The Boston Diaries: Chapter 9
We’re halfway to Lincoln
I needed a week like this. After a week that was more annoying than it needed to be — mainly because I kept wondering if I was injured or not — I entered the start of training week #9 feeling healthy and ready to go. No longer juggling my runs1, I figured I’d get back on track, put together some great runs, and go into the following week2 ready to go.
It went even better than expected.
By Thursday, I vowed (on my brand new instagrams no less!) I wouldn’t mention my hamstring anymore. All my issues, physical or mental, were gone. With a Friday workout featuring marathon pace looming, it was nice to roll through the week with nothing more than the usual tired legs and body from another 60+ mile week.
When my running journey began in 2020, long runs became a core part of getting where I am today. No longer just going out and running 18 miles, I went out running 18 miles in a specific heart rate zone. Over time, this made these runs easier and more enjoyable.
For my marathons and half marathons in 2020 and 2021, this usually meant the distance at a generally slower pace. More about time on feet than trying to push the pace or use up too much energy. Occasionally I’d have a run with a “fast finish,” but for the most part, mile one was hopefully a similar pace to mile 10, to mile 18, etc.
That changed last year when I started using the Pfitzinger 18/70 plan. I still have traditional long runs where I’m running x mileage at y pace, based off my HR. In fact, I’m doing that more often than anything else on Saturday mornings3. But four times in the training cycle, I’ll finish a long run with certain mileage at marathon pace. 16 with 8 at MP, 18 with 10 at MP, etc. The biggest beast of them all, 18 with 14 at MP, comes five weeks out from the race.
The first two times I had done a workout like this in 2023, I was pleased with the results. I’m aiming for a 6:40-per mile pace right now — a sub-2:55 marathon — and in the previous two runs this cycle, I averaged 6:32 and 6:35 on the MP miles. Seemed like I was ahead of schedule.
This week’s long run was 16 miles with the final 12 at marathon pace. The toughest challenge yet, but I felt ready and was pretty confident I’d run it well.
I ran it so well I’m starting to reevaluate my goals for Lincoln.
The log:
Sunday: 20 minutes of weightlifting + a 3 mile walk with Banksy
Monday: 6 miles in the AM + 4 miles in the PM
Tuesday: 15 miles
Wednesday: 6 miles
Thursday: 13 miles
Friday: 16.01 miles, with 12 being at marathon pace
Saturday: 7.01 miles, with 6 x 100 meter sprints
Total: 67.02 miles
Year to date: 548.12 miles
Day 57: The usual 20 minutes in the weight room + a three-mile walk with Banksy. A great way to finish up the weekend ahead of a challenging week on the trail.
Day 58: Ended up doing both runs — six miles in the am and four in the pm — on the treadmill. Too windy for each recovery run to truly feel like a recovery run. Ran the same pace for both — 9:14-per — and my HR was in check, staying at 116 and 120 across both runs. A good, albeit boring, ten miles overall.
Day 59: 15 miles, 7:51 pace, 152 HR. My last run of February was less about numbers and metrics, and so much more about feel. I was overdressed as the sun surprisingly peaked out, and my HR was higher than I would have wanted, but I was happy because I wasn’t feeling hurt anymore. Big time W that I needed this early in the week.
Day 60: Couldn’t have asked for a better recovery run outside. Six miles, 9:18-per, with an average HR of 124. I love pushing myself and I love finding new limits of my ability, but sometimes it’s a run like this that makes me think, “yeah, this is why I keep doing this.” Tremendous way to begin March.
Day 61: With a bachelor party on tap for the weekend, I knew I’d be juggling the end of the week a little bit. Going into Thursday, I just didn’t know how much I wanted to juggle. The Saturday long run was for sure moving up to Friday. I also toyed with moving the Friday run up to Thursday, since it would be a bit easier, giving my legs a break before a hard Friday workout. But that would also mean moving my Thursday run to bachelor party Saturday and I didn’t want to run 13 miles that morning, so I ended up keeping the run on Thursday. All of those words to say that this run was as scheduled.
Ran them at a 7:49 pace and finished with an average HR of 149. By the time I finished this one, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much different this week had gone vs. the previous. I was happier and overall in a much better headspace. I was ready for Friday.
Day 63: Before we get to Friday though, Saturday’s run! The bachelor party was for my younger brother Caleb. We ended up going to a farm out in Western4, Nebraska, and had a great weekend amongst his closest friends, as well as our youngest brother Luke. Outside of Luke, I was the only one up when I headed out the door before 8:00am for seven miles with some sprints mixed in.
Given I wasn’t trying to delay festivities at all, I didn’t do my usual morning routine of breakfast, coffee, etc. I just went. Felt the lack of routine early, especially as I climbed a gravel hill darn near right away. I worried my recovery run would never feel like one. Thankfully, that was the toughest hill of them all and I finished in 1:03:58 with a pace of 9:07. My average HR was higher than I would have liked — 138 — but all in all, better than I could have hoped for given the weird challenges of this one.
Day 62: I love the challenge of a marathon pace-run. No taper like race week, so I know my legs will be heavy. Thus, if I beat my goal; If I’m able to consistently hold that pace, with 44 miles already in the bank that week? Well, we’re cooking.
No matter the length of a run like this, I use the four miles before my MP miles as a build. Being that I wanted to be at a 6:40 pace by the time I passed 4.00 miles on my watch, my goal was to run 8:00, 7:40, 7:20, and 7:00 for miles 1-4. I was four, five, five, and two seconds ahead of pace on each mile. When it was time to kick things into high gear, I was ready to go and thought I had one of my best runs in me.
I did.
I think the word that comes to mind with a run like this is “strong” — that’s exactly how I felt throughout the next 12 miles. Strong. It’s a word I use often after a good run. “I felt strong,” I’ll write. That word, to me, has come to mean I’m not laboring. I’m pushing myself, but my body is responding just the way I want it to. Friday, my body responded just the way I wanted it to. It was this training cycle’s proof of concept. I felt like I was flying out there. My times back it up. I ran those 12 miles in an average pace of 6:28-per mile. Miles 2.9-16 set a new half marathon PR of 1:25:36. Not even a year ago, I ran a sub-1:30 in Lincoln and was over the moon. Ten months later, I smoked that time by four minutes. I was moving.
As I finished — 16 miles in 1:47:20 at an overall pace of 6:42 per mile — I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I had left in the tank. I know I could have gone for many more miles. On tired legs no less, without the usual nutrition of a marathon race day, etc.
Which means I’ll be looking under the hood, finding more seconds I feel comfortable shaving off my overall time, and put down some new goals for the Lincoln Marathon. Nine weeks from today, I’ll be there. Until then, I’ll keep pushing myself.
Well, at least not Monday-Thursday.
A step back week at that!
Or in the case of this week, Friday.
Truly, the town is Western! I’m not doing my usual bit!