What I've been Doing

I probably should give a little background on what I've been doing over the summer. Over June and July I was able to log at least 100 miles per week every week. In total I did 9 consecutive 100 mile weeks. Most weeks consisted of a tempo run of about 6-8 miles depending on how I was feeling and what the weather was like. The rest of the runs were done at a recovery pace or just a general areobic pace. I tried to run at least one run per week in the 15 mile range and one run around 20 miles. For the most part, that was my June and July.

Then in the beginning of August I switched gears to more of a race preperation program. Late last year, my training partner Dave and I stumbled on a book called the Self Coached Runner, which was published sometime in the early 80's. For the most part, the programs in there are very speed intensive and little light on the mileage. I followed the program pretty much line for line for my fall marathon and wound up with a PR. While I didn't think the program was perfect, it got me back to the track for the first time since I started doing higher mileage, and the benefits showed in most of my spring race performances.

For the Fall marathon, Dave took the 10 week Self-Coached Runner program and added some elements that we felt were missing from the program. Basically this was tempo runs, marathon paced runs, and just some extra mileage. We stole a lot of the new workouts from a thread on LetsRun that was called 5 Key Marathon Workouts. This left us with an aggressive 10 week program that we felt will allow us to capitalize on the great base we built over the summer (Dave had a similar June and July as I did). So since the first week in August, this is how the weeks have gone:

8/4/2008 - 8/10/2008
Mon: Off
Tues: Off
Wed: 9 Miles with 10 X 400 in 74 Avg
ThursAM: 10 @ 6:35 Pace
ThursPM: 7 easy
FriAM: 9 Miles wth 3 X Mile in 5:09 Avg.
FriPM: 6 Miles
Sat: 20 Miles @ 6:38 Pace
Sun: 10 Miles Slow
71 Miles

8/11/2008-8/17/2008
Mon: 9 @ 6:23 Pace
Tues: 12 W/ 4 Mile 200 fartlek in 5:54 avg. 6:19 overall
WedAM: 9 Miles in 7:00
WedPM: 7 Miles Easy
Thurs: 11 Miles with 6 @ 5:34 Pace
Fri: 24 Miles @ 6:28 Pace
Sat: 10 @ 7:14
Sun: 8 Total w/ 4.5 X 800 in 2:33...not good. Stopped after 4 (and a half). Just didn't have it
90 Miles

8/18/2008-8/24/2008
Mon: 7 Miles Easy
Tues: 14 Miles w/ 2 X 3 Miles in 16:54 & 16:58
WedAM: 10 Miles @ 6:29 Pace
WedPM: 7 Miles Easy
Thurs: 10 Miles w Pyramid workout of 200 (33)-400(70)-800(2:28)-1200(3:47)-1600 (5:06), 1600 (5:03)-1200(3:49)-800(2:31)-400 (71)-200(33). Good tough workout
Fri: 19 miles w/ 9 @ 5:53 Pace. Humid and dead legs.
Sat: 9 Miles @ 7:39 Pace
Sun: 15 Miles @ 6:34 Pace
91 Miles

Today was 6 X 1 Mile at 110% of marathon pace with a 400 meter interval between each. For now, I'm saying marathon pace is 5:50, which means the target for these miles repeats would be 5:15. This workout was a little intimidating as I have never done more than 5 mile repeats in a workout and I have never averaged faster than a 5:17 pace for the 5. However, based on some recent workouts, the 5:15 seemed attainable so I decided to go with the recent history and assume I could do this.

The miles wound up going down like this: 5:13, 5:13, 5:09, 5:12, 5:13, 5:13. For the most part, I was in control throughout the workout. If I had to, I felt like I could do two more of these without too much trouble. Of course that’s not to say I could have done all 6 of these faster than what I did. I think I found a comfort zone around 5:13 and was able to cruise with it. When I accidentally let that 3rd repeat go a little fast, I felt it on the next repeat. Also, on the last repeat, I gave myself permission to go as fast as possible, which still turned out to 5:13 so I'd say the pace was about right.