Boston Marathon Race Report

Ugh...I don't even know where to begin... 

The bottom line: 3:21:52.  I was not prepared for a marathon.  And it showed.  21.3 miles per week does NOT work despite what I was telling myself ("Hey...you just PR'd a half 4 weeks before!  You can PR a full!").  Not so much.  All in all, when i accepted defeat, I enjoyed myself during the race.  Especially the last mile.
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What was soon to come changed everything.  You all know exactly what happend aproximately an hour and a half after I finished.  Luckily for me and everyone I knew running/in the area, we were far enough away to be safe.  A mix of emotions was soon to come...and continue to come.
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I can't make sense of any of it.  I'm not sure anyone can.  For now, these are my (lack of) thoughts.  The race itself was a bit of a disappointment for me, but only because I had an over confidence that my mind could overcome a lack of training miles.  I'm ok with this and I'll have my turn to get back to Boston in the fall and hopefully redeem myself next spring.  But in the meantime, that's all I've got.
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Onto Raleigh 70.3 training...
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Potentially to be continued....

Boston Marathon Nerves

Battling injuries sucks. This Achilles issue I'm dealing with just won't seem to go away. Of course the best course of action I'm sure of is to NOT train. At all. Of course that's not really an option for me right now. I'm going to Boston. I'm going to run Boston. And I want to do WELL at Boston. The first 2 points are definites, but the last one remains to be seen, but hopefully by 1:15 on Monday April 15, I'll be walking towards the gear buses to pick up my gear bag. Currently wearing my new pair of CEP Compression Dynamic+ Short Compression socks to hopefully help a bit and in about 15 minutes I'll grab my ice pack out of the freezer to ice up. I'll be wearing these socks at Boston and I certainly hope they help (along with my KT Tape!).

I found this handy link/web form as a nice tool for Boston Pacing (found it at http://twofiftynine.blogspot.com) from http://runnersconnect.net/boston-marathon-coach/pace-calculator/. Here's the image for my paces I'll be shooting for at Boston for a 3:09 race (and a requalifying time).    

It's going to be dicey, but I figure by the time I hit the Newton Hills, I'll know if I have what it takes. I have a feeling the final six or so miles are going to be all about my mentality and hanging on. I know I can do it and I'm going for it.   See you at Fire and Ice for post race ice cold beers!

Boston Marathon Taper time!

Well, the last 20 miler is officially in the books and it's time to kick back, relax, and TAPER! Ah...if it were that easy. Unfortunately, I have BIG goals for Ironman 70.3 Raleigh so I have a feeling the bike and swim volume will be increasing. Not necessarily a bad thing. I feel like my biking has been going pretty well, although swimming is another story. That said, it won't take me too long to get into decent swim shape and a few key workouts and I'll be good to go (hopefully).

Raleigh appears to be a bit hilly so it's going to be a whole new ball game compared to Eagleman where it's as flat as a pancake. Literally ZERO hills. Even the bridges are completely flat. From my Garmin data from last year, over 56 miles I gained 223 feet and lost 210 feet. So yeah, FLAT. When the weather warms up, I'll be a fixture over on the Columbia Triathlon course working the hills there. That should be good prep work as it appears to be hillier than Raleigh will be.

So the last long run is out of the way and not a moment too soon. I'm still dealing with the damn achilles issue and I probably pushed through too much pain today, but I HAD to get that 20 in if for nothing else, than just mental prep. I'm icing/heating/stretching/rolling every chance I get and hopefully it survives Boston and then final 70.3 prep!

Rock n Roll USA Half Marathon Race Report!

Originally we were scheduled to head down to Virginia Beach for the Shamrock Half Marathon, but due to a stress fracture Chrissy has been dealing with, we deferred until next year and I signed up for the hometown Rock n Roll USA Half Marathon. Much closer and free accomadations, not to mention my own bed to sleep in. Packet pickup was easy as well with my next door neighbor doing the leg work for me. All I had to do was wake up, get downtown, and run.

