Rushing at me like a freight train
TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008
Well, being consumed by work and travel has made me a poor correspondent. I have said little about my training - but I have been training, which is a good thing, because Boston next Monday is rushing at me like a freight train.
I have had to make many adjustments in my training for the race, both due to crappy Chicago weather and a tough work/travel schedule. Nonetheless, in some ways I feel more ready than ever, not necessarily to have my best marathon, but to have my best Boston. Why? I have run all my scheduled long runs, even added a few long run miles, and I have run them all except today in hills. (I have done 18, 20, 21 and 23 milers in the last few months, all on the hilly Morton Arboretum road course with some more intense miles included among the slower miles.) Focusing on swimming as my cross training and backing off on the biking has kept my legs fresher than in the past. (I may pay the price in tri season, but so be it!)
Also, I have been programming my brain and having my running buddies help program my brain to run the Boston course the right way for once. I know the way for me to run Boston is not how I have succeeded on flat courses, which is to press my limits from the start and hang on. That's how I got my 3:27 a few years ago - and what has led me to crash and burn at every Boston I have run. The way I need to run Boston, I am convinced, is to pick a reasonable target mile pace based on a realistic finishing time and to run just a little bit faster than that pace - but not flying from the start as I have always done it in my past four Bostons - until the Newton Hills, mile 16 or so. Then I should be fresh enough still to make the hills without cramping and to be able to run decently after Heartbreak on the flats to Boylston Street and the finish. In the past I have burned myself out on the downhill through mile five and the rolling part through Wellesley and beyond. It's just too seductive a course not to fly from the start, and looking at heart rate does no good because with it being downhill the heart rate does not translate the pounding the legs are taking.
I think I am being very realistic to target finishing under 4 hours, which I have not done at Boston in my four previous attempts. To do that, I will run between 8:30 and 8:50 mile pace to the Newton Hills. On the downhill I will have to slow down my turnover to stay under control. On the flats I can cruise and on the several up hills I will work it just a little to maintain pace. I can do this! All my hilly Morton Arboretum long road runs show me this! Then, as also proven at the Arboretum, with more left in my legs I should be able to take on the Newton Hills without cramping and to maintain to the finish.
This past Sunday I combined what I was going to do the previous weekend (when instead because of travel I had to shorten my long run) at marathon pace and the short/easy long run written for Sunday. I decided to program my brain with a reasonable pace - not the 8 minutes per mile I might in the past have been running at this point for my target marathon pace before Boston. I ran with a local running club on our flat rails-to-trails Prairie Path, and started with eight folks in the 8:30 pace group. One guy had GPS to (supposedly) pace us properly. I ran four miles with this group, then one guy and I went out another mile after the group turned and then we ran the five back to start, maintaining the pace we had been running. We finished with a 1.9 mile cool down. Afterwards, I reviewed our splits and determined Mr. GPS was not exactly getting it right, but nonetheless this was a great paced run for me going into Boston. Here were our splits: 8.20, 8.22, 8.10, 8.08, 8.20, 8.13, 8.17, 8.20, 8.32 (I finally noted we were running too fast), 8.25, and cool down: 8.33 (0.9), 9.04. Even with the cool down the average pace was 8:33, just right!
I am backing off a lot on time and miles this week but am keeping up the intensity. I want to be fresh and sharp for Boston.
