Goal Race: Three Sisters Marathon, June 9th
Week of 03/25-03/31
Sun, 03/25: 20 miler on the Three Sisters course, from mile 4 to mile 24. Did this solo. Course is what I would describe as challenging, with lots of gradual (1-2%) inclines and declines, and two significant drops and climbs at mile 11-12 and 15-16. Elevation on course is between 2800'-3400'. Small stretch on dirt road, otherwise paved. Very scenic course on back country roads past fields of llamas, cows and great views of the mountains outside Sisters/Bend/Tumalo, OR.
Covered the 20 miles in 2:31:39 (7:35/mile avg.)
Splits: 7:58, 7:40, 7:33, 7:38, 7:42, 7:38, 7:22, 7:36, 8:07 (climb between miles 11-12 on course), 7:54, 7:25, 7:23, 7:48 (climb between miles 15-16 on course), 7:37, 7:33, 7:34, 7:30, 7:32, 7:14, 6:52.
Mon, 03/26: usual day off running.
Tue, 03/27: 8 miles in 1:00:51 (7:36/mile avg.)
Legs still felt stiff & sore from 20-miler, so pushed hard workout to Wednesday.
Wed, 03/28: 2 mile warmup, 3 x 1.5 miles with 3:30 rests (9:22, 9:30, 9:20). Done on Springwater bike path. First rep w/tailwind, second w/headwind, 3rd w/tailwind for first mile and headwind for last 1/2 mile. 2 mile cooldown.
Day's total = 9+ miles.
Thu, 03/29: 8 miles @ 7:14/mile avg. according to running partner. My Garmin malfunctioned. Legs still feel hammered from Sunday!
Fri, 03/30: 5.5 miles in 42:58 (7:49/mile avg.)
Sat, 03/31: 6.6 miles in 50:00 (7:33/mile avg.)
Weekly total = 58 miles
Weights/core on Mon, Tue, Thu
Notes:
1) My quads felt sore and stiff all week. Not sure if this is because Sunday's 20-miler was that tough, or just the cumulative workload catching up to me.
2) Left knee is getting sore (like runner's knee). Not a big deal yet, but worth keeping an eye on. Been wearing Saucony Mirages a lot. Going to switch back to my tried and true Asics DS-Trainers for a while.
3) I'm probably running my "recovery" runs too fast, but I find it hard to run slower than 7:50/mile pace. And Thursdays are with a small group, and I'm too stupid to let others go. :)
4) Any other 50+ runners find that you go through stretches of runs that feel harder than they should, with the occasional, rare day when you feel great? How to reverse that so the great feeling days outnumber the blah feeling days???
Thanks for reading my extra long posting this week! Cheers to all.
Tim