It's all downhill isn't it?

It's taper time and I'm just putting my feet up and drinking beer and eating ice cream because all the training is done and it's all downhill from here right? ''Oh no! What about the downhills?".

Remember what the Boston course profile looks like?
The detailed profiles are here as well. There is a net elevation drop of about 450ft but those hills between mile 17 and 21 can do you in when you are tired. Experience has shown me that the downhills are murder on my quads, so much so, that by the time I reach mile 21 I'm usually hobbling in pain and can't take advantage despite the final easy downhills.

Thus Wednesday's 12 mile run looked something like this. The green line is elevation and the blue line is speed. The basic story was an easy warmup with some stretching after 1.5 miles, then easy running until about mile 6, followed by 4 miles of hill repeats where I ran hard 'down' the hills at close to 7:00 minute pace, easy up the 1/2 mile hill and repeat, easy run back to finish. I was beat after this workout but my quads will thank me in a few weeks time.
The rest of the week has been rather uneventful.

Monday - rest day but still very tired from Sunday and so I took the afternoon off work to rest. My legs were quite sore and finally made an appointment for physiotherapy.

Tues - got my physio today and after a complete workup she agreed I had a hamstring problem. The solution was to continue with my stretching program but to add to it and hold each stretch longer (15-30sec), repeating 3x. I'm also on a regimen of icing 10 minutes at a time 3-4x per day. I'm also stopping after a 1 mile warmup and stretching as well as after the run. Believe it or not but it's working! I can almost touch my toes again and can feel some improvement after only 3 days of self therapy! Tuesdays run was just an easy 8 miles with some pickups (not worthy of being called strides)

Weds - hill session above

Thurs - easy 6 miles in hurricane winds but mild temps

Friday - easy 5 planned then off to Bathurst to visit my Mom who is not doing too well.

Have a good weekend. A special good luck with to our Irish friend, Thomas, running the Connemara 39.3 mile ultramarathon. He will do awesome and have the stories to match!

Take care out there.