Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

Today I did a tempo run and it definitely will be memorable. First off the temperature was 19 degrees, "no problem" but with a 25-35 mph wind which made the temperature 8 degrees according to the weather. I almost went to the health club treadmill, by what I report below I wish I would have.

The wind was blowing Southeast I knew the direction I would run in would head right into it. I did a two mile warm-up and then started the tempo miles the first 3 the wind was probably blowing 10 mph into me (more so on the side not head on), but it didn't seem hard because I'm used to that speed of wind. Pocatello always has a consistent wind blowing. Then mile 6 I headed into the part where I knew the wind would be the strongest. But it wasn't as strong on mile 6 so I should have ran that mile better, I don't know what happened. It was blowing 25 to 35 mph on miles 7 & 8, and it just zapped the strength right out of me, because I was giving it everything I had to try to keep my current pace, and the wind would literally almost
knock me back. Towards the end of mile 7 I was so tired I slowed down to try to gain some energy for the next two miles. Mile 8 was better but the wind really hit me hard still. This road is about a 2.5 miles stretch before you turn. Mile 9 I turned and the wind was only blowing about 10 mph into my face so I finished pretty strong. But it definitely was a struggled tempo run.
I thought before I left the house I could change my route and run with the wind, but I wouldn't have counted the pace as fair and I wanted it to be hard. This was too hard though. My hands were numb by the time I got home and I had to rub them it get the feeling back. I was almost in tears because the pain hurt so bad. Next time if it's this windy and cold I'll go to the health club treadmill. The training runs this week by far have had some weird things happen, and the weather seemed to cause them all.

mile 1 7:33
mile 2 6:47
mile 3 5:59
mile 4 6:01
mile 5 6:01
mile 6 6:12
mile 7 6:27
mile 8 6:18
mile 9 6:02
mile 10 6:35
mile 11 7:14

My day wasn't done yet I decided to go to the Health Club after work, and I ran 2.3 miles at a 7:28 pace just a warm-up to see how my legs felt after the tempo run. They were fine and it felt good. I lift weights on my quads, hamstrings, and calf's to get a strength training work-out. Tomorrow I haven't decided what I'll run but it will be between 14 to 20 miles and maybe 8 at marathon pace.

Total miles today 13.3.

Today I ran 20.3 miles at a 7:10 pace on the same course as last week, but I extended it to get the 20 miles. I was mainly focusing on a slow pace it was a very easy run. I did mix in a few marathon pace miles but only two, because I did a tempo run yesterday, and didn't want to over do it. The weather was 17 degrees with no wind, but for some reason my hands were colder than they have ever been (maybe still poor circulation from yesterday). I was very scared after the run, because my thumb felt like a solid piece of ice. I might have to go in and get it checked, because the tip is still tingling after a few hours being at home. I read if this is the case that you should go see your doctor.

What a week for me... to summarize: Monday I fell on the ice. Tuesday I did the worst hill repeats in the worst wind possible. Wednesday that was good day "cool". Thursday I did a tempo run in the worst wind again, and I froze my hands off for the first time this week. Then I did it again today. Right now I'm at 70 miles for the week in 5 days of running. I have either 1 or 2 running days left this week. Should I dare run. I will tell you this whole training for Boston I've had some weird running experiences that I never have had before.

I have the day off, except I have to go in tonight and put patches on one of our computer systems but that won't take long.

Recovery run to end the week at 80 miles.  I just took it nice and easy at a 7:29 pace in 1:12.  Sometimes just taking it slow makes you appreciate the outdoors.

The past couple of days I've been so tired. More tired than I've ever been in my life. The reason is the late nights, Friday night I stayed up till 3:30am fixing a problem at work with our Calendar Server which is a most that its up and running. Then I got up the next morning at 9am and ran 9.7 easy miles. Saturday night I stayed up till 2:30am, because of my online web homework that was due the next day. Yes, homework due on a Sunday. You don't go to class so due dates are a lot different than going to class to turn in work.

Sunday was my scheduled day off from running, and I was busy at home and didn't get a chance to rest. By 9pm that night I was completely drained and wiped out.

