This past week was really solid from a training standpoint. I recovered well from the 10 mile race last weekend, got in a great marathon specific workout on Thursday, 20+ mile long run on Saturday, and 25 x longer striders on Sunday to work on efficiency.
I’m going to have to make some changes again to my plans for this week. I know I have mentioned this before, but I feel like my plans are changing more than they are not. They are calling for quite a bit of snow Tuesday night-Thursday and I have access to a treadmill that goes no faster than 10 mph. My original plan was to workout on Thursday. I thought about moving it to early Wednesday morning to beat the snow, but it’s not going to be early enough. I’m currently in the process of deciding what I’m going to do, but it looks like it’s going to be some type of workout tomorrow. It’s looking like it will be some type of double workout with something harder before school and something harder again over lunch. This will definitely be my last major workout with something shorter planned for Friday or Saturday and a longer easy run on Sunday.
Sunday: (on golf course at Greenspring Valley Hunt Club) 20 minute warm-up….25 x :18 seconds hard/:50 second loop back recovery on flat fairway….20 minute cool-down (I know this isn’t a normal part of most marathon training programs, but I like them and do them for a few different reasons…. 1. They work on efficiency…I feel like they make slower paces feel much easier. I’m looking to make 5:15/mile feel easy! 2. I feel like they help my muscular endurance. I find that late in longer races I tend to slow down not so much because of glycogen depletion, but because of muscular fatigue. These are a variation of something that Nate Jenkins suggested to me a while ago when I mentioned my issues with the late stages of races. 3. I’m no physiologist, but I would imagine it’s doing something for my heart/aerobic system. I know I have read something about this before, but can not remember where. Think about the fact that my heart rate is getting near max over 18 seconds then slowly going back down over 50 seconds before doing it again 25 times. 4. I’m sure I’m missing more….any input would be great!
Saturday: 136 minutes on rolling hills (roads/sidewalks)….I checked my pace several times throughout the run and it was always between 6:30 and 6:50. The pace of the run felt easy, but I was definitely feeling the effects of my glycogen stores not being back to normal from Thursday’s workout over the last 30 minutes or so…..that was the point of this long run!
Friday: 50 minutes easy on turf fields at Garrison Forest School (last 6:00 barefoot)
Thursday: Valley Centre (paved flat 715 meter loop) 15 minute warm-up….3 x 10 laps with 2 lap moderate recovery then 5 x 200 with 200 jog recovery…17 minute cool-down
2 lap splits (actual pace in ()) 4:39 (5:14) – 4:38 (5:13) – 4:39 (5:14) – 4:38 (5:13) – 4:34 (5:08…..5:15 (5:54)….4:36 (5:10) – 4:36 (5:10) – 4:33 (5:07) – 4:32 (5:06) – 4:32 (5:06)…..5:10 (5:48)….4:29 (5:02) – 4:28 (5:01) – 4:30 (5:03) – 4:28 (5:01) – 4:28 (5:01)….5:17 (5:56)…. 5 X 200 all at :32 with 200 jog recovery in 1:00
Wednesday: 50 minutes on turf fields at Garrison Forest School with 8 x :15 hard striders over last 10 minutes
Tuesday: 50 minutes on turf fields at Garrison Forest School (last 6:00 barefoot) / 33 minutes easy on indoor track
Monday: 33 minutes easy on turf fields at Garrison Forest School. / 20 minute weight session
Dave Berdan's Running Blog 