Here are a couple of plots; first is my current Boston buildup mileage by week since my last marathon in the fall. It shows total miles in red and long run miles in green and planned runs to come in the next 6 weeks as dotted lines.
And here is a comparison of my monthly mileage over a couple of Boston cycles:
The green line is last year where I ran a 3:34, the yellow line is 2002 when I ran a Boston PB of 3:18 and the top red line (pushing the limit?) is this year so far. I'm either heading for another PB or a big crash! Fun, eh?More later after my little drive with A... OK, we survived. Only a couple of impatient drivers tailgaiting and passing us illegally as usual. What is it about driving at the speed limit that annoys people so much? A did very well with his parking and road rules so I think he's ready to go.
So today's Sunday run was a real pleasure with the elements not so bitter as they have been. It was sunny and windy making the -3C (26F) at the start seem a little chilly but we were fine for the most part. There was a funny episode about 2 miles into the run when I started to feel very warm and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Finally dummy (me) determined that he had forgot to remove an extra fleece sweatshirt used to keep warm during the drive up! The only option, besides carrying it for 10 miles, was to remove and dump it in the woods for a later retrieval.
Started out with just Andrew and Steph going around Boyden lake, past the Rotweillers who were out and about but only came as far as the ditch to say hello. We then picked up a border collie type dog who ran with us for about 4 miles. We were a bit worried he was going to get lost but then noticed that he was stopping every 100 yards or so to make 'his' mark on various trees, mailboxes etc and so could probably find his way ;-)
Shortly after he disappeared we spotted a most unusual site, another RUNNER! Who, what is he/she doing out here on our private little course?? Turned out it was Ozzie, another local runner who we've been asking to come out with us for weeks now. He was late starting and so did the route in reverse, hoping to run into us and did at about the 1/2 way mark around the lake. Ozzie is about the same age as me and is also training for Boston, not to mention Sugarloaf, the revived inaguaral Paul Bunyan marathon, Mount Desert Island and a myriad of other races. He's a definite running nut like the rest of us and livened up our group and kept poor fading Steph's spirits up (her first longer run since injury).
Finished the 13.5 mile loop in just under 2 hours, dropped a tired Steph at the cars and then kept on trucking with A and O. First down the Golding Road to retrieve my sweatshirt for about 4 miles and then a loop down the main road and back to get my 18 (actually 19) miles for the day. We picked up the pace a bit with O seeming to be quite energetic and then a bit more on the final return to the cars just to get it done with. Great run gang!
Total for the week 70 miles in 10 hrs of running. Year to date mileage is now 652 and only 6 weeks to B-day tommorrow and counting (see my new fancy countdown timer). Have a great week everyone!
7 comments:
countdown timers are cool.
Is there snow on the trail? You guys run very fast. I am still in this learning process of dealing with snow/ice.
Hunter, we run on the backroads which is chipseal/asphalt. For icy conditions I'd recommend a product called YakTrax. But spring is near!
Mike, great graphs. Focus on the positives (the high mileage) not the negatives (the possibility of a crash) and Boston will go great.
Wow, that's some mileage!! You'll do awesome! Solid run, fast time for Sunday.
Wow! That's some mileage Mike. Good job.
I'd say chances are you will do very well indeed at Boston.
A few years ago, when I weas learning to drive, Niamh once forgot to take to L plates off the car when she needed it herself. She was wondering why everyone was overtaking her so aggressively. Things returned to normal when she realised why and took the L plates off.
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