Monday: I woke up so tired that I don't know how I ran the first couple of miles. My eyes were tired they didn't want to stay open. The first three miles I averaged a 7:40 pace. I think the music is the only thing that kept me awake But I ran 10.5 miles in a 7:04 pace in 1:14. I didn't really do any marathon pace miles last week so I convinced myself to do four in this run at a 6:40 pace.

Still tired! This afternoon I went to the health club and ran 2.3 miles at a 7:30 pace just to get warmed up to do some strength training. Total mileage 12.8 miles. Days like these make me wonder if I have it in me to run a marathon under 3 hours.

I hope I'll be able to sleep tonight, my work hours is really starting to affect my sleep. Not good for the training.

Speed work today

My times were awful that I shouldn't even be posting them, but I'll do so anyway (need to post the bad days too).

Interval 1: 2:49
rest: 3:27

Interval 2: 2:50
rest: 3:18

Interval 3: 2:55
rest: 3:22

Interval 4: 3:05 (I was running like a water buffalo here)
rest: 3:20 (my rest was almost better than my sprint, how sad is that)

Interval 5: 2:52 (I guess not too bad, for today anyway)
rest: 3:23

Interval 6: 2:47 (I did better on this one that I decided to do another one)
rest: 3:34

Interval 7: 2:52
rest: n/a

Then I ran two cool-down miles at 6:56, and I know I should have went slower on these.

I totaled over 9 miles today, and decided to take a break in the afternoon and not do anything. I do kind of feel sluggish/weak like it's tough to get up and have energy. I think maybe I did too much on Monday with little sleep over the weekend. Where I ran a total of 13 miles and also went to the gym, and did sit-ups and push-ups before bed.

Tonight I never got off till 6pm and had to take my son to daddy and me tumbling class (which I would do even if I was dead tired because I love it), tonight homework. Not much rest for me tonight.

Well today I had a scheduled 7 mile tempo run, but I thought I would take it easy, because of the way I've been feeling the last couple of days. I thought I would run an even pace of 6:30 for 7 miles which is way above my tempo speeds. I was up till 11:30pm last night doing homework and I thought this sounded like a good plan. The weather was wonderful 33 degrees no wind sunny and it was warm.

Approaching the end of the first mile I thought "NO Way!" I'm not going to take the easy route the whole point of this training is to get the best ability out of my body leading to the taper, so I thought I would ease into the Tempo Run. The warm-up mile I did was 7:21 and then I started the tempo portion.

6:12
6:18 (I was messing with my ipod on this mile and it caused me to slow down a bit, I should have just left it alone. But it still shouldn't have stopped me from running this mile better.).
6:08
6:03
5:59
6:06
6:04
6:32 (cool down mile but my mind was wandering thinking of the flying pizza boxes that Scott was having to dodge in Philly. I was also thinking about how his hill repeats went in frigid weather).
6:48 ( better cool down mile but still had a lot on my mind and not paying attention to my pace.. SLOW DOWN.)

I really felt good on this run today and not sluggish, except I could have done a better job on mile 2 of the tempo portion. Now I've done back to back speed days this week which last week I did them between a recovery run. It seems I perform better with back to back speed days. I know that's not the recommended way to do it and its hard on your body. I'm not sure why it works better for me. I don't consider it the right way to train, but I guess if it works keep doing it.

Tomorrow will be an easy recovery run.

Ran 2.3 miles at the Health Club this afternoon at a recovery pace of 7:40. I really like running in the afternoons after a hard morning run, because it feels good to do an easy unfocused run. I lifted just on my upper body today, nothing on the legs. I already torn enough muscle fibers on my tempo run. Makes no sense to strain them more.

12.6 miles

Today I was schedule for a recovery run after two speed days in a row (Yasso 800's and 7 mile tempo run) well I changed that. If there's one part of my training that I'm concerned with it's the marathon pace. I only decided a few weeks ago what pace I wanted to run the Boston marathon in, and I haven't done very many training runs at this pace. I did do a 12 marathon run a couple weeks ago, and a 2-3 mile pace run on Monday (that was a mixed up 10 mile run). The runs went well at the 6:40 pace but still I need more runs at this pace.

So today I ran 8.1 miles at a 6:50 pace in 55:24. Five of the miles I did at marathon pace: 6:43, 6:32, 6:33, 6:35, and 6:39, and it felt easy. That really made me feel better and comfortable where I'm at in the training.

