Mission Gorge, Otay Lakes, and Catalina Avenue in Point Loma as faux Boston courses.

The uphill phase also includes 1-mile uphills and running repeats of 800 meters to | mile at goal pace or steady state. This builds leg power, endurance, and confidence, while simulating the effects of the hills on the legs.

The tendency for most inexperienced runners at Boston is to go out way too fast in the first half because they are lulled into a feeling of speed and power brought on by the insidious downhills. And once a runner has blown the first half, the second half, with its increasing mixture of uphills and downhills, can be murder on the legs. We’ ve found that dialing in some longer (8- to 10-mile) extended uphill runs at goal pace before getting to the downhill phase of the training can be especially beneficial.

One of the most important aspects of the downhill phase involves running style. It’s extremely easy to overstride when doing downhill running, which can lead to serious leg muscle damage and glycogen depletion.

During this uphill/downhill phase of training, start thinking in terms of negative splits: hold yourself back in the first half of the race so that you can run a faster second half; it’s what the Kenyans tend to do, and it can work for you.

INTERVAL TRAINING

Anaerobic training is important to marathon training. It’s certainly not as important as it is for shorter races, where the shorter the race, the more of it you are going torunin an anaerobic state. In marathon racing, you typically run only about 2 percent of the race in the anaerobic range. But training at an anaerobic level offers several benefits: it allows the runner to better train atrace pace when he or she slows down from anaerobic running; it provides a more accurate “feel” for the required race pace (especially while doing anaerobic training at atrack or at a precisely measured road course); and it maximizes the fast-twitch muscles.

To get the best advantage from anaerobic training, the repeats must be longer than 800 meters. The ideal anaerobic track workout a marathoner might gradually work toward goes this way: a 20- to 30-minute warm-up, followed by 6 X 100 meter strides to loosen the long leg muscles, followed by 6 X 1-mile repeats at race goal pace, with a 400- to 800-meter “recovery” between mile repeats, and closing with a 20- to 30-minute cool-down.

If you just plain hate training on the track, the workout can be taken to the roads if you’ve got precisely marked 100-meter, 400-meter, and mile spots along the road. For some marathoners, doing the anaerobic workouts on the roads is another way of simulating the race. But the benefits of the track are

clear: the track is precisely measured so your “approximated” pace won’t be approximate at all; you don’t need to worry about traffic, stop signs, crossing roads, or other impediments common to road running; and the surface is perfect for practicing good running style while you concentrate on getting down that perfect race pace.

LONG-RUN SIMULATION

It’s difficult to simulate Boston’s unique course by running other marathons. It’s also difficult in most areas of the country to find a suitable long, sustained course comparable to Boston. But the value of simulated long runs cannot be overemphasized. Coach Squires refers to these as LCRs (long controlled runs). The ideal is a course with undulating hills for your 11- to 14-mile long runs; for the 15- to 20-mile long runs, a course with undulating hills in the first 14 miles followed by a gradual climb over the final miles is what you’ re looking for. This kind of a simulated course trains the runner for the Hopkinton-to- Wellesley segment followed by the Wellesley-to-Heartbreak Hill portions of the course. These long simulation runs should simulate everything, from running at your goal pace to hydrating and taking whatever fuel you use along the way. As you would on race day, use the first several miles to warm up your legs and get into arhythm. You want to practice this easy first few miles so that when you do it on Boston race day, it will help prevent you from blowing up beyond 20 miles. Coach Guy Avery calls this holding back in the early going “cutting down,” as in cutting down your pace. What you blow early on, you’ ll never get back later, as there’s no such thing as putting time into a bank—time burned early on is gone and unaccessible when you’ II need it in the final miles. This holding back or cutting down at Boston should be done from the start until mile 9.

THE ALL-IMPORTANT TWO-WEEK TAPER

During the final two weeks before the race (the taper period), the five elements we use are (1) 1-mile repeats; (2) mid-distance control runs with “cut down” miles at marathon race pace; (3) fast intervals below race pace; (4) easy jogs, stretching, and strides; and (5) increased calorie intake.

During that final two weeks, if any one of the five elements could be declared king, it is calorie intake. The final seven days are especially important: increase those calories from carbohydrates and make your diet as healthy as possible.

The primary purpose of the taper period is to allow all the endurance and speed to come together by backing off and allowing your body to recover from the hard, Boston-specific training. At the same time, the first four elements are

Peter Gregory BRING YOUR BEST TO BOSTON = 105

important because you want to remind your muscles what they are expected to do on race day. If you were to simply slow down to an occasional jog during the final two weeks, both your fast- and slow-twitch muscles would forget what to do on race day, your sense of race pace would vanish, and on race day your body would be desperate to “relearn” all you’ d taught it about Boston’s unique terrain and requirements.

Of course, the ideal is to take the two weeks before Boston and get a hotel room in Hopkinton from where you can run portions of the course as part of your tapering period.

But with some imagination, you can simulate the most important elements of Boston’s course in your area so that when you come in for the race ‘ on Patriots’ Day, your body will believe it has already been there. ey.

The author (#1576) down the home stretch of the 1998 Boston Marathon.

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The Chicago Shuffle & ‘Reshuffle

One of the Urban Pioneers in Ultrarunning, the Windy City Has Roared Back.

I T’S FEBRUARY 13, 1994. I’m running along the “bike path” north of Lincoln Park. Two men pass me talking about George Cheung. What we are running is George Cheung’s race. But George isn’t. George passed away a month ago. I never met him, but the men passing me speak in warm glowing terms, the warmth a terrific contrast against the chill. I get the feeling the man I’m hearing about was the guru of Chicago’s ultrarunning.

Time shift.

It’s now April 1, 2000. I’m running along the very same bike path, in the very same direction. Again I’ min arace that bears George Cheung’s name. And again I’m being passed. This time it’s by a guy wearing a “Junk Restaurant” Tshirt. The Junk was George’s own restaurant, in Chinatown, where all the runners were invited to eat after that race in 1994. Our guru’s eatery was Ultra Mecca. Nothing’s changed (the site still stands). Everything’s changed (someone else owns it). And I realize I’m running faster now.

Of course, this doesn’t attest to any improvement on my part. It’s just that today is 40 degrees warmer than it was the last time I ran an ultra on George’s home course.

That was also my first ultra—ever! This one today (on April Fool’s Day, no less) is my umpteenth. But for Chicago there have been none in between.

The annual Chinese New Year SOK (you could also run just 10K) was George’s vision of a 12-year cycle to match each sign of the Chinese zodiac. That last one celebrated the Year of the Dog. I have always felt sad that George never lived to see the fulfillment of his vision. He died of cancer, just one month short, on January 11, 1994.