First week

Last week I completed the first week of my Boston training schedule. It was a big jump to go from thirty-five miles for my last Dublin marathon recovery week to fifty for my first Boston training week. It is certainly more than the ten per cent weekly progression increase that most recommend. However, I did reduce it from fifty-four miles that the Fitzinger and Douglas schedule prescribes. The week went quite well and my efforts to get up early and complete most of my runs in the morning worked surprisingly well. It's certainly an interesting experience to run around the Phoenix park at 06:30am in the pitch black. Thankfully I bring good flashing lights so that the Ninja bicyclists that I cannot see until it is too late see me before it is too late.
The Tuesday morning session was the most challenging, which involved nine miles with four miles at half-marathon pace. I found those miles very tough and felt much more like 10k pace. The mile splits were only just what I would consider half-marathon pace but my HR was primarily in the high 170s. I wonder did Circadian cycles influence this high HR?

Mileage w/c 30 November : 50