Alright, alright, alright. We are getting into the nitty gritty phase of marathon training at this point. The mileage is high. The tiredness is real. But thankfully, the weather is cooling off!
Week of September 25 – October 1
Monday: 6.2 miles easy (74° w/ dew point of 69°)
Tuesday: 8.2 miles easy (70° w/ dew point of 65°) + 45 minutes of Pilates
Wednesday: 10 miles w/ quality (77° w/ dew point of 67°) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates
Thursday: 8.2 miles easy (71° w/ dew point of 66°)
Friday: 8.7 miles easy (66° w/ dew point of 59°)
Saturday: 6.5 miles easy (68° w/ dew point of 64°) + 3 mile stroller walk
Sunday: 19.5 miles w/ quality (71° w/ dew point of 60°) + 30 minutes of strength
Wednesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 8 X 3:00 at threshold pace (6:10) with 2:00 jogging recoveries and a 2 mile cool down. Most workouts feel a bit intimidating on paper, but this one was different. After racing a 5k the weekend before at a 5:50 average pace, I felt good going into this one. 3 minutes didn’t seem too long and the pace didn’t seem too fast. I averaged 5:55 pace and felt really smooth!
Sunday’s workout was a 4 mile warm up, 3 X 3 miles at marathon effort (6:30) with 1.5 miles between sets and a 3 mile cool down. I wasn’t super worried going into this one and even thought I might be able to progressively get a bit faster on each set (how cute!). As it turned out, this one was TOUGH! I didn’t do myself any favors on the route, as there were some decent hills, especially in the second set. The hills humbled me for sure! The first set was relatively flat and the splits were 6:36, 6:33, 6:24. The second set had mostly uphill and the splits were 6:44, 6:53, 6:40 (the Strava grade adjusted paces for that set were 6:23, 6:43, 6:42). The third set had some downhill and the splits were 6:22, 6:14, 6:11. Oddly enough, my average pace across all three sets was exactly what it was supposed to be, but I just took a round about way of getting there. The combination of uphill and downhill running fried my legs and I was TOAST at the end of this run. My understanding is that CIM has some rolling hills, so I know that I need to continue to put in work on the hills!
Total – 67.6 miles running + 3 miles walking + 60 minutes strength training + 30 minutes Pilates
Week of October 2 – October 8
Monday: 7.1 miles easy (80° w/ dew point of 63°)
Tuesday: 8 miles easy (67° w/ dew point of 57°)
Wednesday: 6.8 miles easy (65° w/ dew point of 55°)
Thursday: 12.1 miles w/ quality (69° w/ dew point of 63°) + 30 minutes of strength
Friday: 8 miles easy (72° w/ dew point of 64°) + 3 mile stroller walk
Saturday: 6.8 miles easy (66° w/ dew point of 60°)
Sunday: 21 miles w/ quality (60° w/ dew point of 45°) + 30 minutes of strength
Thursday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 5 X 1.5 miles at threshold pace (6:10) with 2:00 walking recoveries and a 2 mile cool down. After 9 miles at marathon effort about did me in the weekend before, 7.5 miles at threshold effort was daunting. I chose a route that wasn’t nearly as hilly and ended up feeling surprisingly strong, averaging 6:11 pace for the reps! Side note: when you are running 12 miles on a random morning before work, you know that marathon training is in full effect! Whew.
Sunday’s workout was two and a half hours of running at marathon pace + 30-45 seconds. I don’t do much running in this pace range, as it would typically be a bit of a gray zone for me. Definitely too fast for an easy run, but not really fast enough for speed work. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I settled into a good rhythm and the miles flew by! I ran on the same route as the week before, but the hills didn’t bother me nearly as much. The miles ranged from 6:36 to 8:16, but averaged out to 7:12 (the goal was 7:10). Boom!
Total – 70.0 miles running + 3 miles walking + 60 minutes strength training