Thanksgiving

Hello All,

I wanted to wait on a few solid weeks of training before writing again. Here is what has been going on the last few weeks for marathon training. There was one day I took off opportunistically in order to reset the schedule to a Monday-Sunday week rather than Sunday-Saturday.

November 7- November 13

S- 64 min, 9 miles

M- 61 min, 8-9 miles

T- 20 min, 2.5 miles

W- 75 min, 9 miles

Workout 10 min (2K) warmup, 3 X 2000m (6:38, 6:31, 6:23), 9 min (2K) cooldown

5 X 800m (2:43, 2:40, 2:39, 2:38, 2:35), 400m slow jog cooldown

T- 55 min, 7.5 miles

F- Workout warmup 20 min, 3 miles at 5:13 pace, 3 miles at 5:33 pace, cooldown 20 min

S- 90 min, 12 miles

Total Miles: 70

NOV 4- 0 miles

November 15- November 21

M- 89 min, 12.5 miles

40 min, 5 miles

T- AM Run 30 min, 4 miles

PM 30 min "portuguese warmup", workout fartlek 40 min @ 1 min on 1 min off

W- 32 min, 4.5 miles

45 min, 7 miles

T- 78 min, 11 miles

F- Run 20 min, 2 miles

Workout 20 min warmup, 3 X 1600 (5:04, 5:03, 4:57), 3 miles at MP (5:35, 5:25, 5:20), 20 min cooldown

S- 50 min, 6 miles

S- 104 min, 16 miles @ 6:30 pace

Total Miles: 94

These track workouts are really sending me into that fatigue I feel after a few 25 mile days in a row. Its all a very different kind of pain while its happening, but once you get home and lay on the couch.... TIRED IS TIRED! I'm finding it really exciting to see how far I can push myself, and even though the track is somewhat monotonous, the miles fly by really easily.

The biggest change to my schedule from earlier in the year is the long run. Although its a little bit shorter, its way faster than I'm used to running for long periods of time. Last Sunday before I flew to Florida, I partook in a grueling 16 mile run at 6:30 pace, of which the last 4 miles were right under 6 min/mile. At peak condition I wouldn't normally find this too taxing, but I'm nowhere near that point right now :) After that I boarded the plane, luckily receiving an exit row seat for the 5 1/2 hour flight.

This week has been a little weird. All of the running on pavement has been bothering my calves a bit and I took off a day in order to let them heal a bit.

As for this morning, I entered a 4 mile race to get a feel for exactly where my aerobic threshold is. I finished the race 2nd overall in a time of 21:04. The last half mile I let off the gas a bit and probably could have finished under 21 but I'm not really upset about the race since its the first race under a marathon that I've done since sophomore year of college.

Now I'm off to stuff as much food into my stomach as my body will allow, then go for a swim in the Gulf!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!