26 Days to Go (We are now on our final ascent to the PEAK!)
Just as quickly as the valley can appear, so can it to disappear. We now find ourselves on the final ascent to the peak. The peak in mileage and the peak in physical fitness.
This was an absolute nutty week. Let's see how the week went.
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Strength +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
8/31/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
9/1/16 - R - 1.5 miles @ 9:24 min/mile + 10 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 9:25 min/mile (7/10)
9/2/16 - F - 10 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (1/10)
9/3/16 - Sat - 11 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (9/11) + MBW
9/4/16 - Sun - 12 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (7/12)
9/5/16 - M - 9 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (1/9)
9/6/16 - T - 1.5 miles @ 9:28 min/mile + 3 x 2 mile @ 7:23 min/mile with 400m RI @ 9:20 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 10:06 min/mile (1/3)
Total mileage = 64 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 26/55 (47%)
Thursday was the last of the 10 mile tempo runs. I bumped up the Hansons plan by one mile for the last three tempo runs to 11 miles (starting this coming Thursday). This one went well. A tad too fast on the first interval but I was able to settle into a groove and hit a healthy 7/10 intervals. However, during the cool-down I stepped oddly on the flat road and tweaked my bottom of my foot. It took a couple of steps to make the strike normal again, but I was biting my lip for sure as it wasn't comfortable. I was hoping this was just a small thing and it wouldn't linger into the next morning's run. It was clear when I got home though that I must have stretched my bottom of my foot too far on a step because it just didn't feel right.
Friday was EARLY. Up at 3:15am, out the door by 3:45am. I had to get 10 miles in before work because that evening we were going to my cousin's high school football game. The upside was the T+D was a BEAUTIFUL 103. AMAZING! The downside was I was still concerned about my foot and this run was occurring less than 12 hours after finishing my hard tempo run. I knew I probably needed to take it easy and just let the run come to me. In addition to it being an early morning run (extra caution during morning), I fully anticipated the pace to be slow. The pace was suppose to be 9:11. First mile 9:42, tad too slow but only by 1 second. Second mile 8:54, whoops a tad too fast. Third mile 8:27, whoa nelly! Calm down, this isn't a full blown long run pace. Thankfully, I was able to settle down in a rhythm but the pace was faster than the 9:11. The last few miles were in the 8:48-8:55 range. The foot was fine. Still uncomfortable, but I forced myself not to compensate for it. Thankfully, everything was completed as planned (other than the pace).
Ahhh Saturday, the first day (kind of) of college football. Slept in a bit, as I was looking to make up for the early morning on Friday. The run went well. I was hitting a groove around mile 8/9 and starting to realize... "IT"... WAS... BACK! Welcome to the peak again! The effort was "effortless".
The foot felt fine, still there, but not as bad as the other two days. Rounding the corner for my last 0.5 mile, running with the runner's high, and BAM! No water bottles. I was so confused. I was just at the table only ~20 minutes ago and they were there. And now, nothing. Why? Oh, why? would someone steal my water bottles... Ugh! It really took the edge off the run, and what went from a happy moment went to a frustrated moment. When I got home I counted all my old 8 oz water bottles and realized I could make due with those, but it was still disappointing. As for college football, hooray the Badgers won! Typical Badgers game. Play well. Screw up in a short time frame and lose the lead. Appear to lose the game. Then uncharacteristically, make the critical plays necessary to win. In past years we would have missed that FG or dropped the INT to seal the win. Thankfully, we were able to pull it out. So we beat a Top 5 team at a Neutral site in Lambed field. I would have thought I would have been more thrilled/excited. I was happy, but not jubilant. Why? Because I've found over the last couple of years that I get more joy out of my running than watching my UW sports team. I always was so invested in the teams that I let it effect my emotions too much. If we lost, I'd be so upset for the rest of the day. Now, I know I have no control over the sports so it brings me less joy/sadness when I watch the outcome. Whereas, I derive more enjoyment from my self-sport of running because the only person in control of my destiny/success/failure when it comes to running is me. Running has now surpassed UW sports in my hierarchy.
Sunday. I was still upset about the water bottles getting stolen the day before. I even wrote a note to attach to my new water bottle bag that essentially stated, "Hey, we're all human. Please be kind and courteous and not touch these bottles. I depend on them. Thanks!" So as I was getting close to the table to drop my water bottles off, I could tell something was there. The closer I got the more I realized my blue ice pack was inside the bag on there. So either someone else is following my pattern of water bottles/ice packs, or my bag has been returned. And to my absolute shock, the bottles were returned. One of the two ice packs was ripped open, and two of the three water bottles had their tops popped, but otherwise just like I left it. I was completely confused. Who would steal the water bottles, only to return them the next morning? I thought maybe the police, teens/kids, nefarious, who knows? But what I do know is I got them back. But what about the run? Still gotta do that you know. Well it was nothing unusual. Hit the paces as expected. Went a little too fast on some of the intervals as expected (usually on the downhill sections). Overall, a successful run. Took all the water bottles home and gave them a very thorough cleaning.
