“Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here.”
-Captain John Parker
I have been sticking pretty strictly to my 16-mile training plan, but following anything completely can be a challenge in itself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to change up my long run day for a Tuesday night race which gave me a free Saturday. Since I knew I would be running 10 miles on Tuesday, I decided to use the time to do my speed workout that I would have normally done on Wednesday. I would need a rest day on Wednesday after the race, so I spent my Saturday doing a short 5-mile tempo run. I easily hit my target speed and was feeling pretty good that I decided I would run on Sunday with the easy short run I was going to do on Monday. I did my cross-training on Monday and not running helped save my legs a bit for the race on Tuesday…phew! It all seemed to work out for week six – rest on Wednesday, cross-training on Thursday and Friday and end with 14 miles on Saturday.
Since I had more time allowed for my easy 6-mile run and didn’t need to get to work, I decided to go to one of my favorite places to run – the Battle Road Trail in Minuteman National Park. It’s only 2.25 miles from my house, so on long run days it is possible to get there by foot. But I decided to park at Meriam’s Corner and run to Paul Revere’s capture site and back which would make it just over 6 miles.
The park is located in the towns of Concord, Lexington and Lincoln MA, where the start of the Revolutionary war took place. It is amazing that I live so close to where this nation was born and it’s great to be able to run by such historic sights. The trail itself is packed dirt and fairly flat with just a few rolling hills to give a challenge. It is quite scenic in parts, with open fields and historic buildings. You can really imagine yourself back in time, before roads were paved and houses were intricate.
I was running through history, as I jogged on the path where battles between British soldiers and the Concord militia once took place. Eventually I hit 3 miles, but continued on about a tenth of a mile further to reach the monument at the sight where Paul Revere was captured during his famous midnight ride.
I turned around to head back, glad that I had made it out here for one of my training runs. Next week it’s back to the normal schedule, which means going back to some of the same old, same old routes. However, next Saturday I may be trying to incorporate some of this path into a long run. Stay tuned for that!
Q's Marathon Training 