I’m in the midst of XC ski season but I really need to ramp mileage for Boston. I know there are a number of other forum members racing Boston. How about a “virtual Boston mileage week”.
My recommendation is the 9 days starting March 5th and ending Marh 13th (this would thus end 5 weeks out from the race). The goal would be to ramp the mileage. Speedwork would be secondary. From March 14th onwards, cut down on mileage and increase speedwork (I also have my last XC ski race on March 19th …)
Any takers ? Please post names. My goal during this period would be to AVERAGE 10 miles per day, which is a lot for me.
Hi Matt/tri-yoda, given that my max week of running since Jan 1 has only been 70K , jumping to 70 miles will be a stretch. That being said, I did XC ski 140K during the 70K running week. When I aim at the 70 mile week, I will likely do less than 100K of XC skiing, so I hope to have some more legs to pound pavement.
I am surprised there is no one else playing along. I know you Boston marathon slowtwitchers are out there. Please post. Tri-Yoda and I could use some company
i’ll try to play along. since i’m a cpa, i’ll be limited in the amount of running i can do during the work week. probably 2/3 of those miles during that stretch will be on the weekends. i haven’t been able to get in more tha 30 a week. 60 is probably the realistic limit i can to within the time constraints.
You guys sound like me. A big week for me is 70K (ie 42 miles). I’m counting on some of the studs on this forum to push me over my comfort zone for a 9 day period…all low intensity to minimize injury chances.
Eric, as mentioned, my mileage is more like 40 miles a week. I’ve tried this in the past (9 days of mileage overload) 5-6 weeks out from Boston and then concentrate on speed afterwards and it has worked well. The key is to keep the speed down during this 9 day stretch. Previoulsy a buddy of mine actually ran 120 miles in that 7 day stretch, while I banged off 120K. He took 10 minutes off his marathon PB and ran 2:49 in Boston. That year, I squeaked in at 2:59.52. I attributed it to mental and physical “fitness gained” and running economy acquired from that week of overload.
Before I became involved in triathlon, I ran 60-70 miles/week every week. I never missed a day running. I didn’t run father during marathon training, just moved the mileage around to accomodate long runs better vs. doing similar mileage each day. I only wish that running that mileage would get me a sub 3:00 marathon! For me it’s not that easy. My PR is 3:35. Maybe I need to move up to 100 miles/week!?
i could probably bang out more miles, but i haven’t built up that kind of base yet. i’m doing a half marathon this sunday to get an idea where i’m at, take the following week easy, and see if i can kick off the 5th with a 20 miler, see where things go from there, and cap the following weekend with another 20 miler.
most of my running to date have been tempo runs on the treadmill between 30-60 min in duration. not high mileage (between 20-30), but usually pretty fast relative to race pace. worked surprisingly well preparing for steamtown when i had an ankle injury, though i did have some residual IM base to work off of as well.
That would be about 90 miles over 9 days, while keeping up some XC ski training for my last race of the year (Mar 19th). So basically two long runs, two medium distance runs and a bunch of short ones to pad the mileage and keep the legs in running mode. I would shuffle things around a bit in case of snowstorms, freezing rain as well as work and family committments.
Felix, nice to hear from you. I hope your prep for the Zurich Marathon and Ironman Canada are going well. Actually, this mega mileage week would also be reasonably nicely timed for anyone racing the Big Sur marathon too.
This week is a mega low mileage run week. I did a 50K XC ski race on Sun and I have a 100K event on Sat, so in the 5 days in between there is not much running going on. Its gonna only be 12K of running this week and something like 160K of XC skiiing (including the race on Sat). Next week though, I must get serious about run miles, or the Newton Hills will spit me out like used chewing tobacco.
I will play, but no where near what some of you guys are doing. Ramping up mileage that much in one week will only spell injur*y for moi!! But i’ll be doing more that week!!!
Shelley, thanks for playing. The idea is to push one another to the upper limit of mileage that we are individually comfortable with. For example, a few years ago, when my buddy ran 120 miles, I scaled it down and did 120 K or so. Personally I am not sure that my frail old body can handle 90 miles in 9 days, but I will give it a go and listen to my body parts and scale back if I am risking anything. Better to be 10 miles undertained than 10 yards overtrained
Just a bit of pre-Boston advice learned the hard way last year. Prepare your legs for running downhill.
I cranked out 60-70 mile weeks with three or four runs longer than 3 hours last year and it all came apart about 10 miles into the race when my thighs tightened up. The course profile on the website is very deceiving showing a nice gradual downhill in the opening miles. It is not. You drop, climb, drop, climb and so forth for four or five miles and then it is more gradual a decent for a while. According to heart rate you will barely feel like you are working, but your legs are taking a pounding.
Running your long runs on a gradual downhill might be one way to acclimate, or you can use a treadmill if it has a negative elevation feature.
cdw is right. The course is deceivingly easy for the first half and many people set a PR in the first half and walk the hills later on. I ran the first have easy last year (partially due to the 85 degree weather), and found the hills in the second half bearable. However, I would run no faster than your goal race pace for the first 16-18 miles, you will be glad you did in the second half. I’ve read that many consider 20 miles the halfway point for Boston. That sounds right to me.
Thanks CDW for the input. I have done Boston twice in the past. In mid to late March, I do a number of treadmill runs 30-40 min at 9.5 - 10 mph downhill (ie I put a 1.5 inch thick wood block on the back of my treadmill). This gets me smooth going downhill at quicker than race pace, but at a lower HR. This has worked well in the past. Don’t try this trick if you have a "low continuous HP treadmill. You will burn out the motor. I also place a fan by my treadmill motor when I do this to minimize chances of the motor overheating.
I’m running my 14th Boston…got a little streak going. I’ve been averaging about 70 Miles a week. I need to get in some long runs (16 - 20 milers). If the weather gets a little bit better I will try to get my mileage up to around 80-85. Boston was tough last year…I put in the training…but when the day finally came…and it hit 85 degrees at noon…it was a killer. Nearly all of my training and long runs were done in 25 - 35 degree weather. Needless to say we were cooked.
I will try to seek hills. Get those quads ready for the slammin downhills.
