Last week was a pretty good week. I was able to recover from my half and keep up the intensity. The workout on Wednesday wasn't as fast as some of the workouts we've done, but it was on a deceivingly rolling trail around BWI airport. It was also a 22 mile day on a work day, four days after a hard half-marathon.
One way to gauge my fitness is that I was actually looking forward to the run today. Arjun, Ryan, Zero, Kris and myself started at Druid Hill Park - one of the oldest planned parks in the US (1860). The hills in the park are rough - but, it gets even worse as you run north on Greenspring Avenue, near Pimlico race track and into Baltimore County. The total distance (22 miles) & hills were tough - but, we added 8 X 5.5 minutes @ tempo with 1 minute rest for good measure. This workout came straight from Jack Daniel's book - probably the most important purchase I've made in my marathon preparation.
The idea was to run hills so big that anything on the Boston course would feel like "love bumps". From the looks of bitterness on the faces of my friends today - I think the mission was accomplished. Although Ryan had some cramping issues - everybody ran well.
So, what now? The number of miles and intensity drop a little this week. I've got another 2X3 mile workout that I'll probably do at the airport again. Next Saturday is a "dress rehearsal" of sorts. The goal is to run 15 miles at marathon pace. After that day I'll only have one more run over 10 miles before Boston. I feel very lucky to have made it this far without injuries (knock on wood) or just feeling overwhelmed by the training.
Last Week
Monday: 6 miles
Tuesday: 8 miles
Wednesday morning: 4 miles
Wednesday evening: 18 mi 2X(5 mi easy 3 mi T pace) 1st 3 miler: 5:30+5:36+5:30=16:36 2nd 3 miler: 5:37+5:35+5:29=16:42 2 mi easy
Thursday: 14 miles
Friday: 9 miles 7X100
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 22 mi 2mi easy 4X5.5 min T pace 1 min rest 10 mi easy 4X5.5 min T pace 1 min rest 2mi easy
Total: 88 miles
This week:
Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday evening: 14 mi 2X(3 mi easy 3 mi T pace) 2 mi easy
Wednesday: 14 mi
Thursday: 8 miles 8X100m
Friday: 6 miles
Saturday: 19 miles 2 mi easy 15 mi @ 5:42 pace 2 mi easy
Sunday: 8 miles
Total: 80 miles
3 comments:
nice work today. as an aside, if you are doing 2 x 3 mi., might i suggest druid hill again. as it turns out, the path around the lake is almost exactly 1.5 miles long making it conducive to this particular workout. t and i did it last wed. and it went well.
that's not a bad idea - although i might stay with the airport loop - only because it's more rolling. i'll definetly check it out this summer though.
That workout was NUTZ. As I isolated what was wrong with me, it was a stitch beneath my rib cage. I've had it a few times this week, so I think general fatigue and inadequate hydration were among my problems. I felt better after the Gatorade, but it was still not feeling great.
The good news is that my legs actually feel alright, much better than last weekend's 21 miles in DC.
And we'll definitely utilize Druid Hill for some workouts this summer. I think what it blends that's a little better than Robert E Lee or Gilman is the ability to do tempo running AND hills in the same place. Not as convenient to leave stuff hanging around unattended, but we could use the lake for tempo running and then hit the hills for either repeats, or incorporate into hard runs.
But we'll wait til well after Boston to head there.
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