Another week gone by

Is it really only a bit more than 6 weeks to go? That seems like so little time to do the final bits of preparation for Boston. I can't imagine that spring will finally be here and all the hard work will be ready to be tested on one of the toughest courses going. The past week has gone reasonably well (now that it's over) as I dodged a couple of winter storms and juggled runs to suit. The picture is from one of the better days, on Friday, looking over towards Pleasant Point and Eastport across the Bay.

Monday - after Sunday's disaster, this was a welcome break from running. I was extremely sore just sitting at my desk and finally broke down and ordered some massage tools from Trigger Point.

Tues - 9 miles with a modified workout doing 600m bursts at 5k speed after an easy 2 mile warmup. Instead of doing them continuously with 90sec jog breaks, my body convinced me to do them with 1000m breaks, starting at each mile marker. The workout was more of a fartlek than VO2 max but it did get the legs moving faster at least. It was a nice day with temps at +5C and light winds.

Weds - a nasty day with sleet, snow, rain, freezing rain and repeat. The roads were very treacherous and I delayed my mid-week run opting for 5 easy miles on the treadmill instead. It was nice to be dry and warm inside while watching the freezing rain slowly bend the trees further and further. Thankfully it turned to rain soon enough and there was little damage and no power outages.

Thurs - time for my least favorite run from the Pfitz training schedule but the medium long 14 miler went much better than usual. Despite starting late, feeling tired and rundown and running home after a long day at from work, this run was a surprise. It started out slow and the legs were still very tight and stiff but after a few miles I was able to roll a bit better. The pace wasn't great except for a few downhill miles close to 8:00 but the heartrate was low and the weather was nice today (+1C , calm and sunny). I was late for supper but my understanding better half didn't give me any grief over it.

Friday - just an easy 6 mile loop around town with a couple of photo op stops (see above). It was +4C, sunny and calm and might have got away with shorts but didn't (wimp).

Sat - the schedule calls for a 8-15k race and there's nothing like that for hundreds of miles. Plan B was simply to run a tempo/race effort for the given distance and see what I could make of it. I believe that the lack of race efforts before Boston has compromised my performances in the past and hope to fix that this year in two ways. First is to actually do a couple of short races (there are some 5-8k runs coming up locally for RunNB) and second is to really work at pushing the pace on my tempo runs where the workout calls for it. It's much harder to turn it on when running alone as compared to being in a race and getting pushed along by your fellow competitors but that's what you get for living in the boonies.

So, after a 2 mile warmup I walked up to the imaginary start line on Cedar Lane and proceeded run as fast as possible for the next 5 miles. I'm not sure if the Garmin misfired or what, but the 1st mile was in 6:32. I'll take it and then made my way down the Bar Road before heading for the hotel and around the Point. Next mile at 7 flat seemed more reasonable and was followed by several more very close to it. Five miles in 34:37 with avg heartrate of 155 was a satisfactory result. Then finished off the run with a couple of easy miles to get a total of 9 for the workout. It was a nice morning in the lull between storms and the leg/butt felt fine. Tonite is calling for a messy storm and so we've called off the long run in Boyden.

Another week is in the books. Total of 60 miles in 8.5 hours of roadwork. I also did a resting heart rate test this morning and it's down to 40 from 42 the last time it was checked. It gives me a base for watching for an elevation indicating something coming on or over-training. So far so good have a great week.