Track and Field Blogs - Nick Arciniaga

Just about 2 weeks left until the big race. I am so relieved that I am finally rounding into shape. It has been quite a winter and it looks like we have seen the last of it out here in Michigan. In 1 week Pat Rizzo, myself, and the womens team will be heading to Florida for a week before heading up to Boston. Florida will be a much needed 'vacation' where we can run our last workouts and get our final preparations ready for the big day.

Over the past week we have all had our 2 biggest workouts of the entire segment. I am certain that were all glad to have it over with. First was the 26.2 kilometer simulator, which for myself was the biggest worry that I have had over the past month. My goal was to run it at race pace, 5:09 per mile, but night before we got another 2 inches of snow. Knowing myself and how I am terrible at running in snow, I pretty much talked myself out of this workout mentally. I was pretty negative the whole time leading up to it, even minutes before.

Well, the instant I started running all that negativity was gone. I'm not certain why really, it could be that I was running so easy on the downhill(as most know Boston starts off with a huge downhill), or it could have been that I just did not care anymore and I was going to run until I collapsed. In either case, the kilometers and the miles seemed to just fly by the whole workout, even during the long, steep, muddy hill sections from 12k-20k. I ended up finishing with my last 5k as fast as my first 5k and feeling great.

The simulator showed me that on a snow-covered and/or muddy course at Boston that I can run a 2:16 or better. Which is really good because there is most likely going to be some good footing in Boston, which hopefully means I'll be able to hit my goal up sub-2:15.

The 2nd of the big 2 workouts was our 2 x 6 mile repeats around stony. Goal pace for myself was 5:04 per mile(5 seconds faster than race pace). I ended up averaging 5:01 per mile, and feeling pretty comfortable at that. The women all had great simulator workout and 2x6, as did my training partner, Pat Rizzo. So going into these last 2 weeks or tapering I am very confident and excited about what we are all going to do in Boston.

End.