This Week in Training & Long Run Pace

Hi!

I had a very solid training week this week. One thing that I've been thinking and reading a lot about is long run pace. I've been so happy about my blazing fast long runs the past few weeks, but I was also well aware that running long runs that close to marathon race is not generally recommended. My initial opinion was that if I could maintain that pace, why not? The more I read though, the more I was realizing that these fast long runs could be compromising the quality of my training the rest of the week and also increasing my risk of injury and just plain burnout. Obviously, these are not good things. Another thing pointed out by Pfitzinger in Advanced Marathoning is that you want to train yourself to be on your feet for the length of time it will take you to complete a marathon. Assuming that you only train up to 20-22 miles, you will need to run long runs slower than marathon pace to accomplish this. McMillan's running calculator says that for a marathon time of 3:40:59 (BQ Baby!), long run pace should be done at 8:57 to 9:27 minute per mile pace. I tried very hard to hit this today. I was very, very close with a 8:55 minute per mile pace. I was happy with that.

I messed up my Tuesday run a bit. I thought it was supposed to be 10 miles with 4 miles at 15k-1/2 marathon race pace, so that is what I did. The tempo portion was supposed to be 5 miles, actually. Still, it was a very solid workout.

Saturday I ran a 5k race that supported the local high school track team. This was not in the schedule, but I felt like I would benefit from this sort of race and it was a good cause. I ended up running faster than expected. My finishing time was 22:38, or a 7:25 mpm pace. This is definitely a PR, although I had only done three 5k's prior to this. Two were in 2005 and the last one was in 2008 or so and was part of a Corporate Challenge. I did that one purely for the t-shirt and it was a Personal Worst. Joe ran with me and paced me. The first two miles felt great. The last 1.1 were hard, but not terrible. I ran a pretty even pace and was the second female finisher in the "Adult" age group (there were just three age groups: youth, high school and adult). The first place female finished about 4 minutes ahead of me!!! I had seen her doing her warm-up and knew that she was either doing her warm-up way too fast or was just an ass-kicker. It was the latter.

My long run today was pretty good. My legs were a bit sluggish from the 5k effort, but I wasn't sore. I felt good throughout. I unsuccessfully tried a new water bottle set up. I will post about it in my next post. I saw a lady running (apparently a fairly long run since she had a Fuel Belt) and picking up litter along the trail. A noble cause indeed, but I think I will stick to running while I'm running.

Weekly Summary:

M: Rest + 3 mile dog walk
T: 10 miles with 4 miles tempo (8 mpm pace)
W: 5 miles recovery (slow)
R: 10 miles general aerobic
F: Rest + 4 mile dog walk
Sa: 5k race (7:25 mpm pace) + 4 mile dog walk
Su: 18 mile long run (8:55 mpm pace)

It's crazy to think that I've completed a long run of 18 miles already and the marathon is still about 15 weeks away. Uncle Pfitzy is a killer!

I hope everyone's spring marathon training is going well!

Happy Running! (<----I realized this week that "Run Happy" or something similar is Brooks Running's slogan. I somehow doubt that they will care though.)

Jen