Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 3/11

Marathon: April 1 Goal Time: 2:25

Monday

Am. 15km (6:53 mile pace)

Tuesday

Am. Long Run 30km 1:56:58 (6:14 mile pace)

20:50 - 19:21 - 18:54 - 19:13 - 18:53 - 19:44

Ran the long run early in the morning (5am) straight after rolling out of the bed.

Wednesday

Am. 15.6km (7:22 mile pace) Pm. 15.3km (6:46 mile pace)

Thursday

Am. 10km (7:30 mile pace) Pm. Tempo Run 20km 1:09:22 (5:33 mile pace)

17:05 – 17:14 – 17:26 – 17:36

I was still little bit tired (probably all the miles and long run) and my legs were quite heavy straight from the start of the tempo. After the turn around I got some stronger headwind with snow/rain, which slowed me down a bit.

Friday

Am. 15.3km (6:48 mile pace) Pm. 10.5km (6:58 mile pace)

Saturday

Am. W-up, 10*1000m w/ 2’ recovery, W-down Pm. 10km (6:58 mile pace)

3:01 – 3:03 – 3:03 – 3:01 – 3:01 – 3:01 – 3:01 – 3:00 – 3:00 – 2:56)

I am glad to have this under my belt. I had doubts about finishing the workout after the second rep. I have been feeling a little tired lately; this is my 3rd week of around 115 mpw and I think it (high mileage) has finally started to kick in…. but glad to have run those times on tired legs.

Sunday

Am. 21km (6:46 mile pace)

Weekly Total: 187km (117mpw)

This was my third week of high mileage after my down/sick week. Feeling little tired on the workout runs, but I am glad I am finishing these workouts despite that. After the Tuesday long run my knee has started bugin’ me a bit. Hopefully it will go away as fast as it came by.

Some good stuff already being reported this week. I wish I could say the same...

brumrunner - That's a helluva track session this week! Did I read that correctly, you ran a 61 for the penultimate 400 of that workout?!? I'd be hard pressed to run one of those, let alone at the end of a workout. That long run is pretty intense as well.

Drey - Absolutely insane. If your training is indicative of 2:25 fitness, then I'm in trouble. Those are excellent sessions on Tue/Thur but that 10x1k workout is especially promising. You're holding on to speed very well and it looks like you could definitely be sub-31 in the 10k right now.

As for me...

Goal Race: who knows

Goal Time: who cares

Next Race: Winter Park 10k (3/24), Goal = sub-32 (very tough course) and win

M: am - 6 easy (7:48) / pm - 6 easy (7:48)

Tu: am - 8 easy (7:44) / pm - 4 easy (7:46)

W: am - 8 total w/ 4 x mile w/ 75s recovery (5:17, 5:01, 5:04, 4:57 - 5:04.7 avg) / pm - 4 easy (7:40)

Th: 6 easy (7:48)

F: 4 easy (8:08)

Sa: 14 total w/ Gate River Run 15k (see below)

Su: OFF

Weekly Total - 60 miles

YTD - 850 miles

Gate River Run Race Report - By far my worst performance in a really long time (5+ years). A collapse of epic proportions. First 5 miles went very well...even a little ahead of schedule: 5:05, 5:13, 5:07, 5:12, 5:04. Not long after mile 5 I proceeded to purge everything in my stomach (that morning's breakfast, last night's dinner, etc.). After that episode I tried to get back on 5:05 pace and would immediately feel lightheaded and would start seeing stars. I decided it was in my best interest to cruise it in at whatever pace felt comfortable, and that ended up being 6:00 pace. Final time of 52:something. Absolutely ridiculous.

I don't know what triggered this random act of vomitting, as it never happens to me (and I mean never). Perhaps it was just bad timing (freak of nature if you will), or worse, perhaps it's a sign to back off a bit in the training. I've been at it for a while with almost zero extended time off. Regardless, I've got 2 races on tap over the next month and I'll keep at it until then, but with no marathon on the horizon for the near future, I may be taking a bit of a hiatus after that.

That said, I'd like to forget this race sooner rather than later....so let's not dwell on this one, mmkay?

Brum Runner - nice session throwing in a 61 and good on whole.

Drey - nice Tuesday long run and huge week!

Pablo - chin up! there are always new goals to be set.

Target Race - Manchester Marathon 29th April

Target Time - 2:18

Really easy week for me after 3 above 96 to taper for Trafford 10k. Next 2 weeks at 100+ again.

