Come Back to Boston

Yesterday was my last (real) long run before taper, but I'm not quite there yet. I was surprised as to how good I really felt this morning which is/was a bonus. The good news is that my YTD mileage is only 83 miles behind last year although much slower (but I did also ski for 5 days) and without the quality. I'm getting back though - yes, I am.

Mon - Day off, travel home from Atlanta
Tues - 8 miles with striders
Wed - 4.8 miles in an obnoxious wind, Core class
Thu - 5.6 miles in the snow
Fri - 3.5 easy miles. Body and legs tired, cut it short due to long run on Sat
Sat - 22.05 miles. The 0.05 is important as a friend ran his on Fri and posted 22.04 (!). Ave about 50-60sec slower than MP and felt great
Sun - 6.2 miles easy. Ended up running way faster than seemed possible after 22 miles, but felt good.

WTD: 50.15 miles YTD: 455

I've decided not to run Cherry Blossom - just too much flying around and it is just too close to Boston. I doubt Boston will be a great time, but I want to finish upright and smiling (first and foremost) and hopefully just under 4 hrs. I honestly am beginning to think I might be as fit as I was in 2009 when I easily ran 3:59, but we will see.

Great 22 miler! How many weeks till Boston?

Wow, Michele, our goals seem to be pretty close. For a while I was trying to BQ again (3:40) but with half a training cycle only, I don't have the endurance and need to run a much more reasonable pace. I'm starting to realize it would be better to try for a more manageable goal than crash and burn.

Great job on the Half. It looks like it's coming together right in time for Boston.

It'll be weird seeing BU without Parker. Him and York are two legends right across town from one another.

Julie wrote:Great 22 miler! How many weeks till Boston?

Too few, Julie - way too few. (22!)

JohnP wrote:Wow, Michele, our goals seem to be pretty close. For a while I was trying to BQ again (3:40) but with half a training cycle only, I don't have the endurance and need to run a much more reasonable pace. I'm starting to realize it would be better to try for a more manageable goal than crash and burn.

I think you may be a bit ahead due to natural speed, but that 4 hrs is a good goal for us both, I believe.

Alex Kubacki wrote:Great job on the Half. It looks like it's coming together right in time for Boston.

It'll be weird seeing BU without Parker. Him and York are two legends right across town from one another.

It will be a bit weird. They are talking like they might offer the job to the Woman's coach. After all, he is a BU grad, and he has guided the women to their 3rd NCAA final in 4 yrs. (They were the runner up to the Minn women. who had a 41-0 record!). The men ended up as the runner-up in Hockey East, so no Frozen four this year. Saturday night's game was excellent and hey should be proud of their strong finish. ULowell (my alma mater for my MBA which I keep reminding my daughter of) won Hockey East and it is their first title ever. So good for them.

Oh, and I HATE SNOW. (It is snowing, yet again!).

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:

JohnP wrote:Wow, Michele, our goals seem to be pretty close. For a while I was trying to BQ again (3:40) but with half a training cycle only, I don't have the endurance and need to run a much more reasonable pace. I'm starting to realize it would be better to try for a more manageable goal than crash and burn.

I think you may be a bit ahead due to natural speed, but that 4 hrs is a good goal for us both, I believe.

Michele, you crack me up. You're a sub-3 marathoner, I've done 3:34:57 at my best and that was 1.5 years ago!

Haha - yeah, Michele has no natural speed. None whatsoever:P. That is great news that your long run felt good - sub 4 sounds reasonable to me.

JohnP wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:

JohnP wrote:Wow, Michele, our goals seem to be pretty close. For a while I was trying to BQ again (3:40) but with half a training cycle only, I don't have the endurance and need to run a much more reasonable pace. I'm starting to realize it would be better to try for a more manageable goal than crash and burn.

I think you may be a bit ahead due to natural speed, but that 4 hrs is a good goal for us both, I believe.

Michele, you crack me up. You're a sub-3 marathoner, I've done 3:34:57 at my best and that was 1.5 years ago!

John (and John ) - I was 27!!! and I ran 80-90 mph. Now I'm old

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:
I ran 80-90 mph.

