Half way to Boston

Welcome, Guest

Blog Forums Calculator

Some links below may be affiliate links. BMOW may get paid if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these.

As an Amazon Associate BMOW earns from qualifying purchases.

Return to topic list

<< Boston Marathon: 2-wave start, minor cou...	shoe weight >>
Half way to Boston

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Half way to Boston Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:47 pm

I'm more than halfway through my training program now, and it's going fairly well. I haven't been training with as much mileage or as many runs per week as I used to, but I think that's enabled me to tackle the runs with better intensity. Net result: I feel about as good as I could have hoped. Now I'm starting to get excited. Anybody else training for Boston or another spring marathon? How's it going?

Rustyboy

LA, CA
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 225

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:22 am

You're almost there, Rickshaw - congratulations! I'm 3 1/2 weeks away from the LA Marathon and have been laid up for 2 days with some sort of mild food poisoning. Today (the first day I feel my energy coming back), I'm going to try for a slow, easy 3, and subsequently ramp it up until the weekend. If I'm feeling 100% by Sunday, I'll do a 20 miler. I'm a little concerned, as my marathon training was hampered by coming off of an ultra in mid-January, but hopefully the base I built for that will support my training for this "short jaunt".

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:17 pm

Short jaunt indeed! I hope you're on the mend soon. Luckily it sounds like your training hasn't been impacted too badly, and anyway you're almost ready to begin your taper for the race. I bet you'll crank through LA like nobody's business, thanks to all the endurance you've gained during your ultra training. Have you run it before? What's the course like?

Rustyboy

LA, CA
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 225

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:50 pm

I've never run an actual marathon before at all. I just jumped right into the ultras. I figured: Wanna do something stupid? Ramp it up a notch. But the LA course is pretty much flat, and the last few miles are actually a slow, slight downhill, so I've got that going for me. I'm running it with a friend who used to run 15 minute 5ks in high school but hasn't run in years and years, so it's more of a buddy effort.

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:35 pm

Sounds like a good course... now you just have to pray for good weather, and try not to get trampled by the zillion other runners! Have you been doing any marathon-specific training for this race, or just continuing your ultra training schedule? Come to think of it, what is your ultra training schedule? I don't think I've ever seen a day-by-day ultra training schedule, but every book and web site in the world (except this one!) seems to have one for marathon training. Are you feeling back to normal now?

Rustyboy

LA, CA
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 225

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:09 pm

I've been going by Higdon's Intermediate 1 marathon schedule since I came off the ultra, which is perfect. For my ultra training, I went pretty loosely by this schedule: http://www.scrunners.org/ultrasch.php?month=1&day=15&year=2006&dow=7&schedule=50K&submit=Draw+Schedule It has both 50k and 50 mile race schedules, and I altered the miles to approximate hours of running since it's difficult to gauge miles out in the woods and mountains. For my longest training weeks, I was running 8-9 hours/week. Thanks for asking. I'm feeling 100% now. Heed my advice: Make SURE your turkey chili is cooked THOROUGHLY.

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:43 am

Heh, I will watch out for the turkey. Glad to hear you're feeling better. 8-9 hours per week, that's probably something like 60 miles per week. Nice! Seven weeks until Boston now, and I just completed my peak week of 56 miles. From here the focus turns more to speed instead of endurance, and so the weekly mileage drops a little. This is actually one of only two times that I've followed an 18-week training program from the very beginning, without skipping any workouts and without getting sick midway through. I think the extra few weeks of endurance training have helped a lot. I did 21 miles yesterday in strong winds and driving rain, and while it wasn't a walk in the park, it was surprisingly manageable. Today I feel fine. It's hard to believe that a few months ago, anything over 5 miles felt long! The past couple of months have included lots of medium-long midweek runs and tough tempo runs, which have made the difference. Last week was a killer tempo run of 11 miles total, with 7 miles at tempo pace. Pfitzinger defines tempo pace as the pace you could sustain for a race lasting one hour. For me that's about a 7 min mile, times 7 miles = 49 minutes at tempo pace. So sustaining my one hour race pace for 49 minutes is close to the effort of an actual race. I'm not sure if this is what Pfitz intended, or if he called for a 7 mile tempo run while thinking of elites with a 5:00/mile tempo pace.

Rustyboy

LA, CA
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 225

Re: Half way to Boston Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:54 pm

I remember your down days as of last year, so it's great to hear you're back in the swing of things. Just this weekend, I had the same revelation, doing my longest run since the ultra (16 miles in the mountains). I felt like I'd finally built back to my potential. It sounds like your training is going precisely the way you want it to - I can't wait to read your Boston RR.

View posts:

		All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1