Photo Cred: Michael Scott
I started using instagram more often in 2015 and liked it right away. It seems to encourage superfandom more than other social media outlets. Likes seem to fly freely and without reservation.
I also enjoy getting feedback on what people like and what people don’t. For instance, people don’t like pictures of Grace as much as I do. (But that certainly won’t stop me from posting them.) And one thing that people seem to really like is when I share my ups and downs of training. And actually, while these posts might not get the most “likes” I hear a lot more positive feedback about me posting my downs.
So that’s why I have been sharing my workouts on Instagram a lot in the past year or so, and it seemed to make sense to me to put together a little Boston Buildup instagram mix tape for myself and for everyone else who doesn’t really follow that outlet. (Read: my parents.)
Here is one of my first runs back, where I was quick enough to keep up with these speedy Greenville Track Club Elite ladies – Kate Dodds and Kim Ruck.
One of my first hard efforts back – 16:53 with 22 right angle turns was pretty good for me!
Those goals stayed on my full length mirror the whole time and are still there. I think I only skipped maybe 4 or 5 days of meditation the entire 17 weeks.
Yeah, this was humbling…
When it’s not really your thing to meet up for drinks, you end up missing out on a lot of holiday catching up. Thanks so much for being willing to do something different, Pete! One of the most memorable long runs of the build-up! And his girlfriend ran Boston 2017, too!
Gotta start somewhere…
Charleston was a blast, and it was great to spend time with my in-laws and put my *first* in-state resident record in the books!
First baby workout with Brian Graves! If only they had all been this much fun…
And those first miles were downhill and flat. This wasn’t my first run of the build-up that was that slow, and it certainly wasn’t my last.
One step up from 400s is 800s. And it felt a lot harder, too. Definitely more like half marathon effort than marathon effort.
My first of several runs up Paris Mountain this segment. I love that place. There’s something so primal about the pleasure gained from an excellent overlook.
And the next step up from 800s was 1000s, but these were a little quicker and felt just as hard, so that was a step in the right direction.
Another Paris Mountain long run. Something so satisfying about a good long climb.
Things still moving in the right direction – up from 8×1000 to 8×1600 and just a little slower.
And another post about slow… er, I mean easy days.
Snuck under 5:00 for my 1600 leg of the DMR after having run 4:53 and 4:49 the last 2 times I was picked to run this race. A little disappointed that my legs felt like jello and it was overall just a weird day, but ever grateful that I could help my team and stay to watch an awesome meet with my favorite person.
Third climb up Paris Mountain – steady state up that kind of hill can definitely suck.
One of my best workouts of the build-up. Felt so strong.
I’m very proud of how I ran this race. Taylor Ward literally gave me a run for my money right up to the finish, so I know I did everything I could.
This one was a little slower and felt a little harder than I wanted to, but that could be attributed to tired legs, and it was still pretty good.
Looking back, I am really happy with this 52:31 (3 minutes better than my previous finish in 2012). We didn’t really taper, I put myself in it, and I hung on for dear life even when it was super freaking hard. Very grateful to Bethany Sachtleben (far right) for being so strong and pulling me along with her.
This 23 miles was a workout with 5mi-4mi-3mi-2mi-1mi and they were supposed to have a 1mi recovery between all at sub-7:00 pace. It ended up being the first workout I couldn’t execute as prescribed. I ran 5:58, 5:51, 5:46, 5:45, 5:33 pace and only ran a full mile recovery after the first interval, and gave myself extra standing recovery between some of the others. Perfect weather left me no one to blame but myself. Terry never gives me workouts I can’t handle, so this was the beginning of the indication that I wasn’t ready to run 5:43 pace for a marathon.
Last workout on Paris Mountain – although I never made it to the top because I used a lower mile to go up and down instead. This was a fun one, and especially after the previous workout, it felt easy in comparison. Hills can be fun because up is simply slow and down is simply fast and it’s all based on effort anyway. The best part was that my legs weren’t sore at all after this one, which gave me a lot of confidence to ride the downhills in Boston. I honestly think it had a lot to do with my iron levels being in a good spot and also the fact that I was taking Body Health Perfect Amino amino acid supplements very regularly throughout this entire build-up.
