I'm now into the sixth week of Pfitzinger's 18-week program. There are 12 weeks until Philly. At this point, I feel pretty good. There were some initial worries about injuries, and I still experience knee soreness on top of the usual aches, but I've held up pretty good. This week, I hit 64 miles, the most I've probably ever run in training. The best part is it wasn't that hard. My 20-mile run Saturday went well. I mixed things up by heading north along the Hudson, up through Harlem to Washington Heights. I turned back at the George Washington Bridge, then continued south to Tribeca before coming back up to the Upper West Side. I tested my pace during the run a few times: about 7:45-7:50. This is my ideal for long runs. I know some will say slower is better, but I disagree.
Looking back at the month, I ran 265 miles and 26 of 31 days. The only real deviation I made from Pfitzinger was throwing in an extra rest day a couple weeks ago. I was traveling and really just needed it. I'm going to keep that option open during the next phase of training. Once a month replacing a 5-mile recovery run with total rest seems like a good idea. That should be particularly true for the next phase of training. I'm in a recovery week right now before beginning the hard part of the program: lactate threshold + endurance. This first endurance mesocycle has been good, but I wish there were more 8-10 mile aerobic runs. Maybe that's what I'm used to, but the second 11-mile slow run in the middle of the week is a drag. I felt great after doing 8 miles today at 7:20 pace, then 10 100-meter strides to cap it off. This next phase has some tough runs. Hopefully, work won't intrude too much as the summer ends.
8 miles, 58:50
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7 comments:
Hey pig boy. I'm in NY next week so perhaps we can go runnin' together.
that can be arranged, preferably on one of your recovery days. what days are you in town?
In town Tuesday and Wednesday then away in DC until Sunday. Then back in NY until September 23rd. Will probably go for morning jogs due to jet lag the first week.
Impressive Brian!
oh where did you get the chart, is it an app?
Hey Brian,
That second 11 miler should feel relatively easy. Again, I wonder if some of your other runs are too fast.
Your Monday runs are at 7:00 pace, only 7 seconds off marathon race pace, and 2 days after your long run (whose pace you do have correct). That's quick.
Then today you did 8 @ 7:20. Again that's quick compared to race pace.
Keep in mind that most elite marathoners are still doing most of their non-tempo mileage at 60 to 75 seconds slower than race pace. That's a 20% differential.
In base building phase, everything should feel relaxed. The volume should fatigue you, not the intensity (granted sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference0.
My .02.
thunderfrenchie,
love the name, btw. the numbers might not be clear enough. Monday's run was 8 miles at aerobic, about 7:30, then 10 x 100m strides. Today was a recovery run: I ran it at 8-min pace. For the most part, I'm doing long and medium-long runs at 7:45, recovery at 8:00 and trying tempo at 6:30. I'm in the endurance phase, so it's really the volume b/c I'm running much slower than I have in past training. A 7:30 pace is a regular run for me.
Thanks for the feedback.
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