Recently I've been posting training summaries - my daily log is always accessible, but hopefully these recaps are useful to those trying to see the bigger picture and how I try to put the pieces together. I had 6 weeks between the TOU Marathon and Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. The first three weeks of that stretch is documented here. The following three weeks is summarized below...
I've added (in parenthesis) my AM/PM mileage to the bottom of each cell. I think that information is useful for those looking to see how I break up the weekly mileage.
The goal for the two weeks before Indy was to get in a few HM-specific workouts, while keeping the volume reasonably high and not shying too far away from some Marathon-specific (MP, or usually labeled as "AT" = aerobic threshold) work.
On October 16th I did an 18 mile run that included 8.4 miles of hard, hilly, rhythm breaking running at MP or faster. These hills were more challening than what I'll face on the CIM course, but I'd rather be over-prepared for the hills. Later than week I ran a 5K race followed immediately by 7 miles at MP, which ended up being a 20 miler including warmup and cooldown.
The following week I did a hard HM-specific workout 10 days out from Indy: 2 x 5K in 15:22, 15:21. That weekend I did a 5 mile AT tempo at 5:12 pace, following by 2 x 1 mile in 4:53. I didn't try to squeeze in anything extra; those two sessions got the job done.
In the week leading up to Indy I cut back my mileage quite a bit and did a few light workouts to stay sharp: 5 x 1K at 3:04, and then 6 x 1/4 at 5K pace.
The race in Indianapolis (1:05:54) wasn't fantastic, but wasn't terrible either. Realistically I knew that ~1:05:20 - 1:05:30 was what I should be aiming for, but I got sucked out too quick and basically had to just hang on after 10K. I learned some valuable lessons that I'll incorporate into my training over the next month and race strategy at CIM.
Now I've got 4 weeks of training (followed by a 1 week taper) before the marathon. I'm going to continue to stick with 2 hard sessions per week, keeping the workouts spaced out and of high-quality. Most of the work will be very marathon-specific from this point forward. I've got a 10K race on the schedule 10 days out from the marathon (Thanksgiving morning).
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