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to find a similar runWeek of April 17th, 2005
| Sun 4/17 | 2 | went outside wearing clothes for what i hoped the temperature was, then shed a lot. |
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| Mon 4/18 | 20 | when i ran poorly at chicago last fall, i just put my splits up here. i actually felt good on race day, and given how badly my knee had hurt i was pleased with the effort. i was satisfied that if i got my knee healthy i would be successful today.
if it were only that easy. i'm posting this 2 weeks after the fact, and i'm still in some kind of denial, some kind of disbelief. but i need to get some of my thoughts down here so i can start to move on. going back to chicago 2003, i did an 18 week buildup. it was magical. everything fell into place. so, i've stuck with an 18 week build-up. this boston cycle was my second post "quality" fall marathon cycle, and at this time i would definitely say it doesn't take me 18 weeks to hit a peak. i haven't gone back over my logs thoroughly, but i know in 2004 i was fit as hell at the end of february and ran great at gate river in mid-march. although i ran 2 pr's in april and may, those races didn't feel like pr's and in my other races - broad street, spring lake - i was flat. this year i was really surprised when at the end of january i found myself running 5:25 pace with matt downin in "something more than a tempo but not quite a race". i was even more surprised when 2 weeks later i nailed a 15k in the park, coming close to a pr with 100+ miles and no taper. things were looking good i thought. sometime after i nailed a mile repeat workout with hans pacing me through the 800. i think i peaked right about then, though i didn't realize it at the time. now, i think the signs were there. the first workout that went badly was when i returned to the northern hills. i thought i was really fit and given that i hadn't run it in a while i would nail it. i didn't run badly, but i wasn't any faster either. my next workout was a typical "relaxed" workout prior to a race - 2x1m,2x800m,4x400m. the first interval was too slow - christ, i just looked back, it was 5:17 - so i pushed the rest of the workout to hit the times i wanted. looks ok in the log, but the effort was wrong. even though i won the half marathon 5 weeks out, i was atleast a minute slower than i expected. moreover, i couldn't shake the guy running off me. and i tried. i thought i was just tired, ready to start tapering. well it never kicked in, things just got worse. the tuesday before the 8k championships i ran 6x800 with marc, generous rest. no offense to marc, but when we run short stuff it's usually me doing the pacing. after one, i couldn't. i was expecting 2:20-2:24, they were more like 2:26. the good feeling i had in february was gone. i think it was the next day, marc and i ran 10 miles in some slush. i was dead. i was running pathetically slow and was winded. ask marc. then, the 8k. 26:15 or so. enough said. i was expecting 25:30 at worst. no way i was going out there to run 26:15 when i signed up. i planned on 4:55 for the first mile. even though i hit 4:58, i was dead. shouldn't have been. first thing nick said. the thing is, despite what seems obvious to me now, i didn't expect things to go so badly in boston. in other words, i don't feel like i psyched myself out. but here's what i know happened: 1) it was hot. maybe not 86 degrees hot like the year before, but hot for anyone who hadn't seen a day over 60 degrees in 4 months or so. 2) i had nothing. i was flat. no race day magic, whatever you call it. 3) despite consuming what i thought to be plenty of fluids in the days prior to the race - and i mean plenty - i felt like the water stops couldn't come frequently enough. my mouth was dry before every water stop. 4) worst blisters ever. i almost always get blisters during the marathon. i've never figured out why. i can eliminate shoes and socks. i wear the same socks for every race, and do all my tempo runs in my marathon shoes. i don't know if my feet swelled from the heat, or what, but instead of feeling the blisters starting to form in the latter half of the race, i felt them at 2 miles. any surface that i pushed off of was a blister, they still aren't healed. officially, this is why i dropped. i know. l-a-m-e. i'd make fun of me too. my splits thru 20 are below. i seriously considered dropping out at 15, when i saw marc for the first time, but i couldn't. he and julie came to boston to see me race, julie's sister and her boyfriend were there, and i just couldn't do it when i went by. but i should have. instead i trudged through 20, and up a big hill i might add, and then people started going by in droves. that did it. i didn't want to be that guy that everybody passed and said, "well he went out too hard", because that was the least of my concerns. in fact, big picture, i thought i was out too slow, and had expected to be faster. the last mile is relatively slow because i started the "i'm dropping out shuffle" about 400m from the 20m mark. 1 - 5:35 2 - 11:10 (5:34) 3 - 16:44 (5:34) 5k - 17:17 4 - 22:21 (5:36) 5 - 28:12 (5:51) 6 - 33:50 (5:38) 10k - 34:59 (17:42) 7 - 39:30 (5:40) 9 - 50:53 (11:22) 15k - 52:40 (17:41) 10 - 55:39 (5:45) 11 - 1:02:24 (5:44) 12 - 1:08:00 (5:36) 20k - 1:10:26 (17:46) 13 - 1:13:38 (5:38) 13.1 - 1:14:13 14 - 1:19:24 (5:45) 15 - 1:25:26 (6:01) 25k - 1:28:31 (18:05) 16 - 1:31:15 (5:45) 17 - 1:37:26 (6:11) 18 - 1:43:48 (6:21) 30k - 1:47:47 (19:16) 19 - 1:50:05 (6:17) 20 - 1:56:37 (6:32) physically, dropping out was the right thing. mentally i'm not dealing with the disappointment and failure too well. i have no future plans. i'm still processing. i'm more fit the when i ran 2:29, but it only counts if you do it in a race. |
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| Tue 4/19 | 0 | ||
| Wed 4/20 | 0 | ||
| Thu 4/21 | 3 | 20 minutes.
sore, lethargic, and uninspired. |
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| Fri 4/22 | 3 | 24 minutes.
sore, lethargic, and uninspired. |
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| Sat 4/23 | 4 | 30 minutes.
sore, lethargic, uninspired, and hell, a bit winded too. |
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| Week 16 Total | 32 | Miles To Date: 1389 (avg: 86.8/week) | |
| 2005 Miles: | 4108 |
|---|---|
| Avg per week: | 79 |
| Max: | 116 |
| Min: | 25 |
