Pace, Power, Discipline

20 seconds.  That was all that was between me and a sub-1 hour 8 miles on this morning's run (7:33 average).  I just checked that against my training runs in the build up to White Rock last year, and that is right up there with them.  I mean ok, I did a few really fast ones (I think 58:27 was my best), but this is a very good omen for the kickoff of Boston training (and the start of Jantastic) in the new year.

And while the runs may not feel quite as easy as they did last year, I know I have a lot of wiggle room to get faster.  Expect the return of my weekly training logs on the blog in January.

The reason?  It appears that Boston is a big motivator.  It is lurking on the horizon and calling my name.  There's something about having that one chance to do something really well that makes you want to give it your best.  And just as last year's White Rock training mantra was "no excuses", I seem to have adopted "pace, power, discipline" this go round.

The first two are obvious, but they are facilitated by the third.  And it is that last one I have tended to struggle with.  As you may know, I do all of my runs really early in the morning (the latest I tend to start is 5:30 on Sundays), and it is sometimes a struggle to get out of bed.  But on the other hand, it is a really big motivator to keep pushing in a race when you feel tired - come on, look at how many early mornings you've devoted to this.

So to the plan - a Boston-specific training plan.  Nothing concrete at the moment, rather a rough notion of what I need to do.  My midweek runs will be mostly devoted to speed.  I need to resurrect the old "10 for Tuesday" to add to the existing weekly race with speed merchant (and fellow Brit) James on Wednesday, and Thursday's pace run with Clea.

That leaves weekends more focused on power.  And by power I mean hills.  There is a nice (aka evil) set of hills we know as "Stratford" I may add on to the Saturday runs (which are relatively hilly anyway), and I could switch some of the Sunday Danish runs to the old Ladera Norte route I used to roam.

Because for Boston I need to practice running down hills as much as running up them.

And finally, congratulations to my brother for getting a spot at London.  That's a pretty awesome race for your first marathon little bro.  And as London is the week after Boston, maybe we can compare notes as we go.

Just don't do anything stupid and get injured again!!!