Saturday, February 02, 2008

Two for one

I finally bit the $150 bullet and signed up for the big race and now have my confirmation. There are only 11 weeks left to go and I can't wait. I'm also looking forward to watching US womens Olympic trials taking place the day before using parts of the Boston course. This should provide some exciting viewing as we mere mortals mill around counting down the hours.

The past week didn't quite go as planned as I only managed a total of 55 miles in 6 runs. My busy work schedule kept interfering as meetings went later than planned leaving options of either running in the dark or doing it on the treadmill late in the evening.

Weds - 5 miles on the mill with an easy 2 mile w/up then 2 miles at MP+ (faster than 7:30) which felt fine for a few miles but I worry about stringing 26.2 of them together

Thurs- 8 miles at lunch (work be dammed) because the meeting crowd takes long lunches in any case. It was a nice steady run in a cool NW wind and I experienced some cramping in my quads and hams at the end which was likely due to too much coffee and not enough fluids before the run.

Friday - meetings over so I took off an hour early to get my '2 for 1' combination medium long/tempo run. After a 2 mile warm up I was able to almost get up to speed with 5 miles at about 7:15-7:20 pace and heartrate around 148-150. Because I had resisted the urge to turn around early on this out and back run this put me 7 miles out from home base. Surprisingly the return trip was very pleasant as I had the feeling of just riding a bicyle in the easy gear. This was nice until the wind started to pick up. Total of 14 miles in 1:53. That night the couch was my buddy and the tired feeling I had was not of the 'pleasant' variety, more of the exhausted 'woe is me' type.

Sat - 6 very very easy miles on the treadmill and felt better after the jog than before it. Spent the rest of the day relaxing around the house as more rain and freezing rain was falling outdoors.

January is now finally behind with a total of 263 miles in 25 days of running and 27 runs. It was a good month for miles but had very little in the way of any speed or tempo. Let's hope I can stick to the plan better in the coming weeks and hit those key workouts as they come up. Have a good week!

8 comments:

Michael said...

Congratulations, you're in!

Given the race is still a few months away, I think January's base miles (withou the lack of tempo/speed) will help you. I think some people do too much, too soon. You've got more than enough time... happy training!

DawnB said...

this is the first I knew it cost $150 to run Boston and I have to qualify to pay that as wall. Darn...

Dubs said...

Good luck - you'll do GREAT - let us know your bib and we can track you along the course!! I'm psyched to watch the women's trials too!

Good job on getting the workouts in. Thanks for mentioning the struggle - I have this a lot as working from home often means I'm living at the office and getting workouts in can be a real challenge. If your situation is anything like mine - you did a great job making time to get it in. I think it is just what we have to deal with - unless we can be fast enough for Running to pay our bills. :)

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Only 11 weeks? Wow, it hadn't dawned on me how close it was.

I hear you on the work front - too often it gets in the way.

You left me hanging...did you run Boyden yesterday? Have you seen or heard from...oh, what's his name...the Irish lad from Eastport?

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

I knew without reading the graphic or clicking the link it would be Boston. Good luck!

gumushel said...

you are a machine!

Grellan said...

Now that you've signed up, it makes it more real and brings it psychologically closer. I'd say you're ready for some speed.