You must be swift as the coursing river (as long as it's the Lazy River) - comments welcome

[striker1064]

I had to go to the gym and run on a treadmill this morning

NEVER

I did nothing yesterday and liked it!

Yeah, even run club cancelled all their midweek activities and opted to meet for drinks instead last night. Hoping things are clear enough tomorrow morning!

 

[avondale]

NEVER

I did nothing yesterday and liked it!

Yeah, even run club cancelled all their midweek activities and opted to meet for drinks instead last night. Hoping things are clear enough tomorrow morning!

Yes, I walked on the treadmill with an incline instead of running on it.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

June 5 - 11, 2023
Mile training week 1 of 8
In which we are briefly transported to a post-apocalyptic wasteland

Scheduled

ID: This week's schedule

Actual
Monday
Easy run: 4.05 miles, 42:35, 143 bpm

Nice and easy. The GPS was a little off in the first half - I can tell because I would remember if I ran through a building I was supposed to do Pilates but I forgot.

Tuesday
off

Wednesday
Extra strides: 4.89 miles, 50:05, 154 bpm

The smoke was starting to settle in, but it wasn't too bad in the morning. I didn't notice much impact except maybe a higher-than-normal HR in the last mile or so. But that could also have been from the extra strides in mile 4 - I think I did 8 or 9 (I can never keep track).

lower body strength: 3 x 10 (per side): single leg deadlifts, alternating lunges, sumo squats, curtsy lunges, single leg squats, calf raises
mini upper body strength: 10 each: chest fly, reverse fly, overhead press, pullover, bicep curl, tricep kickback + 15 push-ups

I ended up doing these on my lunch break while watching a Global Running Day conversation with Emily Sisson and Meb, so no video.

Thursday
Easy run: 4.02 miles (Strava) - 4.3 miles (treadmill), 42:16, 150 bpm

From not great on Wednesday, the air quality plummeted to record terrible levels on Thursday. I had to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. Treadmills are one of those things where I don't have any issue with them in principle, but in practice I hate them. I find it incredibly boring to run and not actually go anywhere, even with videos to try to distract myself. But I did, even if my watch and the treadmill disagreed about how far and fast I went.

Pilates + core

Since I missed Monday's Pilates, I did a quick routine along with the core workout. My glutes were kind of sore from Tuesday's strength workout, so that made the Pilates a little more painful than I wanted. So now I will be doing Pilates before strength days.

Friday
Not-so-easy run: 3.23 miles, 29:07, 165 bpm

Look, normally I am good at keeping easy runs easy, but not today. The air was actually clearer than I expected Friday morning, but the forecast said it should clear up more by afternoon, so I decided to wait. (This was a mistake.) In the end, the best air was in the morning, but I still ran outside.

However, I did my run right after a very frustrating walk with my dog, with him freaking out about a couple of people who inexplicably decided to bike on the sidewalk and then completely losing his mind over a dog who was kept barking at him and following him from the other side of a fence while its human just stood there and did nothing at all. So I was not in a great mental space when I left for my run, and I took it out way too fast. I slowed down a little over the course of the run, but not enough, and I decided to cut it a little short. At least I felt somewhat better afterwards.

Later that evening I watched the replay of the Diamond League meet where Faith Kipyegon absolutely crushed the 1500m world record, which was awesome and definitely lifted my mood further. It was hard not to be happy watching her reaction, and all the congratulations from the other women in the field.

upper body strength

I actually did this one earlier in the day while I was waiting for the air to theoretically clear up.

Saturday
100s workout: 6.73 miles, 1:05:19, 159 bpm
Split paces: 5:58, 6:29, 6:32, 8:06, 6:52, 7:12, 5:47, 6:48, 6:32, 7:23, 5:59, 6:34

As you can see, my splits were all over the place in this workout. I'm not sure how much of that is me being bad at pacing and how much is the GPS not being that accurate over such a short distance. The trends seem right - I definitely did the first couple of intervals a little too fast, and the 8:06 had a sharp turn in the middle of it - but the actual numbers could be way off. But 90 seconds was plenty of recovery, at least, and it never felt really that hard. In retrospect, I don't know why I thought this would be a 5.5 mile workout though


ID: Workout analysis chart from Strava

lower body strength

Almost forgot about this one but squeezed it in before heading to a late brunch.

