No, not Sir Isaac Newton, rather the Newton Hills. Every time I run the Boston Marathon, I wind up walking at least two of the Newton Hills - it's just too difficult at such a late part of the race to run all of them. So, I've been adding the various uphill portions of Boston's route into my training runs, to include my long runs. Granted, my training is still with speeds to support a sub-3 marathon -- which is what I will be trying for (again) in Virginia Beach in a couple of weeks but NOT in Boston a month later.
Today was a 22-mile run, which would take me through all four Newton Hills were I actually on the course itself. Sure enough, after I finished the first two of those four hills (and pulling back the speed appropriately, but nowhere near dropping to a walk), I hit the mythical Wall -- a little after Mile 18. Garmin said my HR was about 183 (Zone 6). And while it occasionally shows me a HR that is certainly higher than what I'm actually experiencing, it was surely right-on today. So I dropped down to a walking pace. And I never really managed to get my HR down into Zone 3 for a sufficient amount of time to really consider kicking it back up into a running pace.
I'd like to like you, Newton, but keep on cursing you year after year. Hopefully the pace I use in April (about 1 minute/mile slower than in Virginia Beach -- sub-7:48 downhill, over 8:00 uphill) will enable me to get through you without needing to walk up any of the hills.
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