Must of the training programs I see have at least one marathon pace run per week.

Long run went well. I ran 23.6 at a 7:16 pace in 2:51. I was more worried about how cold it was vs. how the downhills were. I almost quit because of the cold, but I figured the miles will drop in elevation fast. Like I said I've ran this course in the past and the downhill don't seem to bother me. The run went very well. I'll post more later.

Here's the course I ran... good one to be ready for Boston

http://www.pocatellomarathon.com/maps.htm

Today I did an easy recovery run 8.4 miles at a 7:29 pace in 1:03 minutes.  Since I did 23 miles yesterday it felt good just to get out there and run just run and not focus.  Next  week on my long run I plan to do 18 miles and 12 of those miles will be at marathon pace to see where I'm at (6:40 pace).  Boston is coming up soon. My goal of being under 3 I believe is in reach..

I can't decide if I want to do one more 20 miler before Boston, I've done 5 so far for the training.  Whatever I decided I feel like I've trained hard and I hope I see result.  We need to think postive and have confidence right?

You know when you have a day-off from running you expect to be motivated to start back up. It seems like the last three Monday's I've had to drag myself out the door to run when I take Sunday's off. I should run on Sunday too, because usually I have the carving to do so. If I would have during this training cycle all my mileage week totals would have been in the high 70's and low 80's. Oh well the mileage totals for me are not that important what I get per year.

Today was hill repeats, and I got out the door so late that I didn't go to my usual spot. I decided to run a hill on our overpass its only 150m's, but I figured that's better than nothing. I ran two miles to this overpass for a good warm-up which felt good after the day off. I did 9 X 150ms and ran two of the downhill’s fast. I felt pretty good I pushed at a real hard pace in the low 6 minute pace (I didn't record the intervals, because I forgot to set my Garmin for that type of training workout. I just have overall pace for the whole run.) One observation of this workout is the uphill comes up so fast, because of the small distance between intervals. Maybe it’s me, but this short distance Hill Repeats are just as tough as 400s.

After I got done doing the intervals I decided to run the next 5 miles at marathon pace (I’ll have to display those later). I nailed the 5 miles, averaging around a 6:35 pace. I felt like I could have dropped the pace lower but I didn’t want to over do it. That's a pretty good work-out doing a marathon pace right after hill repeats with no break.

Totals 10.2 miles at a 6:35 pace in 1:07
This afternoon at the health club I did something different, rather than run two miles as a warm-up I ran 2.5 miles at marathon pace and the last .5 at 3% grade and the first 2 miles at 1 to 1.5% grade. I really wanted to get more miles in at the (6:40) pace. I really think I should drop my marathon pace to a 6:30, because I know I could run at this pace for the marathon because of my tempo times. I’m going to play around with this Friday when I do 12 miles in my 18 mile long run.

Total for the day: 12.7 miles.

Today was a simple easy run. Other than the first 2 miles are going at a very slow grade uphill and mile 3 you  climb 500+  feet.  I like doing this course once a week because of  the hilly portion and then the downhill.  It's a great run to prepare for Boston, other than I wish I could run the downhill first then the uphill, but where I start from my house it's impossible.  I've often thought about driving to the top then starting the decline and then I would be able to run the hill on the last portion.  Good course if you did two loops on your long run then you could hit that 500+ feet hill twice.  The hill lasts over a mile.  I did one 20 miler on this course where I looped it twice.
I believe I showed a "gif" image of the elevation from this course in one of my blog entries.  My Garmin 205 does a great job at showing the elevation, especially when you can download your runs to motionbased.com.

During the training period for Boston I've really ran a lot of uphiill and downhill courses as much as I can.  I believe this has really helped my endurance level.  I can only hope, and give God the blessing for helping me.

Today I did a seven mile tempo run.  I felt really good and probably the fastest tempo run for the start of this year.  I wanted to see how my body would handle a marathon pace mile after the tempo run instead of dropping down to a cool-down mile.   I felt fine and could have continued with the marathon pace miles.  Good training day leading towards Boston.  Overall totals  10.4 miles  at a 6:20 pace in 1:06.