Sunday
Easy run: 7.15 miles, 1:15:19, 150 bpm

It was a little warm this morning, but otherwise this run was fine. I didn't notice much fatigue from yesterday's workout, which was good.

Totals
Run distance: 30.09 miles
Run time: 5h 4m
Strength/mobility: 1h 30m
Total time: 6h 35m

Not a great first week, but mostly due to non-running factors. Hopefully next week goes more smoothly.

Coming up
I fixed the mileage on the workout, since it's effectively the same as this week's.

ID: Next week's schedule

 

[dobball23]

Building a training plan, part 6: Mile trials
In which I write a training plan (but not for the marathon)

Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources
Part 3: Principles
Part 4: Elements of training
Part 5: Mental training

As I shared the other day, I am now planning to defer MCM and run Space Coast instead so I can go to my friend's wedding the day before MCM. Since that leaves me with some extra time before I really want to start marathon training, I'm focusing on the opposite end of the spectrum and training for a 1-mile time trial.

I hope that I'll be able to improve on the 6:40 I ran yesterday. However, I also ran that under pretty freaking ideal conditions, and I'm unlikely to get those at the end of July when I wrap up this training block. So I am also mentally preparing myself for the possibility that I'll be slower in 8 weeks. C'est la vie!

Why train for the mile?
1. It's an opportunity to try out my marathon training structure to make sure it works for me. The kinds of workouts I'll be doing will change during M training, and I'll obviously be running farther, but it's still a good test of the basic schedule, which is pretty much the same as what I'm currently planning for M training.

2. I need something to do with my time and 25 weeks is too long for a M training block. I suppose I could make it work, but I don't know that I want to try. Instead I'll do 8 weeks of speed-focused training, take a break for a week, and then hop back into M training for the next 16 weeks. (I was originally planning on 18-20 weeks, but since I'm doing this extended speed block now, I think that I won't need much of that in M training, so the plan can be a little shorter.)

3. Improving your speed helps you run a marathon faster too. Or so I'm told.

4. I've never done it before and it sounded fun. Type 2 fun R Us.

ID: One Rottweiler laying his head over my legs (they're under the blanket), staring into the distance and contemplating existence.

Plan overview
You'll notice that all the weeks look basically the same. I tried to put all the things I wanted to do in an order that made sense, accounting for:

• No back-to-back hard days
• Strength training on hard days (I did put some upper body strength on easy days but I figure that's okay since it's not focused on my legs)
• 2-3 quality sessions/week (including workouts and long runs)
• Strength or mobility most days
• Following harder weeks with easier weeks
• One day completely off a week (sometimes I do easy yoga on these days)

Although I'm only training for a mile, the weekly mileage isn't all that much less than I will be doing for M training. Partly that's because even the mile is still mostly aerobic, and aerobic improvement just comes from running lots of miles. And partly I'm keeping the mileage on the higher end for a shorter distance because I'm thinking of this block as pre-marathon training and I want to be able to transition smoothly into M mileage.

So here's what each week looks like, with minor variations:

• Monday: easy run + core
• Tuesday: speed workout + lower body and short upper body strength
• Wednesday: easy run + Pilates
• Thursday: off
• Friday: threshold run OR medium-long run + short lower body strength
• Saturday: easy run + upper body strength
• Sunday: long(ish) run

I decided to include some training at lactate threshold because I thought it would help build stamina. But since that isn't the main focus of my training block, I alternated those workouts with a medium-long run (just an easy run that's a bit shorter than the long run). For M training, I may continue with that pattern, or I might stick with one workout a week and do a medium-long run every week. I'm going to see how this block goes before I choose.

