Three miles into the experience of a lifetime the pressure in my knee started to build.  Feelings of panic gripped me, was I going to come all this way just to not finish?  No way!!  I decided it was all or nothing, if I was going to have to stop then i was going to make it as far as I could first.  Time to ramp up the pace!  I picked a runner up in front of me and ran right on his hip.  Together we weaved in and out of hundreds, maybe even thousands of runners.  I did my best to ignore the now extreme discomfort I was feeling in my knee.  Seeing the half way point did wonders, boosting my determination and focus.

Cruising along in the later stages of the race

I crossed at 1:27 which was better than I could had dreamed going into the race with all the weight and fear of injury.  From there on out it was one mile at a time.  I kept telling myself that I would stop and stretch my IT band as soon as I saw my Dad and friend Loren, who came to Boston with me. They saw me at miles 10 and 20, but they were lost to my searching eyes, standing amongst the thousands of spectators.  So I did the only thing left to do, I kept going.  I was really struggling to keep running by mile twenty.  The lack of running over the past month and a half was starting to show as the fatigue threatened my chances of finishing.  But, at the top of heart-break hill I found new energy as hundreds of crazy screaming Boston College students urged us on! With five miles it was mostly down hill to go.

I pushed like I had never pushed before my confidence building with each mile.  Then there was only two tenths of a mile to go and I emptied what little energy I had left from the tank, finally finishing the race! I was done, I did it without stopping despite the pain and the fatigue, and that in it self felt good.  When I finally found Loren and my Dad they gave me the best news of the day. Not only had I finished, but I ran a new PR! My official time was 3 hours 8 minutes and 12 seconds!  At that moment it didn’t matter that every muscle in my body ached with soreness, and in two weeks time I would forget about any IT band problems.  I did it!  Thank you so much to everyone who supported me through the tough times and celebrated with me in my success!!

Mission Accomplished

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That Saturday I decided it was time to run, regardless of whether or not I was a hundred percent.  Sadly enough, it wasn’t the pounding headache that had me limping only 9 miles into a 12 mile run.  The run started out great, I was back where I belonged, feet seemingly floating along the pavement.  This feeling of elation turned to frustration as I felt the pressure build on the outside of my right knee.  If you have ever experienced the devastating feeling of not being able to do what you love no matter how hard you try to push through, then you will be able to relate to how i was feeling at that moment.  The IT band muscle that runs down the lateral portion of the left leg to the knee was the source of my problem.  During the week I was sick my body reacted very negatively to the lack of training and stimulus to my muscular system.

My body was so used to training using the 4 Laws that when I didn’t do any training for a week I tightened up, causing my muscular system to shift my skeletal system, ever so slightly, out of alignment.  Every time I would try to run this misalignment would cause my IT band muscle to rub against mu knee, giving me the pleasant sensation of feeling like my knee had exploded into flame!  Using the 4 Laws of training, my coach and I were able to realign my body.  The problem was that I had not developed any muscular endurance in this newly aligned position, as a result, ever time I would try to run my new stride would fatigue after a few miles, causing the all too familiar fire to return to my knee.  I became very disheartened and frustrated as the days turned to weeks and I still couldn’t run.  If it was not for the incredible prayers and support of family and friends I wouldn’t have had the motivation to keep with it.

The silver lining of the story, from a training standpoint was integration.  The one thing I was able to do to stay in shape was integrate.  So, for the next month and a half I integrated as aggressively as i could.  Integration gave my muscular system enough of the right kind of stimulus to help get my body back to where it was before the tightness settled in.  I gradually started running very short distances, with tons of integration between laps.  Before I knew it, it was time to board the flight to Boston.  I was nervous, having not run over five miles in the last 45 days leading up to race day, but there was no way I was going to miss out on this opportunity

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This time Scott and proposed a few minor adjustments to help maximize my ability to perform as race day gets closer. One area I have been focusing on a great deal more are the elevation changes of my runs. Last time I did a lot of more or less flat running without much hill work. This time around I have incorporated it quite a bit more, utilizing Beaverton’s famous Weir Road which is a mile from top to bottom and includes some serious up hill running. I am confident it will be the longer runs with more challenging inclines that will help me overcome “Heart-break Hill” in Boston. I have heard a lot about that hill and the physical as well as the mental strain it puts on even the most experienced runners.

The other main two components I feel are going to be key to my success at Boston are the speed workouts I have been doing, as well as the specifically designed supplement routines. Every Thursday has been designated my speed work day, and I can honestly say that sometimes my speed days feel more challenging than my long runs. This may be hard to believe, but any true distance runner can tell you that sprinting isn’t exactly our forte. For the last few weeks I have been on a progression where I run 12x400m at about 90sec per lap with about two-three minutes recovery in between, including neutralizers. The next week I moved up and did 12x600m at the same pace proportional to the distance.

Each week I will add 200m to the distance, and I will also be going back through each workout and drop the time I have to do them in to push my body even faster. The whole idea behind these workouts is to be able to run at a pace that’s faster than my goal pace for Boston, so that I can have that extra gear I know I am capable of. Since I want to be able to run a 6:30 mile pace I have been doing my speed workouts at a 6:00 mile pace. Eventually I will work my way up to doing 12x1200m at a 6:00 mile pace or faster. It sounds hard now but I know I’ll be ready.

Today I went back down to the 12x400m workout and had to run them all in 75sec or faster. It was a pretty big step up from the last time I did it but, surprisingly I was able to run them all in about 73sec. It was encouraging to be able to run at that pace and it has really helped me pick up the pace for my longer runs. The last and probably most important new component, which I referenced earlier, is the specific supplement routines that Scott has built for me. Each of them was built to illicit the necessary responses from my muscular system so that I can maintain good skeletal posture and muscular efficiency. These supplements have played an essential part in keeping me healthy as I push my body to meet its potential. Without them my speed, strength, power, endurance, flexibility, durability and overall efficiency of movement would be very limited.

The key to finishing strong in the end won’t have to do as much with the amount of endurance I have, but rather how efficiently my muscular system can work together, allowing it to maximize its ability to support the skeletal system, holding it in the correct alignment, which will minimize the negative side affects of the long hard pounding, and give me the best chance of meeting my goals.

Only 81 days until the Boston Marathon!!

- Josh

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As the mileage increased I continued to find success and stayed healthy as well, thanks to the many endurance circuits and supplement routines in addition to my runs.  The closer race day came and the more I thought about it, the better I felt about my chances for achieving my hard-fought goal.

The morning of Sunday October fourth brought an experience like nothing I had ever been a part of before.  Thousands of runners and cheering spectators made for an electric atmosphere.  The adrenaline coarsed through my body like rushing rapids, making me eager to start the race.  Once the race was on it was a combination muscular endurance, muscular efficiency, and sheer mental toughness that allowed me to will myself to the finish line.  As I crossed utter exhaustion consumed me, but it didn’t matter because being able to see my time as I finished made it all worth it.  My final time was 3hours 9minutes and 18 seconds! I had qualified for the Boston Marathon!!  The past couple of weeks I have started training again, this time with a new goal, to run under Three hours in the Boston Marathon…

Here is link if you want to read about my journey up to the Portland Marathon on our Train2move Site.

I look forward to sharing my quest to reach my next goal with all of you!

Josh Platt

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