Training Update

Three weeks to Boston.  The old saying is that the hay is in the barn. I didn't put up much hay. I have a number of reasons (excuses) for this. I battled a nagging calf injury during the fall that hurt my base to start the training.  I battled a hamstring injury during the winter that prevented me from doing any hard running. I've been sick more in the past 4 months than I have been in the past 5 or 6 years combined. Those are my reasons. I've struggled with personal and work stress that has at times completely zapped my motivation to run or do anything. As a result, my mileage base is about 75% of what it was at this time last year. My diet has been inconsistent. There has been no core work or cross training. My weight is up. Call me tubs. Those are my excuses. I'm not fit to run the Boston Marathon.

But the date is near and my family is excited and my airfare is paid and my hotels are reserved and my vacation time has been claimed. I'm going, and I'm going to have fun. I'm sure that I'll pin on a number and run hard. But my hard running is not going to be fast, unfortunately.

Recent Workouts
I was as sick as I remember ever being back on March 19. That caused me to miss both the Rocket Run 10 mile and the Sunday morning 10 miler. Those were to be key workouts in my week!  To try to make up without overdoing it, I ran a tempo on Monday the 21st.. I still wasn't recovered from the vomiting and diarrhea. I was nauseous and it was hot. As a result, I could barely hold 6:45 pace for 5 miles. Yuck.

Then, I met Matt and Lanier for a track workout on Wednesday morning the 23rd.  I still felt like garbage battling nausea.  But I did the workout anyway.  We did 6 x 800m repeats. I ran them all at about 3:00 flat, some 3:01 and some 2:59.  It was good to have company, and I was glad that my lethargy didn't slow Matt down at all.  Due to peer pressure, I did jump some hurdles that were left on the track during one of the recovery jogs. I had no idea I could do that!

Over the weekend, I unofficially ran the cancelled McKay Hollow Madness 25k.

This week I had business travel, but I was determined not to let it ruin my week. On Monday, I did 10 miles total and 6 x 800m.  I just found a high school near my hotel, ran over there, and hoped that the track would not be in use.  There was lacrosse practice happening inside the track. I just acted like I knew what I was doing and started doing my reps! Nobody told me to leave. I felt much better than I have in a while and was able to run most of those 800s at 2:52. One crept up to 2:54, but I was fairly consistent and ran the last one at 2:50.

I followed up the track work with a 13.5 miler along the Olentangy greenway.  The plan is to run the Scholarship Fund 8k in the morning and see what I have.