I also included a couple of long runs with a M-pace finish to practice speeding up when my legs are tired. However, the main focus is the speedwork every Tuesday. I have tried to include a variety of workouts, mostly at 1 mile pace but with some a little slower and some even faster. Since I've never done mile training before, I found some ideas on the interwebs and in Daniels Running Formula (although I didn't like those as much because I don't really like distance-based recovery).

Finally, I've left myself a lot of flexibility in the last week to schedule my time trial for whatever day has the best (or maybe least bad) weather. As a result, most of that week is TBD, and we'll see what happens when we get there.

The plan
Okay, I'm finally getting to it. Voila!

View attachment 765425
View attachment 765430
View attachment 765431
View attachment 765432

Since I am not a spreadsheet savant like @DopeyBadger, I did not try to work out exact mileage or time, although I do have all of these paces noted as well (I am using McMillan and the 6:40 mile for paces). Based on previous experience, I think I'm hitting about 80/20 most weeks. However, I would love to know: what do you think? Anything from "I don't know about these threshold runs" to "that seems like not enough/too much rest between intervals" to "what does that acronym even mean?" is welcome. I really, truly want your feedback!

Thanks!

I love seeing this! I'm doing mile training this summer as well (thanks to a plan from DopeyBadger) before I transition into Dopey training in early September. Good luck! I look forward to reading about your progress.

 

[striker1064]

The easiest thing to do with those super short intervals is to calculate how long the rep should take based on your target pace. I've always found that to be the best way to figure out if I was close to hitting the pace. Because you're right, it's too short to be sure about your watch grabbing it properly.

 

[azrivest]

Good job on the strength training! You always impress me.

I've started weight lifting again this month after 3 months of nothing whatsoever. Is it normal that I'm feeling more tired? Is that muscle fatigue or something similar?

 

[WillRunForPizza]

I've started weight lifting again this month after 3 months of nothing whatsoever. Is it normal that I'm feeling more tired? Is that muscle fatigue or something similar?

If you are just getting into strength training after a long break, I would probably recommend starting with bodyweight exercises only for the first few weeks. I feel like there are any number of factors that could contribute to fatigue, so maybe that's the strength training and maybe not, but just like with running, you don't want to do too much, too soon.

 

[DopeyBadger]

The easiest thing to do with those super short intervals is to calculate how long the rep should take based on your target pace. I've always found that to be the best way to figure out if I was close to hitting the pace. Because you're right, it's too short to be sure about your watch grabbing it properly.

I'll piggyback onto this and say if you can, use the same stretch of road over and over within a run for the desired segment. This way each interval is directly comparable to the others. For instance, if you had 30 sec reps, then you'd start at point A, run for 30 seconds, stop at point B, and then turn around to re-start at point A for the next rep. If using time (30 seconds), then just see how close each stop point B is on each rep. If converting the time to distance and using a distance goal based on pre-measured locations on a Google Map, then aim for +/- 1 second from goal (29.0-31.9 seconds for a 30 sec rep). I always err the +/- an extra second on the slower side for incentive not to run too fast.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Building a training plan, part 8: Workout basics
In which I pay more attention to the details

Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources
Part 3: Principles
Part 4: Elements of training
Part 5: Mental training
Part 6: Mile plan 1.0
Part 7: Mile plan 2.0

What I learned from my mile plan development was that I needed to look more closely at the specific guidance for putting together workouts at different paces. So for future planning, I looked through the books and such and made myself a little guide.

Of course it can't be as simple as running X repeats at Y pace for Z time. Some sources disagree with one another, and some also disagree with themselves. Plus, the way I read Daniels, his workout guidelines apply to all training, while the Hansons, for example, are clearly only describing marathon training principles. I also looked at Pfitz, but mostly didn't include the recommendations because they were distance-based and meant for people who are a lot faster than I am, making them not all that helpful.

So it doesn't necessarily all coordinate, and the chart quickly got more complicated than I had initially planned for. But here's what I've got:


ID: Chart of paces with appropriate duration/reps, recovery, sources, and notes. (I also attached a PDF because the image is kind of hard to read.)

