Deciding on my goal

Well, yet another long run that was nowhere near what I needed it to be for my training plan. Disappointing, to put it mildly. I was supposed to do 22 miles @ 7:10 (which would be about 2:38 total), and instead I wound up running 20 and walking the last 2, for a total time of about 3:13. Yes, the hills always get me, and there will be minimal uphills during the marathon. The temperature started at about 60F and went north from there, likely passing 70F by the time I was finished, and the temps during the race should be about 10 degrees cooler across the full duration.

So, it looks like I'll be building out a somewhat customized pace band with three separate sets of splits on it, for hitting sub-3, 3:05, and 3:10. Depending on conditions and how I'm feeling, I'll choose one of the pace groups to join and then, depending on how the run goes, may/may not shift to one of the other times.

3:10 is all I need to be in the Top 65 as of now for Age Championships -- assuming that the person in my age group does not run faster than the "platinum" time standard. Clearly, though, faster would be vastly preferable to be likelier to get to and stay in the Top 65. 

Fingers crossed!

Back outside

I finally got back outside for a run -- the temperature broke well enough so that it was in the 60s this morning. While still not meeting the time goal I had, it was nevertheless nice to be off of the treadmill for a change. I need to make sure I get out of my apartment early enough tomorrow morning to take as much advantage of the cooler temps as possible, given that I have a long 22-mile run ahead of me.

2 weeks, now, until race day. Too far out for any realistic forecast, but the current trend looks like it will be ideal at the starting line -- overnight temps getting down to about 52. That and the downhill course will make this a very fast start that I'll need to rein myself in on to make sure I don't burn through my energy too early.

Lack of motivation?

Well, certainly as far as writing blog entries is concerned. It's been about 6 weeks. (!)

Training has been a continual mixed bag. Most of my shorter sessions have been going fine, but I don't think I have properly hit any of my goals on any of my long runs. Whether it be my legs being overly fatigued or my HR skyrocketing too early, something has been going awry, making me very unsure about what I should do in St. George. I very much want to crack that 3-hour mark for a second time, and the downhill course will be ideal, but I have to strategize about how conservatively I need to run during the first half.

While I'm glad my running is going well enough that I don't see any problem continuing to register for Boston for the foreseeable future (I just registered for 2023 yesterday with a BQ-25:05 thanks to Mesa 2022), I would like to beat that mark at least once. We'll see.