Today, for the first time in a year, the reclusive Tippie Tapir has emerged from his home deep in the Cuyahoga Valley. Yes, it's that time again, time for my Boston taper. No more 80 or 90 mile weeks...this week was a reasonable 75 miles. Tippie arrives around the end of the first week of April every year to remind me to back off the mileage a little and let me legs recover from the tough winter training miles of the past four months. 
It was another good week with the usual recovery runs on Monday and Thursday, plus an additional recovery day on Friday, just because. Tuesday, for the first time this year, we had a big group at the track. I was glad to have someone to push me a bit. I ran with Steve G. and Mike Boyer. I did 3 miles of warm-up and 6 x 100 yard stride outs, before we started our 1 mile repeats. My first mile was 5:39. I cannot remember when, if ever, I have run a mile under 5:40. I followed that with a 5:38 and another 5:38. Really. I check with Mike to confirm the times. It hurt and it felt great. Saturday, I ran a very wet and muddy 11 miles with the Lock 29 group. I must say I really love sloshing around in the muck. There is something in that mud that is very therapeutic. It is a miraculous stress-reducer...makes me glad to be alive. Sunday, I did 18 miles, with a slow few miles at the start, followed by a fast 15 miles, and a cool-down mile. Overall, the average pace was 7:30.
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The Boston Marathon will be run on Monday, April 20. I wil be running in the first wave, which starts at 10:00 AM. You can track my progress by logging on to the Boston Athletic Association website, and keying-in my bib number: 4438. My status will be updated every 5k.
5 comments:
Another benefit of running considering that you get charge over $80 for a mud treatment at the spa. :)
Looking forward to tracking you at Boston, am such a nerdy person I actually print out the course map so I can properly picture where runners are.
Can't wait to see how well you will do! Wish I was heading there to enjoy the celebration of all the PRs!
Good to see Tippie again! Some poeple see robins are the harbringer of spring - we have Tippie! Now if it would just stop snowing in Cleveland.
Lil Sis
Frank: I am quite honestly floored by your mile-repeat times. Those are some excellent times. Assuming you start Boston at 10:00 a.m., I think it's a very safe bet to assume you'll be wrapped in the thermal foil and enjoying a well-deserved water and food easily by 12:59 p.m. I was clocking around 5:35 when I ran a 2:58 at Cleveland last May. You are where you need to be, and your have the strength from all that high mileage to sustain you when things get tough after Heartbreak. - Wyatt
Hey, nice interval times!! We could do 1600s together!!
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