I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 8 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019. I’m a few weeks into the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase. After going into the eye of the hurricane last week, we now have the backside.
Monday: 6 miles. Ran in the township park in very light snow, some wind, and cold temps – it was just above freezing according to my phone and the township sign… it was just below freezing according to the ice patches forming and how I felt. It was nice that the sun is rising earlier, though. 6.08 miles in 52:42 (8:40 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: 14 miles. Scrubbed because of some sort of GI distress or sickness. Not sure what it was, but it remained for a few days.
Wednesday: 6 recovery miles 14 miles. I know many coaches say to not try to make up for missed runs, but I saw little point in recovery miles with nothing really to recover from. I went up to East Fork to do this one, and it was in the afternoon. The forecast was for rain, and the forecast was correct. Mile 3.5 – 4.5 involved a torrential downpour, as did mile 7.5 – 9. The remainder involved a steady rain. Of course, the one thing I forgot to grab from the house was a towel. Fortunately, I had a Gatorade towel in my truck that slightly protected my truck’s driver’s seat. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime, did not fuel. 14.01 in 2:05:18 (8:57 min/mile pace).
Thursday: 6 miles + 6 strides 6 mile recovery + 6 strides. So to get me back on track, I ran the 6 miles at a recovery pace and did my 6 strides. Ran this one at the township park. It was chilly, and by mile 4 some of the remaining puddles from yesterday’s rain were starting to freeze. 6.72 miles in 59:50 (8:54 min/mile pace).
Friday: 16 miles w/12 at M pace. I got up early enough to eat a little something and drive down to a trailhead next to Lunken Airport and decided to run in my old stomping running grounds. Ran along the Ohio River Trail to Kellogg/Eastern Avenue and then followed Eastern to Friendship Park where I ducked into the park for the Friendship/Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove/Smale Park loop I used to always do. A small part of Sawyer Point and another small part of Smale Park were closed due to high water. After diverting in Smale for the high water, I decided to cross the Suspension Bridge and then back across the Purple People Bridge before looping back into Sawyer Point to head back out to the airport. I noticed that the city still has the same arch below the Purple People Bridge closed, and they closed another (out of three)… at least they had signs of actual work on the newer closure. After crossing the Suspension Bridge and getting down to the riverfront below the Floodwall, I noticed the Army Corps (or perhaps a contractor for them) finished work on the floodwall east of the Purple People Bridge.
There were two slow miles in the M pace portion- one was when I was heading up to and across the Suspension bridge, which was the highest-elevation-gain portion of the run at 30 feet, and the second was the next mile, during which I had to stop and wait for some idiot in a trash truck attempt to turn around in a parking lot he didn’t even need to be in (the linked video is a mostly-accurate depiction). Fueled with my very last Gatorade Endurance Apple-Pear gel, hydrated with Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime.
Overall, the run was 16 miles in 2:14:33 (or it was 15.99 in 2:14:30 if you look on Strava) (8:24 min/mile pace). The M pace portion was 12 miles in 1:38:40 (8:13 min/mile pace, goal range was 7:50 – 8:15 min/mile, so within the range).
That’s it for the week. About 43 miles this week. Next week holds some new things for this plan: speedwork and a race – the Bockfest 5k is approaching quickly! Cheers!
Bockfest 5k Preview
So I’ve done the Bockfest 5k a few times… okay, every year since it’s started. The course is the same this year as the past three years. The race starts in Over The Rhine, which is just north of Downtown Cincinnati. Within the first quarter of a mile, we head up Liberty Street Hill, and this is the most difficult portion of the race. The race then crosses over to Gilbert Ave, which is a long downhill slope into downtown. The race makes a few turns to get down to short Third Street where it makes a few left turns to start sending us back to Over The Rhine.
This is traditionally not a PR race for me – the first few years were, but in early 2015 I broke out with a 24:10 PR at the Cincinnati Cyclones Frozen 5k, finally breaking that in 2017 in the Batavia Bulldog Blast with a 23:04. The 2018 Bockfest 5k didn’t break that, and the 2018 Bulldog Blast was 21:46. This year is not looking to be anything different, since I’ll be running a 14 mile long run on the day prior and this season’s goal race is the Glass City Marathon.
Bockfest 5k Time History
2013: 0:33:23
2014: 0:28:08
2015: 0:26:28
2016: 0:26:26
2017: 0:24:26
2018: 0:23:13