Of Mice and Marathons

PM: Forbidden + S. River Trail - 25 miles, averaged 7:22. HR 156.

A little slower than 2 weeks ago but a bit longer. Felt good through 22-23 and then just wanted to be done. The last 2 miles weren't miserable but they weren't amazing either. It's mostly uphill.

Lacked a bit of turnover and strength to get down to 6:45-6:30 pace but I just rolled and logged the time on my feet. Almost wintery out there for the first day of spring (~38 degrees and windy). Longest run excluding marathons. It's been almost 5 years since I have gone over three hours even though I've bumped up against that barrier a few times in the last few years.

I am still not sure about Sugarloaf. I hate the downtime after a marathon because I go through a deep depression and my weight suffers pretty bad. I don't have much marathon specific stuff other than likely being in the best endurance shape of my life. Although 24-25 miles steady will make you a better marathoner, you still need to combine these workouts with long runs + goal pace miles. I still have time for two of those if necessary.

AM: 6.25 miles very slow. HR 126.

Legs like a new-born calf. Not really sore just, well, wobbly.

PM: Treadmill - 6.25 miles very slow. HR 126. Three light pickups at 10 MPH to stretch the legs

Day off. 35 days on. Cutback week and slight taper week. #taperingfora5kbaby

AM: 10 miles. HR 151. RHR 40.

TRACK WORKOUT

Light sharpening workout for Saturday. 2 x 800 (400), 2 x 400 (200), 4 x 200 (200).

Breathing felt a bit labored warming up. Likely the quick change in temperature. Resting HR was back down to normal from being very high yesterday (~48 yesterday).

800s were a bit slow but still around sub-17 5k pace. Shorter reps were faster than planned (targets were 2:40, 77, 35). I think I need to warm up the legs a bit more with some drills and strides, which I barely take the time to do these days unless it's a race.

I've started averaging even shorter intervals for track workouts and it's interesting to see even if it doesn't translate into any sort of prediction. Still interesting. 5:09 pace for 3200 meters. I'd like to run that continuously some day.

2:43.4, 2:42.2
76.1, 75.3
34.4, 34.4, 35.6, 33.6

PM: 6.25 miles moderate. HR 153.

+ Stretching and core after at the gym

Short taper for Saturday's race. Weather looks cool and calm for race time.

PM: 5 miles. HR 153. Did 6 x 200 cutdown strides on the track.

Breathing felt a bit labored warming up. I can't tell if it's the changing air and season or what but I've notice it a few times in the last week or so. 200s felt pretty good. Finished with a 32.7, which might be pretty close to a non-spikes PR.

After my run I had the pleasure of going to Citizen Bank Field to pick up my packet. It is supposed to take 30 minutes to get there and it took me about 70 or so (for 16 miles) and a good portion is an expressway. It took me at least that to get home. The total trip was well over 2 hours. I wouldn't live long doing that commute. It's apparently one of the most congested highways in the country. At least I have my bib ready to go.

AM: 10 miles total. Phillies Charities 5k in 16:52. A 16-second PR. 4 up/3 down.

Megan and I headed down to South Philadelphia pretty early. I got in 4 miles of warmup, some stretching and one stride (I was looking for a bathroom, but decided it was nerves and held it and didn't get in any more strides). I peeled off my warmups and got pretty cold as we started 3-4 minutes late.

The start was chaotic with young kids going out at sub-5:00 pace. I ran in crowd for maybe a quarter mile before seeing the lead pack. I was perhaps 15 second behind them and tried to speed up without burning too much energy. It gradually broke up before the mile and I started picking some people off while the leader took off (he ran 15:52). Went through mile 1 around 5:19-5:22 and kept everything fairly steady in effort from there. I passed about three guys around mile 2 and tried to keep it up. With a few turns and rough roads I got slightly out of my groove.

The final stretch is about a third of a mile so I could see the finish, which seemed forever away. I couldn't catch the guys in front of me but I wasn't too concerned. I was on 5:22 pace on my watch and was pretty sure I was on target for sub-16:45 (my A+ goal). I split a 5:37 on my watch for mile 3. WHAT?! Long? Bad tagents? Aliens? I split very long (1.04). Didn't matter. I was looking at a clock that I thought would be in the 16:30 range and it was around 16:48 and I had a small piece of real estate to cover. I slid in around 16:53/16:54, my lungs burning a bit from the cold but recovered fairly well.

My first time breaking 17 minutes in the 5k and my first certified 5k. I have chased it somewhat seriously for about a year but never really understood you have to be able to run about 3.5-4 miles of fairly long intervals at 5:20-5:22 and for shorter intervals you need to be able to run a good deal faster than that. I don't know how many more "Minute Barriers" I have in my running career in the 5k, so this has me pretty happy but hungry. It will likely take years to break 16 minutes and it's highly unlikely I'll get very far into the 15-minute range but that won't stop me from trying.

Strava/Garmin smoothed rich, chocolatey goodness

5:21, 5:23, 5:26, 32.2 (plus 10 seconds for tangent tax/certified ensured length)

5:19, 5:25, 5:37, 32.2 (Garmin manual splits)

PM: 4-mile shakeout. HR 128.

+ Stretching and core at the gym after