Week 6 of marathon training is in the books. I’ve spent 176 miles training for the marathon, and there is only 438 more miles to go. The entire training plan is 610.5 miles…and that 0.5 is pretty damn important!
Monday was cold. Because I failed to turn my alarm on and it was icy out, I ran at lunch, which was nice and sunny. After doing my form and mobility drills, I started my watch and it told me “4 Mile Run + 7 Strides.” This was unexpected, as I had been running 3 miles, but I shrugged my shoulders and started running. 4.9 miles. On Tuesday, I looked at my log and realized I had the distance incorrect – it was supposed to be 3 miles + 7 strides. Oh well.
Tuesday was my weekly run up the hill. Since it was cold, I slightly overdressed and ran at lunch. It was overcast. Apparently, my legs wanted to GO because I ran it at 8:20 min/mile and I normally run this route a lot slower (8:45 – 9:00 min/mi). Part of it was going down – since I could see, I could go faster. My left calf was tight during the entire run, even after pausing to stretch it. Hopefully the tightness doesn’t stick around, but it was just tightness, not pain. 5 miles.
Tuesday evening continued to be good…
And the 1st winner of tonight’s #BibChat and recipient of some @Brilliant_Safe Reflection Strips is… @HamBrew807 🤩
— BibRave (@BibRave) February 7, 2018
Wednesday had all the makings of a dreadmill run. Before going to bed Tuesday evening, the weather people were in freak-out mode over an impending snowstorm. I left my pullover, gloves, and hat at the office, figuring I’d be in or on the dreadmill. The snowstorm was mostly a disappointment, but I was the only person in the office for a while. So I ran at lunch. The sun had come out and it warmed up. There was ice all over the trees (I tried to take my phone with me, but it doesn’t fit in my pocket). Most of the path in the park was plowed, although I think it was plowed by Mr. Magoo – there were plenty of odd spots where it wasn’t touched and I can’t figure out where the quads they use went (unless they turned around). 3 miles + 7 strides in too fast of a time.
Thursday was supposed to be an M pace run. I expect to run the full in somewhere around 3:49, which is an 8:45 min/mi pace. All of my runs this week have been in the 8:20 range – 8:20 Monday, 8:20 Tuesday, Wednesday I thought I should slow down a little because I knew I’d be doing speedwork Thursday, so 8:22 (yeah, I really slowed down!), Thursday I was pushing a little… 7:50 min/mi during the M pace portion, and adding in the warm up and cool down, 7:59. God knows what Friday is bringing. But it was a nice lunchtime run along the river and three laps around the triangle of the Bengals practice field and the industrial buildings west of there.
Friday started cold, so I ran at lunch. I tried to slow down (I slowed down by 10 seconds over the weekly average pace, woo hoo!). The weather was nice – somewhat sunny and mid-40s that may have warmed into the 50s, so I was wearing shorts, long sleeves, and gloves until I felt like I was baking and I decided to carry the gloves. Around mile 6, my watch decided to reset itself, so something is wrong with the splits…
Finished out the week with 30 miles run in 4 hours 12 minutes, at an average pace of 8:18. This will probably be an outlier week of speed. Next week I have a 14 miler to look forward to in addition to my M and W runs increasing by a mile each… well, really just Wednesday increases by a mile because I screwed up Monday.
Cheers!