This is it. This is the last blog post in this training journey culminating with the epic battle of the pavement! Our hero has battled high temperatures, dehydration, fatigue, heat exhaustion, and a blister between his left big toe and the one next to it (index toe?).
This part of the plan is weird because this plan (as do most) expect that people do their long run on Saturday or Sunday. I do mine on Friday. However, at this point I transition to the plan.
Monday: Rest day.
Tuesday: Recovery 6 miles. I’m not sure what I’m recovering from, but this is what the plan said. I ran the full lap around the park and neighboring subdivision. It was a chilly morning under a full moon and I ran easy. 6.12 miles in 53:11 (8:41 min/mile pace).
Wednesday: 7 miles with 2 @ M pace. This was pretty easy, and I initially struggled to stay slow enough to keep within the M pace range. I kept it up to 8:10 min/mile, the goal range was 7:50 – 8:15, and I could have gone faster. Overall, 7 miles in 59:13 (8:28 min/mile pace).
Thursday: Rest day.
Friday: 5 miles + 6 strides. This was a cold run that felt like a struggle. GI issues didn’t help. 6.01 miles in 54:01 (8:58 min/mile pace)
Saturday: 4 miles loose. It was a chilly morning, somewhere in the upper-30s/low-40s and I had spaghetti the evening before. I ran this pretty effortlessly. Ran this in the park, which had a handful of dog walkers and a few other runners. 4.01 miles in 33:54 (8:27 min/mile pace).
Sunday: 26.2 mile race! I’ll post a race report soon, but the gist of it is that the race was brutal. The pre-race temperature was about 50, but it climbed up to the mid-60s by the time I was crossing the finish line. I didn’t PR. 3:39:23 (8:22 min/mile pace).
That’s it for the week – 49 miles for the week.