Pacing

Here is my pace chart from Boston. The bars show my speed in every 5k/3.1mi segment. The last segment is only 2.2k/1.3 mi long. The differences are accentuated because the X axis starts at 6.8mph. The yellow graph shows the moving average. 8mph translates to 3:16:30. I did 3:22:21. I dropped below 8 at 16 miles (2 hours).

As you can see my speed first increased and then dropped as the race progressed. The much lower speeds in bins 6 and 7 are due to the infamous Newton hills. Without those hills I probably would gone smoothly from 7.81 to 7.53, without a dip. Still, the decline is real. I attribute it to the fact that I did not include any long runs in my training. The longest run I did this year, prior to Boston, was at 13.4 miles.

Ideally speaking one would need a flat graph. Some people that ended up running a 3:16 ran even with me in the beginning, but they kept their pace to the end.

I do remind the reader that my objective is not to run marathons. I use marathons to train for ironman races. If I really trained for the marathon I would probably be able to hold my speed better. That is why I think I could run a 3:15. But it would take a whole lot more training -especially long runs- to do that. Right now, this is training for Lake Placid in July.

26.2 days to go

I got a message from the Boston marathon that read, 26.2 days to go to the 113th Boston marathon. How is that for originality? 

I am planning to run a whole lot more this week and next just to make sure I am ready.

Today I swam 2/3 of an Ironman swim in the morning (140 laps) and another 1/3 in the afternoon (72 laps). Overall I had the feeling I was doing very well. I think I have my "catch and pull" down and it seems to make a difference.

The only troubling fact is that my right shoulder starts hurting when I swim more than 1 1/2 miles. My right shoulder suffered a grade III AC separation last year. You can still put your finger on the tip of my clavicle and press down and it feels like pressing down on a piano key. Even so, it rarely hurts (apart from swimming and that is new) and it does not seem to limit my mobility much. It sometimes feels funny when I make certain movements but it does not really bother me.

I am not sure if this because:

1. I am doing something wrong. My swim position is off (not very likely, my position is probably better now than before).

2. I am using more power so the stress is greater. Compared to a year ago, I am putting in a lot more power now.

3. Something else happened to my shoulder (arthritis, micro-trauma, that too seems unlikely).

More running

I ran another nine miles on the treadmill today. I set the inclination on 0.5 to make the run more realistic. It has been said that treadmill running is easier than running on the road because the resistance is less on moving belts. That may well be true, but on the other hand the lack of efficient cooling induces a stress that is absent when running outside. When one runs instead of walking, and runs for longer than 20 minutes, that stress becomes a real factor to be reckoned with.

Anyhow, just to make things more "real" I compromised and ran "up" a 0.5% grade the whole way.

I finished 8.2 miles in the first hour and ran another 0.8 miles at a slower pace after. For the first time ever I was able to run for an entire hour without having to look at, or hear that annoying TV set. But nearly as soon as I was finished someone came in and turned it on. I understand that lots of people think it boring to run on a treadmill without doing something else, but I for one, really like it. 

Maybe those other people are not working hard enough? Personally, I have little extra bandwidth to devote to inane TV programs. Furthermore I find these distractions spoil the peace and calm that I get from the run. They make it hard for me to imagine running a real race, with spectators cheering as one approaches the finish. 

Very often, I "use" the images of a previous ironman finish to push myself through the last two or three miles, and to increase my speed at a time when my body yells, slow down now, this is enough. A blaring TV set makes it that much harder to entertain these fantasies. How about you? Do you use imagery to push yourself when you run?