"If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail". So says the famous proverb and as usual a metaphor that can equally be applied to running as to life itself. One of the many reasons I love this sport as much as I do is that it takes no prisoners. What you put in you get out, if you don't put it in you get nothing out, there's no bluff involved.
And so here I am 2 weeks out from Thunder Road and I think I'm as prepared as I could be considering all the crap I've gone through this year. Injury after injury made the end of 2009 and the first three quarters of 2010 a stop/start affair but since my broken foot healed I seem to have caught a break and put some solid weeks in. As a result, a season that looked to be destined for the trash can may unexpectedly end up with at least some salvation in the form of a marathon pr.
since my latest comeback mileage has been 11,22,36,44,51,56,58,69,72,59,76,76,75,60.
It was after the 69 mile week that I started to sniff Thunder Road calling, so it was straight on the line to coach Budic to draw me up a program to give me a shot at a PR come December. Six weeks later and I think I've got a shot. over that time I've been able to follow Tim's plan to a T. I screwed up one workout but other than that as usual Tim has had the uncanny knack of sensing what type of workout I need to get me fit and the paces I need to run the workout at to get the best out of it for me. No shortcuts, just hard, realistic work.
The first week of my 'taper' went well, with a good showing at the Turkey Trot on Thursday and a confidence boosting last long run today.
Workout 1- Turkey Trot 8k race (6th in 26:48, 1st in 35-39 age group
Splits
5:13
5:08
5:32
5:32
5:13
Goal was to try and hold around 5:20 pace and go sub 27, feel pretty strong and be competitive. All boxes checked. Held back a little on the first mile as I knew everyone else would go off faster than the pace I was targetting. Second mile was downhill and I picked off a couple of guys. The rest of the race I was on my own unable to get anywhere close to the group in front of me but conscious of Aaron gunning for me from behind. Miles 3 and 4 just tried to hold it together and was pleased to finish the last mile in 5:13. This was good training stimulus for the marathon too so all in all a good day.
Long run (18.8 miles with last 8 at MP)
Last big workout before T Road. Met up with Billy at the Y. we ran 5 miles of the course route before heading back to the Y to change into flats and suck down a gu. Rejoined the course to run the back half. After 5 more miles we launched straight into the last 8 of the course.
At that point we had covered 10 miles at 6:40 pace so we weren't hanging around as it was. The last 8 were meant to be at marathon pace but the first mile was downhill and I got a bit excited and ran 5:52. So now the tone was set for the rest of the run. Hit miles 2 to 8 in
5:49
5:50
5:51
5:45
5:45
5:48
5:53
Total for the 8 miles was 46:33 (5:49 average).
Am pumped right now. This was comfortably hard, I'm just hoping I didn't take it over the edge. I ran more miles than scheduled this week so next week I need to make sure I stick to the plan. No run tomorrow, easy 'group runs' planned Tuesday and Wednesday, only workout of the week on Thursday and 14 on Saturday
wow paul. your mileage plan is exactly how i do it too! build up to almost your peak mileage, then do one week at lower, then three weeks at your peak mileage! I like what you've done and excited to see what u do at tr!
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