I seem to be in a constant state of being behind lately. In hopes of somehow catching up I am going to recap weeks 3 and 4 of marathon training together!
Over the past two weeks I’ve definitely seen my share of ups and downs but I think thats okay and expected during any marathon training cycle. There have been a few times that I have questioned this marathon but I believe that is completely normal during a cycle. Your working hard, your body gets tired, and some days you question why you set these big goals.
I’m feeling rejuvenated and have had to really focus on mentally staying relaxed and focused on one day at a time and that has really helped my training.
Here is a look at the past two weeks so we can catch up.
Week 3: 10/2/2017-10/8/2017
Monday – 11.1 mile workout: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 miles with 0.5 recovery, and 1.5 mile cool down. Goal for 1.5 mile intervals was 10 seconds faster than GMP. (1.5 mile splits: 7:12 ,7:14, 7:16, 7:15).
Tuesday – 7.05 miles @ 9:02 pace
Wednesday – [AM] 9.05 mile workout: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1000 m, 3 x 400 m, 4 x 1000 m, 2 x 400 m. Goal for the 1000 m’s was to start at GMP and work down to 10 sec faster than GMP. (1000 m splits: 7:31, 7:23, 7:27, 7:22, 7:21, 7:15, 7:18, 7:16).
[PM] 3.12 miles @ 9:05 pace
Thursday – 7.05 miles @ 9:02 pace
Friday – Off
Saturday – 16.05 miles @ 8:37 pace
Sunday – 7.10 miles @ 8:48 pace
TOTAL: 58.09 miles
Week 4: 10/9/2017-10/15/2017
Monday – 11.1 mile workout: 2 mile warm up, 7 mile treadmill tempo, and 2 mile cool down. (Tempo broken down into: 10 minutes @ 7:30 pace, 30 minutes @ 7:24 pace, 10 minutes @ 7:19 pace, and 3 minutes @ 7:13 pace).
Tuesday – 7.05 miles @ 9:32 pace
Wednesday – 10.10 mile workout: 3 mile warm up, 15 x 2 minutes on/1 minute off, and 1.5 mile cool down. Paces based off effort but averaged roughly 10-15 seconds faster than GMP for 2 minutes on intervals.
Thursday – 7.10 miles @ 9:17 pace
Friday – Off
Saturday – 8.25 miles @ 9:20 pace
Sunday – 13.05 middle distance progression workout. Start easy and work done to GMP or sub-GMP. (Splits: 9:03. 8:41, 8:34, 8:36, 8:24, 8:15, 8:10, 7:54, 7:50, 7:36, 7:25, 7:07, 7:14 – first 8.5 with the stroller and last 4.5 without).
TOTAL: 56.65 miles
Week 3 went pretty much as planned. We visited the beach for the weekend so while the original plan was to get a little bit of a workout in the long run, the heat and humidity said otherwise. I did more workouts than originally planned with the stroller, but I’ve learned to just be ready to go with the flow and do the best I can.
Week 4 started out pretty well but due to some unforeseen circumstances I wasn’t able to get my long run done on Saturday. I opted to switch it to Sunday and instead of a traditional long run I did a middle distance progression run. The upcoming week requires my long run to be on Thursday and putting two long runs 4 days a part wasn’t smart so I adjusted and adapted as I felt best.
Some days I feel like I have plenty of time left and other days I feel like the aren’t enough weeks! Regardless of what happens on race day I am just focusing on staying consistent and enjoying the process!