Week 9 of 16 Marathon Training

Monday Feb 14

AM 6 miles, 43min

PM 14 miles, 1:32min

Tuesday Feb 15

AM 5 miles, 35min

PM 13 miles, 1:29min, speed drills + hurdle drills

Wednesday Feb 16

AM 5 miles, 36min

PM 20 miles, 1:54min w/ tempo

tempo 16 miles on Davis road (1:26:59)

Garmin info:

Mile / splits

1 00:05:34

2 00:05:31

3 00:05:25

4 00:05:21

5 00:05:26

6 00:05:22

7 00:05:24

8 00:05:12

9 00:05:20

10 00:05:24

11 00:05:25

12 00:05:30

13 00:05:33

14 00:05:26

15 00:05:28

16 00:05:31

Thursday Feb 17

AM 7 miles, 49min

PM 10 miles, 69min

Friday Feb 18

AM 5 miles, 36min

PM 13 miles, 1:30min

Saturday Feb 19

AM 10 miles, 70min, speed drills + strides

PM off

Sunday Feb 20

AM 15 miles, 1:27min

Race Foxboro 10 miles, 50:23 (Results)

Garmin info:

1 00:04:57 1.00

2 00:04:57 1.00

3 00:05:09 1.00

4 00:05:07 1.00

5 00:04:55 1.00

6 00:05:00 1.00

7 00:05:00 1.00

8 00:05:02 1.00

9 00:04:55 1.00

10 00:04:50 1.00

Note: Actual automatic mile splits form my Garmin, which would have given me a 49:58. (either course may have been just over 10.0 miles or maybe I don't know how to take my tangents, but for me it doesn't matter. I just have these splits for the purpose of pace checking)

PM 7 miles, 50min

130 miles

This past Wednesday, I met with Coach G and Nate to finally put together the last 8 weeks of Marathon Specific workouts. We have mapped out the rest of the weeks remaining until Rotterdam. We have 6 weeks of hard training, followed by a 2 week taper. We talked about some of the issues with the marathon training, the importance of not forcing in every workout, what type of workouts and what paces I should be running. All the training I will be doing is "specifically" designed for me according to what I have run on the track and the background I have under me. They both told me that I don't "need" to finish the whole marathon specific training workout by workout. In fact, when Nate ran 2:15 for his first marathon, he only finished about 30% of the actual total training he had planned! What I need to do is focus on getting recovery and taking good care of my body. If I don't feel good at the beginning of any particular workout, I will just "scratch" it and do a normal run. To be honest, I am very excited to try these new workouts and I'm going to put my best effort in each of them. According to Nate, I will most likely go into New Bedford Half Marathon a little tired, but he says that whatever I run in New Bedford I should be able to come close to splitting that in the marathon come April.

Now about the race this weekend...This was was primarily planned for me to "get my feet wet" ion the roads. However, it turned out to be a good effort overall. The Charlie Spedding workout for sure felt much much tougher than this race. Even the 16 miler Wednesday which took a lot out of my legs felt harder. I did a poor job in getting enough rest as well for the remainder of the week. Running 5:02 pace on this course is a good start for now. This was not a flat course and conditions were not favorable either (30 degree with a LOT of wind). Without much specific training, it means I still have a lot of time for improvement. For now, I will take a rest from racing and focus on some really good training. I will be back at it it on March 20 in New Bedford.