WOW, I didn't realize that you were that fast Michele. Sizzling I think a 4 hour marathon should be a piece of cake with that kind of speed.

T Miller wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:
I ran 80-90 mph.

WOW, I didn't realize that you were that fast Michele. Sizzling I think a 4 hour marathon should be a piece of cake with that kind of speed.

Yeah, 'L' is in the Guiness Boook of World records for number of traffic tickets given to a pedestrian and had a front page cover on Nature next to the cheetah and peregrine falcon back in the day.

I think they called her 'The blur' or 'Streak' or something like that.

Hahaha - I really meant 80-90 mpweek!

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Hahaha - I really meant 80-90 mpweek!

Oh sure, you do.

For the record, however: You're not old.

Mark B wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Hahaha - I really meant 80-90 mpweek!

Oh sure, you do.

For the record, however: You're not old.

Older than you

However, one of my Atlanta teammates, Nancy Stewart who is 57, set an American Record for the 15K at Gate River. She ran 1:00:06! She is simply amazing, and she attributes her success in her 50s to dropping marathoning and focusing on her strengths. I ran Gasparilla with her in 2007 where she ran 1:00 then to my 1:07, and she hasn't lost a step.

http://atlantarunnersblog.org/atc-member-nancy-stewart-sets-pending-american-record/

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Hahaha - I really meant 80-90 mpweek!

Oh sure, you do.

For the record, however: You're not old.

Older than you

Let's keep it that way, okay?

(That's an amazing 15K performance. Says a lot about focusing on your strengths, doesn't it?)

Michele....please don't say you're old because I'm older than you and I don't consider myself old. I don't consider myself fast either and you've definitely got that nailed down!!

dot520 wrote:Michele....please don't say you're old because I'm older than you and I don't consider myself old. I don't consider myself fast either and you've definitely got that nailed down!!

I'm just old as compared to when I ran Jerry fast back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nope, I aspire to be my friend who set that American record at 57 or the women here in Cleveland who ran a 3:19 marathon at 60. She'll be at Boston - guess I'll watch her fly by as she is incredible (and wicked nice too!). And Dot, you know that your 50s are the new 30s! (I was mistaken for 38 the other day).

If 50s are the new 30s am I 10 years old?? I feel like I'm 80 as tired as I am.

Julie wrote:If 50s are the new 30s am I 10 years old?? I feel like I'm 80 as tired as I am.

No, Julie - it only works if you are over 50!

Last week was my last real week of training before Boston although I did drop down the mileage some. I had hoped to run a solid fast finish long run on Saturday over the Boston hills, but it was a struggle from the very beginning. I assumed it was from travel and dehydration which I'm sure factored in, but I also contracted a nasty cold which began to manifest itself on Saturday late afternoon. I must say that I felt it coming on as early as Thursday night and I thought that I could keep it at bay like all of the other times this winter with Airborne and Zicam, but this time it got me. Like Seth said, better this week than next. Based on that I have not run since Saturday, but I am going to join the group tonight as it is only a 5 mile run with some 1 min pickups. I do feel better but I am still quite congested.

As for Saturday's run, I did manage to run the first 5 miles at a 9:20 pace and then next 5 around 9 min base, but I just didn't have it to drop the pace for the last 4 miles. I was also running into a pretty decent headwind by then and was pretty spent. I was kind of hoping for a solid fast finish, and wish I could still run as fast as I did in past years, but I'm still struggling in the 9-9:15 pace range. Of course, this cold doesn't help, but I am still no faster than that. A 4 hr Boston is probably a pipe dream even though I have run more mileage than I did in 2009 (490 miles vs. 367 miles) when I ran that time on very little training. I guess if I run with no expectations other than to finish, it can only be a good time.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote: I guess if I run with no expectations other than to finish, it can only be a good time.

I'm trying to (more or less) make that my mantra for Boston also. Being that it most likely will be my last marathon, I really don't want to hate the last six miles.
As for your tough couple of days, you've got to chalk it up to having a cold, and (if you're like me), just not being close to fresh as you finish up the training. That's why we taper, right?

