Of Mice and Marathons

PM: 9 miles. Felt good after yesterday's long effort.

+ Stretching (very late)

Lunch: 8.25 miles.

PM: 6.25 miles. Feeling chilly. Back up into the uper 60s and low 70s for a few days.

+ Rolling, stretching, and core (late)

PM: 10 miles. Did a couple strides to finish up.

Hodge-podge run due to the detour on Valley Green. Mix of roads, trails, dirt, rocks, creek crossing. Ruined my rhythm and I really didn'y feel like running on rocky trail today. Ended up being a good run.

Megan and I are off to Center City to walk around and eat. We didn't have much of a fall break. Philadelphia University doesn't have a fall break, which I've never seen from a University.

+ Rolling, stretching, and core

AM: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 14.5 miles, averaged 7:14

6-mile aerobic tempo in 38:10 (6:22 avg.)

6:20, 6:22, 6:22, 6:19: 6:24, 6:23

3 minute recovery jog

2 x 1 mile w/ 2 minute recovery jogs

5:45, 5:52

Weight was down this morning so I knew I was dehydrated. I can usually just pull through but today was a struggle with my cold slightly lingering. It was hard to run 6:20 pace today and I almost pulled it. I was going to continue to 8 and finiah that way but I decided to jog after 6 and try to finish the workout as planned, which was 6 tempo then 3 x 1 mile.

I was breathing a bit too much after the 6 miles, but the first mile repeat was pretty good considering I wasn't able to get my tempo miles down to <6:15 as I wanted. The second repeat was harder. I decided I had had enough for the day and it is time to focus on rest and hydration before the final big workout on Saturday, which will likely be a 10 + 10 shooting for 6:15 pace or faster for the second 10 miles.

PM: 4.25 miles.

AM: Off. Up late doing work and need to sleep a bit. 

Is racing a hard half too hard 3 weeks out from a marathon? I've done them 4 week out with the final big workout 3 weeks out. The schedule this fall necessitated switching the weeks.

PM: 10.25 miles easy.

Darkness fell and I didn't have my headlamp. I made sure to pick up my knees to avoid any grabby sidewalk gremlims that might want to take me down.

+ Rolling, stretching, and core. To be around midnight for once in quite some time

AM: 3.5 miles. Had to be on campus early.

PM: 9.25 miles, somewhat moderate.

Skipped strides because I couldn't see the ground as it was dark. Broke in a new pair of Nike flats, which I like. I never thought I'd like Nike but my last pair worked well even though they are ripping. They have the feel I want for 5k-half racing.

+ Rolling and stretching (very late)

AM/Lunc: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 21 miles, averaged 6:48

Final Big Workout for Philadelphia Marathon

10 miles brisk @ 7:00 average

9 miles @ 6:17 average

6:16, 6:17, 6:14, 6:15, 6:14, 6:18, 6:17, 6:23, 6:18

2 mile cool down

The workout went well. It didn't feel as effortless as my workout 3 weeks prior to Philadelphia last year but after more mileage and just under 100 miles average for the last 2 weeks, I pleased with this. I think last year I only ran 5 miles the day before and I ran 13 miles split yesterday with my evening run fairly late and uptempo for my typical easy run. I also ran the first 10 a bit faster than necessary. My first mile was 7:36. If I run an 8:36 first mile on easy days it probably means I had an extra cup of coffee.

Plan was to do 10 tempo but I decided to pull the plug at 9 because I started to head back to Philadelphia on the sidewalks, which never works out well with people turning into strip malls. I hit a head wind and shut down the tempo at 19 miles and dragged by tired butt another 2 miles up the hill and walked it in as I did last year.

Miles 16-19 felt pretty much like miles 18-26 of a marathon. Temps were 50-57, which felt decent if a but warm for this bigger runner (weight is not even making sense).

Last year I did 8 + 10 + 2 and ran 6:48 overall with 10 @ 6:23 and 8 @ 7:15. I think I only ran 5 miles the day before last year too. Running 70 minutes modertately around 5:30 last night loaded the legs a bit as was my plan.

Goal for Philadelphia will be 2:48-2:43. A-goal is sub-2:45. I think I need another buildup to run 2:42-2:43.

Maybe a walk later if I can fit it in.