Tuesday Night Track
If you’re racing Boston, you know the drill when it comes to the final week before your race: All the serious work has been done. There’s nothing much left to do except avoid sabotaging your race with some monster workout or experimenting with a brand new diet regimen. Dr. Tim Noakes, in his (speaking of monster) book “The Lore of Running” offers a fascinating look into the psychology of runners making irrantional choices with training and diet that doom the runner to race-day misery. It seems that pre-race nerves, especially jacked up with energy in the wake of tapering, can undermine the whole deal. So be on the look out for that. I had an interesting chat with a runner who was dissapointed in her finish at the Las Vegas Rock and Roll half-marathon. I asked her a few questions about what happened and the circumstances around the race, and she told me about how she walked more around Las Vegas the day before the race — more than 10 miles worth. It’s a good bet (excuse the LV pun) that the hours of walking up and down the strip all day didn’t help her toe the line on race day with fresh legs. Anyway — If you’re feeling nervous about Boston (or any other important race), be sure to doublecheck all of your decisions in the lead up.
Pre-Boston Marathon “Shakeout” X-Out:
Woburn HS at 5:45pm
1-2 miles easy to warmup
6-8 striders
3 x 1-mile at T pace with 1-minute recoveries between each rep
1-2 mile warmdown
Grand Prix Workout
Track night:
1-2 miles easy
12 x 200 at R pace with 200-meter jogs
1-2 miles easy
Second quality workout of the week: Threshold
1-2 miles warmup
2 x 10 minutes at T pace with 1-minute jog recovery
jog 10 minutes
10 minutes at T pace
1 mile warmdown jog