts especially when I flex my foot up, hurts when I flex down, but not as bad as up? Any advice?

#5146

Great training runs again for the week in Wisco. Weather is starting to break nice--thank God!

14 miles this A.M. on a nice rolling loop course, 3 weeks from Hopinton. Good luck all.

easyrider wrote:

~130 miles

P.S. -- #16XX (Goal: 2:50)

Are you a female and/or master?

#1235

Got in a solid 2:05. Ten miles on some trails then ran home on the roads. I am nursing some small nagging problems due to not having any base. But after spending the last 10 months injured I'll be happy that I will be able to finish boston.

I am looking forward to resuming normal training come May.

Last week I said I was pretty sure I was out of the running. Today I am positively out.

Did a 20 miler on the course on Sunday, pacing a friend who was trying to do some MP work. She wasn't having a good day and could not hit her paces so I was trying to pull her along. I had no problems boppin' along at 6:40-6:55 pace for 16 miles and was really holding back. Then, all of a sudden I just completely ran out of gas and she was suddenly pulling ME along. At 19 miles I had to stop and walk.

Oh well. At least my achilles felt fine. I can do all the weekly mileage I want now.

So I'm officially out. I'll have some fun this spring, running meaningless little 5Ks and building up my mileage. Good luck everyone. I'm done with the Boston thread.

Oh yes, I was #1371

I think my # was 1311. My week was a little down in mileage because of a 10K race Saturday, which went pretty well all things considered, 32:43 on fairly even splits.

3/20: 12 miles-82 minutes

3/21: 9 miles 62 minutes

3/22: 8 miles easy

3/23: 2.5 warm up, 5X800 @ 2:28-2:29 (ran 600 steady and

cruised the last 200 on each) 2 cool down

3/24: 6 miles easy

3/25: 4 miles easy

3/26: 10K race: 32:43 (5:12,10:23,15:44,20:58,26:15,31:33)

2.5 warm up 2 cool down

P.M. easy 3.5- 26 minutes

Total about 61 for the week. Did 15 yesterday 3/27, wanted to do maybe 16-18, but I was sore and the weather was terrible here.

[quote]Seppo Kaitainen wrote:

Are you a female and/or master?

--->Neither; 33 year old male. I know where this is going: too conservative, poor training, no talent.

#1486

80 Miles this week

M - 6.5 E

T - 5E, 13 (Yasso 10 x 800 @ 2:38 w/ 400 jog @ 2:10)

W - 6.5 E

Th - 3E, 9 (13 x 200 @ 36 w/ 200 @ 49 recovery)

F - 6.5 E

S - 23 miles with some good hills; 2:40 running time.

S - 7.5 with 3 mile hilly tempo in 17:21 - not sore from yesterday's run, a good sign.

My goal is still sub 2:40 as long as it's not hot.

wstuart - good luck at the cherry blossom!

#1223

Ran 87 miles for the week on 7 runs, with a 4 mile tempo in 23:02 in the wind. I am in the same boat where my shorter runs are faster than they have been in the past, and i ma trying to throw hills in where ever possible. I am also more consistent in my mileage compared to my build for Chicago this past fall, hopefully that bodes well. I am going to run a 15K on the track, paced by a buddy of mine on my bike. Save myself 20-30 bucks but get in the time trial. Cheers.

#2481 (My 1st Boston. Only my 3rd Marathon) ...

QUESTION: It looks like my number lets me load onto one of the last buses going to the start, then load into one of the first few corrals? If so, is it better to get out there early and wait ... or can I count on having plenty of time by taking the later bus? Thanks for any help.

You'll have plenty of time. Ride is 45 minutes or so. Even if you get on the bus at 8:30-9AM. You are out there 2+ hours before the start.

I thought I heard somewhere that one year they ran out of buses?? Can anyone confirm anything like this? This is exactly why I was thinking of getting out there way early.

Whatever happened to notwithstanding? Last I heard he broke 3 in Austin but I missed a couple weeks of posts.

78 miles with 24 @ 7:10 pace and an LT workout of 7 x 4:00 at pace. Hoping I can maybe end up on the right side of 2:50 if conditions are favorable.

Last year they did. They didn't have enough at one point. The final group got there just minutes before the start. I'm pretty sure nobody missed the start.

#10xx

This past week was tough. I travelled to Atlanta on Tuesday, D.C. on Wednesday, and then came down with a cold. Luckily it was a volume only week after the half marathon last Sunday. Would have hit 75 miles if I hadn't bagged Saturday due to feeling like crap. So ended with 67.

On Sunday I ran for 2+ hours at a snail's pace. I had a sore throat, achey joints, and just plowed through it like an automaton.