The Tapper

Bahhhh. Over a month without Blogging ... guess that means my training has been going awesome.... Or I got really busy with life and totally put it by the way side ... I think I'll have to opt with option number two.

So let’s see Since February, I acquired horrible knee pain while running which I have now chalked up to my new shoes. I chose to be arrogant and wear low impact; low support shoes while running with incorrect form causing extreme pain in my knees and ankles post long runs. Not awesome. I switched back to my well supported shoes for the remainder of the month of March to really focus on Boston training. After a week or two of recovery the pain seemed to lessen and I was able to run for the most part pain free.

For the month of March at work I assisted with post season Men's Basketball travel. I ended up spending a week in Albuquerque, New Mexico and four days in Boston. Traveling does not aid in the training process. It pretty much leaves you stranded at a hotel with a work out facility consisting of a treadmill, a recumbent bike and usually an elliptical and a few free weights. No nice lap pool, no nice bike to ride long rides on. Nope. Instead small, stinky, hot, broken dehumidifier workout room. The area in Albuquerque wasn't exactly my favorite place, just saying, but I managed to get one or two runs in outside and then I biked on the not so awesome recumbent bike at the hotel. Albuquerque is at a higher elevation than Madison so it was interesting noticing the effect it had on my body. I felt a small tightness in my chest while running and often was fatiguing earlier than normal. I liked to tab it up as mental weakness until someone told me about the whole elevation change.... I still might use mental weakness as a motivator for myself.

Boston was a whole different story than Albuquerque though. I absolutely loved Boston. I'm pretty sure I could live there if the situation arouse. I thought while I was out there that I would try to run the course but the hotel was a little too far away from the course. By the time i would run there and run back to the hotel it would have been an 8 mile run not including any part of the course itself. But I love running by water so I ran on this really nice bike path along the Charles River and watched the crew boats go by. The weather was absolutely gorgeous as well while we were out there, Mid 70’s. I couldn't have asked for better running weather. I ran two days and then on the last day rented a nice road bike and decided to head out and try to bike the course. I was excepting a nice flat course since by the river everything seemed reasonably flat. Ha was I in for a rude awakening!!! Oh my goodness!

So the Boston Marathon is very different than any marathon I have ever done in the past. It is a you start at point A far outside the city and finish at Point B inside the city. Pretty much creating a straight line ( like this ... A-----------------------B) . I am use to there being loops or lollipops or some sort of circle where you come back to an area that you already ran by. So I had to start at the finish and bike to the start and then reverse the route. Needless to say I only made it to around mile 6 and then had to turn around so I would make it back in time for the basketball game that night. I probably put close to 56 miles on the bike that day (Not ready for that long of a ride yet). I loved sightseeing and looking at the different parts of the course and especially since running is really mental to me I wanted to know what to expect a little before I was going to have to run it. ) Well I found out that from about mile 13 on there are these nasty rolling hills climaxing with heart break hill. These were not fun on a bike so I can only imagine how painful they are going to be on a run. If it were early in the run not that big of a deal but these hills are later on in the run when your legs are already cashed. Not looking forward to these hills. My next couple of weeks at home I tried to hit some hilly areas to prep for this. After mile 23 though it is all downhill into the city. Most people would be really excited about this except for the fact the your legs again are jello at this point so going downhill when you can't feel your legs or every step is painful can be really hard when you are hammering down a hill. Oh well guess you can't change the course so better embrace it :)

Well for the remaining weeks leading up to the marathon I have been trying to get out and hit the hills and put some miles on my running shoes. The knee pain has come back though so I am a little worried about longer mileage runs. I have been trying to take it easy but it’s hard to hold back when I know I have to go out and do a 26 mile run. I'm trying to keep the frame of mind I would rather go into it a little under trained and injury free then over trained and injured. But I maybe a little undertrained now and injured ... not a good combination. Or I'm just mentally breaking myself down to think I am undertrained. We shall see. This last week though I am on the tapper and started my week with a 10 mile run on Saturday and will step it down to a 8 and then 6 and then 3 and  then 2 and then nothing the two days before the race.

I head out to Boston on Friday and will have two full days out there before the race. If you would like to follow along you can text "runner" to "345678" and it will give you instructions on how to follow me. My bid number is 13216. Wish me luck and pray for a safe pain free race. They are predicting mid 80 degree temperatures on race day. Not ideal conditions when you are used to training in mid-50 degree weather. Can't control the weather so I guess I can't worry about it but I can prep for it. Lots of Water!!! :) (Causing me to have to go pee every 30 minutes)