This week was 63 miles of running, 9 "miles" of pool-running and 1000 yards of swimming.
The first half of the week was recovery from the One City Half. We had yet another bout of icy conditions on Tuesday (fortunately shortlived) so Tuesday was a treadmill run.
One of my goals this training cycle is to be very smart about my recovery between hard efforts. With a half-marathon last weekend and a progressive 20 miler this weekend, my mid week workout was intentionally half-assed - a 1600 at tempo effort and then some 200s and 100s to preserve some speed.
On Saturday I once again structured my easy run to include the Fletchers Boathouse parkrun. Even at an easy effort, this parkrun is challenging for me (in a good way). It has crowds and an uneven surface (the towpath), and a section that transitions from the towpath to concrete and back that is really hard (pun somewhat intended). Transitions between harder and softer surfaces are tough in a way that I can't really explain but a neurologist might.
It was in many non-physiological ways a hard easy run, but that was the whole point, and I once again felt better for doing it. Additionally, I set a "Fletchers Boathouse Parkrun PR" of 28:28, so I seem to be getting better at these. Or it's getting warmer. Or I'm not being good enough about keeping the effort restrained on these.
Sunday's long run was a huge confidence boost. I ran it in Rock Creek Park as three out-and-backs of various lengths. Admittedly repetitive, but structuring the run this way meant that I did the whole run on rolling hills and was able to include two decent longer climbs - 1000m at a 1.5% incline and later 600m at a 2.3% incline - during the final third of the run at marathon effort.
I made a point of focusing on marathon effort (not pace) during the final third, and so was pleasantly surprised to see at the end of the workout that I had averaged sub-8 minute pace for the seven miles at marathon effort. A few months ago running 800s at sub-8 pace was hard, so this is definitely progress, even if I am always at my best at the end of a long run.
Traditionally my running does three long runs of 20-22 miles split into 3rds, with 1/3rd easy, 1/3rd moderate, 1/3 marathon. My coach told me to do two 20s, and I had no objection to that. Additionally, I kept the run at 20, rather than the 21 or 22 I would have done previously. Some of this is age - as an over 50 runner I think it's essential that I not stress my body any more than is necessary to achieve my goals.
But there's also the fact that I'm slower now, and so running 20 or 21 or 22 miles keeps me out there longer. And there's a point where I'm simply running for too long, even if it's less miles than it was before. Doing a 20 miler structured as 7/6/7, rather than the 7/7/7 or 8/7/7 split that I used to do, means I still get the most important part of the run done (7 marathon effort miles on tired legs) but reduces the risk of overdoing stuff.
As I get older, and presumably slower, I suspect I'll probably modify these long runs even more, perhaps even down to something like 6 miles at easy effort, 5 at moderate effort, and then 7 at marathon effort. It seems the smartest way to balance the demands of marathon training with the reality of aging/slowing.
Dailies:
Monday: 9 "miles" pool-running; foam rolling and PT exercises in afternoon.
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