Week Beginning 5th March

Monday - 8 Miles 57:23 Avg 7:10

Tuesday - AM: 5 Miles 34:55 Avg 6:59

PM: 10 Miles including taper session 10 x 400m off 200m Jog. Easy week. Legs felt good considering the 20 mile tempo I did Sunday. All between 65 and 68 secs.

Wednesday - 10 Miles 68:44 Avg 6:52

Thursday - AM: 5 Miles 34:50 Avg 6:58

PM: 7 Miles 48:32 Avg 6:56

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - 5.5 Miles 40:47 Avg 7:25

Sunday - AM: 13 miles including Trafford 10km. 7th in 29:52. Happy with that first time under 30 mins since May 2006… about time! First mile a bit quick 4:28 but held it together well and closed well with 2:53 last km.

Total 63 Miles

Goal Sub 2.30

Race London Marathon

Next Race - HM 1st April, aim to go quicker than last week 68.38.

M: DAY OFF

T: DAY OFF

W: 16 miles at 6.50 miling

T: 15 miles at 6.35 miling

F: 10 miles tempo 53.29

S: 8 miles easy @ 6.30 ming

S: 22 miles - 2.19.20 (avg. 6.20 miling)

Week Approx. 71 miles

Monday and Tuesday - My calf was playing up. I felt it cramp during the last 2km of my half marathon and it was hurting a lot during my warm down. I decided to wait until it felt ok to run again which was on Wednesday. I didn't plan on running 16 miles but got lost.

The 10 mile tempo felt great, there was a few miles at 5.12 in there and had to hold myself back at times. Sunday's long run felt harder than previous runs but for me 71 miles in 5 days is more than my body has done for a while.

brumrunner [b/] Nice Sunday run. how did it feel? How often do you run 25 miles in the build up to the marathon. Also superb track session, very impressed with the 2.15 - 800m and 61 - 400m!

Drey [b/] That is a mental Saturday training session, finishing off with a 2.56, also with a hell of a lot of miles in the legs! Also well done on managing 30k starting at 5am. Dedication for you..!!

Pablo [b/] Awesome first 5 miles, 25.41, as I said last week, I have been impressed with your training and racing since reading this thread, hopefully the vomitting was just a one off. Great Tuesday also, nice to be running around the 5 minute mark off such short recoveries.

Stomin [b/] Wow.. seriously talented. 2.18 seems way within your grasp. Did you not fancy doing London?

Training for New Jersey Marathon May 6th, Goal: 3:05

Also, NYC Half next Sunday, Goal: 1:28

M: 7 easy 7:48

T: 11 incl. 8 tempo @ 6:51, Central Park

W: 7 easy 7:46

Th: 9 fartlek @ 7:22 avg, Central Park, chugged uphills 5:30 to 6:15 pace, 1.75 fast miles total.

F: 7 easy 7:55

Sa: 21 @ 7:52

Su: off (planned)

Total: 62, feeling good.

Inspired by you guys' workouts, and kind of amazed at how slowly you do your easy days, given your speed. Must take real discipline.

Posting training now. I'll read and respond later.

Goal: 2:4x

Race: Pocono.

Mon 6am 5pm (Easy 7:2x's)

Tue. 4am 10pm (3wu 2cd 5 mi. Tempo 30:25 - 6:05,:15,12:35,5:30 details below)

Wed. 15 (7:02. Solid, but not really pushing)

Thurs. 6am 4pm (easy 7:2x's)

Fri. 12 (7:01. Same as Wed.)

Sat. 8. (steady 7:15 included 8x100 strides)

Sun. 18. (7:17. Just steady effort the whole way.)

88 total.

Week two feeling good. Tuesdays tempo was a rolling 3.5+ loop then a very downhill last mile+. Gotta get ready for a lot of downhill at Pocono. I could probably use someone tying an anchor to my waist just to keep me from going too hard. I know the easy runs seem fast, but they are all by HR and around 70-72%. The Wed. Fri. Runs are the ones I need to watch. With Pfitz being so minimal on workouts I always feel like the midweek longer runs should be at a "solid" effort, not all out hard, but definitely not easy.

I have incorporated Coach Johnson's lunge matrix to my routine almost every day. I really think that is helping.

pablo - yes, the 61 wasn't a typo. I did our club session and the coach told us to hit the 800s and the last two 400s hard, but to go steady on the rest of them. We also had quite long recoveries. Sorry to hear the race didn't go well. You've had a lot of good races recently, and races like that just happen sometimes when you don't expect it. Stay positive.

