Boston Marathon Training: 16 Weeks Till Race Day
Week 1: 12/30/19-1/5/20
Recap: Completed Weekly Mileage 32.3
It’s official! I’m finally training for THE Boston Marathon. After years of an attempt to qualify for the most prestigious marathon in the world, I finally Boston Qualified at CIM in December 2018 with a 3 minute and 43 second buffer. But the journey to Boston was just getting started as I had to wait till September 2019 to submit my time in hopes to actually be accepted into the field that would participate in the 124th year of the Boston Marathon.
After two long weeks of waiting, I finally got my acceptance email and tears of joy fell from my eyes. I was one of 31,500 runners accepted to run Boston Marathon 2020! Relief, excitement, and guilt swept over my mind. Having attempted to qualify for Boston, I personally know the up’s and down’s that comes with giving a marathon your all to only fall short. I feel lucky to have gained entry to Boston 2020, so I’m going to make sure that I give my training all I’ve got in honor of those 3,161 qualifiers who were not accepted.
For the next 16 weeks, I will document my training to the Boston Marathon, spill details of lessons learned, and stay vulnerable and authentic in the process. Let’s do this!
Lesson of the week: stay present.
Most important takeaway from training this past week is that I am capable of hard things if I stay present. From finding joy in hill repeats to pushing hard in my final mile of my long run; staying present in my workouts helped propel me to enjoy the task at hand. Even today’s workout of run4prs strength training and indoor cycling at soulcycle for cross training tested my ability to stay present, but I did it & I’m stronger for it.
Training log:
Goal long run of the week 10mi.
Reality: 10mi at 8:34/mi
Mon, 12/3/19: Rest Day
Tues, 12/31/19: 5 mile recovery run with 5x20sec strides and Run4Prs strength training program
Stride splits: 4:34, 5:20, 4:37, 5:14, 4:53
Total miles: 5.62mi at 9:04/mi
Wed, 1/1/20: Hill Repeats 8x100m
Hill intervals: 6:34, 8:07, 7:32, 8:13, 7:37, 7:50, 8:08, 8:27
Total miles: 7mi at 10:09/mi
Thurs, 1/2/20: 5 mile recovery run with 5x20sec strides and Run4Prs strength training program
Stride splits: 4:46, 4:49, 4:47, 4:41, 4:52
Total miles: 5.95mi at 9:29/mi
Fri, 1/3/20: 40 minutes of cross training on indoor stationary bike
Sat, 1/4/20: 10 mile long run with last 3miles under 8:00/mi
Mile splits: 9:29, 9:20, 9:06, 8:56, 8:49, 8:41, 8:31, 7:51, 7:40, 7:11/mi
Total miles: 10.51mi at 8:34/mi
Sun, 1/5/20: Run4Prs strength training program and 40 minutes of cross training at SoulCycle
Favorite treat of the week:
30 minute Om Body CBD epsom salt bath with drops of lavender and peppermint essential oils. The perfect way to treat my body and legs after a hard week of over 2,306ft of elevation gain.
Photo taken during 100m hill repeats on Wednesday, January 1, 2020