Sunday, March 11, 2018

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.


Tuesday7.5 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; f
oam 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.

1 comment:

  1. Great week. I find that 25 x 400m workout intriguing! Your marathon pace run indicates that you have made great progress and you are in great shape. I'm optimistic about the Boston weather. It's been crazy cold there lately so a "hot" day shouldn't be above 60 right?!

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