Drey - you're in great shape. Keep up the good work!

Stormin - well done on your sub-30!

80-90 - another week, another great Friday tempo. Nice work mate. The pace was really slow to start with in my long run, but my legs were still very tired when I started to push the pace. We were going about 6:45-7:15 pace and then I took it under 6 min pace for 5 miles, which hurt. I wanted to try running hard on sore legs. I've done two 25s this cycle, which is a deliberate attempt to boost my endurance, which is my weakness. Before I had only gone up to 24 miles once.

Edgemont Dave and VF Runner - both training well and seem to be on target.

Yay! pablo is human after all. Sorry, just hoping to give you something to chuckle about. I would say odds are low that intestinal issues like those are training or fitness related. I suppose possibly it is a sign to back off for a week or so, but most likely it's just one of those fluke occurrences.

brum,drey Very solid weeks, keep it up.

stormin Big time congrats on the sub 30. Tough field that has you in 7th with that time.

80-90That is a very solid 5 days coming right after a good 1/2.

Race: Boston

Goal: Sub-2:28 (PR)

I missed posting last week because I was in Colorado (more on that below)

S - 18

M - 10

T - 13, 8mi tempo in 44:25 (5:33 pace), I made a spur of the moment decision to do this a day early, which was fortuitous because Wednesday was pouring rain

W - 10

T - 10.5

F - 10.5, I went to Colorado to visit family so F,S,S,M were all at altitude and on rough, hilly trails. Great running and good to be home again.

S - 13, I struggled through a tempo of about 12k but gave a good effort

Total - 85

This week:

S - 19

M - 12.5

T - 9, This week was strange because I had a few short days and a few unexpectedly long days

W - 12.5, 8mi tempo 45:02, pretty smooth but definitely sore from the way I have been ramping up my mileage.

T - 6.5, an easy day of needed rest. I almost didn't run but sometimes an easy run is better for recovery than nothing at all.

F - 16, A rare double with 11 in the morning and 5 more in the afternoon

S - 15, 10mi tempo in 57:14, my last 4 k were my 4 fastest, in succession - 3:32,3:31,3:26,3:22

Total - 90.5

I woke up this morning, watch Lagat crush the 3k at indoor worlds and that gave me the motivation for a great long run today.

Stormin - Nice race, I hope to someday get in the right road race with good fitness and sneak under 30.

Pablo - it happens to the best.

Pablo - Sorry to hear about the race. Looks like you got a great start, but unfortunately racing can be random and this stuff happens, luckily it seems like a freak issue --not something like overtraining, etc

Drey - Training looks solid, definitely 2:25 shape.

80-90 - Nice 10 miler, that should set you up well for your marathon.

As for my week, brought down the mileage a bit, but still a solid week.

M: 12

Tu: 8

W: 8 mile progression (5:35 down to 4:55).

Splits: 5:35, 5:30, 5:28, 5:25, 5:22, 5:06, 5:02, 4:55 --decided to open it up on the last 3 miles.

Th: 8

F: 12

Sa: Fartlek: mix of 1,2,3,4 min reps (total 20 minutes hard) with 2-3 min rest (6:10-15 pace). Started the reps at 5:00 pace, ended at 4:40 pace. (avg. 5:25 pace for the whole run)

Su: 13 mi easy --decided to cut down the long run this week.

Total: 75

80-90.. nice week nothing over 7 min miling... a good tempo and a very solid long run. I didn't plan on doing London because Manchester is my home town and itsthe first time they ahve had a marathon for years. If I was in with a shot at the OG qualifier 2:12 I would have considered London.

VF... yes stacked field. Won in 29:04 and ladies won in 32:40 and she was only 41st overall.

Keep it up all.

Attached is my training (http://marathoninsight.blogspot.com/). I put it so that you can see my last few weeks in succession.

I hit 82 miles this week...my highest mileage since February 2009!

Goal Race: Boston Baby

Goal Time: 2:4X:XX ( getting faster each week)

Pablo - Sounds ugly man! maybe something just wasn't sitting right? Either way its probably better a stomach take you off your race plan than injury problems or worse.

Drey - Damn man you look to be crushing it - props.

VF - lookin good.

