Boston or Bust

 Last night was fun with the VFAC crew at the Stanley Park version of Beaver Lake, a 1k version of a trail around a lake.  As most of the club is racing the Sun Run this weekend in Vancouver (with close to 58 000 other people), it was a fun taper workout.

For me it was 1k, 2k, 2k.  The first 1k was done comfortably, and I finished in 3:33.  I was a little surprised at how quick it was relative to how I felt.  But that was nothing as compared to the next interval.

The first loop of the 2k interval was spent behind Jay and Simon.  I knew I was working well and fast, but when we went through the loop in 2:57 I was a little shocked.  I exclaimed "Holy Jesus!" and Simon was concerned about that the coyotes had migrated from the endowment lands.  I eased off and completed the second loop of that 2k in 3:10, for a 6:17 2k.  The next interval was more controlled and a little faster; 3:06/3:08 for 6:14.  Both intervals felt good and smooth.  I was pleased to get out and run fast prior to Boston.  As Coach John said, it is about maintaining intensity, but with less volume.  And that is what happened.  Mentally, it was nice to run that fast and not feel as though it was killing me.  When I head out in 4:00/km on Monday it will feel ridiculously slow, which is the goal.

And as for goals, here they are.  In emailing with Bob (of ENDURrun fame - see ENDURrun 2006 race report),  it seems that we are very much on the same page for Boston, so we are going to start out together.  We would both like to break 2:40, but want to be conservative in how we do it.  I am going to try to sneak into the first corral (if possible).  If that doesn't work, then Bob is going to start near the back of the first corral and I will be at the front of the second corral.  We want to start out conservative (between 6:10-6:20/mile  - Boston is all miles, so I need to be accustomed to mile splits).  We want to work our way down to goal pace (6:06/mile) and be strong enough to go faster than that as we near the last third of the race (6:00/mile).  This is all well and good to say this now, we will see how race day goes.  My "gold" goal is sub 2:40.  My "silver" goal is 2:45.  My "bronze"goal is a PB (that means under 2:55).  But, more than anything, I am going to enjoy the experience.  If everything goes wrong and it looks like I am walking, don't worry about me - I will be laughing and whooping it up with the spectators.  

You can check the race out at www.baa.org  My bib number is 2644, so you can enter that in the athlete tracker and get my splits every 5k.  If I am about 19:00 for 5k, then you know I am going well.  There are hills, so some may be faster than others, but around 19:00 will be good.

I won't have my 'puter with me, so I will blog about the experience when I get back on Tuesday.  Until then, have fun!  And good luck to all my Island peeps and the VFAC crew, racing the Sun Run (that means you Seamus and Hicham).