Monday, April 15th:
Rest. Saw my massage therapist, Holli, yesterday afternoon for a last session before the race. Everything feels great.
Tuesday, April 16th:
4:45am, 49 degrees, 80%, 0-10mph. Neighborhood. Adidas Supernova Glide 4.
11mi total - (7:17): 2mi warmup, 6x1mi w/.25mi easy jogs, 1.5mi cooldown
Target splits: 6:25
Actual splits: 6:24 26 23 24 24 21
My quads and hamstrings still felt a little heavy and sore from my massage session Sunday evening. Took awhile to warmup and get moving. Even though I hit all my target paces, I never fully loosened up - it almost felt like I was running the second half of a marathon when your legs start to get heavy. I am sure that was such a bad thing though, as I got to practice some faster running on tired legs. I am sure like last week I will feel more recovered toward the end of the week.
Wednesday, April 17th:
4:50am, 61 degrees, 80%, 0-10mph. Kilmer Loop. Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.
6mi easy - (7:56)
Dragged myself out of bed and ran a slow first mile. From there, just kept getting better and stronger and faster. Feel like my legs are getting back under me again.
Thursday, April 18th:
4:50am, 53 degrees, 70%, 0-10mph. Maple Shade Loop (M). Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.
6mi easy - (7:59)
These early mornings have been rough. A lot going on with work and home this week also. I am getting to the point where I am excited that the race is near, but also looking forward to the closure that it will bring to this cycle and the rest that will come after it. Maybe I am just in a bad mood this morning. We'll see what tomorrow brings. :)
Friday, April 19th:
9:00am, 64-74 degrees(!), 70%, 10-15mph. Reverse 2x Tavistock Loop for tempo. Adidas Supernova Glide 4.
11mi total - (7:03): 2mi warmup, 7mi tempo "effort" run (6:27/mi), 2mi cooldown
Tempo Splits: 6:31 30 21 18 36 32 23
I guess you can call today a successful failed workout. The goal of the workout was to try to run at marathon pace effort without using my watch to check splits. I simply had the screen set to total miles and would stop when I reached 7.00 miles. The weather had other plans for me, though. It was probably a bad idea to even do a warmup with a light jacket and pants on today - I felt pretty hot even before the workout started. By mile 3 of the tempo, I could feel myself overheating and figured I would just continue on with the run at whatever pace I was running and take it for what it was. I thought I had run closer to 6:50/mi pace today, so I was really shocked at the finish to see how fast I had actually been running. It's really no wonder, then, why I overheated as badly as I did!
Having failed at my goal to "feel" marathon pace, I still got in a very solid tempo run at a comfortable turnover rate in really bad weather conditions. So all was definitely not lost. In fact, it probably will serve me better to get this one last "harder" effort in as my last official workout, so that the taper will leave me feeling stronger. My goal for next week is to do progressively smaller amounts of MP running each day, so that I will have plenty of opportunity to get that muscle memory "locked-in" for the race.
But for now, I gotta say it's great to know I made it to the taper in one healthy piece!
Saturday, April 20th:
6:15am, 50 degrees, 70%, 0-10mph. Home-Cooper River (South Park)-Home. Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.
8m easy - (7:58)
Incredible turnaround from yesterday. Weather was much cooler, skies were overcast with a slight breath of wind, and hardly anybody out and about yet for the day meant I had a peaceful easy morning run with my own thoughts. Much calmer and more collected than yesterday. I am feeling more at ease now, knowing I am just over a week away from that goal race toward which I have been running for the past 5+ months.
Sunday, April 21st:
7:00am, 40-43 degrees, 45%, 0-10mph. Haddonfield. Nike Pegasus 29 Shield.
12mi total - (7:37): 7.5mi easy, 2k @ 10k pace (5:52/mi), 3.25mi easy
Today was my depletion run a week out from Gettysburg. Didn't take any fuel during the run and ran a faster segment about an hour in to try to deplete glycogen. Took in a high protein breakfast afterward (eggs, bacon) with some chocolate milk and will eat a high protein lunch (lean chicken). The goal will then be to eat a regular diet of carbs, protein, fat until Thursday evening, followed by a high intake of carbs Friday/Saturday before the race. For the record, the faster segment felt supremely easy today, as I paced John Denning on the track for the end of his cutdown tempo workout. Easy running included Rich and Colleen. Great vibe, great weather, great positive energy. Feeling like I am in the driver's seat a week out!
Weekly Total: 54 miles
Race week will be here tomorrow. Now it's time to make sure I eat and drink properly, sleep properly, taper properly. Nothing more to be done but rest and race. I cannot wait!
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