Monday: 10+ total. I did speed work in Audubon park after work. My schedule means I start at 7pm, so my the end the sun has set. Four x 1.5 miles with half a mile active recovery. 9:54, 10:13, 10:11, 10:30 - I have so much trouble running in the dark! On the last repeat, I very nearly got clotheslined by a leash - those thin retractable leashes that are more like, well, a clothesline! are almost impossible to see at dusk. I saw the dog, but I thought he was with the woman to my left, not the woman to my right, and tried to run in between. At the last moment, I saw the leash, and came to a DEAD STOP. I stopped so fast that I left rubber skids on the road! But all was well. No dogs or humans were hurt.
Tuesday: Off.
Wednesday: 8 total. Worst run ever. I slept in, got up late, was starving, had to run in hot temperatures and full sun, and was forced to quit early to make it to work on time (not that I minded). I got in seven at tempo pace but felt terrible.
Thursday: 6.5 easy.
Friday: 10+ easy. Another late start: I just can't seem to wake up these days. I ended up having to rush to make it home in time for work, so my last four were in the 7:30's, 7:20's, and 7 teens, but the first part was more than amply easy.
Saturday: 10 faster than it should have been. Wait, where did the exhaustion go?! I realized that I felt pretty good when my first two miles were around 7:20, so I picked up the pace, thinking I could make up for Thursday's awful tempo. I did, averaging 7:13. I can't believe that this pace used to feel pedestrian. Age is a terrible thing, boys and girls.
Sunday: 7 easy. Still felt wonderful, probably because it was only 84 degrees.
Total: 52 miles.
Two weeks until the marathon! But no taper yet. I expect to run another 52 or so miles next week, THEN I can taper. Technically the taper starts next Friday. I still don't feel confident at all. I would like to run under 3:15, but when I look at the pace it just makes me dreadfully nervous. The pace seems doable now, but I just don't know about twenty six miles of it! I'm certainly feeling the lack of long long runs. But then I try to remember that the marathon is my best distance: I can pull off pretty decent races even unprepared. I took three weeks off right around peak week for my last race, and still actually made my goal of under 3:20 (those three weeks off resulted in my weekly average being below 30 for that training cycle, but I did get in three twenty milers). I'm reasoning with myself that I generally do comparatively well in marathons, and I got lots of miles in, and the weather will be infinitely better than it's been for all my training. But I'm also quite aware that most of my tempo runs have felt HORRIBLE and that I've been teetering on bonk for a few measly 16 milers. To make matters worse, I'm bouncing from feeling incredibly tired to feeling fabulous in the space of a few days! I have no idea with what mindset I should be going into this race!
Great job ... you've got 3:15 in you right now ... just go do it! But question. I know you're like 6' 4" or something like that based on your pics ... so exactly how tall was the dog that almost clotheslined you? Anyways, not that I'm any standard, but you're gonna smoke me at my fall marathon! Keep it up, you're almost there!
ReplyDeleteI can't stand those retractable leashes. Owners who use them like the idea of their dog wandering but leashes are for restraining dogs and keeping them out of the way of other people so they're stupid, pointless pieces of equipment and the dog would be better off totally off the leash.
ReplyDeleteI also hate those retractable leashes. I've had to jump over them, stop suddenly, or change directions very suddenly. All of which are risky moves when you moving along at a fast pace!
ReplyDeleteI hope the fatigue starts to subside soon. I'm not expert but I'd err on the side of caution and maybe cut back some of the runs this week to see if it helps w/ the extreme fatigue? Especially since the race isn't that far off?