Monday was a holiday. Which meant another day to sleep in! Hooray! The goal was 9 miles at 9:11 pace. Here were the splits:
1- 9:09
2- 8:35
3- 8:37
4- 8:48
5- 8:40
6- 8:50
7- 8:49
8- 8:42
9- 9:00
Again, a tad too fast. Here's the thing though. It was at the same effort as a EA day. And if the EA day is a tad too fast it's ok because really anything slower than EB (8:33) is ok. We just want to make sure to take the easy days easy when they need to be easy, right? But what can I learn from this EA day. Well if my new EA pace is a ~8:48 min/mile as suggested by this run (and Friday's EA), then my predicted marathon pace would be a 3:09:31 (7:14 min/mile) per my calculator. Does that sound familiar to anyone????
7/28/16
A very successful blind run. Successfully started slower and finished faster. A nice progression of paces throughout. I've found from previous experience that the last split is typically the best predictor of my current marathon pace. Thus, given the conditions of the run (T+D=134 and no sun) my estimated marathon pace right now is 7:15. This would estimate by marathon time at 3:09:57. I'd take that!
7/31/16
Sunday was a beautiful morning! T+D from 118 to 130. I was ready to absolutely take advantage of the day. My goal was to run at 8:13 min/mile. However, because of the drop in temperature I was interested to see what my natural effort based long run pace would come out to. So this wasn't a blind run per se, but it was a let things happen as they may run. Another solid run. Started slow and progressively got faster naturally. The effort was kept nearly the same from beginning to end. The last 10 miles averaged a 7:57 min/mile. So a tad faster than prescribed but because of the weather I definitely wasn't pushing it. So when I got home I plugged in a long run pace of 7:57 (for the last 10 miles) to see what my estimated marathon pace would be. And to no surprise to me it came out at 7:18. So for those paying attention, my Thursday blind run tempo suggested a 7:15 marathon pace, and my natural long run pace suggested a 7:18 marathon pace. Given the similar conditions between the two days I think I can reliably predict that if the marathon conditions are around 120-130 with no sun, then my marathon time will be around a 3:09:57 - 3:11:16. Is this system perfect? No. But it is a good predictor of my future time, and it's nice to see consistency in the predictions based on two very different types of runs.
So roughly, 40 days ago I ran a blind
tempo run and a comfortable
long run which both predicted my marathon race pace to be 3:09-3:11. Now I have two runs this week at
EA effort, that suggest my marathon pace is 3:09. Ummm, yea that's 4 different runs over 40 days using 3 different paces that all suggest the same predicted marathon race pace. I'd say that's pretty predictive.
Does that mean I'll run a 3:09 on October 2nd? Nope.
Does it mean I'll try for a 3:09 on October 2nd? Nope.
Does it mean I'll be disappointed if I don't get a 3:09 on October 2nd? Nope.
All it means is that under the right circumstances my best marathon effort is estimated at a 3:09. That alone is pretty darn exciting. If true, it means I'm a mere 9 minutes away from the fitness level necessary to reach the golden sub-3 I've been chasing for over 4 years. It's so close...
Tuesday was the beginning of the ratcheting down of the strength runs. The heat/humidity was awful today with a T+D of 161. So the goal for the day was take it EASY. No victories come from pushing too hard less than 4 weeks from marathon day. Let's just hold this current fitness level, this current peaking, and I will be completely satisfied. Well easier said then done. I thought I was taking it easy enough but I could tell mid-2nd interval that I was pushing too hard. So I backed off and didn't complete the third interval. I finished the total workout of 10 miles, but definitely pulled way back. Just too tough to go from 110-120 to 160 in such a short time frame. Thankfully in the next 10 days it appears (for now) that summer is ending.
Well, this is it. Only a few workouts left to get better and then in 5 days I enter taper town. It seems like I’ve been training for so long for this, yet it seems like it’s coming up so fast.
Also, forgot to update my August Monthly totals:
Running Mileage – 275.44 miles (Grr missed one run…)
Running Time – 39:09:04
Average Pace – 8:32 min/mile
Compared to last year (again training for the same race)
Running Mileage – 233.59 miles
Running Time – 37:00:47
Average Pace – 9:30 min/mile
The mileage and duration between 2015 and 2016 has finally started to close, which means I spent a lot more time this year training in June/July and nearly the same in August (granted because of the calendar this year July was actually heavier than August). It’s also interesting to see that my training paces are about a full minute per mile faster this year than last at relatively the same time to go until marathon day.
The other interesting thing to note is that my yearly mileage PR is 1915.6 miles (2015) which is on pace to be broken this month (on 9/27/16). This gives me a little over 3 months to push my new yearly mileage PR into a new stratosphere! My 2016 year goal was 2,016 miles. I haven’t finalized my Dopey 2017 training yet, but early estimates would put my final 2016 year total at 2649 miles. About 633 miles more than my original goal!
I only figured it out this morning.