10K pace and half-marathon pace are blank because I didn't really find any guidance specific to those. (Well, Hansons' 5KP guidelines are kind of also for 10KP because they don't really differentiate for M training.) I think those are tricky anyway because they'll depend on where your personal fitness is. If your 10K fitness is within a few minutes of an hour, you can probably just lump it in with your threshold pace. For people who are really speedy, it might be more like CV pace. And for the HM, how close your time is to 2 hours will determine how similar it should look to steady pace.

For my current fitness, it seems like 10KP should be kind of lumped in with 5KP/CV. Technically it's a bit closer to threshold pace for me. But from what I gather, if you're doing threshold training, it's much better to be a little slower than a little faster. So in terms of physiological impact, it's closer to the speedier paces and should presumably follow similar principles.

Since my HM fitness should put me at a chunk under 2 hours, I'd probably use a similar structure for steady pace training but might also take some inspiration from LTP training, like incorporating long intervals. I don't plan to do a lot of HMP training during my M block, but I might include a bit leading up to my mid-plan B race just for practice.


ID: A Rottweiler wearing a rainbow bow tie, sitting and staring at the treat next to the camera

Next I guess we should look at how to decide where to put different types and distances of runs in the plan, because this bit didn't cover any of that. Something to look forward to!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

June 12 - 18, 2023
Mile training week 2 of 8
In which no one expects the headwind

Scheduled

ID: This week's schedule

Actual
Monday
Easy: 4 miles, 40:29, 149 bpm

It was a warm and humid morning, but at least we got clouds and a breeze.

Pilates

Tuesday
Speed: 2 mile WU + 6 x 1 min @ 1MP/3 min RI + 2 mile CD, 1:04:07
Split paces: 6:49 (6:36 GAP), 6:52 (7:05), 6:54 (6:31), 6:15 (5:28), 6:20 (5:59), 5:59 (6:11)

I swear I am just better at longer intervals - these felt easier than the 30s intervals from last week. I finished feeling like I could do the whole workout over again. My HR did get up to 197 in that last interval though!


ID: Pace analysis chart

lower body + mini upper body strength

I always expect that squats and deadlifts workout to be easier than it actually is. I had to save the upper body strength for lunchtime because I was too tired after the speed + strength. Plus it was time for work.

Wednesday
Easy: 5 miles, 54:11, 147 bpm

Did you know they play the national anthem over the speakers at the Naval Observatory (the VP's house) every morning at 8 a.m.? I run by there once a week or so, but this was the first run in a while where my timing matched up. (Sometimes you can hear anthems from the embassies too, but I think those are usually a little later.) My legs were a little tired but not too bad.

core

Thursday
off

Friday
Easy: 6.25 miles, 1:06:40, 153 bpm

A rather sweaty morning. Somehow no matter how many times I run this route, the headwind on the way back always surprises me.

mini lower body strength

Saturday
Easy: 5.17 miles, 54:33, 145 bpm

It was warm, but I stayed mostly in the shade so it wasn't too bad. My strides felt extra-smooth!

upper body strength

Sunday
Fast-finish: 6 miles easy + 2 miles @ MP + 0.5 miles CD, 1:23:02, 158 bpm
MP splits: 8:09 (8:04 GAP), 8:23 (8:19)

I should really have taken the MP segment slower, especially given how warm (though surprisingly not humid) it was. It was just one of those times where it was hard to find the right effort. Good thing I've got lots of time to practice before actually running a marathon! Because otherwise feeling tired after running two miles at "marathon" pace would not be the greatest sign.

Totals
Running distance: 35.41 miles
Running time: 6h 3m
Strength/mobility: 1h 55m
Total time: 7h 58m


ID: Strava weekly training log

Coming up

ID: Next week's schedule

It is good that this week's speed workout felt easy, because I have the same workout coming up but with two more reps. Plus some faster-than-mile-pace work, which is a joke because it's not like my pacing is on target for the mile pace reps anyway. But we'll see how it goes.

 

[DopeyBadger]

ID: Chart of paces with appropriate duration/reps, recovery, sources, and notes. (I also attached a PDF because the image is kind of hard to read.)

