 |
I seriously need one of those shirts that say, "This sounded like a good idea 5 months ago" or something to that effect. I signed up on March 30th to run Boston virtually this year. It sounded like a great idea at the time. I'm certainly not in any kind of shape right now for a BQ attempt. However, this year Boston was offering a virtual option with no qualifying time. The virtual version is to be run between October 8th - 10th, and you have to turn in your time from your tracking device showing that you have run 26.2 continuous miles sometime between those dates. This is a completely separate event from the actual Boston Marathon itself, which will be run on Monday October 11th this year. Real-life Boston requires a qualifying time, and you had to be freakin' FAST this year to get in. The field size was limited to 20,000 runners and the cut off ended up being 7 minutes and 47 seconds UNDER your age qualifying standard. For perspective, the cut off for the 2020 race that was canceled was 1 minute 39 seconds under your age qualifying standard. Anyhoos... on March 30th, virtual Boston sounded like a great idea. No time pressure. Nice get in shape goal for the summer...
I should know by now that I suck at training for fall marathons. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like the summers are just getting hotter and hotter, and it's humid. I just don't tolerate running in the heat that well anymore... and, since I'm not a morning person, ya, runs just tend not to happen.
So, last Sunday I came to the realization that I had a marathon to run in 49 days. I had decided to run it on Saturday October 9th. It was go time. If I was going to do this, I had to go running.
Sunday 8/22 - 3 miles. Waited til 8pm but still pretty much felt like I went for a swim. I have exercise induced urticaria so I break out in hives if I'm out of shape. Yup, completely broke out in hives for the first half mile, but thankfully they were gone by the time I finished running.
Monday 8/23 - 4 miles. Indoor track. No hives. Yay.
Tuesday 8/24 - 5 miles. Indoor track.
Wednesday 8/25 - Too many errands, no running.
Thursday 8/26 - 7 miles. 5 miles on the the indoor track, then got on the dreadmill to dabble with a little pace/speedwork.
Friday 8/27 - rest day
Saturday 8/28 - 3 miles. Indoor track. I had big intentions of getting up early and running 10 miles outside but it got hot WAY too fast so I chickened out and went indoors. Once indoors, frankly, I just got bored and stopped after 3,
22 miles for my first official "training" week.
Sunday 8/29 - zero miles. Once again I had intentions of getting up early and running 10 but that didn't happen. It was completely miserable outside and the indoor track is closed on Sundays so my run didn't happen.
Monday 8/30 - 10 miles. No excuses today. Ran 10 on the indoor track. Nothing hurt and I actually didn't feel tired until about 8.5, but really, I was bored. I think that's really why I bail out of alot of my long runs. I get bored. It's different if I'm doing pace work or speedwork and have to pay attention to how fast I'm running but I'm currently not running for speed as I'm essential kinda crash training for a marathon.
Anyone else doing a fall marathon?
