Boston Marathon 3 weeks to go

bib 2205

m. 10miles flat on ncr bike trail. Felt good,Ran hard on the way back. splits from run 8:00 6:21, 6:28,6:24, 6:27, 5:58,6:08,6:04,6:11,5:54

t. ran an hour easy 8- 8.5

w raining hard, did 6 with some 10k race pickups in the middle of the run

t am 12miles @ 6:50-7:20 pace pm 3 slow

f took off

s am 8.5 miles 6:30-7min easy pm 3miles slow

s 1.5 mile wu,very hilly 10k trail race,39:45 for second, I think i ran pretty well, and im not very good with huge hills and cross country and trail stuff, there were downhill sections on the course that you could just fly on, but uphills that would take everything out of you, prolly just even walking up them.

Regarding the shortage of buses, I was one of the unlucky runners who was left stranded in downtown Boston last year. There were about +/- 300 of us who had to wait until officials could procure more buses to get us to Hopkinton.

Other than not having to wait in line for the bathrooms, it sucked. Way too stressful and it wasn't handled well by the BAA staff on-site. Despite repeated questions, they couldn't give a straight answer and had no clue when we'd be on our way.

We eventually rolled into town with about 8 or 9 minutes before the start. Fortunately I found a spectator who was kind enough to take my bag to the gear check or else I never would have made it back to the start on time. Worked my way up to the third corral and seconds later, the gun went off.

It's a nice story to tell the friends back home, but once is enough. This year my friend is driving me up there....no way I'm going through that again.

easyrider wrote:

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

No I was just surprized by the mileage and your goal. As Most people do not have to run that amount of miles to run 2:50. But that being said, I know nothing about your training history. Besides unless you bomb out, you will beat me come 4/18.

Well it's been a while since I've checked in. Strained a calf with 9 weeks to go. Took about a week off, then had two great weeks of training before my anterior tibialous started to give me problems with four and half weeks out. Three iontoferesis treatments and 8 out of the next ten days off and I finally am pain free.

I have 2 runs of 20+ miles (weeks 11 and 10 to go), plus two other runs of 18+ and two more of 16+ all since the beginning of the new year. I have also done some quality Threshold runs of 4-6 miles and one or two V02max workouts. The only thing I am missing is some true MP running.

What does everyone think? Do I still go for it? My thought is that if I can get one more 17-18 miler in by the end of this week and continue to be pain free then it is a go. If not then scrap it and look towards the fall. It pains me to think I will have to scrap 17 weeks of training that occurred in this crappy winter weather here in Iowa.

Oh yeah---#1122

#5648 here. Decent week: Tuesday I did that workout bspang described, 6 x on/off or whatever he called it: 400m @ 5K pace, 400m @ MP, 6 times. Wednesday did hills. Sunday did 21 miles of hills for my last long run.

This weekend I'll do 16 at MP.

wstuart: Good luck in the Cherry Blossom! I happened to be in DC on race weekend a couple of years ago, but since it was already full I watched the start, then ran the 5K, then watched the finish. Had a great time. Looks like a real fun race.

miamiredhawk: Bummer! Good luck coming back from that injury. I'm sorry you won't make it to Hopkinton!

wstuart,

I had a similar experience in the week leading up to my half. I set out to do a tempo run and found myself fighting to hold pace and bagged the workout after two miles. Five days later I had no trouble holding the exact pace and up to ten seconds faster for mile after mile of the half marathon. I bet the Cherry Blossom goes well.

# 5538 here, 69 miles for the week, shooting for sub 3:10

Highlights:

-14 miles at MP+10 sec

- 11 miles with 6 x1200 at 5k pace, 2 min rest, feeling good

-20 miles at MP + 25 sec, with 9 at the end below MP

-feeling I'm peaking, workouts start feeling easier and easier..

Lowlights:

- pretty much drained mentally, I'm extremely happy to start tapering this week

- haven't raced at all this cycle so far, apart for a weak 5k, confidence could be better...

Best luck to you all, I'm going to see most of you 3-4 corrals ahead of me..

johnny5,

I'm out of Boston...family logistics. Anyone want to babysit a couple of little kids?

I still monitor everyone's progress. I get a kick out of reading through all the training. Great work and good luck. Can't wait to see the results for better or worse. Kind of feel I'm "in" just reading everyone's thoughts. Hope to join you for real next year.

------

About my own progress which I think demonstates very well the efficacy of simple aerobic training (yawn...please skip if you're already bored):

I continue to be amazed at how quickly my fitness is improving despite not doing any kind of "speed" work. I've been on the track exactly once for a HR fitness test (Hadd's 2400M test + another mile). Purchasing a HRM is the best thing that I have done for my training. It has slowed me down for my long runs and recovery runs, and has given me the proper pace guidance for my MP and tempo runs.

I have improved so much since starting up running again last Sept that I've shifted my thinking. At my relatively "older" age of 33, I thought I would be relegated to plodding through marathons. However, running a few local races has changed my mind. I'll be running a 5K this weekend, and 16 flat may not be out of the question. In comparison, a month and a half after I started running seriously again, I ran a 20K in 1:24:22.

All of this improvement, and all I do is run easy almost all the time (easy pace continues to improve as my HR dictates). The exceptions are my 12 mile MP run and tempo/hill run once a week each. I like the idea of not being bent over, grabbing my knees after every "hard" workout. My 12 MP runs are hard but comfortable and very enjoyable, something I look forward to every week. Even on my tempo runs, I always feel in complete control.

