Post-Boston Recap:
1. 3-4 weeks to recover from Boston and let my strained calf heal up
2. 5 week speed cycle in May/June presented by Slo-Twitch resulting in 16:40 track time trial
3. 2 week transition/vacation in early July
4. 4 weeks of mileage build from 60-80 mpw with 3 quality efforts every 9 days; emphasis on 5k pace work (1000s, 1200s, 1600s)
5. 5 weeks at 90-100 mpw week with 2 quality days every 7 days; emphasis on T pace work (1, 2, and 3 mile repeats and combo tempo/longs runs); only 2 M pace runs one of which was aborted after 8.5 miles at 6:24 avg; 0 easy long runs – all of my long runs included some faster running
6. 3 week taper (65, 60, 35)
Lesson Learned:
1. Marathon training is about (1) making marathon pace feel easy and (2) building endurance. The first is best accomplished by spending a significant amount of time running faster than marathon pace. The second can accomplished with a heavy dose of miles at an easy pace that is less taxing on the body and lets you recover and prepare for the next faster effort. My easy miles this cycle where anywhere from 7:15-8:15 pace, depending on how I felt that day, or 1-2 minutes above marathon pace. Marathon pace work is good to teach the body what marathon pace should feel like but I don’t think it’s the most effective way to accomplish either (1) or (2).
2. For the first time in forever I did not have to see a doctor the entire buildup. A large part of staying healthy this cycle was being better recovered before attempting the next workout. There were several times this cycle when I pushed my workout off a day to allow more recovery. I also didn’t try to re-do any bombed workouts the next day as I’ve stupidly done in the past.
3. I went into the race at 186 lbs this year. Last year I starved myself down to ~180. I was 5 minutes faster this year. I think as long as I’m in the 180s body weight is not going to be a significant factor as compared to the weather.
4. As OR experienced recently in his 20 miler, having others to run with can be very beneficial. I am much more likely to get out of bed if I know someone is counting on me to meet them. I’m also more likely to gut out those last couple reps if someone else suffers too, or if I feel challenged. Nobody wants to get dropped, even if it’s just a workout.
5. In the summer, morning running is much more tolerable than evening running. I rarely ran before work prior to this summer. At some point this summer I converted. It was tough at first but within a few days my body got used to it.
6. Training in the heat and humidity sucks but it makes you stronger. I could barely muster 6 minute pace for some of my tempo runs this summer, but in Chicago I ran 26.2 at 6:07 pace. I couldn’t come close to that on either of my attempts at running M pace this summer.
7. I was less diligent this cycle about hitting all of my workouts. I pulled the plug or completely missed a few due to work -- more than any other cycle. I also rarely lifted this cycle. It didn’t seem to matter on race day.
8. The Vaporfly 4% is an awesome shoe.
9. After 12 full marathons and 8 straight sub-2:50s, I’ve about squeezed every last drop of talent out of this 6-6 frame. With that said sub 2:40 is well within reach. Give me 40-50F and it’s a done deal.