Goal Race: Philadelphia
Goal Time: 2:40
Mo – off (planned)
Tu – AM: 9 miles with 1 x 4 miles and 1 x 2 miles (5:45 avg and 5:52 avg, respectively); PM: 11 miles easy
We – off (unplanned)
Th – AM: 10 miles with 8 at 5:52 pace; PM: 11 miles easy
Fr – 5 miles easy
Sa – 27 miles, including the Baltimore Marathon in 3:09:46
Su – 12 miles easy
Total: 85 miles
Both of my workouts this week were on the treadmill during lunch because I was too lazy to get up in the morning before work. Tuesday’s workout was planned as 2 x 4 miles, but I was sweating through my shoes and the belt started getting slippery, so I cut the second interval to 2 miles. A last-minute client meeting interrupted my planned lunchtime run on Wednesday, so I missed that day’s run.
I was a pace group leader for the 3:10 pace group at Baltimore on Saturday. I figured that it would be fun helping people qualify for Boston, while getting free entry into a race. Can’t beat a training run with closed roads, water/Gatorade stops, crowd support, a free tech shirt, and grateful runners. This was a great experience and I plan to do it again. We had a decent group of about 20+ runners with two pace leaders, including me. The weather was perfect, with the exception of some heavy gusts of wind through some of the later miles. I really thought we were going to see a large group finish on pace. By 22 miles, we still had a group of 10-15 runners. That was right after four miles of hills, and because the organization was opposed to banking time early to account for the late hills, people were working pretty hard to maintain even splits. The wind around mile 22 proved to be too much, as after we went through the next water stop, we were down to three, not including the pacers. The three remaining runners were able to hang on and come in sub-3:10. This was the first marathon I have ever run a negative-split, but I guess it doesn’t count since I wasn’t racing it.
I hope everyone’s week went well.
