Getting Slower to Get Faster

A.M. 21st East Loop @ Base I

Quads are very sore from the half but do not seem quite as bad as they were yesterday evening. I napped a lot yesterday and feel pretty refreshed today. I'm excited to see how much faster I run in my next race (whenever that is--might do the Greek Festival 5K).

3.63 mi = 8:18/mi @ HR 149

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A.M. Weight = 183.8 (Swollen and edemic muscles are retaining water).

A.M. Workout w/ the Black Sheep at Highland

My quads are still pretty sore from the half, but good enough to run on. I enjoy working out with a group and being healthy enough to do so. My achilles is not 100% but it is pretty close. With the base work I've gotten in over the last few weeks I handled today pretty well and was faster than I would have expected--certainly a lot faster than my half performance would suggest. This is the kind of work I respond well to and working it in with some decent mileage should get me pretty fit. Recoveries were walking/jogging and usually 2-3 minutes.

Warm-up

1600 = 6:39 (HR 177)

1200 = 4:21 (186)

1200 = 4:27 (186)

800 = 2:52 (184?)

800 = 2:52 (186)

400 = 77.1 (185)

400 = 74.4 (186)

400 = 75.6 (186)

400 = 68.2 (188)

Cool-down

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P.M. Off. My quads are still hammered from the half.  How I managed to do track work this morning is a mystery to me. Probably because it was fun.

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A.M. Weight = 183.6

A.M. Easy Base I run up 13th East and then into the Avenues. Lots of stop and go. Still sore from SL Half plus a little from yesterdays track work.

64:10/6.95 mi = 9:03/mi @ HR 138

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P.M. 21st East Loop. I've got all kinds of sore muscles so I kept this one really easy and relaxed.

3.28 mi/30:03 = 8:51/mi @ HR 138

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A.M. Weight = 182.8

A.M. 10 x 5 minutes @ AT with 45-60 jog recoveries.

Parked at the end of 11th ave and ran 10 x 5 minutes at the aerobic threshold (AT) on the road loop by City Creek and up and down city creek. I clearly need more uphill and downhill training and marathon-specific training. This was a way to get both. I got in lots of up and down running with extremes up and down City Creek Road where I managed 3 intervals up and 2 down. I chugged along on the uphills where it was generally more difficult to sustain target HR (168-172). For the downhills, the first one was awkward with too much pounding but on the second one I was able to sustain a faster pace with much softer landings. I reached that depleted feeling by intervals 9 and 10 which is exactly what I wanted.

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P.M. Standard 21st East Loop

31:11/3.60 mi = 8:16/mi @ HR 149.

This is my fastest yet at this HR. Legs felt very light when I started which means I haven't come down from this morning. I will need to take extra care to keep things very easy and slow tomorrow morning.

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A.M. Weight = 182.5

58:14/6.04 mi = 9:26/mi @ HR 139

Legs very tired. P.M. will be off as usual for Friday. Tomorrow I will go long.

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A.M. Weight = 179.9 (Finally a measurement under 180!)

A.M. Long run along Jordan River Trail

While talking after last week's Half, Fiddy told me that he likes to pick up the Jordan River Trail at 13th South. I thought I would try the same so I drove down and found a nice place to park just off 9th West and ~1100 South.

I planned to go 18 and keep the first 16 at Base I pace and then run the last 2 miles at marathon goal pace which given my current lack of fitness is 7:18/mi. This is the pace for by Boston Qualifier cut-off of 3:10:59.

I kept the intensity at mid/low HR 140s for the first 12 or so miles and then HR started drifting up as I became fatigued and dehydrated.  Took at Gu at ~14.5 miles which was about when I really started to tire. It didn't seem to do much. I was really tired by 16 so dropping down to BQ pace seemed risky (from a CNS perspective--frying one's CNS is BAD, BAD news, probably worse then physically injury) so I sped up just a little for the last 2 miles.

The pace today was slower than I would have expected which is likely a direct result of the hard training week I've had. Last Saturday was the half, then Tuesday was the most demanding track session I've done all year, then 50 minutes of thresholdish running up and down hills on Thursday, and then what is probably the longest run of my life today (I've gone 18-18.5 probably 10-15 times before, but I don't think I've been over 18.5 before. Also, they used to be at 7-7:15 pace so they were shorter, relatively speaking).

I'm really torn about whether I should run St. George or not. As I've said before, I do not like to be rushed into things that I am not ready for. I'm extrordinarily short on long runs and in infancy when it comes to getting competitively fit again. If I was a slow guy who had put in 12+ 2 hour+ runs over the summer I'd feel much more ready. This, in fact, is not the case. I'm a guy who used to be somewhat competitive on the roads at the local level and much more competitive on the track. I'm 15 lbs overweight (mostly muscle which is harder to safely lose--it's not going to instantly melt away on a skiddle of 60 mile weeks--this here's tough bacon!) and basically running off a moderate to good amount of natural ability. This is long way of saying I'm not sure if I have the steel in my legs a marathon requires when you are out to more than jog it. I may not have time to get it and trying to quickly get it may be a mistake.

