21 days to go

Last big hurdle…


So this past week was my big week of training and the last of my 20+ runs before Boston. I had a good week of runs with a 9 mile tempo run on Friday with 5 miles at MP. On Sunday I did a 21 mile run from the start in Hopkinton to the 21 mile mark at BC College. This run is organized by the Hopkinton Running Club and unlike last year we didn’t have pouring rain but it was still cold. I awoke at 3:30 AM to fuel up and prepare and left my house around 6:30 AM.

I felt great and the plan was to stick to a 10:20 pace (MP+30 seconds) through 18 then run the last 3 miles at 9:50. Well here are the splits:

10:01
10:13
10:12
09:56
10:08
10:05
10:14
10:13
10:23
10:16
10:28
10:00
10:06
10:53
09:57
10:12
10:00
09:53
10:10
09:53

So you can see that I went out fast and was never able to settle into a 10:20 average pace. The run went ok but I did need to check out the restroom at the Ashland DD as I always have to on these training runs (glad that doesn’t happen race day) and I had to walk out some rear leg cramps at mile 18.

I love this run because it shows me the importance of PACE but I hate it because it makes me question everything I have done to date. I have found a great took for creating a Boston specific pace plan and I am going to try it. The goal is force myself to run controlled out of Hopkinton and save the energy for the hills of Newton. My BIB# is 23708 for those of you who want to follow my progress.
I have a 16 miler this weekend and then one last 12 mile run, so this boy is on the way to tapering at that my friend is good for the body and