1 week to Boston

Only 7 days left until the big race. I'm just trying to stay healthy and not get sick this week. The temperature looks like it is going to be ideal and I hope it isn't windy. I can live fine with rain, but wind could slow me down. Fortunately my work load is pretty light this week so I shouldn't have any long days and I'll have plenty of time to get runs in. I think one of my biggest challenges will be having too much energy. I will only be doing about 25 miles this week leading up to the race and I'll be getting plenty of sleep so I'll have to make sure I don't get too excited out on my runs this week since I'm trying to be as fresh as possible next Monday. I'm also trying to eat healthy - no fast food, Cokes or desserts this week. I can make up for my sacrifices the week after the race :)

I ran 8.25 miles today and did 3 x 1 mile at near goal marathon pace. My splits weren't exactly right on, but they were in the ballpark. I did a 3 mile warm up, then ran the 3 x 1 mile with a 1/4 mile run at a slightly easier pace and then did a 1.75 mile cooldown. My mile splits were 6:14, 6:12, 6:09 and my 1/4 miles between were 1:42 and 1:38. The total time for the 8.25 miles was 55:15. The purpose of the workout was another workout to try to get used to running at marathon pace. I'm not sure if this workout will really be all that beneficial since the weather conditions today were dramatically different from what I'll be running in and my effort to hit the pace today will be much different than the effort to hit the pace in Boston. It was in the mid-70's and sunny out while it looks like Boston will be somewhere in the mid-40's and cloudy (Boston weather subject to change). I was already starting to get a little jittery and feel some pre-race nerves during my workout today. I seem to find that I do pretty well in races where I am nervous and get good adrenaline surge. I just need to make sure I stay calm and don't run the first 4 downhill miles at a 5:30 pace and ruin the rest of the race. If my goal race pace is 6:15, I think I am going to shoot for about around 6:10 pace over the first four miles. I might go a little quicker, but I really don't want anything under 6:05 pace over that section. I'm sure I'll be getting passed left and right but I have always done better when I run negative splits and it should be pretty easy to hit those times without much effort. There is quite a bit of elevation drop and I should be able to relax and keep my HR pretty low. It should be a good warmup and leave me a little fresher for the later parts of the race. I'm hoping that my legs have enough left in the tank to avg 6:00 pace or better after Heartbreak hill.

I found a race pace calculator that gives mile by mile adjusted splits to account for the elevation changes throughout the course- Boston Pace Predictor which will help me have an idea of how I am doing relative to my target race pace. The course has an overall elevation drop of about 450' so I'm ready to go out there and PR.