The biggest training mistakes I made in the past involved trying to force my fitness with "magic workouts" rather being patient and consistent. To get fast ,or strong, or whatever with training requires that one pay their dues with consistent effort over TIME. When I started training again, my mantra and allegiance were to patience and consistency, and crash training for St. George is surely a violation of that.

I told myself that I would allow a year to get back in shape. My freak non-running related achilles injury kept me from really training until about 6 weeks ago. The problem is I'm an intensely driven perfectionist, often to the point of blind idealism. The pragmatist and idealist are at war in my head right now. They both have value, and wisdom is knowing when to let which one rule. At times I've let the idealist over-rule the pragmatist and it has paid off. Other times I been burned, badly. Time will tell.

Long run, long post!

18.62 mi/2:43:01 = 8:33/mi @ HR 146 for miles 2-18

Miles 16-18= 7:55/mi @ HR 161

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A.M. Weight = 180.4

I'm about to commit heresy. Stay tuned!

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A.M. Weight = 180.9

A.M. Speed work followed by short AT run.

Yesterday it struck me that the best thing I can possibly do right now to help my marathon preparation is some very intense speedwork--800m training speedwork. Now I'm a heretic. Don't I realize that anearobic work will destroy my aerobic capacity? I'm pretty sure this is a myth and that the real culprit is overtraining in general. My personal experience has been quite the opposite. In a broad sense, intense exercise is the more potent fitness stimulus but it is also very demanding on the CNS. The key is to get in and get out, and limit a high intensity phase to a few weeks at a time and then stay away from it for a while. At very high intensities, little volume is required to generate a maximum stimulus for adaptation (the kind of adaptation speedwork induces).

My training will still be marathon training, but with an element of 800m training thrown in. I'm not naive enough to think that I will run a good marathon training off 800m training. The long run is still king and I'll keep my mileage up, but I have some very good reasons for adding some short but very intense speed sessions into my training. I write about those later on, but the purpose of today was to crank of the intensity, generate a lot of lactate, and then run a couple of miles at marathon goal pace or faster carrying the lacate burden from the speed.

An old stand-by for me, both as a runner and a coach, has been sets of 4-5 200s at 800m race race with 30s recoveries. 3 sets of 4 x 200 or 2 sets of 5 x 200 is the usual format. I decide to start with 2 x 4 x 200. I had pretty good rhythm, held my form, and generally stayed in control. That said, it was tough. Via the etching winds of my hard breathing I acquired some nice trachea burn, from the first set alone.

The AT portion was interesting. I ended up running 2 miles but probably would have gone 3 if I hadn't had some extra stuff to do this morning before work. My lap times generally decreased at the same HR throughout the run, down to about 7 minute pace by the end. This is likely because my heart and slow muscles were utilizing lactate as fuel and therefore chewing up protons too.

Lactate metabolism is critical during the final miles of the marathon where almost every organ in the body, even the skin, starts releasing lactate to use as a fuel source. This is one of the reasons I've added the speedwork, albeit a minor one. During the next few days I'll try to fully explain why I think this is a good decision for me.

Drills

800 warm-up = 3:12

2 x 4 x 200 with 30 seconds between reps and slow 2 lap jog between sets.

33.62, 34.06, 33.60, 33.67

33.14, 34.15, 34.00, 33.36

These will get faster as I sharpen.

Slow 2 lap jog

3200 at AT effort

7:18, 7:10, HR leveled off around 172

P.M. 21 East Loop+

31:45/3.62 mi = 8:08/mi @ HR149

My fastest yet with ave HR under 150! I'm eagerly awaiting the run when I dip under 8. 

More neuropotentiation. I've noticed the PM run after a hard AM workout tends to be at a faster pace for a given HR even though I'm obviously not fully recovered from the workout.

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A.M. Weight = 182.5

A.M. Base I/II run out and back along Foothill

I felt suprisingly good this morning after a solid day yesterday. The long runs are starting to kick in and make an hour seem short, which is very nice. This is decent run because there arent very many places you have to stop. Rhythm can be erratic because a lot of it is on sidewalk with curbs, low hanging tree branches, significant cants, etc.

1:01:17/7.05 miles

     Out = 8:51/mi @ HR 149

     Back = 7:48/mi @ HR 152

     Ave = 8:20/mi @ HR 151

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P.M. Very easy Base I, 21st East Loop

Ran super easy, especially last half.

30:02/3.24 mi = 8:57/mi @ HR 140

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A.M Weight 181.4

A.M. 400, 400, 200, 400 @ 800 race pace followed by 5 miles at AT pace.

I was a little tired this morning, and my legs started off not fully refueled from yesterday. Nonetheless, I had a very good workout. I intended to run my hardest workout of the week today, so that I would have 72h recovery for my long run on Saturday. I'm working off of the same idea as Monday, but packaged the workout differently.

Because I haven't done this type of work for a while, I wasn't sure how I would respond. I went in thinking that I would run 2 x 400 at a minimum, and possibly more. It was more important that I run the 400s quickly than that I get in more reps, so that I could activate my fast muscles. I'm training for the marathon but to some extent I also have to train me. Its always a balancing act between training for the event and training the person. I have always responded very well to fast, intense intervals, much better than I do to even VO2max or 3k-5k pace work. When I have done fast work like this in the past, it has made my threshold, and even easy run pace, significantly faster at the same heart rate. 

