71 Days to Boston

172.6 pounds, 9.5% Body fat.  8 hours of sleep.

Was a bit scared of this run today.  Knew I was going in with tired legs.  Capped off a 50-mile week with a lot of strength work in it.

We definitely got our money’s worth.  Brian put together a loop out from the Ayer Rail Trail into Harvard.   Harvard is a sleepy bedroom community of old farm houses and back roads.  Their primary cash crop is hills.  We climbed a couple of doozies today.  Close to, if not more than 1,000 feet of gain in our 16 miles.

The topography ended up being flat-ish in the beginning 3-4 miles and the last 3-4, but monster hills in the middle.

I knew my legs were cooked going in.  My goal was to take it easy and finish without breaking form.  Those last 3-4 miles my legs were positively numb, but I maintained my form and grinded it out.  That’s a good run for Boston.  Especially this early in the cycle.  16ish with hills on tired legs.

I didn’t do the surges because we had the hills.  Just maintaining form on this route was a surge equivalent.

Tuesday I did a set of 10 Yasso’s on the treadmill.  Thursday, I did a weighted leg-strength workout in the gym.  Friday night I hit a set of 10 long hills, working the downhills for form and quick feet. Saturday, I went out in the woods and even though that was an easy effort I think running in the snow made my calves a bit cranky.

I can feel the beginnings of some hot spots.  My hams are angry, my calves are tight, my quads are sore.  I’ve got a little plantar fasciitis in the usual place and my knees are cranky from the volume and intensity.

That’s training for Boston.  You’ve got to push to the edge and get that bounce.  Today, and this week was definitely a brick in that wall.  Hopefully coach has a step back week on the schedule for me so I can recover a bit.

We ended up losing Frank after the second big hill.  The steep downhill got to his hip.  He walk-ran back and ended up taking shelter at the McDonalds at the Ayer rotary because he was going to freeze to death.  Frank had zero body fat.

We went out looking for him after we finished and had a bit of panic when we couldn’t find him.  He was holed up drinking hot coffee in the Micky D’s.

It was good workout weather.  We started in the mid-20’s and finished just about 30.  Cold enough to keep you cool but not so cold as to freeze your bottle.

I had a different nutrition plan today.  My alarm didn’t go off.  I didn’t have time for my usually oatmeal breakfast.  Instead I drank down a glass of Pharma Greens.  I also didn’t have time for coffee so I quaffed some left-over green tea.

I mixed up a bottle of half-strength F2C Endurance to carry with me and stuck a Kind bar in my pocket for some mid-run calories.  It helped.  At these temps you don’t need a lot of fluids, but you still need some calories.

I was smart enough to make a batch of green smoothies yesterday for post-run recovery.  Spinach, blueberries, tart cherry juice, protein powder, pure energy, bananas and almond milk.  Good stuff to get into your machine post run.

When we were waiting for Frank at the end of the second big hill I ran into the woods.  My stomach wasn’t happy with the Oatmeal Stout I had after dinner.  I guess you could say I did get my oatmeal, but it got me too.

Good run.  Definitely a test.  Those last 3-4 miles were all about grit.  Brian and Tim picked up the pace when they smelled the barn, I just held my form and worked it in.