The 115th Boston Marathon is in less than 7 days and I should be deep into my taper. The thing is, I’m not. In recent weeks I have cut my volume somewhat but have run 2 races and established PR’s in both. This weekend should have been a bit easier in the final lead up but it didn’t turn out that way.
The workout schedule I built for myself had me going for 14 miles this weekend at an easy pace and not much else other than plenty of rest. Well, Saturday came and the weather was so nice – like 60* and sunny – I just couldn’t resist the temptation to go out for a ride. It was the first time in 6 months I’d been outside on my bike. The ride turned out to be a 32 mile ABP (always be pushing) lets see what you can do kind of ride. It was awesome! Not as fast as I had hoped but my cadence was 10 to 15 rpm higher than during the winter on the trainer and felt solid. Overall the IF for the 116’ ride was 0.865 and I felt pretty spent when I got back.
Sunday came and since I did the 2 hour bike, thought I should back off the long run and do 8 miles with 2 miles at a tempo pace. As the temp warmed to 44* under sunny skies, I headed out the door. It was a perfect day for a run. After a mile to warm up, it hit the gas aiming at 7:30 (my HMP) and held on for 2 miles. Mile 4 was a recovery mile and should have been my turn-around. Miles 5 and 6 came and went but I just wasn’t ready to head for home yet. Finally at the 7 mile mark I turned for home. It was the first time looking at my pace since mile 3 and I was at 8:09 for the first 7 miles. Way faster than I expected and realized that to run a negative split, I would need to run pretty hard – not something I was planning….. Mile 8 felt comfortable at 7:45 which got me thinking “Hey, I can do this” so I continued to push, looking to hold my MP smooth and steady till the end. I finished up with a 7:57 pace preserving my negative spilt with a 7:46 on the back half.
Just as I got home, Sierra was messing with her bike and getting ready to leave. I had told her before my run that I’d go with her if she wanted. Well, looks like I had to hurry. So, inside I changed into my EN bike kit and whipped up a smoothie to replace some calories – my first recovery meal. We were on the road in about 20 minutes. I could tell I was tired but I figured it would be relaxing ride. We ended up going 20 miles in just over an hour and a half. Now I was totally spent and in need of some serious calories. My second recovery meal was a 1/3 lb burger on the grill with cheese and a glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast.
Thing is, my day was not over yet. Carole was out back with the brush saw and wanted help. My job was to go down on the river bank with the brush saw and cut all the brush between high water and the top of the bank. Not an easy task because it is steep and slippery with all the round rocks covered by 4” of leaves. Long story short, I got it done, mostly. But I had nothing left afterwards. It was all I could do to crawl up the bank and slump against a tree to sit for a spell.
A little later on Carole made some pizza dough and I had my third recovery meal. Home made pizza loaded with veggies and a big pile of cheese! Yum! Needless to say, I was useless the rest of the day….. so much for tapering!
Run Strong
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