I have run only two miles under 6:00 in practice (both in Hadd's fitness test mentioned above). 99% of my runs are above 6:00 pace and half are at 7:00 pace or greater. Yet, I will be going out in 5:20 and then trying to hammer home back to back 5:00s. Even if I fail miserably and run 5:20s or slower, it's still a strong testimony of running at or below LT.

Another year's worth of training, building up mileage, and I might just run 15/32 for the 5K/10K. I'm thinking of running 2:35 for Houston next year which would be in line with the kind of shape I was in when when I quit running as a frosh in college.

I have never enjoyed running more than I do now. I used to have this love/hate relationship with running. Love to run fast (okay, "faster"), but hated doing all the workouts. Imagine that, now I can have my cake and eat it too.

Again, good luck everybody.

WStuart, thanks for maintaining this thread!

Does it sound stupid that I ran 20 miles at MP on Saturday? Well, I did. Hopefully it was a good thing to do.

I was planning a progression run but went out too fast, picked it up a little more, held on, and then surged in, for a 1:55:46. I was on my own for the last 10+, into the sun and wind (maybe it was a more of crosswind, but it was never a tailwind).

Now I'll be taking it easy, recovering (hopefully) and maintaining. I don't like tapering, but it's that time again. 66 miles for the week, all easy runs, except for the 20-miler. Like a few others here, I haven't done as much mileage as I would have liked. But what I did tended to be faster than what I did for a fall marathon. I'm thinking that the fall marathon and training for it will help at boston.

Going forward, I'm thinking easy runs and a few tempo/MP-type 5-8 milers. Best of luck to all. And let's hope for a tailwind!

#1090

How about all the expensive gear!? I'm such a sucker.

Average_Joe, that sucks, but the fall marathon (Twin Cities?) is where it's at now. In a few months, hopefully we'll be on another thread.

notwithstanding - that is awesome to hear how well your training is going. It's really motivational to me b/c I've been planning to do similar type of training to you this summer after Boston. After doing that 1/2 marathon in Houston last January, I've even had thoughts of doing the full in Houston next January. Let us know how your race goes this weekend!

thanks for the encouragement, guys. Sounds like the training is coming around for a lot of you (like SRR, 20 miles @ MP!). I hope these threads keep popping up in the future - good source of motivation.

Looks like most of you are coming around nicely!

Pretty good week for me...more recovery and the quality has improved. I've switched my long runs to Monday...as idiotic as that sounds it helps me mentally.

Tue. a.m. 6 easy p.m. 11 miles, hilly.

Wed. a.m. 5 easy p.m. 15 (1:35)

Thu. a.m. 5 p.m. 5

Fri. a.m. 5 p.m. 6 X in/out 1K's @ 10K/MP. Difficult workout.

Sat. a.m. 5 easy p.m. 5 easy

Sun. 13 miles

Mon. 5 easy, 15 at MP (Avg. low 5:40's), 2 mile cool down. Felt real good except the last two miles got a little wobbly...probably due to horrible headwinds and no water/gel. It appeared as if the wind purposely shifted to be in my face no matter which direction I ran.

112 for the week

Good luck in the Cherry Blossom 10. Wish I would have ran that one when I lived in DC.

Bspang, you are an animal. What's your target time? Perhaps, it's time to post everyone's target again.

I am curious about the in/out workout. I might try this one out in a month or two as I start shifting to faster/more intense training for a few months before I shut it all down and do base training again. What are you trying to do with this workout? In other words, what does this do for your body? LT? VO2?

For me, I would alternate tempo/MP for my in/out paces. I think I will like this workout because it will get me accustomed to increasingly faster MP runs. I am at 6:20 MP for 12 miles now and hope to push that down to sub 6:00 pace before winter rolls around. I think in/out runs will get me used to that pace.

Letsrun Boston Marathon goals:

truth and beauty sub 2:22

RUNINTHESUN sub 2:30

bspang sub 2:30

jmoss sub 2:30

SLOman 2:30-2:34

phanson 2:34

jec 2:35

W8N2RUN 2:35

SRR sub 2:36

Hugh_McPhail sub 2:37

bleachrbum2000 sub 2:40

greaso sub 2:40

Phipps sub 2:40

wstuart 2:40's

tomster low 2:40's

Average_Joe sub 2:45

Mass Man sub 2:45

JonD sub 2:45

miamiredhawk sub 2:45

boston transplant 2:45

d3guy007 2:46-2:51

johnny5 2:48

ING NYC FAN 2:49

Cold in DC sub 2:50

easyrider 2:50

bhc333 2:50’s

Spizzot 2:50's

washrun 2:50's

The Jerk 2:54

Seppo Kaitainen 2:54

John Barleycorn 2:55

boston gal 2:55-3:00

mcgato sub 3:00

editer sub 3:00

swamprunner 3:05-3:10

rancho_runner sub 3:10

KCTrack sub 3:10

good times sub 3:10

WI Runner 3:10

Spider 3:20

dmm13 TBD

JEH TBD

that list really needs to be updated. I know several people have dropped out, and we never even heard from a lot of people on that list. We still should have a few good groups of people with similar goals if anyone wants to try to put together a pace group.

I'd like to re-vise my goal time to 3:05-ish. I'll be in the third corral so if there is a group there with a similar anticipated finish time, I have no problem hooking up.

This week was difficult more mentally than physically. It included

M 6AM 6PM

T 12AM 4PM

W 14MPAM 4PM

T 12AM 4PM

F 10TEMPO 4PM

S 10AM

S 22 PROGRESSION

It has been great planning this race with everyone. When we began I was undecided as to whether I was going to boston or london. I have decided to run london this year. Believe it or not, it works out better financially (I have a buddy who lives there, and its cheaper to buy airfare alone than to take the family to boston for a weekend). Ill continue to post follow up with the progress.