This is a little late, but after Hood 2 Coast I had a week of recovery… and a long run. My next goal race is the Big Bear Marathon on October 14. This is one of those Revel Downhill marathons… Starting Elevation 6630 – Final Elevation 1544…. That is almost a mile of downhill.  I figure rather than complaining about all the Revel downhill Boston Qualifiers… I will try to be one.

I am technically already qualified for Boston 2019. I ran Boston 2018 in 3:39:31, which qualifies me by 29s. Of course these last few years  (thanks Revel and other downhill marathons… in my opinion) you have needed a qualifying cushion. Last year it was more than 3 minutes. I can figure only 1 scenario where 29s qualifies me: The Boston Marathon is the number 1 marathon for producing Boston Qualifiers – and last year’s weather was so nasty that there were probably thousands fewer qualifiers there than in a normal year…. so I figure I will throw my hat in the ring next week… but I do not have my hopes up.

Anyway, so September needs to be some strong training as I try to peak for Big Bear. My plan thus far has been a bit sporadic, but September is also the start of cross country season. I will have lots of chances to get out there – sometimes twice a day. I will follow a Hansen’s strategy for these last 6 weeks….  mostly…

So last weekend, I got in a nice trail 16 miler. 16 is the longest I have to go on the plan. The plan calls for a “Strength” workout on Tuesdays:  6 miles of long repeats, a Marathon pace run on Thursday, and 16s and 10s on Saturdays and Sunday… with some mileage on  3 other days as well…

So last week I jumped into the plan with a rest day Monday, Then 3 workouts on Tuesday: The first two were with my Hillview team. The new runners has the goal of getting around the 2 schools in less than 10 minutes – 3 times with some exercise between. Returning runners and I made repeats 2 and 3 fast.  I did this with the morning practice and the afternoon practice. And then at the HDR workout I had everyone do 3 repeats of 7 minutes. So all in all I got in 10 miles with 7 of them in the 7 – 7:10 range.

Wednesday was the same workout for the team… I did mine easy for 6 more miles. Thursday, rather than shoot for marathon pace, I just ran a bit supervising the team in prep for a 5k on Saturday. Friday was a travel day, and unscheduled day off… My plan is for a tandem bike ride and a 5k on Saturday with an easy 10 miler Sunday.

August RECAP:

• Running only 81 miles
• Elliptigo – 12 miles
• Tandem Ride – 17 miles

Year To Date

• Run 710 miles
• 99 miles Elliptigo
• 95 miles on Tandem
• 746 Road Cycling

I feel that I am running shorter distances very strong…. I hope I can build enough endurance for the BQ attempt…