Icing on the Cake!

I entered this week with serious trepidation. If you look at my running log from the end of September 17-23 leading up to Bay State, this is when the wheels came off. The stage was set for some deja vu. Back in September, I was a participant in a bit of insanity called the Reach the Beach Relay. I did three pretty tough and hilly legs that totaled about 21 miles. Then, I overtrained the following week and during my last long run, three weeks out from Bay State, did some serious damage to my ITB. I never recovered and derailed my chances of qualifying at Bay State.

So, back to the present! After another hilly and tough race in New Hampshire, my legs were a little beat up going into the last week of hard training. To further compound my situation, I had an emergency in lab that found me stuck there until 3AM in the morning. Not much in the recovery department! I did manage to squeeze in an ice bath a couple hours after the race. It's become a priority in my post-long run recovery and my legs feel much fresher the following day. The pool run on Monday also helped my legs loosen up. After my "learning experience" from the last training cycle, I took my Tuesday run very easy. It had snowed during the day and it was some of the most peaceful running I've experienced in the last couple months. I ran by a couple reservoirs and the combination of the soft snow and snow cover on the reservoirs made it a memorable run. I had a mild scare on Wednesday with my ITB, feeling more than normal stiffness in the left leg. I have been doing some more hip flexor stretching on the advice on my PT, but that seems to aggravate the injury more than it helps, so I'm going to hold off on that until after the marathon. At this point, I thought history was repeating itself again! I was going to bail on cruise intervals on Thursday, but my leg loosened up and it turned out to be one of the best interval workouts in a long time.

The highlight of last week was making it through my last 22 miler without incident. The 22 miler on Sunday was just awesome, and I'm very happy with my pace and how comfortable it felt. The route was tough, so this was a good confidence booster going into the taper. The biggest priority was just getting through it without injury, so the fact that it was such a comfortable run was icing on the cake! My HR stayed consistent except for the tough uphills, especially miles 12-13. There was some drama along those hills; was charged by a vicious Bernese Mountain Dog. Because of mental fog, I thought the dog was friendly, but I dodged to the side as I realized it wanted to rip a chunk out of me! I think my HR must have jumped 10 bpm. I ran towards the owner, at which point he apologized, "I'm sorry, he's usually not like this, but he doesn't bite." Great... real reassuring. Maybe he just doesn't like skinny Asian guys in tights. Regardless, the rest of the run proceeded without incident. I started fatiguing a bit around mile 18 but unlike past long runs, I didn't slow and my HR went up about a 2-3bpm at the end. This is probably what those last 4 miles of the marathon will feel like.

Here are the pacing and HR details:
0-10: 1:18:40 (7:52 - 145/158)
10-20: 1:18:55 (7:54 - 148/165)
20-22.2: 17:04 (7:45 - 150/159)
Total: 7:51 pace - 146/165

1/22-28 Week Summary:
M: AM - 30min pool run, PM - 30min core training
T: 9m easy (8:40)
W: AM - 40min pool run, PM- 30min core training
R: 8m total, 2m w/u, 6x1000m Cruise intervals (avg 3:54 - 6:15 pace), 2m c/d
F: off
Sa: 6.6m easy (8:58)
Su: 22.2m (7:51)
Total: 45.8m

Thanks for your well wishes. As always, I would love to get input from you. The taper begins!