Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

46F, no wind!  7:06 AP.  It was definitely the right move to push this workout back to today.  I went down to the track and did 3 x 3200m with an easy lap (~2 min jog) between the repeats.

12:34  (6:17, 6:17)

12:30  (6:17, 6:13)

12:16  (6:11, 6:05)

6:13 AP on the repeats overall, right in the LT sweet spot.  Felt good, very smooth.  And it better have, I had like 4 days off.  I was going to do 16 total miles, but the achilles griped a little so I just ran straight home and it worked out to 14.  Not worried about it - I'm jogging around in trainers for the next few days anyway, and only have 1 workout left.  Taper time!

AM:  nothing.  I woke up and it was 36 degrees with howling wind and pouring rain.  All I wanted to do was get in an easy 4 miles, and decided another hour of sleep would be better.  I'll get something in this evening, so I'm not a complete slacker.

PM:  39F, NE 17 mph, drizzle.  4 @ 8:28 AP.  something...avoided the goose egg.

38F, NNE 17 mph, rain held off until the last couple miles.  7:56 AP.  I was going to do some strides, but the achilles popped up about halfway through the run (I'm quite sure it's an achilles issue now).  It's just never smooth sailing when you train for a marathon.  Again, I think it'll be fine; I'd be a lot more worried if I had a bunch of difficult training ahead, but I'm tapering.  Last workout is Friday, I'll have to kinda play it by ear.

AM:  37F, N 11 mph, drizzle.  6 @ 8:10 AP.  Achilles didn't gripe too much.  I think it's because the heel is a lot more lifted with these shoes.  I'll probably give the workout a go tomorrow and be ready to pull the plug if I get some discomfort.

PM:  46F.  4 @ 8:08 AP.  Legs should be ready to go tomorrow.  Probably 8-9 @ MP with the goal to make 6:35-6:40 feel like a jog.

34F.  6:53 AP.  Ended up doing 8 @ MP today.  It went ok, I guess.  A "meh" workout if ever there was one.  I think I let my imagination get the best of me yesterday; I pictured myself effortlessly gliding along at 6:30 pace, which didn't happen.  Achilles felt pretty good in the racing flats today though, so I think I dodged that bullet.

8 MP @ 6:34 AP - (6:31, 6:35, 6:29, 6:38, 6:37, 6:34, 6:44 [heartbreak], 6:25).

Felt harder than MP...I don't know, I haven't been quite able to recapture that feeling of my first 2 long MP runs of the cycle that were quicker AND with less effort.  I do realize this is still kind of end-of-cycle, and my legs will have more pop in 10 days.

If anything, maybe this was a good slap on the wrist that will keep me from going out like a maniac in the first half of the race.  I'm thinking 1:27:00 for the first half right now, since it's easier than the 2nd half.  That way, if I have a great day, sub-2:55 is definitely in play.  If it's not my day, and I have to limp in with a 1:30-31, it's still a sub-3 and a PR.

Now I can focus on what really matters - obsessing over all the weather websites for the next 10 days.

55F, S 20-27 mph.  8:08 AP.  I can definitely tell I'm tapering...these recovery runs, which are purely effort-based, are getting faster.  There were some in the 9's this cycle.

Weather for Boston (not that it matters 9 days out) is looking decent so far  No one's predicting a headwind or a heat wave.....yet.

69F, SSE 20 mph.  8:14 AP.

61F, S 17-21 mph.  7:30 AP.  Did 1 @ MP on the way home.  That was my last long run, which I wanted to do 1 week out to keep my usual taper schedule.  Should run ~41 miles for this last 7 days, which is about 50% of my average week in this buildup.

This Boston meteorologist is giving good news so far.  I think I'll re-read this article in 7 days for a good laugh.

66F, S 17-23 mph.  8:26 AP.  Nothing interesting to report...don't feel bad, don't feel great, just ploddin' along.

The 3 local Boston weather stations are saying 54, 68 and 70 for the Monday temperature.

AM - freezing rain and wind this morning at home.....naaah.  I'll run later.  I did find my favorite Boston forecast so far though:

This is the best of the bunch so far....most have it a bit warmer, but no one is predicting a headwind, so I'll take that as great news.

PM:  38F, 6 @ 8:14 AP.  A lot calmer, weather-wise.  Busy today, but finally got in an easy 6 with some low-intensity strides.

Man, that front that came through was crazy.  It dropped the temperature by 50 degrees (from 80F to 30F) in about 8 hours, and we has some wind gusts over 60 mph last night, which (of course) meant the neighbors' trampoline came crashing through our fence again.

28F, 7:12 AP.  2 @ MP on the way home, 6:37, 6:33.  Felt like I had good springy legs for the first time in awhile.  Might have timed the taper just right.

Weather is starting to look even a bit cooler for the race, with light winds.  Here's my forecast of the day from 7 News in Boston:

40F.  No watch (it's packed up already!).  5 miles with a few strides.  This is my 86th running day in a row.  I only mention it because tomorrow is my first day off since mid-January.

A lot of forecasts have gon to a bit of a quartering headwind, but with even cooler temps.  Might finish the race in the low 50s, which would be great.  The winds are still pretty light, so hopefully won't make much of a difference.

We're off to Providence, RI this morning (my aunt is hosting the 4 of us until Wednesday).

Bib = 3325 for anyone interested.

