Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 3/11

gym class hero:

I would say if you are running 12 miles out of your 18 mile run at 6:36 pace, that might suggest that is a reasonable marathon pace for you, granted you are developing strength during the rest of your week's training to ensure you are not racing the marathon paced long runs.

I'm going with the Pfitz plan, and based on that, you might want to do every other week or so with MP sometime during your run.

Goal Race: VCM (5/27)

Target Time: TBD

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 3.1 miles easy

Thursday: 3.1 / 3 miles easy (6.1)

Friday: 3 miles easy

Saturday: 7.9 miles easy

Sunday: Rest

>20.1<

The idea is that next week will be about 45-50 miles, and then I'll have a period of about seven weeks around 65-70mpw before tapering. This is the only way I would really have a chance to build any substantial fitness and my knee is finally working again--I think.

Excellent training and racing everyone, I can't wait to join in fully.

Goal Race: NJ Marathon (5/6)

Sub 2:50

Just joining the board (finally have some training worth writing about).

M - Off

T - 5 easy (7:20); sore from 5K over the weekend

W - 10 easy (7:18)

T - 5 easy (7:30)

F - 8; treadmill tempo 5mi @ 5:42 pace; probably too fast

S - 4 easy (7:20)

S - 16 (consistent 7:10) legs stiff

Total 48

Goal Race: Delaware Marathon 5/13

Goal Time: TBD (Current PR 2:53... Worried that I might have to join that 2:50 support group that was mentioned earlier)

I have been really struggling with sickness and some tendinitis and am a little behind where I would like to be in my training. Hopefully joining this thread will help me avoid trying to do too much.

Monday: Unscheduled off day. I could not get out of bed in the morning and had too much going on to run in the evening.

Tuesday: 11 easy (around 7:30 – 7:40 pace). My legs were still a little sore from Sundays long.

Wednesday: 9 with 5 @ 6:20 pace. This was the first workout in a long time with anything remotely fast and it hurt more than it should have.

Thursday: 11 @ 7:30ish

Friday: 12 @ 7:15 (tail wind) – 7:45 (head wind)

Saturday: 6 (recovery- no watch)

Sunday: 20 Pace varied from 11:30 – 7:15 based on terrain. I overdid it on last week’s long run so I made a conscious effort to slow down.

Total Miles: 69

Not bad considering it was done with all singles and one off day.

Thank you Pablo and Libertypark for the info. I will attempt it tonight!

Goal Marathon: Fall?

Goal Time: Sub 2:19

Finally back from the dead. I had about six weeks of near non-existant running, got in about 35 miles of easy jogging, then had to take off another week of running because of the flu. This past week was week #4 of base training.

Mon: 10 mile progression with segments of (6:15, 6:14, 6:19, 6:14), 5:48, 5:54, 5:59), (5:26, 5:37, 2:45 for 1/2 mile). I was shooting for 3 at 5:30 pace at the end, but my legs were dead. Last week, I only made it a mile at 5:30 pace, so it's progress; 4.2 miles (8:01)

Tue: 9.1 miles (6:54); 3.4 miles (7:28)

Wed: 7.2 miles (8:00ish); 4.6 miles (6:33)

Thu: Rained all day, cold and windy. Heck no.

Fri: 4.5 miles (7:15); 4.2 miles with strides)

Sat: 16.1 miles with half-marathon in 68:34. I was really pumped with this because I honestly thought I wouldn't break 70. My right shoe lost all of its tension in the first mile, so it was sliding up and down the entire race, which was pretty annoying. Ran with a guy for the first five miles, and the early pace felt really uncomfortable. We were clicking off consistent 5:17s and I got a little bit giddy at one point and put a few seconds on him with a 5:12. I knew it was too fast but I got locked into a rhythm and slowly built a 5-10s lead over the next couple of miles. I expected to die after 10 miles and I couldn't shake the guy at all. I knew if I had one bad mile, he would be right one me and I was getting pretty tired but was still clicking off the miles. On the 12th mile, I picked it up a good bit in hopes to break the guy's motivation so he wouldn't try and chase me down the last mile. I put a good bit on him that last mile and was able to relax the last half mile and win by a little over 30s. Splits were: 10:34, 5:16, 5:18, 5:12, 5:16, 5:11, 5:10, 5:16, 10:24, 5:06, 5:51 for the last 1.1

Sun: 5.8 miles (7:53). I explored what I thought was a runnable power-line trail but it turned into an hour long walk through thorns bushes with a mile of running in about 11 minutes. Headed to a new place to knock out the last few miles. Butt is really worn out and calves are jacked,; 3.3 miles (7:51). Tried running with my dog, who used to do 15 mile runs with me without a problem but after 1/4 mile at 9:30 pace, she was done. Legs feel worse than they did when I woke up.

