A good start to my 40's

6 Weeks, 3 PR's (4 if you count the heart rate)

I can't lie.  The six weeks between the Boston Marathon and the BolderBoulder should have been a tale of progressive decline culminating in abject failure in Boulder.  Instead, I'm going into the summer having just set three personal records in three different distances in exactly six weeks.

I wasn't shy about the fact that after Boston, I didn't restrict myself too much on my diet and my weekly mileage dropped off substantially.  The mileage reduction was a necessity at first, after pounding out so many miles training and then not being able to walk so well for a week after Boston.  However, it would have been a good idea not to eat everything in the pantry during that same period.  While I certainly learned my lesson on pre-race meals before the Colfax Half Marathon, that didn't stop me from gorging myself at and after a Rockies game two days before the BolderBoulder.

When the gun sounded in Bolder at 7:02 a.m. on Monday, I had already mentally prepared myself for the wall I was sure to hit as I climbed the first three miles.  Yet, as I cruised past the belly dancers an through Mile 2 and into the neighborhoods, I felt good.  I decided to try to keep my pace under 7:00/mile and see if I could make a run at my PR. I passed Mile 3 under seven minutes and still felt like I had a lot of gas in the tank - especially since I knew it was downhill from just before Mile 4 until nearly the end.

Coming down into downtown, I felt good enough to push it again and sped up.  Unlike my last BolderBoulder, I didn't find myself trapped in some of the crowds going up after making the turn just passed Mile 5 onto Folsom and was able to run the pace I wanted.  At this point, I was starting to run out of gas, and the slow incline toward Folsom Field pushed my heart rate up to 180 bpm.  That's the point where I usually start backing off a little bit - before I get to 185 bpm - but I wanted to push through to the end.

Running into Folsom Field is about the closest anyone could ever get to finishing an Olympic marathon, although there aren't too many people there before 8:00 a.m. so there aren't quite the cheering crowds that the elite athletes get later in the morning.  I pushed past Mile 6 just outside the stadium, up the last serious incline before dropping into the stadium at field level.  I ran the last 0.2 miles at a 6:12 pace and finished in 41:47.  It was a PR by 1:21 and meant I ran about a 6:43/mile pace. Oh - and my heart rate was 192 bpm when I finished.  Oops...

Splits
  mile 1: 6:44.05
  mile 2: 6:41.59
  mile 3: 6:55.10
  mile 4: 6:49.16
  mile 5: 6:41.19
  mile 6: 6:36.15

  net time: 41:47.07
  pace:06:43
  http://bolderboulder2011.onlineraceresults.com/individual.php?bib=AB216

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do that again, and the same goes for the marathon and half-marathon PR's that came in April and May, as well.  Although, I will want to beat those times, I guess I don't really care anymore if I do.  I'm at peace with regret I had been feeling for not doing all this 10-15 years earlier when I might have had the chance to keep getting faster.

Once more unto the breach...
June 27 began another trek toward a 26.2 mile adventure.  The PR's of April and May are history, but I may have set a PR in food and beer consumed since Boston.

Next up is the Columbus Marathon on October 16.  Summer training means dragging my butt out of bed in the morning while it is still cool outside.  I love it once I'm out there, but it is the getting up and moving part that always seems to be hard than the run itself.  I decided to set my primary goal at 3:15:00 so that I could say that I can qualify for Boston under the upcoming more stringent qualifying standards.  We'll see.

I am utilizing a custom training grid that I put together only slightly modified from the one I used for Boston and the Rock 'N' Roll San Diego Marathon in June 2010.  Stay tuned!!