Running Down the Dream: That was April

April 2022 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 259.7

March 28-April 3: 80.0
April 4-10: 81.1
April 11-17: 45.5
April 18-24: 33.6
April 25-May 1: 71.7

I brought everyone rabbit ez tees back from Boston
but forgot to bring mine for the post-run photo!

Races:

April 18: Boston Marathon in 3:13:01. When my choices were DNS, DNF, or a sickly struggle to finish almost a half hour slower than planned, I chose the latter and even though I'm sad about it I don't regret it.

The Boston singlet that didn't pass
uniform checks

Workouts:

April 3: 6 miles pacing Amy's MP workout (7:35-7:40) then 4 x 1 MP/1 easy. My MP miles were 6:42, 6:38, 6:04, 5:58 (average 6:20) - which appears to be total crap pacing and kind of was. But! The first two miles were more uphill and the second two more downhill, though it all rolled. I've run the course we were on enough to know I'm usually ~10 seconds slow on the miles the first two reps were on and ~10 seconds fast on the miles the last two were on - so 6:30 and 6:10 would have been more normal. I think residual fatigued from the 50k made the uphill harder than usual, or maybe I just needed some time to get going. The first two felt awful and the last two felt great, so who knows! Better to start slower and finish faster than the opposite. Colin and I ran this together, showing me that one scenario when I can actually keep up with him on workouts is when he has run a 50k 8 days prior. I am better than average at recovering from long races!
April 6: Wave tempo of 10 x 4:00 at 6:25-6:30 / 2:00 at sub-6:00 continuously. The time-based workout ended up being 9.72 miles at 6:10 pace total, with 4.3 warm up and 2.4 cool down for 16.5 total. My paces were: 6:20, 5:54, 6:25, 5:42, 6:27, 5:41, 6:17, 5:47, 6:24, 5:57, 6:15, 6:09, 6:24, 5:48, 6:32, 5:51, 6:30, 5:55, 6:24, 5:46. I planned the workout as 8-10 sets, so me choosing to do 10 shows that I was feeling really good! It was a weird workout because it started out fine for the first 2 rotations, then at 3-4 I was questioning if I was going to be able to hold pace for even 8 (and decided if I fell off I'd stop at 6), then once I got to about 6 I felt fantastic. I really felt stronger as the workout went on and finished feeling like I could do a few more rotations. I definitely could have finished a half marathon at 6:10 pace this day - or of course faster with even pacing.
April 9: Light fartlek of 4 x 2:00, 1:30, 1:00 on with equal offs in an 11 mile run. I ran the ons moderate, which ended up averaging around MP, because I needed to do something besides slogging but not a hard workout.
April 11: 4 miles at MP in the middle of a 12.2 mile run, in rain and wind on hills in 6:27, 6:33, 6:33, 6:15. My plan was to start at 6:30 and work down, but the first 2.5 miles of it felt terrible and I told Colin I was just staying at 6:30! The last 1.5 felt better but still a lot harder than it should have, which is pretty much always what happens to me a week out from marathon day, so now it's just expected and not discouraging...though in hindsight this was the start of me getting sick!
April 14: While sick I attempted to run 3 miles turned 3 x 1 mile turned 1 single mile at MP instead of the scheduled workout, but could only manage a 6:40 and it killed me...which did not inspire confidence for Boston.
Doubles: April 2, 5, 6, 10, 29.

I'm in the lovely rabbit Boston long
sleeve & Amy is in her Boston outfit

Long Runs:

April 3: 14.2 miles (7:18) with a workout, described above.
April 6: 16.5 miles with a workout, my main long run between the Prairie Spirit 50k and Boston Marathon. I couldn't decide whether to run 16 or 17 for this one so I split the difference!
April 11: 12.2 miles (7:14) via 4 easy, 4 MP, 4.2 easy, a.k.a., The Last Long Run Workout That Always Feels Much Harder Than It Should, which felt even harder than usual.
April 18: Boston Marathon (27.5 total for the day)!
April 29: 14.2 miles (7:48), which was the first run post-Boston that I felt nearly normal on! I did 8 x 0:30 pick ups to sub-6, one about every mile, starting at mile 6, to put some pop back in my legs.