First and foremost, it's what my marathon bib will say. My first was "ShutUpLegs!"
The second is the phrase it comes from: Meglio un giorno da leone che cento da pecora. Literally translated, this means "It's better to have one day as a lion than one hundred as a sheep." More figuratively and specific to my race, "Leave it all on the course." Fight pain, fight doubt, fight the desire to quit.
This is how I felt about Sunday's run. It was the peak run of this cycle, 20 miles with the last 10 @ marathon pace (MP), but to add a little fun, I scheduled 10 miles @ MP+30seconds pace the day before.
I went out on Sunday wanting to hit somewhere around 8:00/mile (at the fastest) and 8:20/mile (at the slowest) for my first 10. Normally, I'd start a 20 miler with 5 around 8:35-8:50/mile average, then the next 5 would be settled in around 8:30/mile. So this was already pushing it. Then adding the MP miles...
It hurt. The rollers through the neighborhood on the north rim of Newport Back Bay shred my legs and left me hurting quite a bit. Humidity was surprisingly low, so by mile 17, I was caked in sweat and completely dehydrated. The last 3 were a struggle holding pace, and my effort level and heart rate showed it. But as I came around the last corner from Jamboree onto Eastbluff and threw one of the most pathetic sprints I've ever thrown, I knew the run was in the bag and I was ready.
I officially entered my 3-week taper yesterday, though the miles don't start falling off significantly until next week. Perhaps not coincidentally, I had a dream about absolutely crushing my goal time last night. That was nice.
Recap highlights since last time:
4/4 - 8 mile tempo run: 2.5mile warm-up, 4x 5min at increasing effort from moderate to threshold, then 5min at 10k pace, followed by a brisk cooldown
4/6 - 15 miles with 10 at(below) MP: 2mile warm-up, 5 at MP-5seconds, 1mile easy, 5 at MP-10seconds, 2mile cooldown
4/9+4/10 - 10 + 20, as described above
4/12 - 8 mile tempo run: same as above, but the tempo portion was run about 4-5 seconds faster, on average, and the cooldown was 1.5miles at MP-10 followed by .5 at MP+10
Tomorrow, I'll hit 1000 miles training for this marathon. I broke 137 hours today. Exciting.
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