Four Long Runs Left

Eleven weeks of training completed and only five more to go. Better yet - I only have four more long runs to brave before I jump on a place to Boston. Once again I recorded another week of successful runs last week, which gave me confidence heading into an 18 mile run. Instead of running my long run according to my typical routine on Saturday, I postponed the adventure until Sunday. That decision left me with two rest days before my longest run yet in my training for Boston.

I feel like a broken record but my goodness – those Raleigh hills! There’s no catching a break. All in all I would describe my run as OK. Just OK. It wasn’t great – my pace (8:40) was significantly slower than my 8:11 average during my 16-miler the week before. My shoes are giving me hellacious blisters … something I didn’t experience with my last pair. If I haven’t said it before I bought last year’s model of the Mizuno Nirvanas (the orange pair). When I was fitted for a pair they insisted that I needed a pair of shoes with the most support because of my in-step and my arches and naturally I listened because they are the experts, not me. Well, this particular pair feels like it has no support at all so I don’t know how that math works out. Anyway, I walked a few times for less than .1 mile each time. I’d defeat a majority of many of the hills I encountered and then had a need/want to take it down to a walk over the crown of it, which is always the worse part. If I am not prepared for these Boston hills then I really don’t know what else I could have done.

Rounding out training I have 14 miles to look forward to this weekend and then a whopping 22 before I start to taper. I am ecstatic that the word “taper” is in my very near future. And yes, two weeks and 22 miles is considered near future in a 16-week training program. After my 22-miler I have a 14-miler and then eight before the race on April 19. There is a big 35 written on a pad of purple post-it notes in my cubicle at work, signifying the number of days until Boston. It’s exciting to tear away each day and see how quickly it’s coming. Butterflies are swarming with the thought of it.