Well a few things have happened since my last post. Mostly, the last week and a half has been very tough for me. I think the most difficult thing for me has been recovering from some of these longer weekend runs. Following the 14-miler a couple weeks ago my legs were pretty sore. This contributed to a very difficult 12-miler a week later. From the start of the group run last Saturday, my quads felt pretty heavy and tight. To add insult to injury, the pathway along the Minuteman trail was mostly iced over. Especially on the return trip, which is slightly uphill the whole way back, my legs were really starting to burn as I lost traction. So anyway, the bad news is that the runs have been getting a little tougher as my body adjusts to the recovery period for the longer runs.
The good news is that I logged a 5-miler at a respectable clip, averaging a 7:48/mi before my 100m strides. This is a bit of a milestone for me as I've been dying to log a medium distance run at a sub-8 pace.
The Ugly is the running conditions outside. I already alluded to the icy path on my Group Run last weekend. Well, I was restricted to a treadmill run on Monday. And yesterday, I completed a 7-miler outside in the slush, snow, and rain. My feet were completely drenched by mile 1. The sidewalks were half covered by slush which made running especially challenging too. So I'm starting to get a bit worn out between juggling the time and finding decent conditions. But this is exactly what i expected when signed up for this race to begin with. So there's nothing wrong with par for the course.
Some of you have been asking for more data, on a summary level. Below is some stats from my runs. Note: this doesn't include any workouts on the stationary bike, pool, or Cybex Arc Trainer/Elliptical.
Since training started on December 14:
17 Runs
Distance Run - 114.36 Miles
Avg Run Distance (6.7 Miles)
Time Spent Running - 17:46:43 (h:m:s)
Avg Speed - 6.5mph (9:14 min/mile which includes walking between 100m strides at end of workouts)
Calories Burned: 12,733
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Hey bro,
ReplyDeleteI finally made my way to checking out your blog (I actually discovered your marathon business card in my vest pocket today, which reminded me to check this out--so way to go making those things :)
Anyway, your training is sounding awesomely hardcore. Way to go! Running through all these stresses and conditions will make you all the more mentally tough come marathon day. If your training was easy (even if you were doing all the right distances and workouts), the marathon would feel very, very hard. Mentally, I mean.
Also, the way you described your legs as feeling is very normal for where you are in your training. If my experience training for cross country translates at all to what you're doing, I'd expect that the heaviness in your legs will lessen a bit as you train more, although it probably won't go away 100% until you taper, which is the beauty of tapering. (Although, as you get used to your legs feeling a bit tired, you'll probably notice it less and mind it less, even before you taper.)
Anyway, nice work with all that you're doing. I imagine training for a marathon to be really hard in even the best of conditions, and here you are doing it through a New England winter and amidst traveling for work on a regular basis. So nice going! :)
Also, I'm bookmarking your blog here so that I can easily check it from now one...