Friday, April 17, 2009

Looking Forward to Race Day – Cody

Ahhh taper week. It’s nice to have some scaled down workouts and some extra rest days after several months of regimented training. I definitely need the rest because Sunday morning I woke up feeling like I was starting a chest cold. I did a short run that day that felt much harder than a lot of the longer ones, which didn't make for a big confidence boost. It’s now Thursday and it is getting much better, but I can still feel it when I get my heart rate up. Hopefully that will improve before race day.

I'm really looking forward to the experience of the race day. It’s been a long time since I've run in a really large race. The last one I did was a 10k called the Bolder Boulder in 2003. It’s a 10k in Boulder, CO that draws about 40,000 runners and people line the streets cheering you on. Its amazing how much less tired you feel in an environment like that compared to a run on your own. From what I've seen and heard from other who have fun it, Boston has the same kind of energy along the route and should be a great time.

My strategy for the race is pretty simple. Pace myself, keep on moving and if something starts to hurt......keep moving and worry about that after the race. Once I hit Newton-Wellesley Hospital, I'm on my home turf and I think I can definitely make it to the finish from there no matter what shape I'm in. I live in Cleveland Circle, so I've run Comm. Ave between Newton-Wellesley and my house several times, and I've run Beacon to downtown several more.

In my first post, I said that I was taking a different approach to marathon training with fewer miles on the road and more time in the gym. On Monday I get to complete my personal case study and see how this pans out. For my final post I'll talk a bit about my experience with the race and we can also look at my race time, my average miles ran per week and I'll let you know if I would use this plan again. In the mean time, any guesses about what my average weekly mileage was?

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