1:18 and that's okay

Three years ago, I captioned a blog post, "1:21 and that's okay." I was training for a marathon in the 2:40-range and ran a half marathon a few weeks beforehand. I did not taper for the race and was still putting in high mileage weeks. My PR at the time was 1:19-high. I ran about 1:00 slower to finish in 1:21-low. I convinced myself that, if I were taking that half marathon as a goal race, I would have done several things differently. I would have cut my mileage back the couple weeks before the race. I would have done an easier workout race week. I would not have been running double digit miles and doubling in the couple of days before the race. A few weeks later, I went through the half marathon of my goal marathon 30 seconds faster feeling like a completely new person.

Over the weekend, I replicated the above process but went a little faster. I am now a 1:17 half marathoner. Now I think that PR is a little soft and could be in the 1:15-16 range. The training block I am in now indicates that but I knew going into my half marathon on Sunday that I was in a similar position to the one I was in three years ago. Over the last 8 weeks, I have been averaging 80+ miles/week. Over the last 5, I have been closer to 90. The week before the half marathon I hit 102 miles and I reached 85 with the race this past week. I did not back off my workouts. I did a 24 mile long run the Sunday before with 4 miles at 5:52 pace. I would think that most folks going for a half marathon PR would not crank out 24 miles the weekend before their goal race.

With all of that being said, the goal for the race was to run 1:17ish and set myself up for a chance to dip into the 1:16s. The idea was that, if fresh, I could run 1:15 so going out at 1:17 pace would be on the conservative side. I went out a little ambitiously in the first mile in 5:45. That is 1:15 pace. I should have been about 10 seconds slower. I ran the second mile in 5:55. I was back on track and ran 5:55s for the next two miles after that. I then ran a couple of 6:00-flat miles for 5 and 6 so came through 6 miles in about 35:40ish. At this point, I felt like I was at mile 20 of a marathon. I feel like a slammed headfirst into the marathon wall. My legs were exhausted. I started to churn out 6:00-6:10 miles. Miles 8 and 9 feature some decent uphills so I split closer to 6:10. Mile 10 was a little downhill and I ran a 5:58. I hit 10 miles in 60:05. I would sustain that pace over the last 5k of the race which flattened out a bit. Mile 11 was a 6:0x, mile 12 was a painful 6:1x, and then 13 was a 5:56. I worked hard the last mile because I did not want to slip into the 1:19s. My calves were burning and my legs were starting to cramp like they might towards the end of a marathon. I crossed the line in 1:18:52- 6:01 pace overall.

I wish I hit a half marathon with a two week taper with the kind of mileage and workouts I have been doing lately. This run basically served as a marathon simulator. I am hoping, that if I go through half marathon in 1:19-1:20 in three weeks, that it feels a whole lot more comfortable on tapered legs. That seems pretty reasonable to me. I still have not run a half marathon that clearly indicates sub-2:40 marathon shape. My workouts have certainly indicated that. I have done a lot of work honing in on 6:00, especially on tired legs. Twin Cities is the goal race in three weeks and I'm going to be ready to roll.

Feeling good ahead of Twin Cities- training for a sub-2:40

I have the Twin Cities Marathon coming up in 4 weeks and I am happy to say that I am in the best shape of my life. My goal is to break the 2:40 barrier. I ran my last shorter race in mid-August and have been building up the mileage for my fall marathon ever since. I ran the Scandia 10k and finished 5th in 35:33. I was one second slower than my time at Butte to Butte on July 4th which I would say is a much tougher course. I got a pretty warm day at Scandia which did not help produce a fast time. At the start of the race, one guy shot out to a 10 second lead and I was running in 2nd through 4th until I fell off a bit at 4 miles. I went 5:31, 5:35, 5:37, 5:42, 5:55, 5:52, and then 80 (.25ish). I ended up getting passed around mile 5 and finished 5th. The early leader would eventually fall back so the winner came out of our little group. I would have liked to have seen something under 35:00 but this day was more about competing with who was around me.

That was back on August 13th. In the 4 weeks after that race, I hit 81, 88, 91, and 102 miles. Up to that race, I had spent most of the summer building a nice base hanging out in the 60-70 mile range. My marathon cycle has been all about the long run. Here is what I have been up to:

7/17- 2 hours on Brice Creek Trail, 5400 ft. of elevation change

7/24- 14 miles and almost 2 hours at Forrest Park in Portland, 2700 ft. elevation change

7/31- 17.5 miles easy (6:54 pace on the roads)

8/7- 15 miles easy (6:49 pace on the roads)

8/14- 17.65 miles easy (6:49 pace on the roads)

8/21- 18 w./ 12 @ 6:01 pace

8/28- 19 @ 6:31 average w./ a 4 mile push from 13-17 in 5:55, 6:02, 6:05, 5:57

9/3- 21- 2 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo @ 5:55 pace, 9 miles easy, 4 mile tempo @ 6:05 pace, 2 mile cooldown

9/11- 24 @ 6:44 average w./ a 4 mile push from 17-21 in 5:53, 5:57, 5:53, 5:45

This has given me all the confidence in the world that I can hold 6-6:05 at Twin Cities. Here is what my 102 mile week looked like from 9/5-9/11:

9/5- AM- 12.25 @ Mt. Piscah- 1:50:00 (3000 ft. elevation change), PM 4.15 @ 7:30

9/6- 11 easy @ 6:48 pace

9/7- 16- 3 up, 4 mile tempo 23:39, 3 mile tempo 17:28, 2 mile tempo 11:29, 1 mile 5:36, 3 down

9/8- AM- 10 @ 7:00 pace, PM 5 @ 6:50 pace

9/9- 11.1 @ 6:56 pace w./ 8 x 200m hills after mile 6

9/10- 9 miles @ 6:57 pace

9/11- 24.1 miles @ 6:44 pace, w./ a 4 mile push from 17-21 in 23:28- 5:53, 5:57, 5:53, 5:45

I think this has been the best week of training in my life. I am now 4 weeks out from my goal marathon. 24 will be my longest run in the buildup and 102 will be the highest I get up to. I am going to run the Albany Half Marathon next weekend (3 weeks out) with a goal of running around 1:16. Honestly, I won't be upset if I run slower with all of the volume I've been doing. I am not tapering too much. My workout this week is 10 x 1km on Wednesday and then Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be a 9/5 double, 8 miles, and 7 miles, respectively. I'm looking forward to Twin Cities and going after a marathon PR!