You know what is amazing? Getting wine drunk on a Monday. You know what else is amazing? Step back weeks. Last year, when I was training for Philadelphia, I made the grave mistake of using my step back weeks to make up for mileage. This time around, with only 1 missed workout under my belt, I used the week to step back which was exactly what I needed coming off of a rough 2 weeks of training. So, after a great week last week, I'm ready to get back into things!
MCM Training: Week 7
Total Mileage Last Week: 32
Missed Workouts: 0
Trouble Spots: None =)
Planned Mileage This Week: 41
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 3 miles easy (9:52/mile with 3 strides)
Wednesday: Tempo Run - 8 miles with 3 miles @ 8:30/mile
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: 9 miles with 7 miles @ Marathon Pace
Saturday: 3 miles easy
Sunday: 18 miles (9:52 pace), fast finish
So that's the plan. It's not going to be easy. An 8 mile run, a 9 mile run and an 18 mile run in one week? I definitely need to pay attention to my body to make sure I'm eating, hydrating, stretching and fueling properly. This week marks the end of hill workouts (which, I didn't actually do a whole lot of) and the start of speed workouts. I'm not tremendously disappointed at my lack of hill workouts since Central Park is definitely full of rolling hills and I do my long runs on them. The plan though, is to really clock into the sub-9 minute miles and try to hold them so that I can get my marathon pace to be what I want it to be. I know I'm capable of a sub-4 marathon and I know I'm capable of a lot faster than 3:59:59 but that's what the next 8 weeks of training are all about.
Goals for this week: Eating, fueling and stretching properly.
Current annoyances: Rain...and the fact that I can't calculate how long it will take me to run when you have traffic to figure in leaving me with a plan to knock out 8 miles on the treadmill tomorrow before my morning class.
Things to keep in mind: Strength training needs to include core strengthening as well!
It's not going to be easy but it's definitely going to be fun because you know what? It takes a lot more than 26.2 miles to run a marathon.
So here's my question for all of you out there:
In reading training plans/recaps of everyone, I've noticed a huge split between people who do their long runs at or near their marathon goal pace versus people who do them slower. My marathon goal pace is well in the sub-9 region, but I'm running them closer to 10. What do you do?
By the way, classes start tomorrow, wish me luck!
MCM Training: Week 7
Total Mileage Last Week: 32
Missed Workouts: 0
Trouble Spots: None =)
Planned Mileage This Week: 41
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 3 miles easy (9:52/mile with 3 strides)
Wednesday: Tempo Run - 8 miles with 3 miles @ 8:30/mile
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: 9 miles with 7 miles @ Marathon Pace
Saturday: 3 miles easy
Sunday: 18 miles (9:52 pace), fast finish
So that's the plan. It's not going to be easy. An 8 mile run, a 9 mile run and an 18 mile run in one week? I definitely need to pay attention to my body to make sure I'm eating, hydrating, stretching and fueling properly. This week marks the end of hill workouts (which, I didn't actually do a whole lot of) and the start of speed workouts. I'm not tremendously disappointed at my lack of hill workouts since Central Park is definitely full of rolling hills and I do my long runs on them. The plan though, is to really clock into the sub-9 minute miles and try to hold them so that I can get my marathon pace to be what I want it to be. I know I'm capable of a sub-4 marathon and I know I'm capable of a lot faster than 3:59:59 but that's what the next 8 weeks of training are all about.
Goals for this week: Eating, fueling and stretching properly.
Current annoyances: Rain...and the fact that I can't calculate how long it will take me to run when you have traffic to figure in leaving me with a plan to knock out 8 miles on the treadmill tomorrow before my morning class.
Things to keep in mind: Strength training needs to include core strengthening as well!
It's not going to be easy but it's definitely going to be fun because you know what? It takes a lot more than 26.2 miles to run a marathon.
So here's my question for all of you out there:
In reading training plans/recaps of everyone, I've noticed a huge split between people who do their long runs at or near their marathon goal pace versus people who do them slower. My marathon goal pace is well in the sub-9 region, but I'm running them closer to 10. What do you do?
By the way, classes start tomorrow, wish me luck!
