Big Plans-Qualify for Boston
Taper and Nutrition

Had a light week of training-last big run was in Lake Placid on Sunday Mar 13/05. I ran from Mirror Lake Inn on the Ironman Course for a total of 13 km hard with w/u and cool down. Wasn’t terribly pleased with the run-but considering I had just eaten the Wasabi Beef Wrap and the weather was cold and snowy was happy with the 4:42 pace. Skied for the next two days-had a great time. Wednesday morning did a heavy stretch following a short bike and run on a treadmill. Drove home all day Wednesday, got home at 9:00 pm. Stretched each night-focused in hips, hamstrings and the flexors. I was feeling a little nervous about hitting the 3:15 now.

Thursday and Friday I had pasta a lunch and protein and starch for dinner-limited my fiber intake. Friday I took 500 ml of Gatorade to work-nursed it through out the day.

Race Day
Woke up at 5:40, had a hot shower to loosen up-had a bowl of oatmeal. Traveled to the race with Les and Drew-had a bottle of Gatorade in the hour preceding the race. Got our race kits, went to the washroom and went back to Les’s car to keep warm-temp was near 0°C and windy. Made our way to the start-5 minute warm-up followed by some stretching (minimal).

Started the race, had my Titanium Columbia Jacket on with a Coolmax long sleeve underneath-tights, mitts and a hat. Went out a little fast-felt effortless-first three miles were completed in 21:46-should have been closer to 22:30. Slowed down to goal pace o 7:26 and held near this pace until mile 18. Course was quite hilly-didn’t expect this. Nutrition wise-feel I was under nourished. I took one cup of Gatorade every 2 miles-problem was-they were only a third full-probably didn’t consume enough-had a gel at 8-mile, no more.

Miles 1-18 felt rather effortless-while on the out and back along the highway the wind was more prevalent and it was rather lonely. Miles 19 and 20 were not stellar 8:15, but still on track overall-knew I was in a little trouble. Absolutely hit the wall at mile 20-never had it come on so suddenly-quads and hamstrings both seized at the same time-felt helpless. It actually hurt to walk-but didn’t think I could run anymore-after walking for one minute I calculate my time-needed to run 6 7 minute miles to hit goal-knew this was out of the question. Walked along and Les caught me-told him that I was cooked! He encouraged me in his own special way-you mean you can’t even shuffle-look I am not running, I said no, I am screwed. He went on-out of guilt and fear of hypothermia-I started-managed to get it to 9:30. Certainly not stellar-however it beat the cold and the 18 min miles I was doing while walking, ran for the next 2.5 miles. Started to walk again and then finished with 2 miles of running.

I haven’t hurt like this for a long while-I grew today!