On the Road to Boston

OK, so last post (almost a year ago) I stated that one of my goals was not to run too many marathons. Well, I can check that one off. Grand total of marathons run since then? Zero. It turns out that, while setting an ambitious goal like "Qualify for Boston" sounds really good and is great shorthand for what you are trying to do, it does very little for helping you actually achieve the goal. Also not helpful when you're a procrastinator who likes to do things at the last minute. People love to explain certain tasks by saying "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." Well, qualifying for the Boston marathon is not just "not a sprint" it's not a marathon either. It's like a marathon of marathons. So, while some business theories state that your goals should be Big, Hairy, and Audacious Goals (note to inventors of term: come up with a theory that has a better acroynm than BHAG), setting that goal is just the start. Then you have to set...

OK, part of my overall plan is to run fewer marathons and make each one I actually do run count for more with a much better idea on pacing and training level. In order to make that work, my plan includes a lot more half-marathons. Plus, half marathons are probably the best event you can use to help predict your actual marathon performance. So, after a few months of building up miles, it was time to take on an actual race, and I picked a relatively new half marathon in Irvine . It had the advantage of being relatively flat, and also the half-marathon was the longest event here. Running a half while others were gearing up to run a full marathon can make you start questioning your decision to "just" do half. I distinctly recall some crazy notions filtering through my head in February while on the course for the Pasadena Half Marathon that maybe I could knock out the full marathon as well. So, I set myself ten goals for this month's race and it looks like I did pretty ...

Total Distance - 21 miles Long Run - 6 miles @ 9:02 pace Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 7:49 pace Speed work - 4x800m @ 6:59 pace Weight - 201.5 lbs Quick overview - recovery week after 7 weeks of building mileage.

Total Distance - 27 miles Long Run - 9 miles @ 9:25 pace Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 8:38 pace Speed work - 2x1 mile @ 7:28 pace Weight - 201.5 lbs Quick Overview - recovering from giving blood

When I started training for my first marathon, I only had one goal - beat everyone I was related to. I verified their times, did a couple of training runs and was pretty confident that, with enough work, beating 4:30 was achievable. Plus, it gave the added advantage of beating Oprah (4:29). Then uncertainty and a little bit of over-confidence set it. It turned out my dad wasn't absolutely sure on his time. Was it 4:30 or did he break 4:30 or was it maybe closer to 4:20? "Well," my over-confidence stepped up and said, "We'll just beat all those times. How about 4:15 as a goal?" Oops, I'm sorry. That statement was actually what my confidence said. My over-confidence took one look at 4:15, let out a cocky laugh and said, "Tod, my friend, we are going sub 4 hours." Well, here we are, over 7 years later, with 4 marathons and 8 half-marathons under my belt, and I have proven my confidence right by breaking 4:15 twice. My over-confidence contin...