Good summary image. I'll add two things that jump out to me:

-Tom Schwartz (aka Tinman on LetsRun) is big into Critical Velocity pace. He typically prescribes about 1 min rest for every 2.5 min run.
-You're correct. Daniels limit on LT in a single run is 60 min. In order to be able to do 60 min of LT (maximally its usually 3 x 20 min), then you need to be doing quite a bit of running (10-12 hrs per week). Most people will cap out around 40 min (2 x 20 min) as that's where the general runner will be (7-9 hrs per week). I think this would be an appropriate max level LT workout for yourself.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

June 19 - 25, 2023
Mile training week 3 of 8
In which I blow all previous examples of moving things around out of the water

Scheduled

ID: This week's planned schedule. Spoiler alert, I did not do this.

Actual
Monday
Easy: 5.33 miles, 55:20, 150 bpm

It was warm and sunny. I kept it slow. Happy Juneteenth!

Pilates

Tuesday
Easy: 5 miles, 50:51, 151 bpm

I didn't have time to get the speed workout in before Princess registration, and I almost just decided to take my rest day early. But since I also wasn't working Tuesday, I decided to do an afternoon easy run instead. (It was too hot for sprinting.) Honestly I was surprised I wasn't slower given the heat/humidity. At least it was cloudy.

Core
Biked to and from REI

Wednesday
off

You would think I would have done my workout today, but it was raining and I did not.

Thursday
Speed: 7.55 miles, 1:14:07, 157 bpm
1-min interval split paces: 6:45 (6:52 GAP), 6:31 (6:30), 6:42 (6:09), 6:44 (6:36), 6:13 (5:56), 6:34 (6:33), 7:07 (7:03), 6:50 (6:14)

Finally doing Tuesday's workout. Mostly adding two more reps to last week's workout was not a problem, although I was definitely feeling pretty tired by the end. There was a bit of a drizzle on and off, which was good because it kept things fairly cool but also bad because the pavement was wet and my footing didn't feel quite secure at these paces. Also I don't really know what happened with #7 because I felt like I was working hard but I was quite a bit slower. It was weird.

Finally I learned that the handheld water bottle does kind of interfere with running at very fast paces. So that may be an issue when I'm doing my final time trial.


ID: Strava pace analysis chart

Mini upper body strength + lower body strength

Friday
Easy: 5 miles, 52:13, 146 bpm

It was still cloudy and a little drizzly, but the temperature and the humidity were creeping up. My right quad was particularly sore from yesterday's strength training, but I was pretty sure it would loosen up eventually and it did. I just had a VERY slow first few minutes. The rest of the run I was fine (if a little damp).

I had a workout scheduled but since I didn't do Tuesday's workout until Thursday, I obviously wasn't going to do another workout the following day. I didn't think Saturday was a great option either, so Friday's workout gets to be next week instead.

Saturday
Medium-long: 7 miles, 1:14:11, 156 bpm

Very sticky and my quad was still sore. Since I wasn't doing a second workout, I did a medium-long run instead.

Upper body strength

Sunday
Long: 10.09 miles, 1:43:12, 157 bpm

Wow it was hot. I carried 17 oz of water and 17 oz of Skratch mix and I finished all of it after 9 miles. Also yes I was only planning to do 9 miles, but that was before I moved my second workout so between this and the medium-long run I decided replace intensity with distance.

I have also missed a mini lower body strength this week, but I think I am going to skip it because my quad is still moderately sore and I don't want to aggravate it with more strength training until it's not hurting from the last strength training.

Totals
Running distance: 40.08 miles
Running time: 6h 49m
Strength/mobility time: 1h 23m
Biking time: 28m
Total time: 8h 42m

The other reason to do 10 miles today instead of 9

Coming up

ID: Next week's schedule

Because of all the moving things around, there's no medium-long run next week and last Friday's workout is now next Friday's workout. Actually it could be better this way; now I have lower intensity paired with higher mileage and the other way around instead of having a high-intensity, high-mileage week.

