2016 Boston Marathon Training – Week 1

I’m baaaack!  I started training for the 2016 Boston Marathon this week.

I took 5 days completely off after the California International Marathon (CIM).  My rule is to take as many days off from running as I want.  I like to wait until I miss it before lacing up again.  I ran a few times the week after the marathon but tried to keep the pace comfortable.

Since I ran a late fall/early winter race, I knew Boston was coming up “quickly”.  A typical marathon training cycle is about 18 weeks and that time frame had passed.  I didn’t want to take too much time off before starting my training cycle for Boston.  So, I decided to ease myself back into training only two weeks after CIM.

The Details

I didn’t want to push myself too hard since I just completing the California International Marathon (CIM) two week ago.  Although the Hudson’s plan is adaptive, I entered the Marathon Level 3 plan from the back-of-the-book into my training log on Running Ahead and plan to follow it pretty closely.  I started in Week 4 of the plan and made a two adjustments.  I ran long last Saturday so I didn’t do a long run on Sunday.  And, I didn’t run the Friday time trial as a “maximum effort”.  Instead, I just ran it “hard”.

Easy Run (8 miles + 6 x 8-sec. hill sprint).  [Log Details – Hill Sprints]

This wasn’t meant to be a hard workout for this week, but I thought I would mention this workout since it’s an example of the role hill training plays in the Hudson plan.

Each week, I’ll do a few hill sprints at the end of my Monday easy run.  According to the plan, I should find a hill that’s about a 6-8% gradient.  I run a pretty substantial uphill on most of my easy runs – I live in a neighborhood with “Heights” in the name, but Strava showed it was only about a 5% grade.  So, I went to the steepest hills in the neighborhood.  It’s about a 10-12%.

The easy run section was fine and then I started the hill sprints.  I was a little worried they would aggravate my piriformis but my leg felt fine after.  I was happy it went as well as it did.

Fartlek Run (9 miles w/8 x 1 min. @ 10K-5K pace).  [Log Details]

I really haven’t done many fartlek runs in my previous training cycles.  Hudson uses them as an introduction to interval training.  The book provides a general length for the intervals, but stresses that the key is that the workouts progress during the training cycle.  It also suggests doing them on the roads/trail and not the track.  Serious interval training will come later.

The easy segment went fine.  I started the fartlek segments on a downhill stretch of the W&OD trail.  My legs felt like they were flying!  Until the last two segments.  Then, I felt a little tired but that’s to be expected.  It’s been a few weeks since I’ve run this hard.

Progression Run (10 miles w/5 miles moderate).  [Log Details]

The run started a little rough.  My muscles were very stiff.  But, they loosened up a few miles into the run.  I reached the Mount Vernon trail and felt great at the start of the moderate segment.  In fact, I was running 7:20-7:40 pace, which is really fast for me.  But, I also stopped a few times.  I ran into a friend and also wanted to capture the dense fog (below).  I was going to run like a Hanson progression and drop 10 seconds/mile each mile but felt tired by the fourth mile and just ran “hard”.  After all, I’m still recovering from CIM.

Last 5.80 miles=8:14 pace.

Time Trial (2 miles easy, 4 miles @ hard effort, 2 miles easy).  [Log Details]

In the back-of-the-book schedule, this workout was a time trial – 2 miles easy, 4 miles @ maximum effort, and 2 miles easy.  I was pretty tired and wasn’t quite sure I needed to run a time trial when I just ran a marathon, so I decided to run the “hard” instead of “maximum effort”.

The workout went well.  I wore my heart rate monitor, so instead of looking at pace, I followed that data point to gauge how hard I was working.  Generally, the first two miles felt comfortable but then it felt a little labored running “hard”.  I was only on the trail for about 4 miles but it was Christmas and street traffic was light so I was able to run hard a little longer.  I was pretty spent at the end and took the cool-down home very easy.

Hard effort 4.53 miles=7:56 pace.

Other Running-Related Activities

Future Races.  Boston Marathon.  
I booked my hotel back in June, so the hardest part is done.  I’m excited that this will be the first year that I’ll be staying in the Back Bay. There are lots of flights from D.C. to Boston, so I probably won’t book my flight until March.

Gear.  I got a shoe charm from Santa!  (Who doesn’t read my blog).  I also got my December Stridebox.  The most interesting item is an LED Light Shoe Heel Clip.  I haven’t worn it yet but I’m planning to.

Media of the Week.  

Song.  “Train in Vain” by The Clash.  I think there’s a commercial that’s sampled the opening of this song.  It worked its way into my brain and now it’s my new favorite running song.

Book.  “Two Hours” by Ed Caesar.  Upon the recommendation of a running friend, I started reading this book on my return flight from the West Coast after the California International Marathon.  The book is about whether (or when?) a human being will run a two-hour marathon.  It chronicles elite runners who might break that barrier with commentary from coaches and scientists.  I must confess – I haven’t finished the book but, it’s a fascinating read for anyone interested in the sport of running.

Picture.  Fence Art on Four Mile Run.  One of the things I like about my county is that they do neat things like make a boring fence a piece of art.

The Week Ahead

Hopefully, I can ramp up to 60+ miles next week.  I’m planning to run the Fairfax Four Miler on Thursday, so that might impact my mileage.

Inspiration.  “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Ryan