Over The Hill

I hope that everyone had an excellent holiday and is enjoying our snowy January!   Today marks the end of the 13th week of training, which I started in October.  Prior to October the longest I had run in the last 20 years was about 3-4 miles, so I had to take on a 6 month training program to (hopefully) bring me to a point where I can complete the 26.2 mile run in under 6 hours without injury.  I have had a number of people ask me what training consists of, so I will take a brief moment to explain that.  You run 4 days a week and cross-train 2, with 1 rest day each week.  The four running days are a mixture of easy running, speed work and one “long run” a week.  The cross training can be rowing, swimming or cycling.  The “long-run” increases from week to week with occasional “set-back” weeks to aid in reducing over training fatigue.  The total number of miles you run each week increases steadily until a couple of weeks before the marathon, when you taper off in order to be as strong as possible for the marathon itself. 

At just a little over half way through the training I am running around 30 miles a week, which is about right for someone of my age and relative lack of training compared to elite athletes who run vastly longer distances and much higher paces than I could hope to do.   That brings the total to about 265 miles I have run since I started training.  I have been doing many of my long runs with the rest of the Miles for Miracles charity team on the actual Boston Marathon course through Wellesley and Newton.

Yesterday, however, I did my 15 miles long run solo through the towns of Lynnfield and North Reading.  It was a brisk 12 degrees and within an hour my water bottles had frozen solid.  I guess I need to figure out a better solution for liquids!  The 15 miles took me a little over 3 hours and I finished feeling extremely tired.  I have confidence that the next 3 months will get me to where I need to be, but sometimes it is hard to believe it!

I leave you with this thought:  If you are driving and see a runner on the road please slow down and move to the left.  The life you save might be mine.

This weekend I finished week 10 of the 26 week training schedule for the Boston Marathon with a total of 200 training miles run so far.   Yesterday I completed my longest run to date at 13.1 miles which took me 2 hours and 30 minutes.  This brought last week to a total 31.15 miles of training runs.   I have been doing part of the training on the actual marathon course in Wellesley and Newton to acclimate myself to the course.  I wish I could say that progress on the training is raising my confidence and optimism about being able to do this, but to be honest I am finding this a monumental struggle.  I sure wish I was 25 and not 45!

So far you have helped raise $6,537 for Children’s Hospital and I am really amazed at everyone’s generosity!  If you have not yet had an opportunity to register your sponsorship you can do so here.