Training report for week -5. The most demanding part of marathon training.

As always, you get a rest day on Monday, but it's hardly enough after that tough week. Then hit it hard on Tuesday with a 6 x 1000 meter workout. I did it on the treadmill, because of multitude of reasons, but mostly I didn't find any time to seek out a track. I alternated 10.3 mph (5:50/mile) 1000's with 6 mph (10:00/mile) 400's for recovery. Even on the treadmill, this is the kind of workout when I have to plead with myself to do it. Like even after the 2nd or 3rd, I would tell myself that if I can only do 4 or 5 that's OK. But then I do the whole thing.

So after a workout, you get an easy day, right? Yeah, sure. 15 miles. It was still cold, dark by the end, and I didn't enjoy it, especially not the end. I definitely was not recovered.

On Thursday, you finally get some recovery runs: 6 miles + 4 miles. I ran the four at 10pm after firefighting training. Definitely wasn't fun, and I really just slogged through these.

On Friday, a 12-miler. I felt just well enough to finish it at the decent pace (7:39).

Then a 5-miler on Saturday, when I felt tired again. And what was especially frightening was that I knew what was coming on Sunday. An 18-miler with 14 at marathon pace.

At last the weather got nice: sunny, 59 degrees with wind. It is a bit warmer than ideal (after having cold weather all week long), and the wind is not great, but still pretty close to ideal weather. In my previous two cycles, I made this workout as easy as possible: treadmill for the first one, and neighborhood run for the second one. But I paid for my insufficient hill training in Bowling Green, so I decided to go the Parklands this time. Not the crazy hilly southern part, but the northern side, which had some small hills, and one long and steep that I had to climb twice.

I did finish the run with 6:50 average pace, but the last mile was brutally hard (I ran 7:12 for that). I tried to conserve energy and time (kind of contradictory) for the second climb of the big hill, and though I did slow quite a bit on climbing it, I had enough energy to accelerate back at the top, and push myself on the other side. The downhill is a series of narrow switchbacks, which is impossible to run fast, because you virtually have to stop in the corners. The switching of directions hurts, too. But even that wasn't the hard part.

I still had two miles to go, the first of which was OK. But then I had to climb a bridge, and loop under it. I charged up the bridge, and when going down, I felt like I was done for. I stopped for a second, and then I needed all my willpower to cover the last mile - which included another bridge. Again, this felt like the last mile of a marathon... When I finished I felt nauseous.

So what did I learn? About my prospect for the 3-hour Boston Marathon? Not much, really. I did successfully finish this run, but it was hard and it was only 14 miles. I know this training plan is designed so that this should feel like the last 14 miles of a marathon: and it truly did. I probably started a bit too fast banking a bit too much time. If I banked 30 seconds less, I probably would have had easier time in the last mile, probably gaining it back. On the other hand I'm so happy that despite the steep hills, I was able to run 3-hour pace. This workout was the real deal. I hope I'll be much more ready for hills than I was in Bowling Green.

One thing is very clear: I definitely should not overrun the first half of Boston. I want to feel still pretty good when I make it to the Newton hills.