To choose just one part of Boston is tough as it was an incredible experience that I will never forget. But if I have to choose my favourite moment of Boston, it was definitely turning the corner onto Boylston, as it truly is everyone's olympic moment. My fiance, my two girlfriends and my aunt were all cheering within the last 500m of the race. And I am pretty sure I heard them cheer. There were so many people there cheering despite the terrible weather conditions, it is a pretty surreal experience. But even better than that was when I crossed the finish line and saw my parents who have been my number one supporters since I started running at the young age of 12. The other thing that made this so special is that I raised money for the Alzheimer's society for my efforts of training for and running the Boston marathon because my dad has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers so to say it was a special moment would be an understatement.
2. What was your fuelling like the day before, during & after?
Fueling is so important when it comes to marathon racing. I think one really important part of fueling is planning especially when you are traveling for a race. I had planned out my meals before we left Toronto. On Sunday the day before breakfast consisted of banana and oatmeal (we made a grocery trip when we arrived in Boston). Lunch I researched a restaurant that would fit into my food preferences. Although it took us on an adventure through a rough area in Boston (who knew there were the same streets in each suburb). So when we finally made it to Michigan Ave in Cambridge we found the vegan restaurant I was after and it was well worth it. Dinner the night before I had chicken, vegetables and rice (a classic in my nutrition plan).
The day of the race I had two packets of instant oatmeal and a banana and peanut butter. I ate this earlier (about 5hrs pre race) than I would typically on race day as you have to leave so early to get to the race start. On the way to the athlete's village I ate half a cliff bar and some power gel gel blasts.
During the race I took water often (it was available every mile). I consumed four gels throughout the race approximately every 9km.
Post race I wanted some comfort food and wanted it fast so once I thawed out (it was freezing cold and raining during the race) we found a near by burger joint (my favourite food). I would not recommend this as good recovery food but it does help replace some of the lost calories. Later in the evening we went for deep dish pizza to celebrate, again not ideal recovery food but definitely helps with the calorie replacement.
3. How long was your taper for Boston? What's your best taper tip?
Hmm the taper... my least favourite part of training. I love running, I love the mileage, I love the speed work and I hate taking time off of it. I definitely understand the benefit and often have to tell people to take some rest but when it comes to myself I need to be told, so I am so thankful for my coach and therapist around me that help keep me under check. My overall mileage and long run distances started to come down one month before race day. I was forced into a bit of an early taper as I had a bit of a strain in my quad two weeks before the race, but it was probably my body telling me I needed a break. Luckily I listened to my body and took some rest and was treated (chiro and massage) and was able to be pain free for race day. The week of the race my coach says the runs are just for 'sanity'... which I believe. So my longest run that week was 8km , total mileage amounting to about 35km and I took two days off.
4. What, besides running prepped you for your race?
As much as I love running and if it were up to me I would spend all of my time training running this is not the way to be your best. A few things that definitely helped me were using the alter G treadmill to help offload my legs. I ran more kilometers than I have ever run in this training session so I knew it was going to be hard on my body. So once my long runs started to be around 30km I used the alter G treadmill the day before to help offload my legs. I was amazed at the difference this made! It is definitely worth a try as a training tool. Check it out
http://www.alterg.com/
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I also used the recovery boots at The Runner's Academy as much as possible to help my legs recover.
An area I still want to improve on is strength training. I did strength training 1-2x/wk during this last training session. This is of the utmost importance when training for marathons... you need to be STRONG in order to run a marathon and I think sometimes people forget this and get lost in and amongst all of the mileage. I would definitely suggest getting some professional help when it comes to strength training. You do not want to waste your time in the gym and there is a lot to be gained from a good strength program.
Of course regular chiropractic and massage therapy helped me stay to healthy and get the quality training in required to perform my best!
If you would like to read more about my training and execution of the Boston Marathon read my blog at
www.torunningchiro.com
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