Weekly Summary – 130 miles in 13 runs. Two great workouts including a really big workout on Saturday, the last until Hartford. Less than 2 weeks to go!
Lunes, 22 Septiembre, 2014 – 9am: Easy shorter run as I had to finish early. Ran 60’ on LL. Felt surprisingly decent after yesterday’s heat/humidity monstrosity. Running under 7’00 pace by the end. Total run 8M+ in 60’.
3pm: Ran at battle road. A bit tired at first but felt great once I got going. A beautiful, beautiful run too. A great day and tons of wildlife including: 2 gaggles of wild turkies (1 with babies), the giant cow (and friends), 2 snapping turtles (one baby that I saved from the road and one basket-ball sized one that I avoided), several red-tailed hawks, and a fox. This is what you get for going out to the sticks! Felt quite good running by the end and ran the last few km under 4’00, last at 3’35. Total run 13M++ (~13.4) in 1h32.
XT: Core, 12’.
Martes, 23 Septiembre, 2014 – 9am: Ran easy with Dave through the fells. Beautiful morning and a great run. Ran mid res and but kept going around the second pond and took skyline trail back on the other side. Very rough and steep, probably running like 11’00 pace. Got lost a few times but managed to find our way back. Very fun. Back on mid res and then tacked on solo around lakes to the gym for lift. Total run 12M+ in 1’35.
4pm: Ran solo on rev long lakes. Felt good, groggy at first but woke up by the end. Finished with 2km at MP then HMP (3’12, 3’03), feeling relaxed. Total run 9M+ in 60’.
XT: Upper body lift
Miercoles, 24 Septiembre, 2014 – 9am: Workout Wednesday! A moderate workout today with the last really big one on Saturday. Ran longish warmup, 5km with David on fields and then another 3k solo. Stopped and did drills and then workout.
Goal was 12-18km (a big range) with 3’ on/1’ off (similar to last Thursday’s workout). The “on” pace was to be between HM and marathon pace and the “off” as moderate (~6’00-20/mile, 3’45-55/km).
I had thought that if I was feeling good, I’d try to keep the “on” sections at goal HM pace, which I did end up doing. I started out running about 3’03/km (4’55/mile) and feeling pretty good, so I tried to just maintain that. The “off” pace was right around 6’00/mile for the most part, so my overall pace was quite quick. Really this workout was more like 1000s with 60sec recovery at 6’00 pace, which sounds a lot harder when you put it like that.
It didn’t feel too hard ever, though. I passed 5km in just over 16’ and 5M (8k) in 25’45. This was quicker than I’d expected, but it didn’t feel strained at all. I never tried to accelerate either the rest of the work. I think the rest got a bit slower in the last 5k, but the “on” segments still stayed the same. Passed 10km in 32’0x and decided to try to get to 16km (10M-). Took only about 30s rest before the last rep and finished with 800m just a bit more focused in about 2’23. Total work was 16km in 51’14 (5’09/M, 3’12/km avg).
Cooled down short to the gym for leg circuit after and then jogged c-loop back to the house. Total run 18M-.
Splits
1 (3’18.1)
2 (3’16.0) 6’34.1
3 (3’12.4) 9’46.5
4 (3’14.2) 13’00.7
5 (3’04.4) 16’05.1 (16’05.1)
6 (3’14.4) 19’19.5
7 (3’13.2) 22’32.7
8 (3’13.1) 25’45.8
9 (3’15.3) 29’01.1
10 (3’03.6) 32’04.7 (15’59.6)
11 (3’13.7) 35’18.4
12 (3’14.3) 38’32.7
13 (3’15.7) 41’48.4
14 (3’17.6) 45’06.0
15 (3’01.9) 48’07.9 (16’03.2)
16 (3’06.9) 51’14.8
4pm: Easy shakeout on the fields. A bit bloated at first but felt much better by the end. 9’00 -> 7’00. Total run 4M+ in 32’.
XT: Legs at the gym. Felt good. 3 sets of [step ups (15x each leg, 20 lb bar), walking overhead lunge (20x, 5lb plate), dynamic lunge (12x each leg, 20lb bar), deep squat (12x, 30 lb bar).
Jueves, 25 Septiembre, 2014 – 10am: Very easy run solo on rev LL. Felt fine, stiff at first but much better by the end. Total run 8.5M in 64’.
3pm: Another very easy run. Same route. Felt fine. Total run 7M+ in 50’.
XT: Core, 12’.
Viernes, 26 Septiembre, 2014 – 10am: Dropped Mariana off at work and then ran easy solo on the Charles from her office. Felt fine, beautiful day again! Total run 9M in 63’.
4pm: Ran 3M solo then 3M VERY slow with Mr. C in Concord (~10’ pace). Still a beautiful day and nice to really shake out before a big effort tomorrow. Total run 6M in 52’.
XT: Hips, ice bath before dinner.
