Phase 4: week 4 of 5

Well, we had a sixty degree change in the weather from Wednesday to Saturday on the east coast. The ten degree temp on Wednesday highlighted how much "fun" it is to train for a spring marathon and the 70+ degree temp this weekend reminded me how few weeks I have left before Boston - only six short weeks from tomorrow - and two of those weeks will be spent basically resting.

Sitting here with next to an open window, it's hard to believe I had to postpone my first hard run this week because of snow. I was pretty happy with the workout - but, the postponement left a few days less to recover before today. Brennan and I headed out to the town where arms & equipment were procured for the original bromance.

I had the "great" idea of running the tempo sections on the C&O canal path and the easy 10 mile section on the Appalachian trail. Well, I'm convinced that the mile markers on the C&O are a little long. There's no way I was running close to 6 minute miles given how hard I was running. And I expected tough going on the Appalachian trail - but, not nearly the ankle breaking sharp rocks that we experienced. We ran ~6 miles in 50 minutes - and that might have been generous. There were some great views - but, it was hard to appreciate since we were afraid to look up from the treachorous footing.

All of that blabbering is the long way of saying that the workout didn't go very well today. My tempo splits were way off - and I ended up cutting a couple miles off the run. No rest for the wicked this week - it's my last week over 90 miles. I only have one workout with tempo, but it's a doozy.

Yes, I know what you're thinking - "could the bad workout be from overtraining?" - well, I'm pushing myself more than ever before - so, it's possible. But, I'm not going to worry too much unless Tuesday doesn't go well. I'm giving myself a pseudo day off tomorrow - so, I should be recovered enough - and if not, I can push the workout to Wednesday.

Last week

Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday morning: 5.5 miles
Tuesday evening: 12 miles
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday evening: 12 miles 8X1mi (5:32;5:48;5:37;5:30;5:33;5:24; 5:20;5:19) 30-40 sec rest 2 mi warmup & warmdown
Friday morning: 4 mi
Friday evening: 8.5 mi hills
Saturday: 10 miles 8X100m
Sunday: 19 miles 2 easy 2X2mi at (5:38;5:58) (5:48;5:59) (2 min rest) 9 mi easy 2mi @(5:44;5:35) 2mi easy
Total: 96 miles

This week

Monday: 5.5 miles
Tuesday morning: 16 mi 2X(3 mi easy 4mi T pace) 2 mi easy
Tuesday evening: 4 miles
Wednesday: 15 miles
Thursday: 10 miles 8X100m
Friday: 12 mi hills
Saturday: 8.5 miles
Sunday: 22 miles
Total: 93 miles