Week Total= 72.4 miles. Really happy with this week because I thought my fitness was much worse than the race showed. I can tell I'm still really rusty and have a long way to go.

Drey: You're looking fit, so stay on top of that knee!

Pablo: The stomach issues sound like a random fluke, so no worries. Bad races are good for you though. They fuel your fire some, and make you re-evaluate what went wrong so you can make future improvements. Good races really don't teach you anything.

80-90 miles Good work this week! I definitely think you have the half marathon fitness to blow that 2:30 out of the water. Make sure to get in those runs at 5:40 pace to get more efficient at goal marathon pace and help your fat-fueling rate.

Foogo I would say it depends on the shoe. If there isn't a large difference, I think it's good to do your long runs and fast workouts in that shoe. You may put some pounding on your legs for the first few sessions, but your body will adapt.

I'll have to catch up with the rest of you later. Unfortunately, it's time to do yard work again.

Good to see you back blazn. Great half marathon, especially after just starting back.

And one more question about shoes just to clarify. In your progression run during this training week for instance, did you run in shoes you would potentially race in for a marathon, or more of a light weight trainer.

Thanks.

I wear the Saucony Kinvara for nearly all of my easy days and sometimes throw in the Nike Free 3.0. I guess both of those can be considered a lightweight trained but for anything faster than a normal run, I'll wear my racing flats (Grid Type A4 and A5).

You're far out enough where maybe wearing them once a week in a workout will help yourself get used to them and then in April, you can wear them on some long runs, as well as your fast sessions.

blaznbison is back!!!

Thanks for the kind words. To be honest though, I'd rather forget this race ever happened than dwell on "what went wrong" because I honestly don't know. My pre-race routine was exactly what it was before all my other races. The only wild card could've been the dinner from the previous night (fish sandwich), but I find it hard to believe that would be the root of it all as I felt nothing out of the ordinary that night or earlier during race morning.

I've just have a lot of good races recently (not that I'm bragging or anything, lol) and it's easy to forget that sometimes bad races just happen. Sometimes coming seemingly from out of the blue.

PS, a few weeks ago there was a thread on LetsRun about favorite runner blogs and someone referenced your blog. I didn't know it was you until I went to some of the older posts and saw the posts about the Rocket City Marathon. I swear I'm not stalking you.

PPS, excellent half this past weekend! Running lights out when you totally don't expect it seems to be your MO.

Welcome back blaznbison[\b]. Would love to read your blog that pablo mentioned. Any chance you could post a link?!

Pablo and Libertypark

So the wo went pretty well I think. Ended up running 16:30 (5:30 pace) for the 3miles, 10:40 (5:20 pace) for the 2miles, and 5:07 for the last mile. Ran an 800 in 4min for my rest. Does that sound about right for this wo? I might try the 4,3,2 next time!

So all ya runnin' Boston, you can get your bib numbers which in turn will tell you your corral. Lot faster this year....

Thanks for the tip Another. I got in the first corral of the first wave. Can someone explain how the corrals work? About how many people are going to be in there with me? I'm assuming we will be starting right behind the elites, that will be cool.

Based on what I saw lasy year....Each corral is nominally 1,000 people. Elites are bibs 1-99. Corral one is 101-999. Corral two is 1,000 to 1,999. Etc....

Yup. Corral system is great in Boston. In the first corral is you stay on the left side by the church you can see the elites walk to the start. I slapped Ryan Halls hand last year. If you want and get to the start early you can be right behind the elites.

I squeaked in to 1st corral also. Lot faster field this year. I'm going to get passed by a lot of people.