I was pretty bummed about this one. The original plan was for me to run the first heat of the 10k hard and then come back an hour later and pace the 2nd heat of the 10k at 5:45 pace. Terry felt that I was ready to run almost a minute faster than this all out, but I’m not convinced I could have broken 34:00, even if I hadn’t been holding out some energy for the 2nd race (which never ended up happing thanks to NCAA regulations that don’t really make sense to me, especially for a non-collegiate runner). The track always seems to have a humbling effect on me…
And this was more unraveling but also my fault for going when it was already hot and also refusing to adjust after starting out so hard. The only silver lining in retrospect is that the temperature certainly gave me a good sense of approximately what marathon pace would end up being in the conditions we got at Boston this year.
This workout was actually redeeming and my confidence started to bounce back a little, even though I had set myself up for success with the tailwind and downhill conditions. It was fun again, too.
This wasn’t the fastest I’ve done 1.5mi repeats, but previously I had done 4x2400m with 800m recovery instead of 5x2400m with 400m recovery. Perfect execution with Brian gave my confidence another boost in the right direction.
At this point, weather was still looking pretty close to ideal for race day, and with a generally great build-up behind me, I had no excuses. Despite all the positives that holds, historically that has been terrifying for me and has led to self-sabotage (but that’s another story), so instead I vowed to enjoy it for what it is and not be afraid to find out just how good I could be on race day.
Oh my gosh… as someone who historically would have been thrown into full on imposter mode by being the slowest in the field, it was incredibly telling to watch myself simply enjoy every benefit of being in the John Hancock Elite field. I was grateful to be there and knew that I was capable of out-placing my seed. Maybe it’s because I love being the underdog almost more than I love winning. Regardless of the reason, I made the most of my stay, loved every minute, and hope I’ll never forget any of it.
I love how this picture perfectly captured how overwhelmed I was by the crowd support, even through the humility and sheer exhaustion I was experiencing by that point in the race.
I woke up at 6:30 on Tuesday morning and this is what poured out of my heart. I have missed out on so much in my life, but this weekend was not one of those times, and I hope to continue that approach as far as it will take me. A lot of athletes seem to think that they need to look tough in order to race tough. I think that one of the toughest and most joyful ways to live is in gratitude of others. When I throw hearts and thumbs up, I am not show boating. I am feeding off the energy of the crowd. Because that’s why they are there. Not just to see you, but to fuel you.
And it’s back to the drawing board. For some people, knowing what’s next makes them anxious to get back to training, but for me, planning what’s next gives more intention to my rest. When I know the plan, I can rest with conviction, just like I do with the rest of my training.
Honestly, this build-up has probably been one of the smoothest that I’ve had. Largely due to all of the help I got from my pacer, Brian Graves, the vast majority of my workouts were dead on the prescribed paces. Of course I had a few bad workouts and some very slow easy runs, but all in all this build-up was probably one of my best.
Terry (my coach) and I had decided that this would be the build-up where I’d get myself used to 2:30 pace (5:43) and see how far I could take it. It went fine until I started doing intervals over 3 miles, and then it was a bit too much to handle. Despite the fact that I was running on tired legs, we both knew that that wasn’t a good sign for being able to string together 26.2 at that pace, even on tapered legs.
So by the end of the segment, Terry decided that I was probably in about 5:48 pace shape – or right around 2:32:00. And I was ready to PR. After almost 3 years of 3 hot marathons and a windy NYC, I was finally ready to pop a big one, even if it wasn’t a sub-2:30.
I know Terry was right about my fitness, but by mile 3, I knew that 5:58 was going to be my average pace for the day. Part of me questioned whether or not I have just settled into that 6:00 range because of all of the “slower” marathons I’ve run in recent years, but judging by how hard those last 3 miles were, I know I was genuinely doing the best I could and there was no better way for me to finish the race on that day.
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