I had another solid week

M - AM 7.5 PM 5.5

T - 9 w/ 5x1 mile 5:18(too fast)/33/32/37/31

W - AM 6 PM 10

Th - AM 5 PM 10 w/ 25 min tempo @ 5:50 ish + strides

F - 12

S - 20.5 w/10.5 @ +/- 7:15 pace + 10.5 hard (5:40/5:49(down hill)/5:59/6:05/6:09/6:02/6:04/6:50 backed off a mile to get some fluid/6:15/6:08/3:02).

S - 8 easy

Total 102 first ever 100 mile week!!!! YES

Sundays long run was a great effort for me. I was totally unsure of how it was going to end up, but I felt pretty good on the 10 miles easy then hammered the first two miles down hill and settled in to a decent pace. Mile 18 was slow as I was leaving the guy who had been pacing me and grabbing my gatorade bottle, but the last 2.5 miles I felt strong.

All in all I think that 2:45 is within reach in boston if I can hash together a couple more weeks of decent training.

Pablo: Sorry to hear about your disappointing race. You will get after it next time.

We haven't heard from Another in awhile, i wonder how he is doing in Boston prep. Speaking of which, usually we have a ton of guys with Boston as the goal race, this year seems to be an off year here for Boston.

Goal: London sub-2:58

M am: very early flight

M pm: 10 (8:40)

T am: 4 slow

T pm: 16 with 6x1M w/60-75s rest (6:39, 6:17, 6:17, 6:09, 6:14, 6:11)

W am: 6 slow

W pm: 12 (7:51) then 5 hour flight

R am: 16 with 9MP as 5-4 (6:52, 6:48) on airport hotel TM

R pm: 6 slow then 5 hour red eye flight

F pm: 8 (8:47)

Sa pm: 6 slow - feeling tired and starting to worry about PF-type sensation in my right foot.

Su pm: 18 easy (8:20) - stomach trouble, Paula Radcliffe-style

Week Total: 102

YTD: 769

I had quite a week involving 3 flights and a lot of mileage. I tend to get more running done when I travel because I have no distractions. For me, the Tuesday session was simply amazing. I can't believe I did 6x1M on the road at such a decent pace. Each rep felt more comfortable than the previous one. I think I could have easily done 2 more.

Thursday's session was not remarkable but it was on a TM and it felt slightly harder than the exact same workouts I did on the road at around the same pace.

Sunday was a disaster, but doesn't matter really. very slow pace with pitstops every few miles. Probably should have bagged the whole damn thing.

Goal: Run the Boston Marathon

Mon: Off (planned)

Tue: 7mi Easy - tibia pain not good

Wed: Cross Train, Bike (30min)

Thu: Off (unplanned)

Fri: Cross Train, Bike (40min)

Sat: Cross Train, Elliptical (30min - hard)

Sun: Cross Train, Bike (75min)

Mentioned last week that I had an injury that the doctor cleared me to run through, but after last Sunday's 21 miler the pain just became too bad. It was hurting to walk and hurting a lot to run. After 5 days off it only hurts a bit to walk climbing up/down stairs, but jogging is still painful. Hoping another few days off will be enough to get me running again. Just hoping to complete the event at this point.

I've been following this thread for a couple of weeks and had a question. I'm wanting to run the 3,2,1 mile wo later this week and was wondering what type of pace it should be run at and rest? I'm running Boston and hoping to run sub 2:30. Thanks in advance.

Next Race- Big D Half Marathon (4/15)

M: 7.5 @ 151 BPM (8:04)

T: 12.4 @ 155 BPM (7:15)

W: 5.1 @ 144 BPM (8:50) + 5 strides

Th: 8 @ 148 BPM (7:30)

F: 10.2 @ 159 BPM (7:22)

S: 5.6 @ 148 BPM (8:06)

S: 11.2 @ 154 BPM (8:01)

Total = 60

That tuesday run was definitely wind-aided the last 70 min.

Today I felt like crap and it was hotter than usual outside although I'm still not sure why my pace was slower than other days when I ran at lower heart rates.

Hello Everyone. I follow this thread every week and thought I would start posting. I currently have no goal race, or any races, coming up. The plan is to run a fall marathon and would like to break 2:25. I am lacking a little motivation right now so I thought this thread would help get me out of a rut!

Monday: am-35min pm 22w/u 5x600(1:50,47,50,49,48) with 1:30 rest them 1mile in 4:52 - 22c/d

Tues: am-35min pm-77min

Wed: am 35min pm- 15miles in 1:28.50

Thurs: am-42min pm-57min

Fri: am-30min pm-35min

Sat: am-70min pm-55min

Sun: am-56min pm-55min