Michele, I remember reading a post of yours once that said you knew a couple of people who ran the Glass City Marathon and they had no issues getting on campus and getting a parking spot. If you happen to talk to them and think of it could you ask what entrance they used and where they parked? Thanks. I'm sure I'll leave real early so hopefully I won't have an issue regardless.

So since last week's long run was just ok over those hills in Boston (and the cold that showed up later that day might have been the culprit), I decided to do another 12 mile run as a fast finish (10-12 was on the schedule or Cherry Blossom and I aborted the race). Much better results as you can see below, and the Metroparks are not completely flat either. Unfortunately, my left ITB was bothering me in the last couple of miles but not when I was running closer to MP only when I began to pick it up. I think I'll be ok next Monday if I choose to run a 9 min pace.

Avg Pace
Summary 1:48:37.4 12.00 9:03
1 9:42.6 1.00 9:43
2 9:19.6 1.00 9:20
3 9:35.0 1.00 9:35
4 9:38.4 1.00 9:38
5 9:38.9 1.00 9:39
6 9:29.9 1.00 9:30
7 8:48.5 1.00 8:49
8 8:41.7 1.00 8:42
9 8:37.4 1.00 8:37
10 8:24.5 1.00 8:24
11 8:27.4 1.00 8:28
12 8:13.4 1.00 8:14

Elevation Gain: 225 ft
Elevation Loss: 217 ft
Min Elevation: 579 ft
Max Elevation: 667 ft

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:

Julie wrote:If 50s are the new 30s am I 10 years old?? I feel like I'm 80 as tired as I am.

No, Julie - it only works if you are over 50!

Last week was my last real week of training before Boston although I did drop down the mileage some. I had hoped to run a solid fast finish long run on Saturday over the Boston hills, but it was a struggle from the very beginning. I assumed it was from travel and dehydration which I'm sure factored in, but I also contracted a nasty cold which began to manifest itself on Saturday late afternoon. I must say that I felt it coming on as early as Thursday night and I thought that I could keep it at bay like all of the other times this winter with Airborne and Zicam, but this time it got me. Like Seth said, better this week than next. Based on that I have not run since Saturday, but I am going to join the group tonight as it is only a 5 mile run with some 1 min pickups. I do feel better but I am still quite congested.

As for Saturday's run, I did manage to run the first 5 miles at a 9:20 pace and then next 5 around 9 min base, but I just didn't have it to drop the pace for the last 4 miles. I was also running into a pretty decent headwind by then and was pretty spent. I was kind of hoping for a solid fast finish, and wish I could still run as fast as I did in past years, but I'm still struggling in the 9-9:15 pace range. Of course, this cold doesn't help, but I am still no faster than that. A 4 hr Boston is probably a pipe dream even though I have run more mileage than I did in 2009 (490 miles vs. 367 miles) when I ran that time on very little training. I guess if I run with no expectations other than to finish, it can only be a good time.

This is some nasty bug Michele. It has been 10 days for me. I'm exhausted, have crud in my lungs still (although less) and have lost all motivation to run, although I'm still cranking thru the plan. Just no fun. Hoping this last week gets us healthy.

Talked to my coach yesterday about this weeks run schedule and my ITB woes. I also scheduled a massage for today and one again for Thursday to specifically work on my glutes and ITB area. Since my massage therapist here is the wife of the 2:18 marathoner and a miler, she gets it and they have both vowed to get me to the starting line next Monday in one piece. Ran 4 miles (yup only 4!) yesterday and was pleasantly surprised at the overall 8:50 pace that I didn't really notice. It was only 4 miles, but it helped me believe that sub-4 is not out of the realm of possibility. So my goals for Boston this year can be summed up as follows:

1) Get to the finish upright and smiling without walking too much
2) Sub 4:05
3) Sub 4
4) Anything else is gravy

I guess I can begin to obsess over the weather. All I know is that it better not be 89F again. I think I'd even take a northeaster over that one - after all, I'm prepared for snow

I hope you can get the rest you need to give you a great pain-free time in Boston. It sounds like there will be quite a few from this group there and should be fun! I'll be checking in on everyone's results during the race.