Marathon Training Week 11

Summary of Weekly Miles

Monday - 4 miles, 36:36, 9:09 pace. Did in the AM.. felt ok and made it to work on time!

Tuesday - 3.78 miles, 36:40, 9:42 pace. Did this before work, thought I was supposed to run 4 when in fact I was supposed to run 5, and then ran into some issues. Oh well.

Wednesday - 10 miles, 1:28:49, 8:52 min/mile. I ran almost the same route that I ran the previous week (had to add on a mile), except I had to run it without Richard who was celebrating his wife's birthday that night, and somehow I ran it slightly faster. My legs felt better this week than the week before, and I did see some people that I knew while running (hi David) so that was a slight pick-me-up halfway through.

Thursday - 6 miles, 45:33, 7:35 min/mile, HR 160. This was 2 loops around the RIT campus with Trisha who paced me (AKA almost killed me) through a tempo run. (splits: 7:42, 7:41, 7:24, 7:27, 7:36, 7:40). She's fast. I am not. It was rough, but a huge help because I have trouble running tempo pace on my own. Then we ate food and worked on our Nonparametric Project for the rest of the evening.

Friday - off - did project/final exam for a few hours after work and then went to John's.

Saturday - 10 miles, 1:28:40, 8:52 min/mile, HR 148. Drove to Genesee Valley Park to run the river trail because I am starting to get a bit bored doing all of these 9-10 mile runs from my house (I always end up on either Winton or Culver, neither of which are interesting at all). I used this run to test out my SPIbelt which I bought for a weekend that I will be in Baltimore while training for the marathon.. don't want to end up lost somewhere and needed a way to carry my phone with me on long runs. It worked out well and I was very pleased with it! Then headed down to RIT to work on my final exam which is due Thursday. That was the theme of this weekend: running and Nonparametric. (Isn't that the theme of every weekend this summer? oh well).

Sunday - 20 miles, 2:57:03, 8:51 min/mile, HR 152. I parked my car in the High Falls parking garage, and then had John drive me to mile 6 of the Rochester Marathon course (~St. John Fischer College) and drop me off.. and I ran the rest of the course back to my car. The first 10 miles were great.. the last 10, not so much. I did see a bunch of friendly faces on the canal path - Trisha & Ken, and then saw Matt towards the very end near Corn Hill Landing. This run didn't go as well as I had hoped. I try not to run by pace on long runs, but I had a pretty decent one last week so I was thinking this one might be a bit faster - maybe 8:45 or so (since it's pretty much flat) but my hamstring was really starting to bug me about 14 miles in.. and it started to get really hot out (thank god I wore sunscreen). Unfortunately, the canal path doesn't believe in water fountains anywhere other than in Pittsford so I probably need to be mindful of this in the future (I don't do a whole lot of running on the canal path). I had a small handheld but it was drained by the time I got to GVP. Somewhere on the river trail near U of R I just sat down in the shade and texted John that I was dying. I had maybe 3 miles left to run and there was no way I was going to bail, so after a short pity party I got back up and finished my run.. and apparently he was worried (because I had stopped responding to texts.. what did people do before cell phones anyways?) so I found him in the parking garage waiting for me. It's kind of nice to have someone who a) knows you're out running for 3 hours and b) cares enough to make sure you survive it. Not that I am ever worried that I won't make it back and I have done hundreds of training swims, rides, and runs solo but.. what if I didn't come back?! No one would know until I didn't show up to work on Monday!

All in all, it really wasn't a bad run, I just wish my hamstring would pull its shit together. Also, I would have killed to lay around for the rest of the day, but instead I hit Tim Horton's and ate a bunch of food, showered, and then met Trisha at RIT for more project work, and then stuck around after she left to try to finish up my final (almost done!).

Week 11 Mileage: 53.78
Total Training Cycle Mileage: 412.79

Comments:

By far, my biggest running week ever. I know it doesn't seem like much to a regular serious runner but it's a lot for me for sure. I have never been a high mileage runner and I have spent most of my adult life as a triathlete (lots of bike miles, lower running miles), so I think this is about where I will top out. I was tired all week, sore, my legs hurt, etc. I drop down to an easier week now, and then it's back up for 2 more big ones, and then I taper.

WHAT will life be like for the (almost) 2 weeks I have off between Summer and Fall semesters?! I can only imagine...