The Next Step

Very nice morning (48) and just did an easy 6 miles. I felt good this morning and the taper seems to be working. I run most of the time with a HR monitor and I am running these easy runs much faster at the same HR during this taper. Hopefully that will be the case in the marathon that I can maintain a faster pace without pushing the HR too high. Unfortunately, I have to go out of town on a business trip this week. I was hoping to make it to the marathon without travel again. The travel makes it difficult to sleep, eat right and get the runs in. Luckily, since I am in the taper I am running much less so should be able to get all of my scheduled runs in. The only significant run this week is I am going to do a short MP run in the middle of the week just to shake the legs out and keep a feel for marathon pace.

46:39

I am in Washington, DC today and it was a nice morning (46, but windy).  I just ran an easy 5 miles.  I felt good and just took it real easy.  The route I did today was fairly hilly which is a change for me but felt good to run something different.  The taper is still going ok but I am getting to the point that I am ready to go.  I wish the race was now so starting to get a little antsy.  Now I am starting to get worried about the weather.  After weeks of having these great mornings in the high 40's now the Chicago forecast is saying mid 60's for race start.  Not the worse weather but I sure would have loved to have one of the 40 degree days.  It is still a few days out so maybe it will improve..... or get worse.  Still going through the plans for race day pace but that will depend on the weather.  I will have to see how aggressive I will be based on the conditions.  Tomorrow I am planning my last MP run but it will be short probably around 4 miles.

39:41

Still in DC. Nice morning (50, calm). Today I did my last MP run before the marathon. I wanted to shake the legs out and get a trail run for the race. The plan today was to do 4 miles at a little faster than MP. I was targeted 7:10 for the 4 miles. I did a couple of mile warmup and the legs were feeling a little tired this morning. I didn't sleep very good last night I had a splitting headache but luckily felt better this morning. As I started the MP run my legs still didn't feel that great which is not a good feeling this close to the marathon. It seemed to get a little better as I went along. Here are the splits for the MP miles:

1st - 7:09

2nd - 7:05

3rd - 7:05

4th - 7:00

I did these on the track since I am in DC and didn't have any route where I could measure the mile splits. So probably a little faster due to that. Pretty good run but wish the legs felt better.

The weather for the marathon still doesn't look the best. Could turn out to be a pretty warm day. I think the main problem is that the race temps will be almost 20 degrees warmer than what I have been running the last 6 weeks so my body will probably not be adjusted as it was earlier in the summer. Oh well, nothing I can do about that just have to adjust my race plan accordingly.

53:11

Last day in DC will be heading home tonight.  Did a real easy 4 miles this morning.  It was 63 degrees this morning and I felt good.  My legs felt better today then they did yesterday.  Probably will do the same kind of runs the next couple of days just to keep loose and be able to stretch out.

31:49

Nice morning (52) to run an easy 4 miles. I felt good and did some strides to stretch the legs out. I feel ready to go. I will be heading up to Chicago in the morning and hopefully be ready on Sunday. Since I probably won't have much time tomorrow for an entry I will lay out my plan today.

Here is my plan...

I thought that I might be capable on a good day of a 3:10 but with the weather and humidity going up I think I better revise my goal. Since I need a 3:20 to qualify for Boston that will be my main goal. I think it will be good if I can be a BQ in the bag and then come back again in the spring or next fall and shoot for a better time. What I don't want to do this weekend is go out too hard and then drag in the last few miles and miss out on the BQ. I think that if I go out around 3:20 pace then I can see how I am feeling around 18 miles or so and if I feel good pick it up from there. So based on this I am hoping for something around 3:15 to 3:20 range. Now I am just ready to get going and see what happens.

31:40

Warmer this morning (58) but just did a couple of easy miles to warm up the legs so I could stretch out effectively. I feel good and ready to go. We are heading off to Chicago now!