Last week, I finished up the last real week at peak mileage. This week is the last tough week of my training – and from here on out, it gets a little bit easier.
My mileage is down this week, because I have a race coming up next weekend. But I’m running my last hard long run, and I’m coming off two weeks at 85 miles.
So once I make it through this week, it’s smooth sailing – other than two tune up races.
The Plan for the Week
We were out of town this weekend, so I shifted my long run to Monday again. I also front loaded the mileage so that I could have a couple easy days leading into a race next Sunday.
The weekly goal was to hit 70 miles – down from the peak of 85 for the last two weeks.
Here’s the breakdown for the week:
- Sunday: 8 miles easy
- Monday: 18 mile long run, T workout
- Tuesday: 6 miles easy trails
- Wednesday: 8 miles AM trails, 6 miles PM track
- Thursday: 16 miles easy
- Friday: 4 miles easy trails
- Saturday: 4 miles easy trails
And here’s how things went.
Sunday: A Jog through Downtown Kennett Square
My mom’s birthday was this weekend, so we went down to Longwood Gardens on Saturday night. We stayed down there so that we could visit the Gardens again in the morning.
Since we had morning plans, I shifted my long run to Monday. Instead, I just planned for an easy eight miles near the hotel.
We stayed at the Fairfield Inn just west of Longwood Gardens. From there, you can run about a mile west to get into Kennett Square. I planned to run straight out for a few miles, turn around, and loop through a park on the north side of town.
The weather was beautiful. It’s almost fall for sure.
As I jogged through downtown, they were setting up for the Mushroom Festival. It’s apparently a big thing.
There were tons of vendor tents set up, along with booths to by entrance tickets. The whole area was shut down to vehicle traffic.
The first couple miles passed by easily and quickly. After three miles, I turned around and headed back towards downtown.
At the center of town, I took a turn north towards Anson B. Nixon Park. I’ve run through there before, and there’s a nice loop of around 1.5 miles.
I overshot the distance a little bit, and I was up to around 8.25 miles by the time I got back to my hotel. But it was a lovely, easy run.
After I showered, we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and enjoyed the day at the Gardens.
Monday’s Deferred Long Run
Back home on Monday, it was time for my long run. This was the final 18 mile long run of the plan. I was wavering a bit on what kind of workout to include, but I decided to do a T workout since the last one hadn’t worked out so well.
The plan was to warm up, do 2x2T, run an hour at an easy pace, and finish up with another 2x2T.
The warm up went fine. About three miles in, I started the first T segment. It was slightly uphill, so I made sure to push the effort – but I didn’t look at my watch to worry about the pace.
My watch buzzed to mark the first mile, and the split was 6:37. A little slow, but not bad considering the incline. The overall pace for the full ten minutes was 6:32.
I felt fine at the end, jogged two minutes, and then hit the next segment. This time, I hit a pace of 6:21. Much better – and right on target for what my T pace should be.
From there, I looped through Verona Park and headed back towards the flat path around the Reservoir.
This segment was supposed to be easy. I held back from accelerating too much, but I also didn’t hit the breaks too hard. I just kind of let the pace find itself. And by the end, I averaged 8:12/mi.
I still felt pretty good. Surprisingly good for being towards the end of 18 miles. But I didn’t quite have the speed left to hit the same paces at the end of the workout.
When I started the first 10 minute rep, I could tell I was a bit slow. But I kept pushing as hard as I could and still have it be sustainable. 6:43/mi.
I took my two minute jog and tried to speed up a bit on the final rep. I managed to get down to 6:41/mi pace – but I couldn’t go any faster.
It’s not quite T pace. But … if I can hit 6:40’s at the end of a marathon for a couple of miles, I’d consider that to be a success.
I jogged the last bit to finish out the 18 miles. I made it home just in time for a quick shower and a bite to eat, and then I hopped on Zoom to start work.
Nothing like knocking out 18 miles in the morning on a workday …
Tuesday: Easy Trail Miles
I felt a little fatigued and lethargic the rest of the day Monday. The usual kind of tiredness and soreness after a hard long run.
But I woke up feeling refreshed on Tuesday. Just like last week, I remember thinking that it didn’t even feel like I’d had a hard run the day before.
The nice thing about easing up on the mileage is these weekday runs get shorter. I remember a time when 6 miles seemed far – but now, it’s a reprieve.
After the usual warm up, the miles ticked off pretty quickly. After the turnaround, my pace was around 9:15/mi. Finished up in just over 57 minutes.
Great time for an easy day post-long run.
Wednesday: The Long Double
Initially, I was only supposed to do a quick four miles on Wednesday morning. But it looked like I was going to have an early morning meeting on Thursday, which would force me to cut short my 16 miler.
So I increased Wednesday’s run from 4 to 8 miles. It was an easy run on the trails. A little longer than yesterday, and a little slower. But I was still running 9:20-9:30/mi after the warm up. I was also holding back a bit, because I didn’t want to wear myself out before my workout – or before the race coming up.
I drove down to work, and after work I hit the track for our weekly team workout. Two of us are running a 12k race Sunday, so we modified things a bit.
The assigned workout was 5x800m at I pace, followed by some 200s at R pace. We cut the 800s down to 3 reps, and then we tacked on a mile at around goal race pace.
My legs were a little heavy as we got warmed up. Maybe Monday’s long run was finally catching up to me. But I felt pretty good overall.
Apparently, no one wanted to attack the pace on the first rep – because I found myself out front of the pack. I planned to hit the 800’s around 2:55 to 3:00 – on the slow end of I / 5k pace.
I came through the split right on target. Finished up the first rep in 2:57. Works for me.
