Week 15 - The home stretch into Tampa

7 DAYS UNTIL THE TAMPA MARATHON...

All right, so it has been 15 weeks of ups and downs and we're now less than one week away from the big day.

Today is Sunday, February, 19 and I am resting. This week was one of recovery from my cold.

In total, I ran 32.4 miles this week - including a nice 20k race yesterday.

Monday, Feb 13

After a tough weekend of suffering from a terrible cough, cold, fever, flu combination -- and observing a blizzard hit the area, I decided to get into the gym to get back into training. I just wanted to get the heart rate up and feel like I was in some sort of shape. I took a cross-training approach on this day:

Treadmill - 2 miles
Ellipitical trainier - 10 minutes
Bike - 10 minutes
Treadmill - 1 mile
Stretch

Tue, Feb 14 - 2:48 PM

I got out of the office on Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon on to the snowy roads in Norwalk. I got a decent six-miler in. The route I usually take from work (across the Merritt down to East Rocks) entails some steeper than normal elevation, so it is not uncommon to see the HR higher on these runs. It was a decent recovery run. Best mileage I had in a whole week.

TIME: 45:38 - DIST: 6.0 - PACE: 7:35 - AVG HR: 153

Wed, Feb 15 - 7AM - Not that great of a run

I had planned to go to the High School track to do some speed work. I ran the 1/2 mile to the track only to find it still completely covered with much of the 20" of snow that fell on Sunday. I opted to continue running on County Street into the neighborhoods back there. I didn't feel that great on this run. Still reeling from my cold and I was fatigued. In the end, it was a 4-miler - a slow and shakey one at that. This run hurt my confidence. Why would I struggle on a short run like this? This made me realize I still was not over my cold and I needed to rest.

TIME: 31:08 - DIST: 4.0 - PACE: 7:47 - AVG HR: 151

Thursday, 2/16 - I rested as I was on business travel in Princeton, NJ.

Friday, 2/17 - 6:45 AM

I was determined to get in a good 7-miler to build some confidence. I accomplished this. I ran from home to Grumman up to the Half Mile road area and back. The weather was unseasonably warm - high 40's.

This was the best I had felt in well over a week. I hadn't experienced a running high in several days. Finally, I felt good. This was an excellent training run.

TIME: 53:21 - DIST: 7.05 - PACE: 7:34 - AVG HR: 155

Saturday, 2/18 - 8:30 AM - 20k RACE - BOSTON MARATHON BUILD-UP SERIES - SOUTHPORT, CT

This was my last crack to get in a decent distance before next week's big race. I wanted to exert a medium effort to leave something left. I had planned to run 7:30-7:35 pace for the 20k, which I thought would be a decent push of speed work. (MARATHON PACE TARGET: 7:38)

Southport, CT is moderately hilly. The weather was cold (25 degrees F) and slightly windy. We ran by countless $3M+ homes. I am constantly amazed by the money around here. If you know anything about CT real estate, it's that it is crazy expensive. It's fun to run with a group of racers through rural Connecticut hillsides with mansions placed everywhere. I just kept moving and enjoyed the surroundings.

I ended up running 7:24 pace -- not by design, truthfully. My Polar distance monitor was reporting distances slighly longer than the markers on the course, so it was tough to tell where I was with pace.

All and all, it was a good race for me. I felt decent at the end. It is always intimidating to run a race like that and realize that it is less than half a marathon! BUT... I will be better rested, the course in Fla. will be flat and I will be fully adrenalized. Check the results below...

TIME: 1:31:58 - DIST: 20k / 12.4M - PACE: 7:24

RESULTS: http://www.clubct.org/Results/06Results/06BB20kRes.html