Tuesday, September 20, 2016

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.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

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!