45F.  7:47 AP.  Nice short run in Providence, with a few strides.

Drove a little of the course yesterday and went over Heartbreak Hill.  Didn't seem terrible, but definitely won't be welcome in mile 21. 

Systems are go for tomorrow...looks like an east wind, but pretty light.  I'm thinking that with the crowds around, we might not even feel it.  Temperatures look to be really nice.  This is the race!

A goal - 2:54:59

B goal - 2:59:59

Obviously some sicko out there changed this day for everyone, some more than others.  I was already on a bus headed back to my car.

So, a muted celebration for the sub-3.  I am definitely an example of how NOT to run Boston.  1:26:11, 1:32:32 for the 2 halves.  Meh, it was fun trying though.  Definitely my worst bonk and most painful finish in a marathon, but I hung in there, even as I struggled to run 7:30 pace at the end.

Hope everyone from the blog is ok.  Tough, sad day when it's all said and done.

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*Based on some comments I got, I think I will fill in the details of the race.  If nothing else, I'd like to have the (good) memory of the race for later.

Ok, so everything leading up to the race went great, I think.  Good taper, good carb load, good sleep, stress-free travel to the starting line, etc.

My splits are the mile-marker splits -- I turned off auto-lap on Garmin and tried to just click the button at each mile marker (missed a couple though).

Miles 1-5 - 6:45, 6:30, 6:32, 6:33, 6:36.  The first 4 miles are downhill in this race.  Mile 1 was frusturating in the crowds, but in hindsight it was probably good for me to be pace-limited by the mass of people.  In every other race I've run, the crowds thin out pretty soon, but not this one.  Overall, it didn't bother me, except you smell a lot of farts...

Miles 6-10 - 6:31, 6:34, 13:07 for 2 (6:34 pace), 6:34.  Here's where I messed up, I think.  This was basically a flat stretch and I was low 6:30s all the way.  I seriously thought I was in 2:55 shape, but this was more like 2:51-2 pace.  I think I could have saved the bonk by just going a little slower here.

Miles 11-16 - 6:35, 6:30, 6:35, 6:32, 6:43, 6:33.  Ok, these are the rest of the flat/downhill miles before the Newton hills.  Again, just a few seconds slower might've saved me.  I was really loving the crowds and the course though...having a great time!  My family was all waiting around mile 14 and I got to dish out some high-fives.

The cheering section!  My 2 kids are covered up with posters, but the other two are my cousin (the 11-year-old) and my wife.  We stayed with my aunt in Providence for 5 nights and they were such great hosts.

Miles 17-21 - 6:58, 7:02, 6:51, 7:09, 7:23.  The Newton hills - 17, 18, 20, and 21 are uphill and 21 has Heartbreak.  Mile 19 is kind of a break.  Really, they weren't bad hills, I just thought I had conserved more energy than I actually had.  I told myself before the race that 7:00 would be ok.  But when 21 rang in so slow and I felt so depleted, I knew I was in trouble.

Miles 22-26.2 - 6:53, 7:12, 7:09, 15:15 for 2 (7:38 pace!), 7:12 pace for the 0.22.  Even with the downhill, I couldn't keep up.  I went from calculating what I would need for sub-2:55, to what I would need for sub-3.  Like I said, I've never bonked this bad.  It was very hard to keep running.  Everytime I'd hit a mile marker, I just could not believe I had so long to go.  I just kept telling myself not to walk, and I'd get it.  Even with a mile to go, I wasn't sure - I was at 2:51-something but I did not think for a second that I had sub-3 in the bag...I just felt terrible.  There were literally hundreds of smarter runners whizzing by me, kind of embarrassing.  Thankfully the race ended and I plodded across the line in time, relieved and happy.

I think with better pacing I might've gone a couple minutes faster, but this was fine.  I went for it, based on what I thought I could pull off, and still came away with a decent result.  Ended up about 1500 spots ahead of my bib number, not bad.

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I wasn't planning on running Boston next year but I almost want to do it out of spite for the bombing.

50F.  8:22 AP.  Decided to go for a short test drive.  Felt ok, but I'll probably take another day or two off.  I want to make sure the legs are completely reset.  This next little block of training will be tilted toward the mile - 5k distances.  Then when it starts getting hot, I'll balance it out again with a bit of everything.

skipped this morning....40+ mph winds at 37 degrees...no thanks.  I think the extra day off will benefit me anyway.  It's been a really weird weather week.  The night we got home from Boston, we spent a couple hours in the tornado shelter as the sirens were going off.  Tonight it'll freeze which is weird for late April.

28F.  8:22 AP.  5 chilly morning miles.  Legs are ready to go again, just gotta get back in shape over the next couple weeks.

36F, 7:55 AP.  Legs get a little better every day.  Might even do some short speed stuff this weekend.

57F, S 11 mph.  8:33 AP.  I was kinda sluggish.  Probably from my super long 7-miler yesterday.

52F, N 13 mph.  8:03 AP.

60F.  8:32 AP.  Slogged through 4 miles this morning.  I didn't even run yesterday.  It's been 2 weeks since Boston...time to kick the unhealthy habits again and get going.  Fun fat time is over.  Excited to try some of coach Bam's ideas for awhile.

61F, SSE 10 mph.  8:10 AP.  Gonna speed it up a little tomorrow.