The next rep, I slowed down a little bit in the middle. But still came through in 2:59. That’s fine.
Third rep, I pushed the pace just a little bit at the end and brought it back down to 2:57.
Nothing to write home about, but three decent reps.
After a quick water break and a 400m recovery jog, my buddy and I lined up for the final mile tempo. Originally, my plan was to hit ~6:15-6:20. His plan was ~6:05. I decided to stick with him for the first lap or so and see how things felt.
I kept up with him for the first lap, but it was a little harder effort than I wanted. I fell off just slightly in the second lap, but the gap was only a few meters. We came through the halfway point just over 3 minutes, so right on pace.
He pulled away a little in the third lap, and I was maybe 10 or 20 meters behind for the final portion. The effort was high, but not unsustainable. My heart rate was ~165 throughout, which is at or slightly above tempo effort me.
The track is an odd shape – it’s about 10 meters too long. And we didn’t start the secretly marked starting point for a mile, so we probably ran 40-50 meters too far. So I’m not sure exactly how fast we went, but the 4 laps (~1640-1650 meters) took 6:11.
That’s equivalent to ~6:00 to 6:05 for the mile. Faster than I expected to run, and if I can push down to that pace at the end of Sunday’s race I’ll be thrilled.
It was a short workout, but it was successful and satisfying – and a confidence booster.
Thursday: The Midweek Long Run
The last minute meeting that got scheduled for Thursday morning … got canceled at the last minute Wednesday evening.
Since my morning was now more free – I didn’t have a meeting until 10am – I had time to stick with my original plan. So I shifted the miles around a bit, and I ran my usual 16 mile midweek long run.
Since this was immediately following a workout, I tried to keep the pace reigned in. For the past couple of 16 mile runs, I’ve pushed the pace fairly heavily at the end – and finished under 2:10. I didn’t want to do that today, for fear of wearing myself out before the weekend.
So I took it pretty easy. Not quite recovery pace slow, but slower than usual. The weather was also pretty nice, so I didn’t bring water or gels along with me. I hoped I wouldn’t regret that decision.
The first 10 miles went smoothly. Up over the rolling hills to Verona Park and back. 1:25. Perfect pace for an easy run – not too fast, not too slow.
At the 11 mile mark, I pulled into the Reservoir. There’s a water fountain there that works, so I stopped for a drink of water.
My goal for the final five miles was to run ~8:00 to 8:15/mi. Not the usual fast finish for my long run, but a little faster than “easy.”
The last five miles were 8:12, 7:58, 8:07, 8:06, and 8:02. So true to plan. Overall finish time: 2:13:32.
These midweek long runs are getting easier and easier. My legs were a little heavy with the fatigue from the week, but aerobically I felt super strong throughout.
Friday: A Quick Trail Run
Because of the schedule shift, I now only had to run 4 miles on Friday.
I hit the trails, and it was over almost before it began. The weather is warming up a little, and I was now fully feeling the brunt of the week’s miles.
So it was a slow four miles … but it was comfortable. I didn’t really have time to get warmed up, and the finish time was ~41 minutes. Average of over 10:00/mi, although the last two miles were a little quicker.
But it’s a recovery day. No sweat.
Saturday: Another Short Trail Run
Saturday was the same thing – four easy miles on the trail.
I had nothing else on the agenda for Saturday, so I didn’t bother to set an alarm. I guess I needed some sleep, because I ended up sleeping in until 8:30.
But I woke up refreshed. All the metrics on my watch (heart rate, Body Battery, HRV status) are saying that I’m feeling good. And that matches my actual experience.
I jogged the first two miles out, and I felt a lot looser and fresher than the day before. I turned around and headed for home.
Towards the end of mile 3, I started in on a few easy strides. I did 5 sets of strides, ~20 seconds on and then jogging until the next flat section. The pace on these was a little easier than I would typically do them, but I just wanted to open up my legs a bit before the race.
I finished up today in 39 minutes – faster than yesterday and back to a typical pace.
Reflections and Looking Ahead
When I sketched out my plan for this training cycle, it included 4 true long runs (2×18, 2×20) and two blocks of two weeks at peak mileage (85 miles).
I knew these were going to be hard to get through, but I also knew that once I made it through … I’d be better off for it.
Last week was the end of the peak mileage, and this week was the final true long run. I finished up the 18 miler feeling great. All four of those long runs were really solid, and the shorter 16 mile long runs are also going super well.
I do have one more high mileage week – 80 to 85 miles – next week. But it’ll be an easier week because I won’t have a workout in the middle.
However, I do have a race coming up this weekend. The By Hook or By Crook 12k is tomorrow morning.
It’s a team race, so I’m showing up for the team. It’s also part of the USATF National Masters Grand Prix – so there should be a few speedy old(er) guys from around the country.
My goal is to approach it like a tune-up race. I want to see where I’m at and get a sense of a possible pace for Chicago – and I don’t want to go so hard that I risk injuring myself.
I think on a good day, I could run 45-46 minutes – around 6:05-6:10/mi pace. But the weather is going to be a little warm, and I’m not looking to push too hard.
So I’ll probably try to start off on the slower side – around 6:20/mi – for the first two or three miles. Then, I’ll work my way down and try to finish the race at 6:00-6:05/mi for the last mile or two.
47 minutes – 6:18 pace – seems like a good safe goal. According to the VDOT calculator, that’s good for a 2:59 marathon. So if I can finish this under 47 – and still have a little left in the tank – I think that’s a great sign.
Time to rest up. Check in next week to see how the race went.
Also, four weeks to go to Chicago. I’m getting excited.