Last week’s training started off great with a solid run and a spin class then took a terrible turn when I went to do my Thursday tempo run. I got on the treadmill ready to go and just couldn’t hang, my body was sore… my stomach hurt and I eventually (to my extreme disappointment) had to bail after 4 slow miles. I am not one to bail on a run, I am a bit on the competitive side… but I really didn’t want to push it with my big 20 miler on Saturday.
Before we get to that though, I wanted to share a special picture of me, my mom and my brother (below)
This picture was taken shortly after my mom finished Boston a little over 12 years ago and represents the day my dream to run Boston was born. I never thought I would be able to do it and now I find myself 20 days away from the starting line. Despite my frustrating run on Thursday, I have had a great training cycle and am looking forward to race day!
Now for the fun part…my 20 mile run in the SNOW. Yes, you read that correctly. It snowed on Saturday for the millionth time this season on long-run day. Despite the poor weather I was excited to run.
I had a very relaxing evening Friday night, dinner with Paige 🙂 and an early bed time so I could get up early for my team run. I treated it like a dress rehearsal for Marathon Monday because the TEAM bussed us out to Hopkinton to the starting line. I got up (practically skipped) out of bed, made my coffee and my toast and quickly got dressed. Despite the snow I was very excited to finally set foot on the first part of the course. Once I arrived at practice, we had an amazing presentation with two very special mission moments. Hearing my teammates stories is an incredibly inspiring way to prepare for a run. I love being a part of this team and feel honored to be running and raising money alongside these amazing people.
When we got to Hopkinton we were greeted with this lovely sign and tons of other charity runners. There were several other teams out on the course Saturday so it felt a little like race day (although way smaller).
I started out with one of my teammates and we kept an 8:45ish pace for most of the run. Our team had AMAZING water stops (shout out to all of our wonderful volunteers) set up every two miles which were very helpful for simulating race-day fueling. I stuck with Caitlin (my teammate) for most of the run and really enjoyed chatting as it made me conscious of keeping my pace easy, so I could speak, and made the miles fly by! I felt really strong heading into our “home turf” of Natick and Wellesley. I lost Caitlin for a bit around mile 15ish and felt great until mile 19 where I began to mentally struggle with the hills. I turned up my music for the first time on my run and got ready to defeat the hills when I heard Caitlin calling, she caught me! It was perfect timing to get me through my rough patch and we finished together with smiles on our faces. Our TEAM volunteers and the local police officers did a great job keeping us all safe and hydrated on our run, I can’t thank them enough!
This run was a huge confidence booster for me going into my taper. I had a rough training cycle because of work and was concerned that my pace would suffer. All of my long runs so far have been in the low 9s for average pace and this one came in just under that (8:45!). I felt strong physically the whole time and after my brief rough patch felt like I could have kept running, what is another 6.2 miles…right?!
I made sure to stretch and foam roll on Saturday and did some yoga and more stretching on Sunday. My muscles were definitely sore (first 10 miles downhill are no joke for the quads) but I felt fully recovered by Tuesday and was able to get in an easy run. I can’t believe the marathon is in 19 days! I am only $750 away from my fundraising goal of $5,000, please consider donating to my efforts for Team in Training.
Who else is running Boston?
What are some of your strategies for recovering from a rough training day?
Dana Runs Boston 