Training log - Week ending 3/18/18

This week was 75 miles of running, 10 "miles" of pool-running, and 3000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.


And that's the final "real" week of marathon training for this cycle, completed 4 weeks out from the race.  This coming week is resting up for a tune-up half, and then going from there into a full taper for the marathon.  

I have a business trip scheduled for the second half of this coming week, and it's going to be very hard for me to fit in much running while there, due to a tight schedule.  Hence I scheduled my last high mileage week for this week, so that the business trip can coincide with the mini-taper for my tune-up half.

(Additionally, I've gotten sick about half the times I've attended this meeting in the past, since there's always a few people who feel compelled to show when they should be in bed - another reason to get my last 20 in this weekend.  If I get sick, I'd rather miss my tune-up race than my last 20.)

I'm curious to see how my tune-up half will go.  In the past, I've never run tune-up races particularly fast while in marathon training.  Some see improvements at all paces from training at marathon pace; I see just the opposite - the more I train at marathon pace, the more I get locked into it.  I get very good at marathon pace, and find it hard to race at any other pace.  (I didn't start running half-marathons well until I wised up and changed my training for that distance - cutting most of the marathon pace running in favor of tempos at 10 mile to half-marathon pace.)  Additionally, I need at least 2 weeks of reduced mileage to get my legs fresh - a 3 day mini taper doesn't accomplish much.

OTOH, this will almost certainly be the first non-hot tune-up half I've run in quite some time.  And I'm coming off of a solid half-marathon performance at the start of this cycle, and feeling fairly good right now.  We shall see. 


Dailies:

Monday: 3 very easy to yoga (9:31), yoga, and then 7 very easy home (8:54) plus drills and strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including a track workout of 6x800 (3:08, 3:04, 3:02, 3:04, 3:01, 3:00), followed by injury prevention work and 1250 yards of recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 8 miles very easy to yoga (9:01), yoga, and then another 4 miles (9:01) plus drills and strides.  Foam rolling in afternoon..

Thursday:  Upper body weights/core and 10 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 11 miles, including a track tempo workout of 6400m in 25:38.  Followed by injury prevention/leg strengthwork and 1250 yards recovery swimming.  Massage in afternoon.

Saturday:  10 miles easy (9:10), followed by drills, strides, upper body strengthwork and core, and DIY yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Sunday:  20 miles progressive, split as first 7 at 9:18, next 7 at 7:42, last 7 at 6:50 (downhill assist on last 7 miles, to simulate the quad pounding of Boston).  Followed with light injury prevention work and then 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling in evening.