Training log - Week ending 3/11/2018

This week was 52 miles of running, 30 "miles" of pool-running, and 2000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

This was my penultimate week of spring marathon training.  Only two workouts this week - a 25x400m and 2x5 miles at marathon pace.

Doing the 25x400 this week was unexpected.  My (mis-)understanding was that we weren't going to do this workout this cycle, since I was also doing 2x5 miles at marathon pace and was trying to extend my Houston cycle all the way to Boston.   Unfortunately, since I thought I was doing a different, far easier workout on Wednesday morning, I did too many miles on Tuesday (I would have stuck to 7 miles or so, had I known).  

Due to the extra mileage and more general worries about overreaching, I limited the pace on this workout.  It's supposed to be run as twenty-five 400m repeats at 10K pace (6:16, so around 1:33-34 per 400m) with a 100m float in 30 seconds (8:00 pace).  But instead I started more slowly, around 1:38-39 seconds, and then brought it down to 1:35s for a while before getting closer to my 10K pace near the end.  I ended up averaging 6:22 pace for the fast parts - 39:36 for the "10K."  So much closer to my 10 miler pace (6:24) than my 10K pace.

It was interesting how pulling back just a few seconds per lap made a world of difference in the workout.  What is generally a very tough "dig deep" type workout instead became long but not extremely draining.  The overall effort felt much more like a marathon pace workout than a tempo - I could have kept going for a good while longer.

Since I didn't push the workout hard enough to go to the well or stay at my lactate threshold, one could argue that I missed the point of the workout.  I agree, however I thought it was more important not to dig a hole, which I believe I would have done had I tried to force this one.  First rule of training - better too little than too much, especially when you're riding that fine line where you're feeling really good and really fit after a long stretch of training with your goal race still 5 weeks away.

Saturday was another edition of the 2x5 at marathon pace.  Since the Rock N Roll Marathon had much of DC shut down, I did loops of Hains Point, which meant a tailwind for part of the workout and a headwind for other miles.  Despite the shifting wind, I mostly held pretty even splits of 6:45-8 - near the bottom of my prescribed range of 6:45-7:00 (the last mile was a bit too fast due to overcompensating for a headwind).

The nice thing was that high 6:4x pace felt very doable and rhythmic.  My legs got a bit tired at the end, but I could have continued on after the second repeat.  And while doing 26 miles at that pace didn't feel doable yesterday, I think I could have done 10 straight without much issue.  26 miles is why we taper.

High 6:4x pace translates to a 2:58 marathon, which I think I'm in shape to run IF I 1) had a perfect Chicago-type course with 2) perfect weather and 3) executed well.  

Of course, I'm running Boston, so the first point is a miss, and the second point has a low probability.  But, I think that if the weather's not awful there and I pace the race well, I have a good shot of something between 3:00 and 3:05.  We shall see, I guess.

One more week of training, including my last 20+ miler, and then I taper for my tune-up half-marathon and the Boston full.


Dailies:

Monday: 9 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 7.5 miles very easy to the gym (8:54), upper body weights, core, and DIY yoga, and then 3.5 miles very easy home (8:36) plus drills and four strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 13 miles, including a workout of 25x400m with 100m recovery - averaged 95 seconds for the 400s and 30 seconds for the recovery jogs; the "10K" less the recovery jogs was 39:36.  Followed with light injury prevention work and 1400 yards recovery swimming  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  Yoga and then 9 "miles" of pool-running in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 7.5 miles very easy to the gym (8:53), light upper body weights, core, and DIY yoga, and then 3.5 miles very easy home (8:42) plus drills and four strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:  17 miles, including 2x5 miles at marathon pace with one mile easy in between  Splits were 33:56 (6:51/6:47/6:45/6:47/6:46 - average pace 6:47) and 33:34 (6:44/6:45/6:46/6:44/6:35 - average pace 6:43).  Followed with light injury prevention work, 600 yards recovery swimming, and 2 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday:  10 "miles" pool-running, followed by foam rolling.