January 28, 2014- The Four Hills

            A bit of an eye opener today as I have six miles on the schedule and it being like minus nine outside (a record actually) not to mention the ridiculous wind chill that was just a pin wheeling down into the netherworld of negativity, I am going to hit the treadmill once again.  I need to really start addressing Boston’s hill work so I asked my husband if he could do some math calculations for me.  You can look up the course elevations and the math whiz which is my husband is able to convert that into distance and inclines I can do on my treadmill.  He looked it all up and sent me an email with the details. 

            Basically this course is a thigh killer.  The first four miles are at quite a decline which sets up some nice crushing pain in your quads right from the get go.  The next twelve miles are pretty benign except for the fact that you are running twelve miles.  Then comes the fun stuff.  There is a heavy decline for about a quarter mile at 15.5, (setting you up with some nice thigh gridlock) and then your first hill comes at mile sixteen.  It is about a five percent incline for a quarter mile.  It slopes off and in another mile you hit hill number two.  It is steeper, a seven percent incline for just under a quarter mile. You throw your legs together for about a mile then hit hill number three- six percent incline for about an eighth of a mile. 

            Then is the fourth and most feared of the “Newton Hills”, appropriately called “Heartbreak Hill”.  It arrives just past mile twenty and lasts almost .4 miles with a rise of eighty-eight feet, or a 4-5 percent incline.  It is really tough because, well because you just ran twenty frickin’ miles!!!!   

            Right off the last hill the decline is a sharp four percent for about .35 mile so you have to deal with someone throwing the dang key away on your locked quads. 

Quads.  Quads.  Quads.  Squats.  Squats.  Squats.  I need to really take this seriously because if I don’t it will kick my butt.  So I did some body weight squats (20) before I ran and I am going to start off with squat work before all my runs, building up slowly.  I ran the first mile at just a one percent incline then I did the Newton Hill work.  It went really good, but of course it sucks.  I am just so happy because I had NO PAIN in my left hip.  Makes me kinda giddy really. 

I then did about twenty minutes of core work- planks, squats with weights, bicep curls, bicycles, leg kicks, etc.  I have got to stay serious with the core stuff, especially squats and wall sits.  I have been doing three- one minute center planks almost every day which I thoroughly enjoy (not).

I saw on facebook someone also running Boston posting that they ran forty miles last week.  I ran twenty-four!  It makes me a little stressed that I do not tackle the kind of miles that the other seasoned runners do, but in talking to my husband I just need to trust in the schedule that has proven successful for me and my Chicago Marathon.

I simply cannot do those kinds of miles each and every week.  My peak will be forty miles for week fifteen.  Honestly, I have to handle my body with kid gloves.  My frame, my back, everything just cannot take that kind of abuse and still run a marathon.  It is what it is.  I never claimed to be out to win this whole thing, just want to finish before they turn the lights out and go home.