I slept pretty well Friday night and woke up 10 minutes before my alarm was to go off (4:50). I had a bagel with Trader Joe's Natural PB and some coffee. As usual, things just do not go down well for me on race morning. I really struggled to eat it and didn't even finish the whole thing. I met my friend Dan at his house. We drove over to the Rockville Metro, I left my car there, and drove down to the race site. Another great decision. We parked about a block from the start...just before a cop blocked off the road. We couldn't have had better timing. We sat around stretching for a minute and then headed over towards the race. Luckily for us, some porta-johns had been setup for the next day's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Unfortunately, they were locked with pad locks! Fortunately, the next set over had one without a lock. SCORE! Another great decision as not even a block further down, the line was easily 20 deep (only to get worse as we got near closer bathrooms). We decided to head to gear check (we had about 45 minutes til the start) and that was another block or so past the start line. We took care of that (it took longer than I expected), I downed a Clif Shot, and I was soon heading towards the start with another friend I ran into.

Before we knew it, it was go time. No sooner had we made it into Corral 1 that they started playing the Star Spangled Banner. And then we were off. To back track a bit, I've been dealing with an achilles issue (most likely tendonitis), but it is slowly feeling better. By race morning it was feeling good and I taped up with KT Tape for some extra assurance. I was gunning for a PR and more specifically, sub 1:29. I figured I would go out at my goal pace (after a slower first mile or two) and figure out if I could go for it, or if I should back off and take the more conservative route and run my Boston Marathon goal pace. Soon enough as I fell into my groove, I was feeling pretty good and decided to go for it.

For such a big marathon (specifically the Rock n Roll series), this was a clusterf*4#. Water stop 1 had water...but NO ONE PASSING OUT THE WATER! Luckily we were in the front of the pack so to speak, but I can't imagine what the corrals in the middle and back had to deal with. This only pales in comparison to the issues with picking up your gear bag post race (thankfully it only took about 5 minutes to get mine where other's I heard took over an hour and a half). I grabbed a cup off the table and continued on with only a slight slow down. That was really the only "issue" I encountered in the race. I hit the 5k mark in 21:28 (13 seconds slower than goal pace, but I felt ok about this) and feeling pretty good. By mile six, I had caught up to another friend of ours and ran with him for a couple minutes. Just past the mile 6 marker came a BIG surprise. The course this year was slightly different than last year and given the elevation maps I didn't expect anything out of the ordinary other than uphill from about mile 5 through 7. Unfortunately, it didn't really show the true grade/elevation gain just after mile 6. It was probably about a quarter mile long and the hill was pretty damn steep. I looked at my garmin and it was quickly slowing the lap pace from high 6's to 8's. Not what I wanted to see! I made it to the top of the hill and soon hit the 10k mark in 42:49. Now :39 seconds behind schedule and out of breath with heart racing. Not what I was hoping for. At this point I figured I'd still shoot for sub 1:30, but it didn't look good. I used the next downhill stretch to work on getting my pace back down and my breathing and heart rate in check. Soon enough I was feeling much better and back in my groove. By the time I hit mile 11, my achilles had started tightening up. That said, I don't believe it was limiting my race. Just something I may need to deal with post race. I passed up the gel at mile 9ish as I was feeling fairly bloated throughout the race for whatever reason (drinking too much liquid pre-race???). I hit 10 miles in 1:08:39 and was in the final 5k. I knew by the final turn it was mostly a long downhill stretch and I could make up some time. I took advantage of it and soon had RFK in site. The only problem is that final turn UP the hill to the finish. As I approached the last turn and climb I could feel myself about to lose my lunch. This is pretty typical for me so I just fought through it, made the final climb and hit the finish and my watch read 1:29:23 (official time was 1:29:20 - always be quick on the start of the watch and slow on the finish!) so while not my big goal, still a PR and gave me some much needed confidence as Boston approaches. I grabbed some chocolate milk and a smoothie, hit the gear buses, got dressed to warm up, got my free beer, and then headed to the DC Armory Metro solo. As I look back at the race, I'm pretty pleased with it all around. I could probably have found those 21 seconds somewhere along the course, but towards the end with a PR in sight and a tight achilles, I wouldn't change anything. Nutrition wise, I'm not sure. I normally have a gel mid-way or so through a half, but I didn't feel it. I didn't drink much Gatorade either. Maybe twice? I can't even remember. I fell like I'm in a good position for Boston if I can keep my achilles in check and get it close to 100% by April 15! For now, another half marathon and PR in the books. I'll take it!

