One Week to Go
I'm finally down to the last week -- race week! But first, a recap of the end of last week. My next post will detail my goals.
Monday (Memorial Day) was a day off. We took a bus over to Boston and had a picnic breakfast by the Charles River. Afterwards we walked to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts). They currently have an exhibit of modern masters (Degas to Picasso). I also enjoyed browsing through their historic musical instrument collection.
Tuesday was a recovery run of 7+ miles, including 8 X 100m strideouts. I'm starting to feel pretty good. Wednesday was my last interval session. After a 4 mile warmup on the trails, I did 3 X 1 mile at 7:19 pace and 2 minute recoveries. With a short cool-down, it made 8 miles. Thursday was another rest day.
Friday was another recovery run - 5 miles including 6 X 100m strideouts. I did this at lunchtime on Friday and it was pretty nice out - overcast and not too warm.
We had rain again on Saturday (and very cool temperatures) and I was worried I'd have to do Sunday's medium-long run in the rain. Sunday morning was overcast, looking like it could rain any minute. I decided that since next Sunday's marathon has a decent chance of being run in the rain, that I would run without any rain jacket. But I didn't want to get my new shoes (Brooks Glycerins) soaked so I wore my older ones (Brooks Radiuses). The older shoes are not as cushioned, but I figured my feet could take it. As it turned out, there was virtually no rain for the entire run - just a little misting and a short sprinkle. I did 12 miles at a 9:01 pace and I felt great. I am ready for this marathon.
Total miles for the week: 32.
I did forget to mention a humorous incident from last week's 10K race...
During the race, a little less than 2 miles into the race, I was approaching the first water station. I grabbed a cup and kept running. Just as I'm running past the tables and starting to try and sip some water on the run, a very large panel truck passes me. In the back of the truck is a guy with a big video camera filming the runners. The truck passes and then seems to linger about 15 feet in front of me. It looks like the guy is filming me. OK, so now I'm getting all self-conscious about drinking on the run and I'm worried I'm going to start choking on the water or something. So I take one more sip, take off my hat, and splash the water over my head. It feels like some of the water has missed my head, but I just toss the cup and put the hat back on. The whole time, this guy in the truck is filming me. Or so I thought. Moments later, Catherine Ndereba cruises past me! Catherine is the 4-time winner of the Boston Marathon - 2000/2001/2004/2005, 2-time Chicago marathon winner - previous world record set in 2001, 2003 World Championship gold medalist, 2004 Olympic silver medalist, and 2005 World Championship silver medalist (she was a special guest at the Rye-by-the-Sea races). I guess they weren't filming me. But I'd love to see the footage to see if when I splashed the water over my head I inadvertently hosed down "Catherine the Great"!
C-Ya
Monday (Memorial Day) was a day off. We took a bus over to Boston and had a picnic breakfast by the Charles River. Afterwards we walked to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts). They currently have an exhibit of modern masters (Degas to Picasso). I also enjoyed browsing through their historic musical instrument collection.
Tuesday was a recovery run of 7+ miles, including 8 X 100m strideouts. I'm starting to feel pretty good. Wednesday was my last interval session. After a 4 mile warmup on the trails, I did 3 X 1 mile at 7:19 pace and 2 minute recoveries. With a short cool-down, it made 8 miles. Thursday was another rest day.
Friday was another recovery run - 5 miles including 6 X 100m strideouts. I did this at lunchtime on Friday and it was pretty nice out - overcast and not too warm.
We had rain again on Saturday (and very cool temperatures) and I was worried I'd have to do Sunday's medium-long run in the rain. Sunday morning was overcast, looking like it could rain any minute. I decided that since next Sunday's marathon has a decent chance of being run in the rain, that I would run without any rain jacket. But I didn't want to get my new shoes (Brooks Glycerins) soaked so I wore my older ones (Brooks Radiuses). The older shoes are not as cushioned, but I figured my feet could take it. As it turned out, there was virtually no rain for the entire run - just a little misting and a short sprinkle. I did 12 miles at a 9:01 pace and I felt great. I am ready for this marathon.
Total miles for the week: 32.
I did forget to mention a humorous incident from last week's 10K race...
During the race, a little less than 2 miles into the race, I was approaching the first water station. I grabbed a cup and kept running. Just as I'm running past the tables and starting to try and sip some water on the run, a very large panel truck passes me. In the back of the truck is a guy with a big video camera filming the runners. The truck passes and then seems to linger about 15 feet in front of me. It looks like the guy is filming me. OK, so now I'm getting all self-conscious about drinking on the run and I'm worried I'm going to start choking on the water or something. So I take one more sip, take off my hat, and splash the water over my head. It feels like some of the water has missed my head, but I just toss the cup and put the hat back on. The whole time, this guy in the truck is filming me. Or so I thought. Moments later, Catherine Ndereba cruises past me! Catherine is the 4-time winner of the Boston Marathon - 2000/2001/2004/2005, 2-time Chicago marathon winner - previous world record set in 2001, 2003 World Championship gold medalist, 2004 Olympic silver medalist, and 2005 World Championship silver medalist (she was a special guest at the Rye-by-the-Sea races). I guess they weren't filming me. But I'd love to see the footage to see if when I splashed the water over my head I inadvertently hosed down "Catherine the Great"!
C-Ya
posted by Kurt in Boston at 12:23 PM
2 Comments:
That is a funny, and pretty cool, story from the 10k. Don't you love the MFA?! We used to be members and went to every special exhibit. Good luck during the taper. And thank you, Kurt, for all your well wishes during my race. They truly helped.
Wow, a celebrity at the race! That's awesome. I am sure if she got hosed she didn't mind too much :)
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