 

[avondale]

Finally I learned that the handheld water bottle does kind of interfere with running at very fast paces. So that may be an issue when I'm doing my final time trial.

Your time trial is a mile, right? And you're expect this to be less than 10 minutes, right? So do your warm-up, etc., holding the water if you need it, then stash the bottle behind a bush or something for the few minutes you'll actually be running hard.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Your time trial is a mile, right? And you're expect this to be less than 10 minutes, right? So do your warm-up, etc., holding the water if you need it, then stash the bottle behind a bush or something for the few minutes you'll actually be running hard.

Yeah, I mean that's probably what I'll end up doing. I just feel iffy about it because my "finish line" is a pretty busy area without a lot of good options for leaving a bottle somewhere. (It will be more than 10 minutes, though, because I have to run from the "finish line" to the "start line" first.)

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Building a training plan, part 9: Training periodization

Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources
Part 3: Principles
Part 4: Elements of training
Part 5: Mental training
Part 6: Mile plan 1.0
Part 7: Mile plan 2.0
Part 8: Workouts

Last time we looked at the trees (individual workouts), so this time let's step back and focus on the forest, aka the overall structure of the plan.


ID: My Rottweiler lying on his side on the couch with all his feet tangled together.

Levels of speed
A good starting place: breaking all the specific paces from the chart into a few broad groups. I've borrowed much of the terminology from McMillan but taken some liberties with the definitions because this way makes the most sense to me. From fastest to slowest:

1. Sprint/VO2max: This is about as fast as you can go and still count as distance running (so not technically sprinting in the Usain Bolt sense, just as close as you get in endurance sports). Here's your VO2max pace/maximum aerobic speed, which Fitzgerald actually defines as your 6-minute race pace (i.e. the pace you could run at for at most 6 minutes). Daniels says 11-minute race pace (I/H), so it would also include the faster R pace. For me this includes mile race pace, and maybe 3K pace if we're really stretching things. It might - again at a stretch - include 5K pace for the very fastest men in the world, but for the rest of us that will be in the next group. Training at these paces helps with power and running economy.

2. Speed: Here you're slower than those VO2max-plus paces, but faster than your lactate threshold. Weirdly, Daniels doesn't seem to have any work here, unless I'm missing something, but elsewhere this is critical velocity (30-minute race pace) and the surrounding paces. For me, that's 5K/10K. Training at these paces helps to increase your ability to run fast for longer periods of time.

3. Stamina: Hello, lactate threshold! Since I don't think we've covered this yet: your lactate threshold is the pace at which your body can no longer clear the lactic acid out of your muscles as they're working, and fatigue starts to build up. For most people, this corresponds to about the pace you can run for 60 minutes max. Running at just a smidge slower than lactate threshold pace helps to improve it, but if you run too fast, lactate does build up in your muscles and it defeats the purpose of the workout. (As you might have guessed, this is something I need to work on...) So in my non-expert opinion, this category starts at lactate threshold pace and goes up to about half marathon/steady pace. I might include marathon pace in here as well, because it really is more work than an easy run.

4. Endurance: Easy! You should be able to have a full conversation, no problem, and run at this pace almost indefinitely. Easy running builds your aerobic capacity, i.e. your ability to run for a long time. The longer the distance of your race, the more of an aerobic base you need. Marathon training = lots of easy miles!


ID: Rottweiler sitting on the patio, waiting not-so-patiently for his human to come back from taking out the trash.

Training sub-blocks
If my memory is correct, your body will adapt to a specific training stimulus (i.e. pace group) for about 6-8 weeks before your improvements level off. So why are a lot of plans 12-20 weeks? Because of the different effects of different types of training. For the marathon, you want to build your endurance and stamina the most, yes, but you do want to hit some faster paces as well for those power and speed benefits. Plus, training at paces faster than your race pace helps race pace feel easier. To see benefits in multiple areas, you can divide your training into a few different blocks.