The course is the same course I've done all my tempo runs, mostly flat with one small uphill and downhill.  There was a strong head wind at mile 7 that I really and to push through at 25 mph.
 

Mile 1: 7:24 (warm-up)
Mile 2: 5:59 (start tempo)
Mile 3: 5:53
Mile 4  5:52
Mile 5  6:00
Mile 6  6:03
Mile 7  6:07
Mile 8  6:05
Mile 9  6:32 (marathon pace mile)
Mile 10 6:50 (should have cool-down slower than this, but wasn't focusing on the cool-down I guess)

Today I ran 9.2 miles at a 7:14 pace faster than I wanted to, but they felt easy.  Today is just setting up for tomorrows 18 miler where 12 miles will be at marathon pace.  I was tired this morning I had to be at work by 6:50, because Idaho Power was shutting down power at our University, and I had to make sure that our systems would be okay on the backup APS power units, or else we would starting shutting them down if Idaho Power took too long.   Our battery backups will hold the power for 25 minutes.   Idaho Power only had the power off for 9 minutes.

Rather than go back to my office... I did my run at 8:30am.  I feel really tired today I need to get to bed early for the run tomorrow.
 

Friday

Well today was a real test where I'm at with my training: success or bust. I scheduled a 12 mile marathon pace run within the 18 miler. I mentioned earlier that I needed to decide on a marathon pace either 6:30 or 6:40 or somewhere in between. I need to have that confidence to know where I stand, because I've been concerned about being wishy washy with my marathon pace.

It was about 8:30 in the morning when I headed out, and the temperature was 32 degrees not short weather yet, but it did warm up
to 70 degrees for the day. I proceeded on a course that was up and down in elevation to make things interesting.  To make a long story short I nailed it, and I felt like I could have dropped my marathon pace to a 6:20 or 6:25. Truly I thank God, because he's the one that's put me where I'm at, and helped me with this run today. I was praising him at mile 12, because I knew I nailed the pace miles, and I really thanked God for the help. I felt so good that I did 16 marathon pace miles. I'm really shocked and surprised because the first 12 miles I was fighting against a 10 mph wind. But it just felt so easy the whole run. For the 16 miles I averaged a 6:30 pace, so maybe there's my answer. I was shocked and surprised, but I really have never tested what I can really do.

I don't know what I will try in Boston, do I even try to drop the pace lower? Do I just try to stay between 6:30 and 6:40? Who knows the answer. Maybe I'll decide when I just start running the race. But I feel real good about my chances being under 3 hours. I just hope the weather is cool.

I think next week I'm going to try to find a gradual long downhill (at least 8 miles) that has a little up hill then another gradual downhill to really be close to the Boston course (probably an 18 to 20 miler).

The rest of the day I took my 2 year old son out for pizza and I ate a foot long meatball sandwich at Fazoli's. Then we went to the park for 2 hours and climbed rocks to the top of the park. It's a pretty steep climb. Then we played on the park toys till 5pm. Wonderful day, my wife wondered when we were coming home. I didn't even sit down and rest the whole day.

(Sasha I love the html editor)

Total 20.2 miles at a 6:38 pace in 2:14.

mile 1 7:04

mile 2 6:32
mile 3 6:36
mile 4 6:33
mile 5 6:33
mile 6 6:31
mile 7 6:40
mile 8 6:28
mile 9 6:29
mile 10 6:35
mile 11 6:38
mile 12 6:30
mile 13 6:20
mile 14 6:44 (went up a major hill didn't try to keep same pace. I went up easy. )
mile 15 6:18
mile 16 6:16
mile 17 6:27

mile 18 7:01 ( Start cool-down miles)
mile 19 7:07
mile 20 7:10

Saturday:

Was a recovery run which I had to wait till the evening to run, which would be the first time in the training where I've ran in the evening.  My family and I had to travel to Twin Falls, Idaho (110 miles away) to my daughters soccer games.  They won one and lost one, and believe it or not I got a sunburn because it was over 70 degrees.

I ran 8.7  miles at a 7:27 pace in 1:04.  I really wasn't sore from Saturday's run, but I was tire into the first mile, because of all the driving, but I quickly restored my energy in the run. 

My wife also ran a mile and my kids too, because we went to the track for the run, and we all went to subway and pigged out afterwards.

