Spring Marathon, Take 2

So while the Boston Marathon was the culmination of a lot of work, and it was an amazing experience and I will run it again (likely not until I hit a new age group), let's face it: the record heat made the resulting time a bit of a bummer. If you compared my finishing place this year to 2011, it means I probably would've run a PR 3:11-3:13ish in Boston in ideal conditions. But you won't find PR's at the "would've" shed, so I'm still stuck at 3:17:30.

The good news? I'd previously agreed to do the Cleveland Marathon as a Team Type 1 event on May 20. At the time, I thought it would be a "fun" marathon; zero pressure, run it by feel, enjoy Cleveland (side note: I've been to Cleveland twice and was surprised both times how much I enjoyed this seldom-ballyhooed town), etc. But now, well, now there's work to do.

After a week of recovery, this week's going to be around 44 miles, including 16-18 on Sunday. Next week will be up over 50. I threw in a few tempo-ish miles this week and next week will push the leg turnover a little more, all in the name of running somewhere between 3:10-3:15 at Cleveland.

With the Boston monkey off my back, I'm definitely not as obsessed with marathon time as I used to be, but I am a little bummed that my last 2 focus marathons were derailed by days of 74 degrees and 87 degrees. Ideally, I'd like more "typical" marathon weather for Cleveland.

After Cleveland, I'll have a very down few weeks of training - back-to-back Tour de Cures and a vacation to Florida will see to that, though after this particular long build, it's probably a great idea anyway. And after all of that, I'll begin a looooong slow build up to......... The North Face 50 Mile Endurance Challenge in Atlanta in October!! I'm very excited to do my second 50 miler, and unlike my first one (nearly all rail-trail), this one is serious, with hills, mountains, stones and more. It'll be cool.

But first, there's Cleveland, because while I'm less obsessed about the clock than I used to be, I'm still a bit obsessed.

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