Since I'm thinking about marathon training, that's the focus I'll use here, but keep in mind that these mini-cycles will look very different if you're training for, say, a 5K or 10K rather than a marathon. Also, since I'm already doing a mile race cycle right now, pretty much the only time I'll get back to those paces during marathon training is with strides a couple of times a week. Anyway, based on my research and reasoning, here's the overall structure I'm thinking for my plan:

Phase 1: Endurance
Last time around, my plan slowly built up to peak mileage (48 miles) in week 14 (of 16). That made sense for where I was at the time; it was my first marathon, and my highest-mileage week leading up to M training was about 30 miles. Jumping in too quickly creates injury risks, so a gradual build was the right way to go.

Now that I've run a marathon and a 16-mile long run doesn't seem so daunting, I can do things a little differently. I'll be using this endurance phase to build up to my peak mileage early. I'm currently running around 30-40 miles per week, and I'll take the first few weeks of the plan to get myself to the low to mid 50s. I won't have a whole lot of intensity during this time - probably just one light workout a week so my legs remember how to run fast. By building up my mileage at low intensity early, I'll be able to maintain that higher mileage throughout the training cycle while adding more intensity.

Duration: 4-5 weeks

Phase 2: Stamina
Next it is time to work on that lactate threshold. Here I'll start incorporating more workouts, mainly at lactate threshold pace specifically but with some slower and faster paces as well. I'll still be running pretty high mileage (for me), with a cutback week every few weeks to give my body a chance to adapt to the stimulus.

Duration: 4-5 weeks

Phase 3: Race prep
If you're training for a marathon, you should probably have some work at your goal marathon pace. I'll do a little bit of that earlier in the plan, but this phase is where the real focus on race pace comes in. Now, for this purpose, I'll be using an equivalency calculator; I expect my marathon pace to come out somewhere around 8:40. I don't actually expect to run a whole marathon at that pace, since the calculators tend to be wildly optimistic when it comes to marathon times. However, it's helpful for training purposes.

This part of the plan isn't really to get faster. Instead, it's more to internalize the pace you want to run on race day. I am terrible at pacing, so I need LOTS of practice. Because my vague race strategy involves starting out on the slower side and gradually building up speed as long as I can, I will probably incorporate that into my MP workouts too.

Duration: 3-4 weeks

Phase 4: Taper
Now we are almost to race day! The taper gives your body a chance to recover from everything you put it through during the rest of the training block so you can be fresh and fast on race day. I'll be running the same number of days and still doing 1-2 workouts per week, but I'll be cutting back some of the mileage and keeping the workouts relatively light. Then, hopefully, I will be ready to go for marathon day!

Duration: 2-3 weeks


ID: Slightly damp, slightly grumpy Rottweiler sitting on the rug with a beach towel wrapped around him. (He is afraid of the blow drier.)

That's it! Do you have other types of training you typically include in a marathon block? What does your ideal overall plan structure look like?

 

[WillRunForPizza]

June 26 - July 2, 2023
Mile training week 4 of 8
In which the humidity strikes back

Scheduled

ID: This week's schedule

Actual
Monday
Easy: 4.15 miles, 43:04, 146 bpm

Up until the last week or two, our summer had actually been pretty mild. For much of June, the dew point was in the 50s or low 60s, and we only hit 90 once or twice.

That's done now.

Honestly, I don't mind the heat too much if I'm just doing an easy run. I think a legacy of beginning my distance running "career" with cross-country practices during August afternoons set my tolerance for heat and humidity pretty high. So this run was pretty normal.

Pilates

Tuesday
Hills: 2.3 mile WU + 8 x 30s hard uphill + 2.3 mile CD
5.99 miles, 59:51, 155 bpm
Interval split paces: 7:26, 7:09, 7:16, 6:57, 6:56, 7:28, 7:19, 7:44
GAP: 4:54, 4:51, 5:13, 4:51, 4:55, 4:51, 5:11, 4:37

HILLS. Hills are mean. Who put this in here?

