Week 04: January 23-29, 2017

Monday:
     AM: 5 x 20 push ups

Tuesday:
     AM: 5 x 5 pull ups.
     
Wednesday:
     AM: Pull up pyramid -1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1
     PM: 10.2 miles, 666', 7:32 pace. Easy Manchester roads and sidewalks.

Thursday:
     AM: 9.9 miles, 590', 7:33 pace. Early morning Candia roads.
     PM: 10.2 miles, 661', 6:54 pace. 2 x 3 miles at tempo effort.

Friday:
     AM: 5 x 20 push ups.
     PM: 9.8 miles, 649', 7:48 pace. Windy easy run on Manchester sidewalks. Definitely feeling yesterday's miles and workout - made a conscious effort to go slow.

Saturday: 11.9 miles, 699', 8:05 pace. Kept the pace and effort level reigned in.

Sunday: 

Warm up: 2.3 miles, 167', 9:05 pace.
Race: Boston Prep 16 miler, 915'. 6:19 pace.

This was my third time running this race, I've always used it as a fitness check for Hyannis Marathon about a month later. Given that I've only been training with anything approaching focus since January, I was expecting to run several minutes slower than when I was in good shape in 2014. I ended up doing far better at this race than I had any right to expect. Here's a quick comparison of my mile splits:

  Mile 2014 / 2017

1. 6:29 / 6:29
2. 6:14 / 6:14
3. 6:00 / 5:46
4. 6:09 / 6:09
5. 6:47 / 6:38
6. 6:05 / 5:57
7. 6:08 / 6:05
8. 6:05 / 6:09
9. 6:12 / 6:14
10. 6:45 / 6:39
11. 6:58 / 6:39
12. 6:58 / 6:51
13. 6:18 / 6:13
14. 6:14 / 6:18
15. 6:05 / 6:16
16. 6:04 / 6:01

Finish: 1:40:37 / 1:40:39

Pace:   6:18 / 6:18

Place:  5th / 11th

Some key take-aways:

• This year's performance was nearly identical to the last time I ran BP16 in 2014. My mile splits are about as close as GPS can measure, especially considering one was done with a GPS watch and one was done with my iPhone on two different days. There's obviously some error in there since the totals don't add up. Conditions were more pleasant this year (35 degrees vs. 20 degrees) but I don't think it made any substantial difference time-wise.
• This year I ran entirely by feel. I started the Strava app on my phone, then put it away in my back pocket and didn't look at it again until after I finished. In 2014 I had a watch feeding me splits for every mile.
• My training is working and I should be solidly capable of a sub-3:00 marathon on Cape Cod next month. In 2014 I was probably physically capable of a 2:50 marathon but turned a 2:54 because I got greedy, overshot, and tried for 2:45.
• The next few weeks will be contain some key workouts. I can run deep in the 6:00/mile pace, but I need to target my endurance at speed to close well from mile 16 onward.
• I'm a little tempted to go for a PR, but it might be best to err on the conservative side and just try for an even, well-executed performance. My goal for Hyannis was to get into Boston and possibly go Sub-3, and I may benefit more by proving that I can hold back, sandbag a little, and not make every marathon I run turn into a gruesome shit show at the end.
• The marathon is also a B-goal for the year. I don't want to burn myself out for the rest of the season, there are bigger fish to fry. Let's try not to lose sight of that.

Weekly Totals:

     70.5 miles, 4337', 8h 38m.