Of Mice and Marathons

Congratulations to Bret Jardine who ran the London Marathon this morning. He is FRB's newest sub-3 hour marathoner!

PM: 7 miles easy, averaged 8:32. Legs were a bit sore, but not demolished. Probably should have hit the cool down sooner yesterday rather than standing around talking and waiting for results, but it probably didn't matter.

Final big workout sometime this weekend, depending on non-running stuff and recovery this week. It's something like 24 miles with 10 around 7:20-7:30 or slightly faster with a half marathon MGP tempo (6:38ish pace) at the end with a mile or so cool down. 90-95 miles for the week. Last week of the semester. Nice planning, Jason. 

AM: North side - 7 miles, averaged 8:23 

PM: North side - 7 miles, averaged 8:00

AM: 5 miles easy, averaged 8:26

PM: Jefferson High (modified) - 9 miles, averaged 8:09

I checked my half splits from the half on Saturday. Apparently I got 6th place, not 7th, and not 10th like the original printout said. I definitely ran a negative split for the 13.1+ a little bit that I measured (about negative 20 seconds), but the results reflect 40:28/40:56. Either way, still good. Wish I could split that close in a marathon!

Evening: 18th street south to Veteran's Memorial Parkway and back - 13.1 miles, averaged 7:27 w/ 7-mile MP tempo and 3 up and down. I knew I wasn't ready to 6:35 pace, so I figured I would go by feel and hope be 6:45-6:55 range and go with sub-3 hour. Glad I wasn't racing today! Just a hair under 6:59, which means I'm not recovered from Saturday (I knew that) and my inner Garmin isn't finely tuned. Still enjoyed the run and it was nice not to know what my pace was and burn some lard I seem to be accumulating with the joy that is the end of the semester. 

AM: Old Standby - 6.5 miles, averaged 8:29

PM - North side - 6.5 miles, average 7:54. Pretty much the same as the morning. Did some strides. 

Lunch: Ran to Tri-n-Run to get some gels, continued to Jefferson High and came home - 7.25 miles, averaged 8:07

PM: North side - 4.5 miles, averaged 8:09

Last big workout in the morning. Hope it's a good one.

Last big workout today. Wasn't sure how it was going to go since my legs still haven't recovered fully from last Saturday. Figured I would give it a go and if I could hit my goals a pair of rested legs can do it over the distance of a marathon. Plan was 10 easy-moderate, then 10-13.1 mile MP tempo. Ended up doing 10 @ 7:28-7:30ish and then 11.25 miles at marathon goal pace. 21.25 miles, averaged 7:02. The run was not easy. Even starting out at just below 8 minutes for the first mile I knew I was in for a tough run, but it wasn't terrible and I can't complain with the outcome. The rich chocolatey goodness is as follows:

Somewhere around 1 hour 15 minutes for the 10 miles, then 1:14:45 for the 11.25 miles. Splits: 6:46, 6:48, 6:45, 6:36, 6:36, 6:50, 6:34, 6:27, 6:41, 6:31, 6:32, 1:39.1 (6:30 pace) or 6:39 average. Right on 2:54 pace. I bonked pretty hard toward the end and my feet were smacking the pavement. A gel and an orange before the run, 1 gel at mile 8 or so to test one of the new ones by Huma. Super tasty and less junk than the others. I could easily eat it on a piece of toast. Water would have helped today (about 65 degrees, which wasn't terrible, but I had some good salt deposits toward the end).

This also make a PR for weekly mileage by about 160 meters from a few weeks ago. The 100-mile peak weeks will have to wait until fall or Boston, but I think I can do some damage off 80 average w/ peaks into the 90s as I have been doing.