Here's where the conditions start to have an impact. Last week I thought maybe I should increase my reps from 8 to 10 because they're short, so I put a range in there, but after 8 I was fully done. (I was actually kind of done after 7 but managed to squeeze out one more (crappy) rep because I'm a completionist. Sort of.)

Because my pace was kind of meaningless between the grade and the short reps, I did not look at my watch at all during the intervals, just ran hard. Then I got home and looked at the GAP and went, "Oh yeah that explains why I was so tired." I don't think these split paces are super accurate - otherwise why does the grade adjustment vary when I'm running up the same hill? - but you can probably get something from the set overall. And what I get is that, in theory, with great conditions on a flat surface, I could run at world record marathon pace for...maybe like a whole minute! Lol

lower body strength + mini upper body strength

This week's lower body strength also came with some Pilates and a little bit of HIIT.

Wednesday
Easy: 4.11 miles, 40:34, 148 bpm

It was hot but cloudy so not too bad. Felt easy but ended up being faster than I would have expected

core

I realized when I got back from my run that I forgot to add a core routine to this week somehow. I didn't want to figure out what I hadn't already included, so I just did ~60 sec each of forearm plank, supine plank, dead bugs, back bows, side plank L/R, scissor kicks, Russian twists, and push-ups.

Thursday
off

I did some light yoga. It was fortunate that this was my rest day because the wildfire smoke made a reappearance.

Friday
Easy: 4 miles, 41:28, 148 bpm

Our air quality was still code red in the morning, so I held off on my run until the afternoon...when it was hot and humid and still kind of smoky, so I'm not actually sure that was the best plan. I definitely didn't want to do speedwork in those conditions, anyway, so I swapped with Saturday's easy run and skipped the strides.

upper body strength

Somehow I had not done this routine before, and some of the isolation exercises were surprisingly challenging.

Saturday
Speed: 2 mile WU + 4 x 90s @ 1MP/3 min RI/30s @ <1MP/1 min RI + 2 mile CD
6.68 miles, 1:09:56, 160 bpm
Interval split paces: 6:57/6:12, 6:47/6:50, 6:20/6:17, 6:37/6:21
GAP: 6:08/6:26, 6:16/6:03, 6:16/6:15, 6:20/6:13

Wow that was hard. And I remain bad at pacing. (With the T+D adjustment, my 1MP should have been about 6:55, which...I did not do.) I pretty quickly realized that 1 minute was not enough rest, even if it was 2x the interval duration. I ended up walking the beginning of all the recoveries starting about halfway through, and I was pretty freaking tired when I was finished.

mini lower body strength

Sunday
Easy: 8.14 miles, 1:28:11

This was a slog. The dew point was 72, which is gross even for me, and I wasn't sore but my legs were slow from Saturday's speedwork. I felt like I was plodding through this run. I also had to make a pit stop and accidentally stopped my workout instead of pausing it, and it didn't seem worth it to figure out how to combine them. So my math might be a little off. At least it was cloudy until the very end of the run.

Totals
Running distance: 33.11 miles
Running time: 5h 43m
Strength/mobility: 2h
Total time: 7h 43m

When you put it all together, it doesn't seem like that much, relatively speaking, but it felt hard. I think it's just running fast in suddenly-hotter weather. And doing a "long" run the day after a workout. Don't do this.

Coming up

ID: Next week's schedule

Um...maybe it will be...cooler next week? *looks at weather app* Okay, no, not at all. So I guess we'll see how this goes...

 

[avondale]

Yeah, the DC region has definitely gotten into a more traditional summer season with lots of humidity. Pretty gross. Where did you run with the hills?

 

[striker1064]

The dew point today is 76. 76! Downright offensive and shameful.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Yeah, the DC region has definitely gotten into a more traditional summer season with lots of humidity. Pretty gross. Where did you run with the hills?

I did my hill workout running up the trail between Rock Creek and Connecticut Ave (the one that's on the RnR course).

 

[WillRunForPizza]

The dew point today is 76. 76! Downright offensive and shameful.

Every time I go to walk the dog the last few days, I open the door and I'm like, "Oh okay. I live in soup now."