State of the union and marathon goals

I thought I would just give an update on my running over the past few weeks and what my marathon goals are. In case you have not been a regular reader, I am a member of Kenyan Way running group. On Saturdays we do long runs and usually I run it with a couple of the same guys. A few weeks ago I had to do 22 miles. Coach Wade prefers us to run the last 7 at marathon pace. We ran the last 7 at 6:30 pace. A few weeks later we ran 24 miles and also finished very strong at under 6:30 pace with a couple of 6:13s on along the way. We ran this long run on pace to qualify for Boston. In between these long runs I had been doing some 13 and 14 mile long runs and had been easily running in the 6:20s for a few miles and averaging in the 6:4x-6:55 range. I have been running alternating 68 and 78 mile weeks for a while now and just recently I have added some speed work. My body feels healthy and strong but mentally I'm so tired of the training. What makes this worse is the cold rainy weather which makes it difficult to run day in and day out in the mornings. I have still been putting in the work and training and this has paid off with rewarding me with good fitness. So far I have my last 24 miler coming up for a total of 78 miles and then the following week I do 68 miles and then it is taper time baby! Hopefully in the coming days and weeks it will warm up a little and give my chilled bones a rest from the cold weather.

So what are my marathon goals you ask? Simply stated I'm looking at running a 2:55 marathon. My main objectives are:

1. To qualify for Boston
2. Break 3 hours

Based off of my times at the lower distances, this may seem like a very modest goal. It probably is. But Sean (Coach Wade) suggested running this pace since I've never really raced a marathon before, so I should just focus on the previous objectives. There's no need to increase my bonk chances. Based off of my recent performances and long runs there seems to be ample evidence to indicate that I should be able to comfortably run around 2:50 or lower. So Sean said I could also shoot for this. The plan should be to pick one of these times and stick to the plan until about mile 20. If I'm feeling good then I should just hammer it home. So this is the objective and the race plan. Going forward after this race I will be looking to run closer to my potential and try to see how low I can really go in the next marathon. One of the reasons I like choosing the more modest plan for the upcoming marathon is that it will give me a good chance to recover quickly and start my spring racing season healthy, strong and fit.