This sounds like a broken record, " I didn't get much sleep last night", but this was because my son wanting to play at 3am, and getting up to go to the bathroom several times. But I went to bed early and didn't feel real tired. With our busy weekend my son's sleep times were altered, so I think that was the problem.

Today I did 6 X 800's, with one warm-up mile, and 4 miles after the 800's mixing in 10 x 100 accelerations.

800's (The 800's were far better than two weeks ago when I was in left field or something)

Total 6 miles at a 6:07 pace (overall)
split: 2:38 rest: 3:23

split: 2:40 rest: 3:18

split: 2:43 rest: 3:18

split: 2:46 rest: 3:29

split: 2:47 rest: 3:16

split: 2:45 rest: 3:22

Then did the 4.1 miles at a 6:40 pace.

Did 2.6 miles at the health club at a 6:53 pace. My goal was to keep the run semi-fast since today was a speed training day. I did most of it at a 2% grade with probably half a mile at 3% grade. Then I did some strength training on my hamstrings, quads, and calves. This was a full day of training, hopefully I won't pay for it tomorrow on my easy 10 mile run. I really want this week to be a hard training week since Boston is close and the taper is near.

Total miles for the day 12.7 miles

I ran 12.08 miles at an easy 7:01 pace in 1:24. The temperature was 41 degrees so things are warming up. This was my easy run day, but I chose a hilly course, so some parts were not effortless when running. This is the same course I run once a week, but when you reach the top of the hill (about 500ft up) there's several turn off roads that go uphill from the main road (Satterfield St.), and I would run up each street and run back down to the main road and continue until I reached the next street that went uphill. I continued this pattern until I reached the end of Satterfield St., and then you turn and run completely downhill for 3 miles, then the course ends with 2 flat miles. I wanted to get more of the uphill and downhill work so I chose a longer course today. I was actually kind of tired after this run, hopefully it doesn't affect my tempo run tomorrow. It might be because I always do this run in my heaviest running shoe which are a little bit big on my feet, because when I bought them all they had was a full-size bigger and I always go up half-size. But I got a great discount, and I couldn't pass them up. But they do bloody my toe every time I wear them, because of the movement in the toe box.

I not sure what my plans are this coming Friday's long run, because the last three weeks I've ran 20, 23, and another 20. I think I have done over six 20 milers for the training. Maybe one more couldn't hurt at a slow easy pace or should I mix in some marathon pace miles?

Today was my tempo run day, and second speed work-out for the week.  I wasn't able to sleep last night until 3am, because our son kept getting up.  This is a new thing he's trying.  My wife and I read that two year olds will go through this stage.  With not getting much sleep I decided to change the run to a 4 mile tempo instead of a 7 mile tempo, because I was flat out tired when I woke up at 6am to run, and it gave me an excuse to be lazy.  But, for some reason I found the energy at mile 4 in the tempo run to decide to do the original 7 mile tempo (thank you Lord).  The wind wasn't a problem this morinng, and that was nice to have it not blasting in my face.

Total Miles 11.4  at a 6:19 pace in 1:12.

Mile 1   7:16  (warm-up)

Mile 2   5:58  (Start Tempo)

Mile 3   6:01

Mile 4  5:53

Mile 5  5:52

Mile 6  6:06  (got lazy)

Mile 7  5:57

Mile 8: 6:00 (end tempo)

Mile 9 6:24

Mile 10 6:35

Mile 11 6:48

Today was an easy run, but I did mix in some marathon pace miles (well sort of). I decided I would do some marathon pace miles while I was running (nothing like changing the training strategy), because I'm going to run just a slow endurance 20 miler tomorrow. Although my times were a little higher than what I think my marathon pace will be in Boston, but I wasn't trying really trying hard to hit the pace: 6:44,6:36, 6:37, 6:34, 6:41. They were so easy that I thought I had to be running 7 minute miles, they were done with little effort. I didn't want to go hard today, because of the tempo run yesterday. The tempo runs have really helped me increase my marathon pace since I started implementing them in my training. Sasha gave me some really good tips and advice that has really helped my performance.

Today was cold compared to previous days. The temperature was 19 degrees when I started running at 6:40am. I wear my UnderArmour cold gear tights and shirt and two pairs of gloves. I did the route I run my tempo runs, but to make it different I ran it the reverse way.

