Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Boston!

Good taper and then … not so good weather. Sunday was raw and snowing with a headwind. Monday was the same weather, except instead of light snow it was torrential downpours. By the way, it's the middle of April. (Tuesday? 45 and dry with a tailwind.)

Downtown, then out to Hopkinton on a not-too-warm bus. I found my way to the charity building (#protip: raise $1000 for a charity and you get a bougie building to hang out in, with plenty of bathrooms, food, drinks, etc) and stayed there until 20 minutes before the start. Bringing throwaway shoes (old shoes with holes in the bottom) was a smart idea, although my feet were still wet by the start. Found my corral, got inside with time to spare, but didn't use the bathroom right at the start (but had 15 minutes before).

Started out without pushing too hard. But under 7 minutes, and was pushing enough to stay warm without pushing my legs. After a couple of miles I spotted a fellow NPer who I met in Chicago last year, and ran for a couple of miles with him, but the urge to go got more and more, so I peeled off to a restroom. Probably a good choice, but I should have gone pre-race. Turns out that when it's pouring rain and your body doesn't sweat, it keeps putting liquid in your bladder. Good to know. Tossed my long sleeve shirt here, too. It was wet and heavy, and I was warm. It really wasn't that cold. The rain and wind were worse. Although I maybe should have worn a thin ibex shirt under the singlet, but that may have gotten wet. The Darn Tough socks repurposed as arm warmers, however, were great.

Rain came in spurts, at times it was light, at times it was downpouring. Feet were soaked the whole way through, but calluses held up. HR mostly low L3, working to stay warm and not go too hard. Lots of cheers through Mile 18 from November Project, and felt pretty good up the hills. Hill miles 7:07-7:27.

Then as usual my legs were pretty well shot on the downhills. I maintained 7s but not faster. I was able to push a bit down Boylston Street but couldn't muster a real kick. Finished in 3:02:17, which probably requals me for next year, but who knows. I think that the BAA should allow anyone who lives in Massachusetts and runs a BQ time in the Boston Marathon to enter without worrying about the cutoff. They already do this for 10-year streakers. It would maybe affect 100 people. As a friend from out-of-state points out: you all pay taxes there!

The only issue with the race was, once again, bag pickup. It wasn't as long a walk, but the lines at the tents were intense. I was the 2000th (or so) finisher, and the lines were already long, with 5000 more in Wave 1 behind me. We were huddled for warmth as the rain poured down, yet 3/4 of the booths (and the volunteers there) were empty and the red bib booths beyond chaotic. I spotted my bag in the pile and yelled to a volunteer "the bag with the yellow backpack" and he grabbed it for me.

I have thoughts about this, but I think that this would be optimized by sorting the bags at first by the last number in a runners' bib. So instead of delivering your bag based on wave, you'd go to the number corresponding with the last number of your bib. They could have signs like "00008" to guide people.

C • Wins 1

Running around with NP/Janji kids. I was on the 3 mile run and we went out last, I started chatting with Eric, and the realized we were running towards Andrew instead of Ink Block. I stopped our group and then led the way the right way, so we were adding a bit. Then we realized everyone else on the longer runs was lost and following us.

From there I said let's not do an out-and-back so we looped back to South Station and long FP Channel. Saw Terry on the way to bibs, where I went next!

Went over to the MIT track to run 4x800s, at the Yasso pace, so 3:00.

4x800s, nice morning on the track.

Garmin/Strava is doing a weird thing with my HR; I think I looked at it early on when Strava says it was 180 and it certainly wasn't.

Anyway, 3:04, 3:01, 3:02, 2:59, starting from a different corner each time. First two finished on curves, second two on straightaways. HR was relaxed, nice L3 156, although I pushed it to 160+ at the end of the last interval to go sub-3 on that one.

Plan for Boston: try to stay near 150 until Lower Falls.

Went for a run, chilly, but wanted to see if there was a line at Free Cone Day in Harvard. There was quite a line, and I was late, so I ran home. Then my dad said there were only 10 people in line in the Seaport. Next year.

Short pick ups along the river, and an L3 sprint to make a traffic light.