Boston Training

I just wanted to give an update to my training for the Boston Marathon on April 18, 2011. My goal time is to break 3 hours. I read somewhere that only 1% of all people who attempt a marathon have broken the 3 hour barrier. Something about being in that 1% sounds appealing!

 

I started this marathon build on Christmas day. That gave me 17 weeks to build up for this marathon.

Here is a summary of my weekly mileage buildup:

Week 1 – 27 Miles
Week 2 – 31 Miles
Week 3 – 50 Miles
Week 4 – 56 Miles
Week 5 – 53 Miles (Rest Week)
Week 6 – 63 Miles
Week 7 – 62 Miles (Got in a bad pair of shoes and struggled)
Week 8 – 61 Miles (Rest Week)
Week 9 – 68 Miles
Week 10 – 72.6 Miles (2nd Biggest Week Ever)
Week 11 – 71 Miles (Would have been 73 but the cold weather got to my head yesterday and I cut my LR from 20 to 18 Miles)

I am super happy with my buildup so far. Everything has been pretty smooth over the past 11 weeks. I have two small mishaps to report.

1.) The shoes, completely my fault. I got in to a stability shoe when I have been in a neutral shoe for years. The stability shoe was the wrong shoe for me and destroyed my legs. It was tough to get through that week, but once I was back in neutral shoes, my legs felt great.

2.) Last week, I pumped my calf on the back of a desk, not a big deal at the time and I went 13.5 miles less than 30 minutes after I did it but it locked up my calf. Luckily, I was able to get a planned rest day the following day and my leg was ready to go by the time it was time to run again.

I have been concentrating on the longer tempo runs. I am doing 8-10 miles at least 15-20 seconds under my goal marathon pace. I have not done any speed work yet (Mile or 800 repeats).

The Future:

6 Weeks till race day.

6 Weeks out – Rest Week – 60-65 Miles
5 Weeks out – Big Week – 70-75 Miles with 21-22 Mile LR
4 Weeks Out – Big Week – 75 Miles with Fast Finish LR
3 Weeks Out – Big Week – 75 Miles

HARD WORK IS DONE

2 Weeks Out – Taper Time!! – 55-60 Miles
1 Week Out – Nice and easy – 4-6 Miles/day