What a pleasant feeling this morning knowing I "only" had 10 miles to run on the trail. For the past 15 weeks of marathon training I've slowly increased my mileage and completed 5 x 20 mile runs. With the cooler temperatures today, the 10 miler was quite literally "a stroll in the park".
The FIRST marathon plan called for 8-10 miles at PMP (Planned Marathon Pace), which for me is anything between 6:30 and 6:48 per mile. 6:30 would be my dream marathon pace, 6:48 is my marathon pace based on a 5k time from about 4 months ago.
As usual, I started off with any easy mile to blow away the Saturday night cobwebs, but soon it was time to pick up the pace and try to hit the target. With a bit of effort I was able to post a 6:43 which I was able to follow up with a couple of 6:39's.
Mile 4 was an even quicker 6:32 and amazingly it was time to turn around and head for the car. Something happens with my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS when I abruptly stop and head in a different direction. I think it predicts which direction I should be running and gets a little confused when I go a different way.
The next mile was a slower 6:42, but I'm convinced I was running faster than that. Mile 6 was even stranger at 6:47 - the GPS mile was longer than the mile marked on the trail, so I know something spooky was going on.
Anyway, 2 miles to go and I was able to finish off the main portion of the workout with a 6:35 and a 6:25. It may sound quite easy as you read this review, but I was certainly working quite hard by the end of the "PMP 8 miles". It was nice to just jog back to the car and flush out the lactic acid from my muscles.
Today's 10 miles was a good end to a great week - probably one of the best in the 15 training weeks so far. Maybe, and I don't want to count my chickens this early, after all the struggles with speed and tempo earlier in the program, I'm peaking at the right time.
Week 16 of the plan is outlined on my other blog and it sounds just about the right level of running to keep me fresh enough for the marathon, but active enough that I don't get lazy or sluggish. Here's to a positive taper week!
October 21, 2007
Week 15 - Key Run Workout #3
Posted by cymrusteve at 8:23:00 PM
Labels: First Landing State Park, Furman Institute of Running, garmin, GPS, planned marathon pace, PMP, training
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hahahaha, mileage IS certainly relative. After doing 20 miles five times, I'm sure 10 miles DOES seem like a walk in the park! Yea!
Haha, it did!
Taper week is strange. I'm trying to watch what I eat (don't want to pile on any excess pounds), watch what I drink (I really need to be properly hydrated) and watch how much sleep I get (I need to feel refreshed).
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's 400m repeats, but really looking forward to the marathon. I'm always up for the big races, but this time for some reason, I'm really excited.
Race prediction splits will be coming soon. I thought about it a lot over lunch and have come up with a plan that will challenge me to max.
Thanks for the comment!
--Steve
Post a Comment