Boston Marathon Training and Gear Update: 2 weeks to go

My final weeks of training before Boston have gone very well. Given the long cold winter speed work has been difficult here in New England. My friend and training advisor Fasteddie Knapp whose blog has featured great pre Boston advice put me on a sharpening regime the last 3 weeks.  10 miler marathon pace with first mile slow to simulate the start, day off, 5K@10K pace, day off, 10@ half marathon pace, day off. I will complete the 2nd cycle of this program tomorrow. My second set has been considerably faster the my first without much additional effort so I am sharper and ready for race pace.

I am 90% sure I will run in the Hoka One One Bondi.B at Boston. See my other reviews of the Bondi.B. On my last 10 miler I was able to very start at 8:15 per mile pace and finish sub 8:00 per mile pace for the overall workout. With correct forward leaning body position which takes a few miles to lock in there is an almost erie sense of floating along faster and faster, without road shock as the miles go by. More than a bit disconnected from the pavement, a good thing, as one can focus on stride cadence and form, like a metronome going faster and faster...  I did make a 1/4" deep saw cut across the forefoot flex groove to get a bit more flex and this seems to help responsiveness.

Since receiving them I have run every day in the Salomon EXO Slab II light compression shorts reviewed here. The light compression is not restrictive but I think very effective in reducing road shock to the quads and supporting my often tight hamstrings. Come to think of it haven't thought of the hamstrings since I got them. I know it is not just the Hokas keeping my legs fresh after this series of up tempo runs as after my 22:04 5K workout in adidas adi zero rockets my legs the next day didn't seem to know I had pushed the pace the day before.

Finally, I ordered the new Nike+SportWatch GPS  when it went on presale at Nike.com yesterday. Retail $199. From what I see at the nike.com online store it is already out of stock(4/1).

My Garmin 205 is 4 years old, bulky and difficult to see through sunglasses or in low light. I really like the white on black large digits on an LCD screen. It can also be used with the Nike+ shoe sensor for indoor runs or where GPS is not available. From this video it appears it also record heart rate via a Polar heart rate strap. USB connector is built into the wrist band so no cables or cradles but also no wireless synch.  First review as soon as I test on the run.