Hi Northener,
Thanks for checking in. I am indeed 19 days out from my first marathon and am definitely starting to get pretty nervous. Right around Christmas I had some calf issues that I solved only to have them manifest in some Achilles tendinitis. Still I have labored on albeit with some slightly reduced mileage and a focus on getting Q days in. Here are my last few weeks of training.
Week ending 1/18: 72 miles in 6 days
Lone Q workout: 2E+6M+1E+6M+1E .Averaged 6:28 overall. 7:55/7:25 to warmup then 6:17/6:21/6:15/6:07/6:10/6:06 for the first block. E mile was 7:11. Then 6:11/6:21/6:05/6:06/6:02/5:58. Cooled down at 7:04.
Week Ending 1/25: 70 miles in 6 days
Q1: 4E+3T+1E+2T+1E+1T+4E. Overall avg. 6:53. T segments were 5:59/5:42/5:45, 5:51/5:55, 5:48. E miles inbetween were 7:21/8:05. Cooldown was honest.
Q2: 20E @ 6:57. Ran some M miles in the middle (9-15) 6:48/6:37/6:36/6:22/6:23/6:26/6:42. Most other miles were low 7s or high 6s after warmup. Achilles feels manageable
Week ending 2/1: 70 miles in 6 days
Q1: 5E+4x2T w/ 3' rest+2E. 5E @ 7:33 then 5:54/5:56, 5:52/5:55, 5:44/5:49, 5:51/5:49 w/ 3' rest. 2 down @ 7:55.
Q2: 4E+12M+2E. M miles were 6:41/6:33/6:35/6:34/6:34/6:30/6:33/6:41/6:34/6:32/6:35/6:26
Week ending 2/8: planned 64 miles in 6 days.
Q1 (today): 3E+4x(2M+1E)+1E. Overall avg. 7:05. Segments were 6:37/6:34/7:26,6:13/6:26/7:56, 6:25/6:28/7:42, 6:13/6:13/8:02.
Planned Q2: 4E+6M+2T+4M
Will then do 50 miles next week and 30 miles the week leading up to the race.
Overall I am optimistic about my preparations but am a bit annoyed I had a sketchy 3-4 weeks around Christmas where I had to do a lot of cross training. Also annoyed I have had to drop mileage a bit as the Achilles has been a real problem. Hoping the taper resolves it a bit.
I have recalibrated my expectations and have built out a race plan geared towards a sub 2:55. I think I may be in slightly better shape than that but want to be appropriately cautious in my first attempt at the distance and would REALLY like to get a 2021 BQ out of the way so I can focus on running fast in a fall marathon and not worry about blowing up.
Would love to hear any feedback on how you would approach race plan etc.
Also planning on running a half of 4/5 and would be interested in thoughts on how to best bounce back and slide back into enough training to be fit for that race.