Training log - Week ending 11/1/15

This week was 87 miles of running, 17 "miles" of pool-running and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

And. I'm tapering.  Just about the right time for it, too.   This last week the fatigue started to hit - I'm tired, though I'm still hitting good times in my workouts (and since I run them off of perceived effort, and don't see splits until later, I'm confident I wasn't overdoing them).

This fatigue is a good thing:  I think if you're ready to be done with marathon training during the last hard week, you've done it right.  If I had felt this fatigue a month earlier, it would have been concerning.  And finishing a training cycle feeling uberfresh can be disconcerting - "did I train hard enough?"

Both Friday and Sunday were big confidence boosts - I came into both feeling tired (with a mild sore throat to boot on Sunday).  Per my coach's advice, I ran both cautiously, with a conservative feel.  It was really nice to check the splits post run and see how fast I had run - they were my best runs this training cycle.  I'm in a really good place, fitness wise.

So now I just need to taper.  And since I know from times past that it's impossible for me to taper TOO much, I'll be cutting back fairly sharply.  Starting with a very easy Monday, since my sore throat has decided it didn't like Sunday's long run too much.

On my plate for this week - a set of 400s at 10K pace with 30 seconds recovery (exact # of 400s TBD by my coach on Wednesday morning) and a 10K race on Sunday as a final sharpener.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and 7 "miles" easy pool-running in the morning; another 3 "miles" easy pool-running in the afternoon, plus foam rolling.

Tuesday:  14 miles, including a track workouts of 2x1600, 3x800 (6:22, 6:03, 2:57, 2:56, 2:55), followed by injury prevention work and 1250 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Wednesday: 8.5 miles very easy (9:20) to yoga, followed by yoga.  Later did another 8 miles very easy (9:12), followed by drills and two hill sprints.   2 "miles" easy pool-running and a sports massage in the evening.

Thursday:   5.5 miles very easy to yoga (9:34).  Later did another 5 miles easy (8:36 pace), followed by drills and two strides, and some upper body weights work.  2.5 "miles" easy pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12.5 miles including an 8K tempo on the track in 32:35, split as 6:45/6:31/6:29/6:28/6:23, followed by injury prevention work and 1400 yards of easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  12 miles very easy in the morning (8:45) followed by drills and two strides.  Later did upper body weights and 2.5 "miles" recovery pool-running, plus foam rolling.

Sunday:  21.5 miles progressive, split as first 1.5 miles at 9:34, next 5.5 at 8:34; next 7 at 7:28; last 7.5 at 6:55 (downhill assist).  Followed with some injury prevention work.  1350 yards recovery swimming and foam rolling in the afternoon.