Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Gettysburg Marathon Training, Week 9

Monday, February 18th:

Rest.

Tuesday, February 19th:

5:00 am, 30 degrees, 60%, calm.  Grove St-Lake Ave-Haddon Ave-Maple Ave.  Brooks Ravenna 3.

8mi recovery progression - (8:17): 8:39-7:59

Rambled along nice and slow in the early AM.  Loosened up after 3.5 miles and finished feeling strong.

Wednesday, February 20th:

7:10pm, 28 degrees, 40%, 15-30mph.  Home-4x CHW Loop-Home.  Brooks PureFlow.

12mi total - (7:12): 2mi warmup, 8mi@MP, 2mi cooldown
Target warmup/cooldown: 8:10-:40
Actual warmup/cooldown: 8:21, 8:14
Target tempo pace: 6:40/mi
Actual tempo splits: 6:46 35 39 37 38 35 40 38

Miserable conditions, but hung tough.  First mile was very erratic - started too fast the first quarter mile, slowed too much the middle half mile, tried to find rhythm before the mile split.  Cold, gusty winds played a large role also.  Surprisingly, despite the conditions I settled into a pretty steady rhythm after the second mile.  I tried taking Gatorade halfway through the tempo, but it didn't go down well as it was so cold.  Probably ate a little too much beforehand also, as my stomach was heavy with some cramping at times.  Still, I persevered, I hung tough, and I accomplished a secondary goal of the workout - practicing marathon pace in times of duress.  I am really hoping Winter is on its way out the door - these cold SOS workouts are getting old!

Thursday, February 21st:

8:20 pm, 32 degrees, 45%, 15-30mph.  Grove-Maple-Grove-Neighborhood.  Brooks Ravenna 3.

7mi easy - (7:45)

Another cold, windy night.  I felt surprisingly strong tonight after yesterday's workout - pace came very easily without a lot of effort.  Running with a lighter stomach sure helped!

Friday, February 22nd:

4:55 am, 26 degrees, 60%, 5-10mph.  Home-Retro Fitness-Merchantville-Haddonfield Rd-Home.  Brooks Ravenna 3.

9mi easy - (8:03): including 7x100m strides at the end

Kind of a Kenyan style run.  Ran the first 3mi really slow toward Moorestown to meet Larry's Group.  Picked up their M-pace (7:50ish) at Retro Fitness and followed Maple Ave. straight to Merchantville.  Continued with the group until Haddonfield Rd, then headed home and added a mile with 7x100m fast strides.  The time with the group passed by very quickly and felt much more manageable in the pack.  It was also very nice to have a run without wind gusts this week!

Saturday, February 23rd:

6:40 am, 38 degrees, 95%, 0-5mph.  Denning's Neighborhood.  Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.

9mi easy - (7:52)

Had another great massage session with Holli yesterday, which helped today feel SO smooth.  Started slow the first two miles by myself until Denning joined me, then we just cruised a relaxed, conversational 7 miles from there.  Felt sublime.  Great discussions about "time," "running like water," and "return to racing."

Sunday, February 24th:

6:45 am, 38-42 degrees, 80%, 0-5mph.  HRC-Cooper River-Westmont-Tavistock.  Adidas Supernova Glide 4.

15mi total - (7:13): 3.5mi easy, 4x1.5mi@~HMP w/.5mi recovery jogs, 3.5mi easy
3.5mi easy paces: 7:56, 7:33
Target 1.5mi paces: 6:25-:30
Actual 1.5mi paces: 6:24 23 23 24
Target .5mi recovery paces: 8:00
Actual .5mi recovery paces: 7:53 47 55 51

Another incredibly solid workout.  Helped today by the glorious weather, and with Denning keeping me company for the duration of the easy segments of the run.  Never felt pressed, was able to stay relaxed and just let it flow.  Hidden within the fast/recovery segments was 8 miles total at 6:45/mi.  Very, very encouraging.

Weekly Total: 60 miles

The second of a key 6 week period for me went very, very well.  Next week I am aiming for my peak week (70 miles), which includes an 8mi MP run, a 16 mile easy long run, and a 10k race!  How I respond over these next few weeks should really act as a great prologue to the story of Gettysburg 2013.

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