Training log - Week ending 10/6/2019

This week was 70 miles of running, 21 "miles" of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming -- training log is here.

I went with two workouts again this week - intervals on Tuesday (where I deliberately held back on the paces while keeping the recoveries pretty quick) and then a Saturday marathon pace workout.  

I feel like the two workouts a week thing is working really well for me - I'm feeling fresh and my fitness is taking big leaps forward.  I see training as being about hitting the correct balance of stress and recovery, and having 2-3 days between workouts gives me enough time to really absorb each workout and benefit from it.  One of those less-is-more things that is so hard to execute in practice.

Fall decided to finally make an appearance this weekend in the DC area, and so for the first time in what seems like a very long time, I wore arm-warmers and gloves (starting temp of 49 degrees).  After months of running in heat and humidity, it felt glorious.  

It was really tempting to hammer the workout in that weather, but I managed to resist, keeping the marathon pace work to true marathon effort (and checking my heart rate regularly to make sure I was being honest and conservative about the effort).  And I was pleasantly surprised to run in the mid-6:30s - faster than the 6:40 I'd been thinking would likely be my marathon pace.

So....if I get perfect weather on race day, it looks like I'm fit enough to break 2:55 and then some.  Of course, the weather is always important, so I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers.

I was surprised that the marathon pace workout didn't take much out of me.  I felt good on the cool-down (enough so that I briefly feared I had mis-counted miles and not done the full workout).  And I also felt surprisingly fresh on Sunday morning.  Crazy, but I'll take it.

Of course, the challenge here is that my default assumption, like most, is that I'm supposed to feel tired and awful and dragging during marathon training, and that I'm doing something wrong if I don't feel that way.  

But what I've experienced in the past is that when I doubt that I'm doing enough is when I'm hitting it right.   And conversely, what feels like I'm training hard enough is actually borderline overtraining, if not full-on overtraining.  You can hit all your workouts and still be over-trained - you just don't realize it until race day.  So I'm going to stay the conservative, I-might-be-underdoing-it, course for the last week of training, and see what that gives me in early November.

Monday: 8 miles very easy (9:03), 6 "miles" of pool-running, and then upperbody weights and core.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 14 miles, including a track workout of 2x1600, 4x800 in 6:10, 5:59, 2:57, 2:58, 2:57, 2:54.  Recoveries of 4:39 and 4:30 after the 1600s; recoveries after the 800s ranged between 2:17 and 2:25.  Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 6 miles very easy (9:08), drills and strides, yoga, and then 3 miles very easy (8:24), plus 3 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  Upperbody weights/core and 12 "miles" pool-running in the morning.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday: 8 miles very easy (8:48), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (8:29),plus drills and 4 uphill strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles, including a workout of 2x5 miles at marathon effort - yielded:

first 5 miles in 32:59 (6:37/6:29/6:43/6:35/6:36 - average pace 6:36); and

second 5 miles in 32:45 (6:34/6:36/6:35/6:29/6:31 - average pace 6:33).  One mile float in 7:37 between the two.   Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night. 

Sunday: 6 miles very easy (8:58), yoga, and then 4 miles very easy (8:29) plus drills and strides.  Foam rolling at night.