Working on Marathon Pace

Woke up this morning at 5:30 to sound of driving rain and quickly pulled the sheets back over my head and went back to sleep for an extra hour and a half. The plan was to do my mile repeats today, but I'm not a big fan of running in the rain, and I'm even less of a fan of doing fast repeats in the rain, so I bagged it. I probably could have gotten up and slogged through 10 miles, but going fast would have been difficult. I figured I'd save the run for lunchtime and try and do something constructive at that time instead of just getting in the miles. It was pretty easy to talk myself out of it as I lie in my bed.

This afternoon, I went to the gym and hopped on the treadmill for a marathon pace run. I did the first mile as a warm-up and then did 8 miles at a 6min/mile pace and then a mile cooldown. I've done this workout before and this was definitely the best I've felt while doing it. 6 minute pace is now definitely an aerobic workout for me. I don't think that has always been the case. I remember even earlier this year really struggling as soon as the treadmill hit 10 MPH. I could probably go about 2, maybe 3 miles before I really starting fighting it. Now it's not a huge deal. My breathing remains under control for the most part and today's 8 miles at that pace felt fine. But man, do I sweat. It took me 5 towels to clean up after myself after the run. It's almost embarrassing really, but hey, I'm working hard over here.

I still want to get out and do some miles repeats at some point this week. Last year that was a staple of my training, but I've only managed to do them once this year. The focus has definitely been more aerobic conditioning this year though, so there is a reason I have been slacking on the faster stuff. I think as I get closer to racetime, I will try and incorporate more of the shorter faster stuff, so I can really peak in October. For now, I'm pretty pleased with how the tempo stuff is working.

Yesterday my average mileage per week inched just past 80 miles for the year. It used to be that I could move the average a couple of miles either way with a good or a bad week. Now, it's pretty tough to get it go up, but I would imagine that a bad week here or there could really get it to plummet pretty quickly. I've worked pretty hard to get it past 80, so I think I'll try and keep above that point for a while.