Training log - Week ending 10/14/12

This week was 77 miles of “real running” and 16 “miles” pool running, no swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.  

The first half of this week was focused on recovery from my half-marathon, which I actually bounced back pretty quickly from – I’ll give equal credit to the fact that the course was flat and that higher weekly mileage makes for a quick recovery.    I also used the first part of this week to do a three day (Sunday-Tuesday) course of antibiotics to try to finally kick the bug I’ve been fighting for forever.  Essentially, the opinion of my ENT was that I’ve got a mild but persistent sinus infection, and it wasn’t going to clear without the drugs.  I hate antibiotics, but they’re a necessary evil in cases like this.  And this has gone on for well over a month.

So did the drugs, recovered from the race, and returned to training, with a focus now towards my marathon – this is my peak training time before taper.  Of course, I still have no idea what to target for for my marathon goal time.  My half last weekend was run in conditions that make it pretty much useless as a predictor (unless Philly’s like that….please no).  My workouts and shorter races point at certain times, but I know better than to use that.  

So, proposed 3:10 as a goal time to my coach, the idea being that it’s a conservative but not totally sandbagging time.  And I do want to be conservative, since a) it’s my first marathon and b) between the darn sinus infection and insane work demands, I haven’t had the best training fall.  And we decided that I could go out pacing for that time, and then re-evaluate after the half-way point whether it was too conservative and I needed to up.

Thus, I ran my long run this weekend trying to lock in 7:15 as my marathon pace, and it just felt wrong – way too easy (famous last words, perhaps?  I hope not).  In the end, I ended up running quicker, and still finished my long run feeling like I could have run another 5 miles at a faster pace without much issue.

While having MP feel really easy is a nice problem to have, it’s making me think that perhaps the MP I’m locking in is overly conservative and sandbagging.  Hmm.  I’ll wait a few days, and see how I feel after this long run, and then discuss with coach.   And far better to run these final long runs on the slow side then to practice an overambitious “MP” that I have little hope of actually sustaining on race day (and dig myself into a hole while doing so). 

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 75 minutes of easy pool-running for “7.5 miles”.  2 very easy miles (8:33 pace) and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 10 miles very easy (8:33 pace), followed by upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   In the morning, 11.5 miles easy (8:23) followed by yoga.    Later did another 3.5 miles easy (7:54 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, upper body strengthwork and then 35 minutes of easy pool-running for “3.5 miles”  plus light injury prevention work.    4 miles easy (7:59 pace) in the afternoon, foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, 13.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 32:09 (6:28 pace, split as 6:33, 6:29, 6:27, 6:22, and 6:15) followed by injury prevention work and 20 minutes of easy pool-running.  Pilates and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, 11 miles easy (7:55 pace).    Upper body strengthwork, injury prevention stuff, and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning,  a long run of 21.5 miles, split as 7:56 for first 8 miles, 7:19 for next 5.5, 7:08 for last 8 (7:29 average pace).  Followed with injury prevention work and 30 minutes of easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.