Training log - Week ending 3/24/2024

This week was 58 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming, and 15 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

Just two workouts this week - long intervals on Wednesday and a marathon effort workout on Saturday.  The long intervals went decently, confirming that I'm pretty much where I wanted to be fitness-wise at the end of this cycle. 

Saturday's long run was in pretty tough weather conditions - steady to heavy rain and 45 degrees, with a brisk wind. But...it could be like that on race day, so I sucked it up and ran.

Unfortunately, I figured out about 20 minutes into it that my raincoat was no longer waterproof.  And of course, once I was soaked, I just got colder and colder (marathon effort is not enough to keep one warm) and the run suffered.  The paces were not what I had hoped for during this last workout.  On the other hand, I run this workout at marathon effort - and I'm pretty sure that I'd be happy with the paces I held during that workout if I was racing a full marathon in that type of weather.

Despite the above, I'm still happy I did the workout on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday. There are multiple reasons to run marathon pace/effort workouts, including both fitness and practicing the skills needed to run a good marathon.  And managing bad (but safely runnable) weather is a very important skill to have and to reinforce via practice from time to time.

I'm now two weeks out from Boston (some would call it three, but I tend to round down - I guess I should say "two weeks from race week").  Next week I'll race a 10K as a tune-up, and then we're into the final taper.  Which will not be much of a taper.  For me these days, a longer taper that really doesn't cut back that much seems to work better.  That's actually one reason I did my only 20+ miler last week instead of this week - since I'm not going to cut back much during taper, I wanted more time between my peak week and the race.  This way, the extra week or two between the two can counter-balance the minimal reduction in volume.

Dailies:

Monday:  6 "miles" pool-running.   Foam rolling at night.  

Tuesday: 8 miles very easy (9:30) plus upper body weights/core; foam rolling in evening.
 

Wednesday: 12 miles, with a track workout of 3x3200 in 14:14 (7:12/7:02), 13:57 (7:02/6:55), and 13:44 (6:56/6:48).  Recoveries of 4:42 and 4:50.  Followed with leg strengthwork. Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 9 miles very easy on trails (10:05) in the morning; streaming pilates and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 12 miles very easy (9:24) plus drills and strides, followed by upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 17 miles, including a marathon effort workout of 2x5 miles at marathon effort with one mile float between. Splits were 38:39 (7:44 pace) and 39:19 (7:52 pace) with a mile in 8:23 between the two.  Followed with leg strengthwork.  Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday: 9 "miles" pool-running and 1000 yards swimming.  Foam rolling at night.