It's 10:30, and this is an important night to sleep, so this post will hopefully be 5 minutes and then I'm going to stretch with my rope, and go to bed. Already feeling tired.
After talking things over with my coach, here's the gameplan...shades of green are downhill, shades of orange are climb. The race is fairly flat for the first 4 miles, then rolling hills for another 4 miles, and then 9-10 are decent climbs. After that, it's all downhill.
3:10 is technically a Boston Qualifier for me. BUT, the last two years you needed to better your qualifying time by at least 90 seconds, so 3:08 is the hard goal. Based on where I'm at, and the input form my coach, 3:05 is my target.
His advice, which I understand and hope to employ: 1) ease into the first mile...even though the target for the race is 7:05, take the first mile at 7:15-7:20. 2) the hill at 9 is steep, and 7:30 is likely for that mile. The downhill sections that follow can be brutal on my quads if I crank too hard going downhill there. Don't overwork on the steep downhills at the expense of the last few miles.
I'm not sure I can crank out 7 minute miles from 20-26. At the end of ES20, I was feeling like 7:20 was the best I could do. I hope I have more in the tank on Sunday. Both physically and more important, mentally. I do believe I can hit 7:05 pace for a marathon right now, but my usual method is to go out a bit too fast, and bank some seconds/minutes early in the race and then just try to hang on. The above plan has me running even splits though.
The weather conditions look really good.
A) temperatures at or below 60 for most of the race (I hope to be done just after 10am.) B) overcast skies but no real rain forecast. C) what little wind there is in the forecast would be a tailwind. Close to 100% humidity near the start of the race, but with temps in the 50's then, I'm not sure how much that will bother me.
Pre-race plan
light run tomorrow AM...3 miles with 2x20 second stride finish.
continue carbing up, and generally stay off feet.
drive 4-5 hours to northern maine.
check in to B&B
drive course to pinpoint van stops for Cait/kids.
dinner
early bedtime.
Race day plan.
- 4am wake-up.
- shower, dress,
- 10 min jog,
- bathroom (fingers crossed)
- coffee-this will be my first regular cup of coffee since returning from europe. I was decalf for 2 weeks, and no coffee or any caffeine this past week.
- bathroom (fingers crossed)
- breakfast (B&B starts serving at 4:30) which will consist of oatmeal, banana, toast, OJ
- 5:30 am bus from finish line back to starting line.
- assuming 6:15 arrival. probably quick porto-potty stop before lines get too long. or, bushes.
- I'll be sipping from a waterbottle and will have sport beans at 6:30-6:45
- 6:30, another 5-10 minutes of light light jogging with some leg swings in the middle. finish up with a stride or two.
- 6:45 find place in corral near start. Guessing it won't be too crowded for this race, but I would like to be close to other runners trying to hit 3:10-3:15 range.
- 6:55 first GU packet and last bit of pre-race water.
Beans pre-race. Gu pre-race. Gu at mile 5 (carry on me from start). Gu (course offered) mile 9. Gu (from Cait/van) mile 13. Gu (course offered) mile 17. Gu (Cait/van) mile 21 or 22. Only ever water with Gu's...gatorade at the other stops. The course has 17 water stops, basically every couple miles until mile 20, and then 20-26 they have it every mile. Seems like a good setup, for a small race.
Time for bed. 11pm...later than I planned.
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