The Road to Boston: Week 1 Recap

Updated: I set the time to post before I even finished my week! So rereleasing with an actual update on the running this week. 

I went back and forth on how I want to document my attempt in qualifying for Boston Marathon 2019. I was going to do something daily, but I already do that on Instagram and Twitter. Since I am still attempting to develop some sort of writing skill and build myself up, I’ll go with a weekly recap via the blog. So let’s see how this goes…

Sunday (7.1) – I ran a 10K, but I had to break it up into two separate runs for a several reasons. My first run was a 5K. With the heat and humidity I wouldn’t be able to get six miles in at my class lunch break (which I get an hour) and to properly slow down my sweat rate so it’s no as unbearable to the classmates who sit next to me. And because it was so hot, I could not mentally get myself ready to run 6 miles, in an area with hills, and have a run. What counts is I got mileage.

In the night cap, I ran my second 5K. Both paces were at 8:11/mile and 8:13/mile respectively, given the heat I’ll take but I’d like to be in the low 7’s on a more “bearable” day in the heat. Had a short bodyweight workout that consisted of:

• Squats
• Pull-Ups
• Inverted Rows
• Push-ups

Monday (7.2) – Longgggggggg Runnnnnnnnn. 9 miles in on the Chester Valley Trail. Which is flat and shaded. I did my run in the early evening (around 6:00p) and the heat was still on. My first 5 miles were sub 7:30/mile and then the last 4 miles were not easy. It actually brought me back to my first marathon I ran, Bobb Potts Marathon, where my body didn’t respond after mile 19. It was tough and I dropped to about 8:15/mile on the last four. But the long run was what I need.

Tuesday (7.3) – “Recovery Day” coming off the long run. In addition with some body weight work to continue to maintain muscle mass

Wednesday (7.4) – Happy July 4th. I kind of wanted to run 17.76 miles but it was hot and I was working and just didn’t want to do anything too far. It was one of the two bad days I had this week…

Thursday (7.5) – Able to get another decent long run today. It was still hotter but not nearly as painful and challenging as earlier in the week. It was also nice getting passed by some of the athletes I coached on the trail who are significantly faster…

Friday (7.6) – Finally was able to get into the gym. I need to build more days in but this was a weird week with it being a holiday and having a very different work schedule. But got a 5K run in and then spent some much needed time in the gym focusing on the lower body.

Not nearly a diverse training set but the focus was more on glutes and quads and the next training day will focus more on posterior chain (hamstrings and doing more deadlifts, good mornings, romanian deadlifts). But happy to get the lift in finally!

Saturday (7.7) – I did mention another lazy run day. I just wasn’t nearly as motivated with having class all day on Saturday. I just didn’t have any sort of lift, on top of being slightly sore in the legs following the lift from the day before. I could come up with a few more excuses: world cup game when into extra time and penalty kicks too…but I still got a short shake out run in and we’re back at it tomorrow!

 Now this is my actual first week of training logged. Overall, I can’t have two lazy days built in and those should actually be workout days. But training is going to improve and building out the days are going to continue to improve. Week Two starts….now!