eh, life gets busy?
I had hoped to start updating this more frequently, but as you can see, that hasn't happened. Regardless, here is what I have been up to.
Training for Boston has been mostly great. I had hoped to run a 1/2 in February, but I was scared of injuries in the cold and held off for last minute decisions only to have some of those races slip by due to other commitments (mainly driving kids to dance, rinse, repeat).
I have had a number of solid weeks in Jan and Feb of 80+ miles (check it here). What has been really working has been lots of effort at goal race pace (really anything below 6:50/mi gets me under 3hrs). I have been feeling pretty strong at 6:25-6:35/mi which should translate into a decent time, well below future BQ times (hooray for turning 40 in April and getting an extra 5 mins!). I had a minor set back last week after getting a cold (thanks to my kids) and forcing myself to take a few days off (a younger me would have pushed and suffered for it, yay for learning!). This morning I was happy to do another 10+ mile run with 4 miles at my goal pace (see above).
I have been focussing on getting in decent mileage with a good long run of at least 18 miles, so far peaking at 23 miles, and in all of those long runs have been doing multiple miles, either as repeats, or as finishing efforts over 4-10miles at race pace. I am feeling really confident in my pacing which is something I didn't have at last year's Boston qualifier. All of my long runs have had 700+ft of elevation gain, with rollers and late hills that mimic and exceed Boston, so again, feeling confident, though still worried about blowing quads on the early downhills. Will focus on staying within my pace.
Nutrition has been mostly on point, save for when I was sick (we also did a little getaway with the girls to Niagara for a couple of days which didn't help, there are very few vegetarian options and most of them are junk food. And fudge). I have been eating simply, mostly clean, lots of rice, fruit, lentils which I can eat for an eternity. I am not quite at my race weight, but down a fair bit from my BQ which totally helps.
Injuries and legs have been mostly fine. A few niggles here and there, some hip tightness but mostly manageable. I am still having what most would describe as plantar faciaitis (sp?) which has been chronic going back to my post BQ. It feels less like PF and more like almost a pinched nerve as I get a burning sensation at times while just resting. I had a flare up where it was more painful than usual after some high volume/intensity weeks, but dialing it back and focussing on stretching, rolling my calves and achilles has helped immensely. I actually think it has something to do with some nagging achilles issues in my right foot going back a couple of years when I did some big volumes in lower drop shoes. Never again. Sticking to 10mm+ of drop, and seems to work. Hence the rolling of my calves with a softball/baseball and a stick thing. It seems I have knotty calves which then pull and mess up my achilles which messes up my heel etc). Anyways, it has been mostly manageable, I am not super worried and am thankful for my super high pain tolerance. Racing flats in Boston will likely aggravate it, but a week off after should help. I am hopeful to run Whitby again towards the end of May, I have unfinished business after my blow up there last year, where after leading for the first 30k, I dropped off and positive split the last half by almost 15 minutes. I feel in much better shape and even with 5 weeks between Boston and it, feel like I should be able to crush it. Time will tell.
That's it for now. Hope to transition to at least weekly updates here.
