Ready to Race!

I've been training for awhile now and I'm ready to race. I've been serious about preparing for Boston now for 15 straight weeks. Am I getting burned out? I wouldn't say that, but I'm definelty ready to move on from this high mileage and taper down for the race.

All the hard work is almost done and I need to make sure I get to the starting line healthy and ready to run. Sometimes it can be hard to find the motivation to put on the shoes and run. I felt this a little last year too, toward the end of my Boston training. I hear it is normal though to have these feelings. I really have no problem getting my runs in because I have set a good goal for myself and I know I need the mileage.

I am really excited for Boston this year. I've prepared correctly and I'm going to have a great race. I truly believe I will run under 2:40. My good friend Jerry Ross told me that their really shouldn't be any big suprises if you are ready to run on race day. If you did all the training you should have a good estimation of what your time will be on race day. Of course things out of your control can pop up like the weather or illness, but I can't worry about those things. I've learned that through my long runs and Marathon Pace workouts that I should be able to run right around 6 min. pace.

Today, my legs feel pretty tired from the last couple of days. Wednesday night I ran 12 miles at the dome (6 X 1200m @ 5K pace w/ 2 min. rest)and yesterday I did 13 miles in the morning on my Boston route and another 4 super easy on my treadmill in the evening for a total of 17 miles. So, today I will run an easy 8 miles on the treadmill because it's snowing pretty good outside. Sunday will be my last hard effort before I start to taper down. Sunday's workout should look like this:

2 mile warm-up
2 X 2 miles @ Tempo
10 mile run (outside)
3 miles @ Tempo
2 mile cool down
Total: 21 miles
This is a workout I did last year that gave me a lot of confidence leading to Boston. It showed me that I can still run fast when I'm tired.

Well, I'm almost to Boston!