This is the eighth week of my marathon training plan for the Columbus Marathon. The marathon is October 20, 2019. I’m following the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan again. In keeping with the Star Wars theme, this is the week of the Soup Wars.
Monday: 6 miles recovery. Ran 6 miles in the park and the subdivision next to it. It was a decent morning out – 64 with relatively low humidity. 6.03 miles in 52:52 (8:46 min/mile pace).
Tuesday: 14 miles. This was a hot and sticky run in East Fork. I arrived later than I wanted and started getting abdominal cramps halfway between East Fork and Williamsburg… and of course the bathrooms in Williamsburg Community Park were padlocked shut. After getting back into the park and taking a pitstop, I ran down to the lake, leaving around 4 miles left, and my headphone’s battery died. It was very hot and sticky and slow. 14 miles in 2:15:44 (9:34 min/mile pace).
This beach looked so much better in the past… 
Not sure if my vest is what they had in mind…
Wednesday: 6 miles recovery. Woke up to dense fog advisories. It wasn’t foggy when I started running, but it was by the end. Ran in the park in basically the same arrangement as Monday. The temperature was warm and the humidity was high – I had to wring out my shirt. 6.03 miles in 53:05 (8:48 min/mile pace).
Thursday: 16 miles with 12 at M pace. Ran my long run early because of the race on Saturday. It wasn’t as bad as the last two days, but it was still soupy. Despite my house’s air conditioner going out the evening before, I got decent sleep and the spaghetti for dinner helped (it also helped me figure out that the AC stopped working). Took the two mile warmup conservatively, and then maintained a fast-but-conservative pace for around 10 of the 12, and then heated it up for the last two miles of the set. The cool down was at a much slower pace, but after the prior 14 miles, it felt tough but good. Fueled with Gatorade Endurance Mango gel, hydrated with water at odd miles, and Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime at even miles. The 12 mile M pace portion was at an 8:22 min/mile pace, which is a little slower than the 7:50 – 8:15 target, but given the heat and humidity, I’m okay with it. Overall, 16 miles in 2:17:37 (8:36 min/mile pace).
You can see the steam coming from the dog park. That’s not from steaming piles of anything, that’s from the humidity! 
Friday: The original schedule was for 6 miles. I decided I was crazy to do that much and just did 3 considering I have a race on Saturday. I took it very slow and just kept it in the park. 3.34 in 31:44 (9:30 min/mile pace).
Saturday: RACE. Ran the Bulldog Blast 5k. I’ve run this race two other times, and it’s a low-frills race. The course is kinda messy with multiple loops/hairpins, and they added more – it used to be four loops and one area that gets congested for the midpack. Now, the congested area doesn’t exist, but there’s now six loops/hairpins. I thought that I might have a shot at a PR (narrator: “but that wasn’t in the cards today”). Last year was 21:46, this year was 21:59. I keep trying to find a bright spot in my results… for some reason I couldn’t remember going faster than 7 min/mile in a 5k, but my lead-off miles in both were sub-7: 6:43 in 2018, 6:55 in 2019. Mile 2 was 7:09 in 2018, 7:22 in 2019. Mile 3 was 7:19 in both years. The last 0.1 was 34s in 2018, and 28s in 2019… FINALLY something better in 2019!!!
So that’s the week, and the second race of the 2019 summer. Nearly 49 miles this week. There’s two more on the calendar and two more I’m considering (although I might only do one). And I do need to figure out what I’m doing for a spring goal race next year.
Next week includes some speedwork and more soup to run through (highs will be pushing into the low-100s F).
Upcoming Races:
Saturday 9/21: Hudepohl 14k Brewery Run
Sunday 10/20: Columbus Marathon