Totals miles 10.65 at a 6:47 pace in 1:12

 This afternoon at the Health Club I ran 2.5 eventful miles on the treadmill at an easy  7:30 pace.  I mainly went there to do strength training on my upper body.

Today was a real messed up day. I took vacation till 11am so that I could do my long run today, like I've mentioned in the beginning Saturday's and Sunday's long run days don't work for my families schedule right now. I've got too much stuff going (soccer) .

When I woke up this morning at 7am I had the worst headache and stomach ache. I actually woke up soaked in sweat on my head and body. My wife had something similar yesterday like this. I couldn't even start running until 9:40am, and I still had a nasty headache, but my stomach ache wasn't as bad as when I woke up. I was planning on making this more of an endurance run but it really didn't turn out that way, because I needed to be at work, and didn't want to make up too much time being there late. I decided I can do this so I sucked it up motivated myself and told my wife not to worry. My fuel belt holes money so I took 50 cents with me in case I needed to call my wife if I started crawling on the road, or bonking.

The first few miles were very tough with the headache, but I did get in some sort of consistency, but it wasn't my best 20 miler. I didn't feel totally fresh through the whole run. I chose a incredibility difficult course. I don't know why I like to put my body in a torture chamber especially when not feeling well. This course was very hilly, and challenging. I mixed in 5 marathon pace miles in this run, just to feel some speed and get done sooner( in a row 6:19, 6:27, 6:31, 6:29, 6:33, 6:43) . I got too hot in this run because the weather warmed up fast and I was in two layers. I'm sure I shredded a lot of pounds in this run. The course had a lot of rolling hills and what was frustrating is the last 9 miles of the course I had a horrible wind in my face. The amount of clothes I had on fatigued me a bit, but I wasn't trying to go all out either, or I would have overheated. I ran 20.46 miles at a 6:51 pace in 2:20. I feel really good about this because I wasn't in the best condition to do this run with a headache and stomach pains. I did have a lot left at the end, but I was a little sore after the run. I don't feel to bad now. I will definitely take an ice bath after my recovery run tomorrow. Well no more 20 milers until Boston, next week probably 16 miles.

Chart elevation

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.do?xy.width=1000&xy.height=400&svgFormat=false&episodePk.pkValue=2303229&xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.ranges=speed&xy.autoFit=true&xy.legendVisible=false

Easy recovery run 10.22 miles at  easy 7:34 pace. The day got hot pretty fast after starting the run. I had to shred my gloves.  Also ran with the wife and  kids at night.   My  10 year old has been running since she was  seven and  has run several 5k races, including last your in Ogden.  She has also ran a 4 mile race too.  I'm really proud of her and I keep telling her you can be good if you keep it up, because you started early.  I don't want to push her though and have her hate it, sometimes I feel like I do.

Sunday: I decided to take off and not PR my mileage for the week for a couple of reasons. 1. I did have time in the morning, because my preparation for church is more important. 2. We ate at Golden Corral after church, and I was so stuffed I couldn't move. 3. I had homework, actually I'm working ahead, because the week of Boston I have an Exam and to get ahead would benefit me.
4. I really did want to overtrain, I've ran 7 days twice during the training cycle and was fine, but really I was so stuffed after lunch I couldn't have ran anyway. Finished week at 82 miles.


Monday:
After my buffet addiction yesterday I ran hill repeats today. Below is the elevation chart. 8 x 300, and I sprinted down on the third and sixth hill repeat. I averaged between a 6:30 and 6:40 pace going up. After that I ran up a hill for a mile it was only 200ft and than downhill the rest of the run. I took it easy on this part of the run.. I'm really getting some good quality hill training these last few weeks and it makes me feel ready for Boston.
Total Miles 11.20 6:59 pace in 1:18

This begins the taper week, and I plan on running 60 miles, but not cut the intensity.

Schedule

Tuesday: Easy Run

Wednesday: 7 mile tempo run

Thursday: Easy Run

Friday:  16 miler (8 marathon pace miles)

Saturday: Easy Run

Tuesday:
Well today was suppose to be an easy run day, but it turned out that I go home sooner on my 10 mile run than I planned. After the 1st mile the weather changed into an ugly thunderstorm and just poured so I decide to pick up the pace and run about 6 marathon pace miles. Now it even gets more interesting at mile 8 heavy snow started coming down. I looked like a lost wet puppy when I got home. I'm surprised my wife recognized me.

