September 30 - October 6, 2024
Marathon training week 13 | 21 days until MCM
In which it feels all too real
Week 13 schedule
Monday
Easy/strides: 7 miles (9:39), avg. HR 144, max 170, 98% Z1-2, T+D~125 
Core
The weather was better, and I felt better too, which was a relief. I did have a random ache on the outside of my right foot in the back half of the run - not sure where that came from. It could be the shoes, which have somehow made it through 600+ miles in reasonable condition. We'll have to see if it happens with any other pairs. (It didn't.)
Tuesday
Workout: 2 mile WU + 1600 + 1200 + 1000 + 800 + 600 + 400 + 200 w/ 2 min RI + 2 mile CD
Total: 8.72 miles, avg. HR 152, max 191, T+D~130
Lower body strength
Workout analysis chart and laps
Does anyone else find themselves massively unmotivated to run when it's raining? It's not that I mind running in the rain - better rain than the 70º dew points we had last week. But something about the rain just makes me want to stay on the couch.
Anyway, I eventually got myself out the door. I did feel better than Saturday, which was good. I didn't necessarily have specific pace goals for the reps, but I figured I'd start around lactate threshold pace and try to pick it up from there.
Overall it went reasonably well. That first rep has a couple of hills (honestly they all have a couple of hills), so the absolute pace was more like HM pace. But adjusted it was pretty close.
However, my HR still read in the 150s for the first rep when I was expecting 170s, which was a concern. Either my watch wasn't reading it correctly (plausible and not worrying) or I was so deep in the hole that my HR just wouldn't go higher (very worrying). Fortunately, on rep 2 it did pick up, so it was probably just a tech issue.
I did increase the effort for each rep, if not the actual pace (again, hills), which I was happy with. This is also the first time I've actually felt that thing people talk about with not being able to run fast in marathon training. Anything faster than about 10K effort felt SUPER hard. At one point I felt like I was running maybe 3K or mile pace and I looked at my watch and I wasn't even at 5K pace.
I wasn't expecting that to happen to me because it's not like I haven't been running faster reps in training - including last week. But I also ran a lot of miles last week, so maybe the lingering fatigue made speed work harder.
At any rate, I had one of those moments where my body's understanding finally caught up with my brain's understanding, which is always interesting if not necessarily fun
Wednesday
Easy: 6 miles (9:53), avg. HR 152*, max 160, 100% Z1-2, T+D~125
It was still a bit damp out. At least it wasn't super humid. I felt fine on this run and probably sped up a bit more than I should have towards the end because I had to pee.
*My watch did not record any HR data for the first ~1.5 miles of my run. Strava randomly decided my HR for that time should be 155, which is significantly higher than I'm sure it actually was, so the real average is definitely lower than this.
Thursday
Medium-long: 11 miles (9:29), avg. HR 152, max 162, 98% Z1-2, T+D~135 
Core
After a couple of early morning showers, the clouds started to clear up a bit. With all the rain we've been getting, Rock Creek Park was actually quite lovely and still green. My legs were, as usual, a bit tired, but otherwise I felt reasonably good.
Friday
Easy/strides: 7.24 miles (9:06), avg. HR 149, max 172, 90% Z1-2, T+D~130 
Upper body strength
The race seems a lot closer now that it's October, so I was looking through various race reports/guides for tips. One thing that came up a lot was how hard the 14th Street bridge was. This seemed a bit odd to me because I have run across that bridge many, many times and didn't think there was anything remarkable about it. So I set out to revisit it with the marathon in mind.
You do have to run up a bit of a hill to get to the bridge, but then it's pretty flat, with a nice coast downhill at the end. It's true that there's no shade, and not much opportunity for crowd support, which could be tough. But I think the issue is less "the 14th Street bridge is so hard" and more "mile 20 is so hard"
Saturday
Long: 15 miles (9:22), avg. HR 151, max 165, 95% Z1-2, T+D~130
My left knee was feeling quite strange on Friday after my run. Not sore, but off - like something was out of alignment. Saturday morning things seemed okay though, so I went out as normal. And aside from one weirdly painful step, I didn't notice anything awry while running.
Overall I felt much better than last week, which was a relief. I wasn't exactly taking it super easy, but I felt comfortable for the first 13.5 miles or so - legs just starting to get a little tired in that last mile and a half.
MCM has Untapped on course this year, and they had a deal where you could get six gels (two per on-course flavor) for $10 to try in training. This is a great idea, and more races should do it! My gels arrived this week, and I tried the salted citrus flavor on my run. It wasn't my favorite - which was kind of what I expected, not being a huge citrus fan in general - but it was tolerable. I imagine I will like the other flavors - salted cocoa and coffee - much better, but at least I know my stomach is fine with even the least appealing flavor.
My knee did feel kind of weird again on and off the rest of the day, so not sure what's up with that. I will have to be extra diligent about the foam rolling and stretching.
Sunday
Biking/strolling
So, with a wonky knee, did I stay home and relax? Of course not! Instead I biked across town to meet up with a friend and wander around a park for a couple of hours. It was fun, though.
I did not record the biking because I needed my watch to be giving me directions, not workout stats, and I didn't record the walk because we were just sort of meandering. But I figured that was plenty for my rest day and I didn't need to do any yoga.
Totals
Running: 8h 38m, 55.13 miles
Strength/mobility: 2h 2m
Total: 10h 40m
Weekly training log
In terms of running, I felt much better this week than last week. In terms of overall health, I'm a little worried about my knee. It still feels a bit off, but not all the time. I just need it to hold together for three more weeks...
Coming up
Week 14 schedule
Right. So this is the workout I made that was a Bad Idea. (Only one this time, though! I think I'm improving
) Now that it is...the week of the workout...I have two ideas to adjust it.
1. Same thing, but break it up: 3-4 x 1 mile @ MP+30s/1 mile @ MP/1 mile @ MP-30s/2-3 min RI.
2. Do-over of last week's workout that went horribly: 4 x 2 miles @ MP/3 min @ 10KP/2 min RI.
Thoughts?
@DopeyBadger, do either of these sound particularly better for 2 weeks out from a marathon? Or something else? They kind of have similar vibes (run around M pace for a bit and then pick it up), which is very "me," especially at this point in the plan.
But there's support for the latter at least!
I assume this is why Strava's charts are all upside down (lower numbers are higher up) - because people think it's weird to have the line go down when you're getting faster.
).
At least the weather is improving.
I will survive. Hopefully.
and was out with the dog before 4:30. I had managed to get to bed early, but I didn't sleep particularly well. You know when you have to be up at a certain time, and you keep waking up and checking whether it's that time yet? Yeah. It was like that. But I was okay once I was moving around.
Oops.
I found that leading up to that and then really for most of the rest of the race there was very little shade. And a lot of pavement to absorb and emit heat.