Sabado, 27 Septiembre, 2014 – 8am: Last big workout today before Hartford. Special block #2. Goal was 12-15km @ goal HM pace (~3’03-05/km or 4’55/mile) in the morning and a few hours later 10km mod + 10-12km @ goal MP (3’12-15/km, ~5’10/mile).
Got up early ~5am, had a cup of black coffee and jogged about 1km easy just to wake up and then had a whole toasted plain bagel.
My stomach wasn’t feeling great, I think I ate too late. Left for workout 1 around 7:15am, wanted to start right at 8am as that’s when Hartford goes off. Ran the workout at Long lakes 8km loop.
Warmed up short, stopped and did drills. Didn’t feel too great, maybe the early hour, maybe the food, who knows. Went into it and was bummed to see 3’07 first km, but it’s uphill so I relaxed and then fell into a good rhythm of 3’01-04. I actually started to feel very good after maybe 4-5km (5km passed in 15’20). At 6km I remember thinking – wow, I feel okay right now.
At 8km (5M-, one lap of the loop), I was at 24’29 and feeling good still. This is similar to where I was at Lone Gull at this point, but then I struggled mightily the last 2km. Today I felt much better and managed to maintain pace through 10km (30’35, 15’15 second 5k).
I could feel that I was getting into really intense territory after 10-11km, and I made the decision to run to 13km and stop. I didn’t want this to be an all-out race effort, just a good, long continuous run at a hard effort.
By the time I got to 13km, I did feel like I could have made it to 15km, but I wanted to be cautious, as this was already a great run. Also worth noting that I did take some gatorade during this run, but only once at 8km. .
The total run was 13km (8.1M) in 39’44 (3’03.7/km, 4’55.7/mile). I believe this was a PR for 12km (36’42) and 8M (39’25).
Cooled down very short. Total run 13M+.
Splits
1 (3’07.3)
2 (3’01.6) 6’08.9
3 (3’04.7) 9’13.6
4 (3’02.9) 12’16.5
5 (3’03.8) 15’20.3 (15’20.3)
6 (3’03.4) 18’23.7
7 (3’03.2) 21’26.9
8 (3’02.1) 24’29.0
9 (3’04.8) 27’33.8
10 (3’01.9) 30’35.7 (15’15.4)
11 (3’03.3) 33’39.0
12 (3’03.3) 36’42.3
13 (3’02.0) 39’44.3
11:30am: Workout #2 started about 2.5 hours after the end of workout #1. I had 1 gatorade in between and maybe a dozen pretzels, but nothing else.
The goal for the afternoon, as with special block #1, was to simulate late-stage marathon fatigue. We did this by combining it with the earlier workout, running a moderate 10km to tire the legs, and finally ending with 10-12km at goal MP.
This went extremely well. Much better thna last time. I was right on pace and the last 12km at MP felt really manageable, instead of feeling like I was really struggling just to finish.
Last time I wrote about how that last section really felt like the end of a marathon, and I think it did in terms of the muscular pain and fatigue this time, but I also felt much stronger and more able to push through that. I’m not sure if I’m just minimizing that fatigue or getting better at fighting it or some combination of the two, but hopefully that’ll carry over to race day.
Anyway, the splits were ideal. The first 10km right around 90% of MP (35’00) and then 12km at 3’12.7/km (5’10.1/mile) avg. for 38’32 (16’03 at 5km, 32’07 at 10km). This is sub 2h16 marathon pace! Wow.
Cooled down very short again and then ate and drank a lot. Total work was 22km in 1’13’33 (3’20/km, 5’22/mile) and the total run was 15M+. 28 mile day.
1 (3’29.5)
2 (3’31.6) 7’01.1
3 (3’30.4) 10’31.5
4 (3’30.7) 14’02.2
5 (3’30.9) 17’33.1 (17’33.1)
6 (3’30.9) 21’04.0
7 (3’31.0) 24’35.0
8 (3’31.7) 28’06.7
9 (3’29.4) 31’36.1
10 (3’24.6) 35’00.7 (17’27.6)
11 (3’12.4) 38’13.1
12 (3’11.6) 41’24.7
13 (3’13.3) 44’38.0
14 (3’13.3) 47’51.3
15 (3’12.7) 51’04.0 (16’03.3)
16 (3’13.2) 54’17.2
17 (3’13.1) 57’30.3
18 (3’11.9) 60’42.2
19 (3’13.0) 63’55.2
20 (3’12.8) 67’08.0 (16’04.0 – 10km in 32’07.3)
21 (3’13.3) 70’21.3
22 (3’12.0) 73’33.3 (12km in 38’32.6)
Domingo, 28 Septiembre, 2014 – AM: OFF, slept late after getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Berlin Marathon – SO worth it with a HUGE new World Record by Kimetto.
1pm: Drove to Plum Island with David to enjoy a last beautiful fall day. Ran on the dirt road and trails there. Felt a bit stiff from the long drive and big day yesterday, but warmed up by the end. Super beautiful run and day, so can’t complain! Total run 9M in 75’.
XT: Hips.
Leave A Comment