Totals 10.4 miles 6:46 pace.

ohn : Thanks I know how important the rest will be for the freshness of my legs for those hills so I need to cut the mileage down.

Matt W: I really hope all the hills I've ran have built up my quads. I guess will see.

Wednesday
Well this will probably be my last tempo run for this training and wow the wind was bad and that's all I can say. It was a extremely tough run in the wind. Actually, it was a horrible run in the wind, my pace was all over the place. It never let up the whole run. Ee have a wind advisory alert along with snow for the whole day today according to the weather channel. The wind right now is blowing 35mph that's what it felt like this morning, but I don't think it was that strong. Anyway, it's done and I'm glad, because it was down right cold with that wind. I'm around 31 miles so far this week in three days so I've cut my running back a bit.

Miles
7:22
6:06 (Begin Tempo)
6:15
6:03
6:10
6:07
5:54 (only reason I got this time was because of a little bit of downhill)
6:03 (End of tempo)
6:43
6:51

Today was an easy pace run consisting of 10.1 miles at a 7:16 pace in 1:13. The wind was blowing at 16-20 mph for 8 of the miles than the last 2 miles the wind was pushing me. Very cold today I believe the temperature said it was 24 degrees. My hamstring was a little tight yesterday after my tempo run and is a little tight today, but I don't think its anything to worry about. I did do some hamstring stretches last night and this morning. It's do this once before after I've pushed a hard tempo run, but it went away.

Well I did my last really long run to prepare for Boston today. I'm definitely going to be easy on my body for Boston so I can be fresh in 17 days.

I decided to run 10 marathon pace miles in my 17 mile run today, and it went well. Even though I was tired, because I went t to bed late last night and didn't sleep very well. I almost decided to do the long run tomorrow, because it was out right cold (22 degrees), and it was suppose to be a lot warmer tomorrow. But I figured I would be okay. I woke up and ate half of a granola bar, and headed out the door. I usually eat more, but I had to be back at 9:15, because we were having family pictures done and it was 7am when I left. The family pictures where going to be done at our house so if I was a few minutes late it wouldn't be a problem.

I ran 4 warm-up miles and then went into the pace miles.

6:30, 6:23:, 6:30, 6:27, 6:30, 6:26, 6:28 6:33, 6:25, 6:22 and then 3 cool-down miles (6:49, 7:00, 7:11)

Totals 17 miles at a 6:43 pace in 1:54

It felt good. Two things though that went wrong: 1. I should have ate more before I left. 2. I took three Cliff bloks with me, but I dropped two and only had one for the run. I felt really tired after the run, and that was my fault for not getting the proper nutrition before and during the run, and also the night before.

I'll take an ice bath sometime today or tomorrow, and then sit in our hot tub.

Has far as training next week (still have a recovery run tomorrow) I will probably will do all easy runs, maybe mix in a 4 mile tempo run. Right now I'm sitting at 58 miles for the week, and I wanted to taper at 60 miles so I'll be a little over with tomorrows run. Maybe at 65 miles.  Do I do any short hard runs next week, because my assumption is bascially the trainings over and anything I do now will not benefit me on race day.

Next weeks miles I figured I would drop to 40 miles.  I really want to nail this race I hope I've done what I can.  I really have trained hard, and thank the Lord for allowing me to be dedicated.

Ran an easy run today after a marathon pace run yesterday.  I ran 7.7  at a 7:30 pace.  I'm not sure what I will do this week to beginning the two week taper for Boston. I know I want to cut the mileage to around 40 miles.  I think on Monday I will got to the track and do 6 x 800's, and from there I think I will do the following: (any advice would be appreciated).

Monday: 6 X 800's   (total 6 miles adding cool and warm-up miles)

Tuesday: easy run (6 miles)

Wedneday:  4 mile Tempo Run (Total 6 miles one warm-up and one cool-down)

Thursday:  Marathon pace run (6 miles)

Friday :    12 mile easy long run.

Saturday:  easy run ( 6 miles)