53 Days to Go (Specificity)
I'm entering the phase of specificity. At the beginning of the training plan, my paces on different days were far apart (Speed vs Easy). Now, as race day gets closer, I start to hone in on marathon pace. Thus, starts the marathon specific training. More miles. Longer distance intervals. And extending out the Tempo mileage/duration to it's peak. Let's see how the week went.
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Strength +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
8/3/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
8/4/16 - R -
MISSED RUN!!!!! 
8/5/16 - F - 1.5 miles @ 9:18 min/mile + 9 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 9:05 min/mile (7/9)
8/6/16 - Sat - 11 miles @ 8:23 or slower (undefined easy) min/mile (11/11) + MBW
8/7/16 - Sun - 12 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (9/12)
8/8/16 - M - 9 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (5/9)
8/9/16 - T - 1.5 miles @ 9:31 min/mile + 6 x 1 mile @ 7:23 min/mile with 400m RI @ 9:47 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 9:43 min/mile (6/6)
Total mileage = 54.25 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 40/47 (85%)
Thursday was another decision day for me. Run in the morning or run at night. There were severe thunderstorms predicted for the evening, but not until 11pm. I felt this gave me a large window to work with from coming home (5pm) to finishing the run. Unfortunately, work happened. We had a big procedure scheduled for Friday morning that requires a liquid to be at a very specific calcium concentration. Needless to say, this isn't an easy task. In my 10 years experience, for a first time person it typically takes 6-8 hours and multiple attempts to get it right. Unfortunately, the first time person didn't know this and started trying to make it at 2pm. Oh well. I was at work until 6pm and during the whole time I was watching the impending severe weather get closer and closer. Based on my predictions the weather was now scheduled to start at 7:30pm instead of 11pm. Since I left work at 6pm, I wouldn't be able to get out the door any sooner than 6:45-7pm. When I got home it was pretty obvious the run wasn't going to happen. Too much lightening, too much hard rain, and too much wind. If I had left work on time, then I could have made it, but alas it wasn't to be.
But a trend is developing. Last summer when training for the October 2015 marathon, the weather on Thursdays was cool and cloudy. Race day was cool and cloudy. This spring the weather on Thursdays was WINDY, and I renamed Thursday to "Windsday". The race day was super windy. Now during this current training cycle, Thursday has been hot/humid and severe weather. Prediction for race day in October 2016... hot/humid/severe weather involving lightening. Let's see if I'm right.
So, the decision needed to be made on how to adjust the remaining schedule for the week. Do I scrap the Tempo run, or do I scrap the Friday easy and make it a Tempo? I went with scrapping the easy. When reviewing my training plan, I edited both situations and saw that I would not violate the 80/20 rule or the 35% rule so I was in the clear. But since I would have 36 less hours between the Tempo and Long Run (albeit the short one), it was wise to listen to my body throughout this week. So, on Friday I did the Tempo run. The silver lining was that Friday's weather was much cooler than Thursdays. The run went very well with 5/9 paces within 1 second of desired pace. A very strong outing. However, I was wearing a pair of shoes that I know to be towards the end of their life (based on feel). I got a tiny bit of shin pain from using them and hoped it wouldn't linger. Time to retire those shoes and their twin. I added up the mileage (to which I remained blind to) and they equaled 321 and 320 in each pair respectively. Something to be said for knowing your body and almost dead on to when this type of shoe (Saucony Ride) dies on me. Goodbye Ride 8 A and Ride 8 B. Hello Ride 8 C and Ride 8 D!
I went into Saturday knowing that I would have minimal recovery time from Friday's Tempo. The question was do I run Friday's easy today or do I run Saturday's easy. I chose neither. I chose to keep the mileage at 11 miles, but that the pace would be whatever my body wanted to do. It was to be no faster than Saturday's pace (8:23 limit). As predicted, my body was sore from the prior day and the easy pace started out slow. As the run wore on, the pace quickened. The 1st half was more EA and the second half was more EB. However, the shin pain, while tiny, still lingered.
Sunday was the easy of the two week long run cycle. Nice. Easy. Comfortable. Dropped a few 7:50 min/miles in there. Real happy with the run. However, the shin pain was still present. Really hoping this fades away. Goes to show how one day in a pair of shoes near the end of their life can push you too far.
Monday was an easy day. And it was just that, easy. The shin pain still persisted and I was hoping to be done with it.
Tuesday was the first Strength session. This is the kick simulator. You build up all of this cumulative fatigue mileage throughout the cycle week to culminate in this final day. You teach your body, yea your tired but let's see if we can run slightly faster than marathon pace, but on tired legs. In addition, they're intervals. So you intentionally flood the muscles with fatigue by product during the resting periods to force your body to learn how to clear it more efficiently. It's always been a great workout for simulating giving that last effort push necessary to cross the finish line. So how did it go? Well I hit 6/6 intervals. For me that's unheard of as this is usually one of the hardest workouts for me. But today it was surprisingly easy. Very happy with it and another confidence booster run.
Overall a good week. While at the time I wasn't happy about missing a run, I know I'll be fine. It's a drop in the bucket from a overall plan perspective. Still maddening. I can also look back at the spring marathon training cycle at the same time remaining period. With 8 weeks to go I ran 56.25 miles and hit 82% of intervals. This week (with 8 weeks to go) I ran 54.25 miles (suppose to be 64.25) and hit 85% of intervals. So yea, I missed out on 10 miles, but that was 8 more miles than I would have run above and beyond the same point in the training cycle compared to only 5 months ago. I'm doing alright!
Next week's training cycle we hit the peak of the long run. 18 miles! And a total duration of 2:27:47! It's going to be an odd week. Thursday my wife works late (thus morning run). Friday my wife works a bit later (so morning run, or late evening run. I'd prefer morning (Go T&F Olympics) but it's got severe weather predicted right now). Saturday my wife works (thus early morning run). Sunday is the women's Olympic marathon at 7:30am (thus super early run to get in 18 miles before the race starts). Yea, I know I could watch it on demand, but I have yet to find an option for watching it that doesn't tell me who won in the title of the video. Like seriously! I want to watch the swimming 4x100 without already knowing Phelps wins. It takes most of the fun out of it for me. So yea, no replays of the marathon for me. Only watching it live because I don't want to know who won it while I'm watching. Go Desi!
Only a few workouts left to get better!
Tempo - 7 left
Strength - 6 left
Long Run - 3 left
EXCITING!
)
...
I had to miss my 1st run of the training session... I decided not to run this morning because I thought the severe weather would hold off. Then I ended up at work an extra 2 hours... I would have finished the run if I had left work on time, oh well... One missed run won't ruin everything, but still I REALLY WANTED TO DO IT! 
