15 and 4 To Go

Fifteen miles under a nice morning sun and gentle breeze! That was my Saturday morning. I hope it's just like that on May 26th! What are the chances the weather is absolutely perfect? Does that ever happen?

I approached this LR as a chance to test where I am at time-wise. Like a few weeks ago, I ran these 15 miles exactly how I envision myself running at the Bayshore Marathon. I had a tough start though. For some reason, my legs were tight...breathing was heavy...mentally I just wasn't in it. As always, though, once I stopped and took some water and let my breathe "catch-up", I was able to get right into my planned pace and all the previous impediments melted away. There is something odd about the system reset that takes place whenever I stop for a minute.

I felt strong through-out but particularly in the last 3 miles. I was attempting to average around 7:20/mile for the duration of the run. Each of my last 3 miles were around 7:08/mile and I felt really strong. All in all, I was pleased with the latest time trail. I feel pretty confident I'll still be below a Boston Qualifying pace through 20 miles. After that, all bets are off. I may be able to gut it through...or I may drop off quickly and realize you can't BQ without at least a couple 40-50 mpw in the training bank!

15.0 miles
1:50:13 time
7:21 pace

Four more weeks to go. Well, less than that now. This week is my last real tough week of training. I'll still go hard on my two remaining mid-week medium runs but no more time trials on the LR's.

Looking forward to 21 miles on Saturday...hope everyone else is starting to get psyched.

Next week: My revised goals for the 2007 Bayshore Marathon.