The road to Boston; wk1

First week of Boston training in the books.  Felt good to get back to a normal-ish routine after the holiday break.  I thought I'd had gotten a few more miles in over the holidays, but unexpected visits to the hospital and weather didn't allow for much.  By the time Sunday rolled around I was actually ready for it to be over, if nothing more but because I could start executing my Boston training plan with some routine. 

I'm going to use a similar program as I've used in the past. 

Monday: Ath Cond/Core/Spin or 6mi easy
Tuesday: Track work
Wednesday: Ath Cond/6mi easy
Thursday: Wedge Run Tempo
Friday: Hoops/Ath Cond
Saturday: Long Run
Sunday: Rest

Every other Saturday will be a long run, rotating between lower miles all at goal pace, or a longer run with the last set of miles at goal pace.   I'll max out at 14 miles and 23 miles before my taper starts. 

I've pretty much convinced myself that I'm going to have to extremely flexible in my schedule, and plan the best I can for things like weather, work, travel, etc.  I already had to put in my first track
work on a treadmill, and move my long run to Sunday so I'm off to a wonderfully spirodic start.  I'll be traveling M-Th next week as well.  Let's hope the new training motivation carries me for a bit. 

My goals are two fold. Time, and experience.  Knowing that I can simply race without a "Boston cutoff" looming, I'm hoping I can really let 'er rip.   I've felt in the past that some of my best races have been races I just go run, and don't put as much emphasis on the time or a time goal.  If I blow up, no biggie; bad weather, fine; for me it's going to be all about taking in the experience, and cashing in 100% on my training to that point.  I'm going to train to see if I can beat 3hrs; that'd be crazy, but as long as I run the best race I can on that day and enjoy things, that's all that truly matters. 

It was very surreal starting training again this week.  It's fun to think about the race and the people, and the significance of the work by so many.  My wife and maybe some friends at the finish! I almost feel like I'm going to The Masters of runnning....where else do you get the opportunity to compete, straight up, with the worlds best?  I got an email from BAA last night, and it was just facts about the race, things to know, etc but all the clips and history along with the beers....I had something in my eye!

Wk1 Down......14 or so to go!