M50, 6'1", 163lbs
I occasionally check out LR. Mostly lurk, only posted a couple times. I'd seen this thread, but avoided because don't really think of myself as 50+ ;-) However it's been a couple months now and reality is starting to sink in.
I've had a great year of training, but unable to do any real races because of Covid. I was starting to feel a bit burnt out and wanted a real race to cap off the "season", take a several weeks off, and reset for next year. A few weeks ago I found the Snohomish (near Seattle) Marathon on October 18th. Looks to still be a go, though a modified route with staged starts over several hours to keep everyone social distanced. It'll essentially be a TT for me, but feels more real I guess because I had to pay for it, lol.
I had been doing 50-70 mpw through most of the summer, so decided to use the last 7 week's of a tweaked Pfitzinger 18 week, 70+ mile training plan. Skipping the plan's build up and just doing the Race Prep and Taper weeks. I've used this plan several times in the past with good success. Last week was the last big training week, and now I'm into the 3 week taper. :-)
Mon - 6 mile easy recovery trail run (recovery from 24 mile LR on Sunday)
Tue - 6 mile easy morning run / 4 mile afternoon easy trail run
Wed - 11 miles w/ 5x1200 @ 5:40 pace, 2 min recoveries
Thur - 13 miles easy morning commute to work (Hilly) / 4 mile afternoon easy trail run
Fri - 8 miles with 6 striders
Sat - 10 miles total. 2 mile WU / virtual 5K corporate race (~17:30) / 5 mile "CD"
Sun - 20 mile LR, steady pace ~7:30
Total - 83 miles
Easy pace runs are 8:30 to 8:00 pace. Otherwise I like to work up to 7:30 to 7:00 pace after a couple miles on my other runs.
I haven't run a marathon for about 9 years now so trying to temper my expectations a bit.
A goal < 2:45 (my PR from 9 years ago)
B goal < 2:50 (under 2 hours + age)
C goal < 3:00 (just get a marathon race in and go for time goal on a spring marathon)
The course is out and back on a paved urban trail. Going out is nearly all gradually up (300 ft over first 12 miles), a bit of flat at the top, and then back down on the same trail. I figure I'll ease into 6:30 pace (2:50) on the out. Coming back with the aid of the hill I'll start pushing the pace a bit and see how I feel. A little scary because I know how fast the wheels can come off if the legs aren't up to the challenge. Four weeks ago I did a 18 mile LR with the last 15 speeding up from 6:30 to 6:10. Tough, but manageable. I honestly couldn't have done that on yesterday's LR, but I had the 5K race the day before, and have been running a lot more miles the past couple weeks. Keeping faith the 3 week taper will allow me to hold those paces for a full 26. :-)
Thanks for reading!