Hi there! So sorry for going MIA on you (again). I took last week and really soaked in holiday with family. It was the last first holiday for Easton so it was a bit bitter sweet.
In order to try and catch up I’m going to recap week’s 9 and 10 of marathon training so we will be all caught and ready for the final two taper weeks of marathon training!
Week 9: 11/13/2017-11/19/2017
Monday – 8.10 miles @ 8:35 pace
Tuesday – 11.12 mile treadmill workout. 2 mile warm up, 3 x 2 miles (2 min recovery), and cool down until 11. (2 mile interval splits: 7:19, 7:19, 7:13, 7:13, 7:13, 7:08).
Wednesday – 8.10 miles @ 9:00 pace.
Thursday – 10.05 mile run. 6 easy miles, 4 miles moderate. (Splits: 8:21, 8:19, 8:24, 8:37, 8:33, 8:37, 7:43, 7:42, 7:43, 7:42).
Friday – Off
Saturday – 20.16 long run workout. 8 miles easy, 2 x 5 miles at goal marathon with 1 mile recovery between, and cool down until 20. (Splits: 8:44, 8:26, 8:29, 8:24, 8:22, 8:22, 8:32, 8:24, 7:12, 7:21, 7:20, 7:14, 7:16, 8:24, 7:18, 7:22, 8:24, 7:19, 7:23, and 9:08).
Sunday – 8.10 miles @ 8:37 pace.
TOTAL: 65.63 miles
Week 10: 11/20/2017-11/26/2017
Monday – 10.25 mile hill workout. 3.5 mile warm up, 10 x 1 minute hills with 2 minute recovery, 1 mile tempo, and cool down until 10. (1 minute hills done between 6:53-6:49 pace).
Tuesday – 8.10 miles @ 8:47 pace
Wednesday – 10.14 mile interval workout. 2 mile warm up, 10 x 2 minutes on/1 minute off, and 2 mile cool down. (On splits averaged between 6:40-6:55 pace).
Thursday – 8.05 miles @ 8:32 pace
Friday – Off
Saturday – 18.2 mile long run workout. 4 miles easy, 12 mile tempo, and 2 mile cool down. (Tempo splits: 7:09, 7:12, 7:21, 7:20, 7:16, 7:15, 7:16, 7:13, 7:22, 7:19, 7:19, 7:21).
Sunday – 8.05 miles @ 8:28 pace.
TOTAL: 62.79 miles
The past two weeks have had some BIG workouts in them and ever since a couple of them got put on the schedule they made me nervous. I chose to just take it one workout/run at a time and not overthink the workout itself. It’s easy to make a workout into more than it really is.
The biggest workout in week 9 was my Saturday long run workout. 2 x 5 miles doesn’t seem like that bad, but when you add it after 8 miles and with 1 mile recovery it is a TOUGH workout. I had to really work for that one. The last 5 tempo miles were a struggle but I took it one mile at a time, repeated over and over again to just relax, and tried to forget it was so windy out. I almost did this one on the treadmill due to heavy winds but was so glad I decided to do it outside!
Week 10 consisted of a big tempo workout on Saturday that I used as my long run. It was the biggest tempo run I have ever done and I knew we’d be visiting family during it so I just had to do the best I could. My husband and I found a 1.3 mile loop near my in-laws house that seemed to work perfectly for a tempo. Even though I was working I was so excited to complete this run!
Now that 10 weeks of some of the most intense training I’ve ever done is over – it’s time to taper!