Boston Predictions

Boston is so close I can taste it.
For the very first time, I'm actually stoked to do this race! Yeah, I ran a long and hard race less than two weeks ago, but besides a little residual fatigue, I feel good... really, really good...

And fast.

This is a totally new concept and experience for me. As I sit here, I'm full of confidence and mentally prepared to run low-6 minute miles for an entire marathon. Wait, I had to just re-read that... I'm having a hard time believing what I just wrote and that I honestly think I can go sub-2:50 (or faster). I say this because less than two years ago, I had already run numerous marathons in an attempt to just qualify for Boston, all of which had been failures from a time perspective. (My first 6 or 7 road marathons where all between 3:15 and 3:35.)

And now, having only run one road marathon per year the last two years, I've managed to shave 10 minutes off my PR at each, putting my current best at 2:55. It's hard to quantify what finally clicked, but it's an exhilarating feeling to have finally gotten to this point. Surely, it's just strength and consistency that did it.

Anyway, for the sake of making me accountable, I'm going to show some cards and mention some of my goals/predictions.

• D-Goal: Just Finish
• C-Goal: Sub-2:55 (new PR)
• B-Goal: Sub-2:53 (JT's PR and lots of smack-talking rights)
• A-Goal: 2:45-2:47

JT and I have an over/under bet on whether or not I'll beat Joan Benoit Samuelson. Considering she ran a 2:47.xx last October - setting the over-50 female world record - I consider this a lofty goal. JT has 'over', and there's a good chance he'll be winning a 6 pack on this one, but I love the challenge!

Sub-2:46 also has a nice ring to it since it's the women's qualifying standard for the Olympic Trials, and Karl Meltzer did think I was a woman going into Hardrock last summer, so why not? This will be another goal in the back of my mind.

Oh, and Andy, who clearly has more confidence in me than I do, thinks I'll break 2:40. He's a good friend, but he obviously needs to get off the LSD. No offense.

This should be fun. At the very least, I like my chances of breaking the 'Skinny Guy with Cystic Fibrosis and Gout' World Record...

January 2011 Recap

My month in a nutshell:

• # of days I ran = 29
• # of miles run = 188
• Average miles per run = 6.48/day

After taking virtually the entire month of December off, the theme for January was consistency. Even though my mileage wasn't super impressive, I quickly started to get strong again and for the first time in almost two years, I'm running pain free! Somehow, I just woke up one morning and the Plantar Fasciitis pain was gone. And by averaging just over 10k per day, I'm nearly running the mileage I was at in July/August last year.

Overall, I'm pleased with where I'm at fitness wise, and the fact that I successfully avoided the most recent wave of sickness (chest cold/flu) that's been going around my office.

Highlights of the month:

1. Back-to-back long run weekends (32 mile and 23 mile days).
2. Beating JT at the Winter Series II 8 miler. (He'll deny it since I registered as 'Dirk Diggler', but it still happened. Oh, and ignore the slow times, we'd run 15 miles before the race.)
3. Running into a rabid squirrel who was chasing its own tail.
4. Meeting and (briefly) running with Scott Jurek.
5. Making page 21 of Runner's World.
6. Being touted as the featured athlete on the Brew to Brew race website.

With just over two months until I begin my 'official' race season, my main goal is to steadily increase the mileage while starting to incorporate speed work, tempo runs, hills, and interval training. Both of my April races are going to be more about leg speed than endurance (Brew to Brew, and the Boston Marathon), so it's time to get my butt moving.

Last but not least, my good friend Andy Henshaw just laid down a 2:26 marathon in Miami last Sunday, which has also inspired me to run fast! With a little help from him and others, I'm putting together a training plan that will hopefully have me in sub-2:45 shape by Boston.

Brooks