Am I working hard enough???

Time will tell, but a big test is coming up. I'm still dealing with some achilles tendonitis (self diagnosed) so that's sucked, but I don't think it has limited me too bad when it comes to actual training. I have taken some days off here and there as a result though, but when I'm actual running or on the bike, I don't think it has hampered me too badly. That said, next Saturday is the Rock 'n' Roll USA Half (and full) Marathon. I'm running the half and I'm planning on shooting for a PR. I'm not sure if I'm there or not, but I'm going to go for it and I'll assess myself about a quarter of the way in to see if I can get there. If the achilles feels like an issue, I'll drop down to marathon pace and just make sure I'm feeling good there so hopefully I can get in a good mindset as the Boston Marathon approaches. A 20 miler is in the works for this weekend so a big week of training a week out from a race will make it tough, but I'm going for it. We shall see... I just really hope my "injury" isn't an issue. Only 6 weeks til Boston. Crazy!

So the bike...No.More.Excuses.

So I kind of fell into triathlon back in 2004 and after one race decided I liked it enough to get a tri bike. I went with a 2004 (maybe 2003???) Quintana Roo Kilo - the price was right and it felt pretty good (hell, what did I know?). It has served me pretty darn well over the years, but this weekend, I finally made the move to something a bit more modern. I have a bit of a problem with brand loyalty - as in I can become obsessed with a given brand. My shoes? Normally Asics. Underwear? Under Armour (as well as almost all of my sweats, shorts, T-shirts, etc). Cars? Acura. That being said, my bike purchase followed suit and I stuck with the Quintana Roo family. I did upgrade to a 2012 QR CD0.1. And it's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Just outside Tri Bonzaibefore the drive home:

It was a good fit. Felt great from the beginning and I did my first trainer session this morning. I also did a few tweeks last night, but nothing major. Now, just need to get over a few nagging injuries and I'm all set. Of course, now the only thing to blame for poor performance is the engine. I plan on that NOT being an issue this year!

Grinding!

Well training is already in full gear and it is definitely taking its toll. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it definitely puts an emphasis on how poorly I prep myself in the off-season. No exercise=no good. 0-60 (or 0 to 14 mile runs in my case) is not the way to get into training mode. As a result I'm having some aches and pains - my left achilles worries me the most. Hopefully this is pretty minor and I can continue doing what I'm doing and closing in on my goals for the year. Some cool things are in the works. Sunday I'm heading over to my favorite Tri shop Tri Bonzai to do a little bike shopping. They have some killer deals going on with their 2012 selection of Quintana Roos. Since my first and only tri bike I've ever had is a 2004(maybe even 2003???) QR Kilo, I'm happy to stick with them and move up to a full carbon QR CD0.1 (2012 model).

I couldn't be more pumped! Hopefully the fit is on the money and I'll be upgrading shortly. There is NO excuse for going slow now!
I need to get my butt in gear in the run department though. Time to start upping the miles and speed work if I want to be anywhere close to a BQ at the Boston Marathon (my goal is to BQ at Boston leaving my fall less stressful). I have a lot of work to do where that is concerned though, but my dogged determination at hitting my goals will help me make sure I get there. That said, if Boston is pushing 90 again this year like last (when I was dying of heat just watching!), all bets are off. I just really hope my partner in crime, aka the wife, aka the fast one is cured of her current injury situation and can run Boston (she will not be "racing" though - although she'll probably still beat me). I'd hate it if she can't make it up there...
As far as bike work is concerned, I'm feeling really good knocking out the sessions on the trainer. Thanks to the HBO Go app on the ipad, I'm knocking out episode after episode of Entourage and loving it and it makes the sessions fly by.
Swimming should be added in the next few weeks is my guess. I have to at least get my 400 time down so I can crush the Splash and Dash I'm entered in at the end of April....
We'll see where this all goes, but I'm feeling pretty good!
Hope everyone is crushing their training!