Reflecting on training thus far

I have just been skimming my marathon training logs and saw that amazingly I should hit 1000 miles this year right on my marathon this October 10th. I believe this Summer has been some of my best training yet in my short (1.25 years) running career. I am 2 weeks away from my second marathon ever. My goal is 3:50, but my "not-so-secret" hope is to run a 3:40.

So, the training plans I have utilized were Hal Higdon's Novice supreme and the Runner's World Smart Coach plans. I liked the RW plan because it got me used to planning the time to run frequent longish runs (mostly 7-8 miles) during the week. I believe that this will allow me to get used to higher mileage training programs as I try to improve. I haven't been doing so much speed work and I have a feeling that this must change to qualify me for Boston.

I have just gotten comfortable with running at a low 8-minute mile pace for 5-8 mile spans, but I have only run low 9-minute paces for my long runs. I feel like I did C-level work on my aerobic base building. I gave myself the C-grade because I felt very fatigued during my 20-mile run this past week, I only did one twenty miler, I quit during a 16 miler (finishing only 14 miles), and I did not train with proper fuel but for my last two long runs. I did C+ work for speed training. This grade because I actually did some speed work on the track, but I only did a 2 interval training runs and I did not enter any 5Ks or 10Ks. My strength hills and stamina work was a C. I did a few marathon pace and tempo runs, but I did not intentionally run any hills. However, my running locations tend to be very hilly on the geography side - the average elevation gain of all my outdoor runs this Summer is 1225 feet. On dedication and effort I definitely give myself an A-, because I didn't miss any workouts (though I am in danger, because I am going on an out of country business trip this Saturday and will not be able to run this Sunday) and I challenged myself to a psuedo 10K race where I clocked a time less than 45 seconds slower than my PB.

In all, I give myself a C+ training grade this season, which if scored on a curve with other rookie marathoners might eke out a B+ grade. I made it past my first marathon and trained for my second that makes me sure I am not a fly-by-night runner. I kept a fairly decent training log; annoying my Facebook friends with daily updates i'm afraid. I expect to PR in at least one race per year let's hope that I do not disappoint.

Happy running!

Thursday Tempo Run

8.0 miles - 1:05:48 - 8:13 min/mi average pace

Treadmill tempo run today. 1 mile warm up and cool down. 6 miles in 46:41 for an average pace of 7:46 min/mi. Good stuff, now for some football :)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Tuesday Easy Run

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Tuesday Easy Run

8.01 miles - 1:03:31 - 7:55 min/mi

I didn't read my training plan today and ran 8 miles instead of 7. I also let my competitive juices get to me because I was running on a track instead the road and ran almost a minute and a half faster than my target pace. Since my tempo run on Thursday was 6 miles at a 7:57 min/mi I could swap this workout for that one.

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Keep rising to the top

7.02 - 57:06 - 8:08 min/mi - 1,350 ft elevation gain

I ran a rare after work run today. It was hot relative to my regular early morning runs. I looked up a 7 miler from about a month ago to run. I forgot how hilly it was. An old Dougie Fresh song made me smile while climbing one of the hills.

"Keep rising to the top... Give it all you got, give it all you got!"


Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Friday Easy Run

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Nothing great is easy

I wanted to quit during my long run today. I had a scheduled 16 miler today. At mile 15 I stopped and walked, at mile 12 I made my plans to stop two miles short when my route passed my house again, at mile 1 I asked myself if I could execute this run at all.

Yesterday was the CAN DC Alumni Flag Football tournament and I found out that my anaerobic muscle fibers were not properly prepared for the effort. I woke for my run hobbled with stiff muscles and a sore left big toe.

After I decided to get the run over with, I worked hard to maintain the goal pace. I succeed for 12 miles then I thought I had had enough and wanted to go home. Soon I remembered that I had already been through worse physical exertion and that I need to push through this for the marathon. I passed my house at mile 14 and kept trudging along forgetting my goal pace and finally slowed to determined walk at mile 15. With 400 meters to go I picked it up to finish strong and learned my lesson of the day - nothing great is ever easy.

Weekly stats:

• Tues: 7 miles - 57:33 - 8:13 min/mi
• Thurs: 6.8 miles - 55:19 - 8:08 min/mi (5 mile tempo run at 7:41 min/mi)
• Fri: 6 miles - 54:24 - 9:04 min/mi
• Sun: 16.05 miles - 2:35:10 - 9:40 min/mi
• Totals: 35.85 miles
  

Making Progess

Week two of the new marathon training plan brought four quality runs. In this plan I run Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Thursday was a speed work day and my birthday. I capped the week off with a 14 mile run that really gave me a gauge of my fitness.

• Tues (8/18) - 1:07:35, 7.86 miles, 8:35 min/mi
• Thurs (8/20) - 53:17, 6.00 miles, 8:35 min/mi
  
  • Speed work: 2x1600 - target 7:22 each, actual 7:14 and 7:38
    
• Fri (8/21) - 1:04:26, 7.22 miles, 8:55 min/mi
• Sun (8/23) - 2:05:15, 14.01 miles, 8:56 min/mi

This Tuesday's easy run showed me a glimpse of what I hope to train at for my next marathon.

• Tues (8/25) - 00:57:33, 7.00 miles, 8:13 min/mi

I found that I could run 7 miles at 8:13 min/mile pace with very little problem. Maybe this is a new easy pace for me, which might mean we can see a Boston qualifier in 2010!

My birthday gift to myself... speedwork on a 90 F day

I spent my second birthday in a row challenging myself with a tough run. Unlike last year it wasn't just a random long run that brought me my first real "bonk" due to not eating before going on a 12 mile run. (Note: this would not happen today, but then it was only my first month running.) No, today's run was just some speedwork and it wasn't too bad.

When I got to the track there were birds circling above me. What was that about? It was a little hot, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I normally run in the early AM, but today I had to go to court to contest a traffic ticket (I did not have to pay - the police officer didn't show up). Instead of going to work when I was finished I just decided to spend some quality time running since I had already cleared my schedule due to the traffic court.

So I set out to due two one mile sprint at 7:22 min/mi pace with 800 meter rest intervals and a warmup/cooldown that covered 3 miles total.
Injury report: the ankle is still painful, but I plan on icing it and staying off it as much as possible. It is not a sideliner.