Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 20 miles easy. HR 150.

Legs felt good from yesterday after an easy shakeout and some good stretching. Tired toward the end because the banana I ate got burned off pretty quickly. Fairly cool, which was nice. I don't typically do long runs after races but I am trying to stick with my "long runs throughout the year" goal I set last summer and fall.

I think I am in shape to take my best crack at the sub-75 minute mark in the half. I'll have to be feeling good, have good weather, proper pacing, and and the strength to hang on. 5:43 pace is roughly 18-20 seconds slower than my current 5k pace and I think that's enough to do it. I'll have a better sense when I do my goal pace workout this week.

Lunch: 10 miles slow. HR 132.

AM/Lunch: 10 miles easy. HR 138-140. Did some strides. A little tired.

AM/Lunch: 16 miles.

Blown/Half-Salvaged Workout: Goal 4 x 3200 @ 5:43-5:45 per mile. Had to revise the workout to the trail because the track team was praticing. Too long of warmup, concentration gone. 2-mile repeats were over somewhat rolling dirt. I couldn't get accurate pace with the tree covers and I'm unsure how accurate the mile markers are.

2 x 2 mile with 3:30 jogs:

(5:46, 6:00); (5:51, 6:00)

10 minute uphill jog back to the track with light cussing

3 x 1600 with 400 jogs

5:38.4, 5:42.1, 5:43

Lots of stress the last few days and when I got back the track I was fuming because the moms with stollers were taking over the track. The track team has a right to be there. People's kids running and doing back passes with soccer balls in lane 1 don't. I let them sternly but politely know that.

I should have finished the workout on Forbidden Drive even if the pace wasn't right or where I wanted it to be. It's not an effort workout. It's supposed to be a goal pace workout lightly checked by effort. I've been doing this workout for 4 years and I have always run it well. A lot went wrong today. I know I am in good shape but I just don't know quite what to do in 10 days. I guess a PR is the main goal but I thought with all my faster work I'd be better off. My guess is that after the race I will wish I had my marathon strength.

AM/Lunch: 7.25 miles easy. HR 135.

PM: 6.25 miles easy. HR 138.

Fairly warm out but dry, overcast, and windy. Quite pleasant though. ~180 pushups on the day (4 sets of 43-47). Might be a PR but I don't keep firm records.
 

Am/Lunch: 11.25 mile moderate but slow. HR 155.

Did 4 x 200 hard on the track in 34.9, 33.1, 32.7, 32.2 after 15k. Was hoping to pop off at least one 31 but no luck.

Weight is finally getting somewhat back down after many months. Most of my peak racing has been at 170-173 and I can never quite seem to blast though that 170 barrier. After reviewing some training from 3 years ago I saw that I was in the 164-168 range and I have no idea how or why. I must have been dehydrated all the time or something. A constant sore subject for me, but I'm still trying to get to 165 in peak shape. I think that will be a good weight if I can ever reach it. Need a job that doesn't have me working from home most of the time. I don't eat anything when I'm not here but the refirgirator and cupboard are pretty much visible from the computer. </end semi-annual weight complaints/whinning>

AM: 12+ miles total.

Since it was a hard effort I'm giving it a race report and calling it, based on Leo's naming, the Pfitzinger Invitational (he follows Pfitzinger who has half marathon plans that use 10k time trials if you can't find a race)

Leo was looking for someone to do a time trial with, so I figured why not. I was going to do some 800s or 400s today to sharpen up for next week. This time trial sounded less fun and likely not my smartest idea given that it's 8 days out from a key race but I'm tapering quite a bit so I figure I'll be fine.

Yesterday was warm and windy, today was cool, rainy and mostly calm. A perfect day for a time trial as far as I am concerned. If you are going to do a time trial. I'm not much for time trials and I don't run hard tempos more than 4-5 miles as a general rule. Anyway.

Warmed up to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, but they were having a meet. We drove to Springfield (a lack of diversity in the names of schools it would seem). We warmed up 2 miles in the neighborhood and did just a few strides. I had asked Leo what he wanted last night and he wanted sub-36, which was faster than I was planning to run for the full distance but thought I might take him through 5k-5 miles depending on feel. This left my 400-800-1200 pacing around 1:26-2:52-4:19 once we got going. I wasn't quite able to get down to 5:45 pace as my legs just weren't turning over. However, I did have sole pacing duties for almost 9200 meters of 10000, so I think I did okay.

Leo and Jonathan pulled out around me just before 800 meters to go. Jonathan looked strong as he always does even after 8 weeks of low mileage and injury. Leo stuck with it and picked up the pace as well. He's done some of these time trials solo, which I find impressive. He runs well off of 55-60 miles a week. I've only broken 36 for a stand-alone 10k a few times and that was off much higher mileage.

1600 splits + the 400 split

5:50.1, 5:47.3, 5:49.1, 5:49.6, 5:50.6, 5:50.3, 1:24 (174 avg. HR)

3 mile easy back home and uphill.

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical (audio book pace). Stretching and core.