My intention was to run fast relaxed 400s. I did not know how fast this would be. I thought that 68 would probably be the slowest. I wanted to reach the point where my legs were just starting to fail. I ran the first one and held form and stayed relaxed the whole way. I was breathing very hard by the end and could feel blood starting to flood my glutes during the recovery--a good sign. Although pretty tired at the end, I seemed to recovery quickly and ran a second one. I felt significantly more fatigue at the end, but my muscles did not fail. Nonetheless, I was starting to feel uncomfortable, and debated whether I should do another. I decided to do at least 200, which I did. However, after the 200, I decided that I was feeling too good and had not yet reached the level of fatigue that I wanted, so I ran another 400. My muscles started to fail over the last 200 and much more so the last 50, I did not break form though.

I jogged 2 very easy laps and then started a 5 mile run at AT effort. I got a severe side stitch 600 in but was able to stop and stretch and get rid of it so that it did not trouble me for the remainder of the run. The first 2 miles were the most uncomfortable, and my pace continued to get faster, even over the last mile. I ran this portion of the workout in trainers because I will probably wear trainers for the marathon. This workout was indeed taxing. Mission accomplished.

Drills

Warm-up 800 = 3:16

1 lap with hard accelarations on the straights

400 = 67.60 (Recovery = 3:00 for all, allows only partial recovery)

400 = 66.24

200 = 34.28 (got kind of lazy here)

400 = 69.63 (200 split = 33, then muscles started failing)

Jogged 2 laps

5 miles AT run:

1. 7:21.7  (HR 173, stopped after 600 to stretch, made this mile easier)

2. 7:25.4  (171)

3. 7:14.2  (171)

4. 7:17.0  (170)

5. 7:06.7  (170)

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P.M. 21st East Loop+

Definitely tired from this morning's workout, but I was able to run relaxed and felt more in synch as the run progressed. I would not have been able to run relaxed had I tried to go any faster. One thing I've learned the hard way, is that it is pointless to force the pace on recovery runs. Running relaxed keeps prime movers lining up the right way thereby avoiding the application of abnormal mechanical stress and concomitant injury. I'm grateful my achilles is nearing 100%, and that I am otherwise very healthy. I've continued to increase my training load but have been completely free from anti-inflammatories for a few months now. Its often frustrating for me so see how slow I am running during training, but training within myself has kept me healthy.

30:08/3.33 mi = 8:42/mi @ HR 140

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A.M. Weight = 181.6

A.M. Base I run into lower campus. My legs are more flat than tired from yesterday. I felt like I was pounding much more than normal and had to really focus to run softly. Given how hard I worked yesterday, I'm not too concerned, more annoyed than anything.

62:47/7.08 mi = 8:40/mi no HRM

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P.M. Had a great run with Adam. I finally ran under 8 minute pace, @ HR under 150, for my standard 21st East Loop--7:58/mi @ HR 148, was 8:03/mi @ HR 149 with the add on. I'm very pleased. I enjoyed the company, good conversation, and reaching yet another benchmark on what has been a slow but consistent journey to return to competitive fitness.

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A.M. Weight = 179.6

A.M. Base I run down to and around Sugarhouse park a couple of times. Charged down the dowhills. I'm starting to customarily do this whenever I have to run down a steep hill because I need all the practice I can get.

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A.M. Weight = 179.2

A.M. 22 miles along the Jordan River trail.

This run was a great finish to what has been a very solid training week. I decided to make this a dry run for the actual marathon regarding eating, refueling, shoes etc. I adopted Adam's (Adam_RW) general fueling strategy and it seemed to work very well. This runs leaves me feeling cautiously optimistic about being able to run under my Boston Qualifier time of 3:10:59 (7:18/mi).

I woke up at 5:00 and ate a piece of toast and jam at 5:15 (-2 hours), a Gu at 6:00 (-1:15), another GU at 6:45 (-0:30), GU @ 2 miles, 7 miles, 12 miles, and caffeinated GU with amino acids at 17 miles. I felt very energetic at the beginning of the run and after easing into things over the first 2 miles, gradually increased my speed over the course of the entire run and dipped under BQ pace from miles 20-22. At 22 miles I was tired and glad to be done, but I wasn't really suffering. I felt many times better at 22 miles this week then I did at 18 last week, and the pace of my last 20 miles today was faster than my fast final 2 miles last week, where I picked things up, but was suffering quite a bit. So overall, today was a totally different experience. Were this the actual marathon, I'm certain I could have held sub-BQ pace for the final 4.2. I will use this fuel strategy for St. George but will take another caffeinated GU + amino acids at 22 miles. I also did better with consistent water intake today and finished less dehydrated.

Initially I had intentions to run by HR, but stopped paying any attention to it after the first few miles. I felt good enough that I wanted to go beyond LSD and see how my body would handle sustaining a more moderate pace. It did very well. Here is the way my run broke down:

Miles:      Pace,      Ave HR

0-2:         8:58,       N/A

2-7:         8:08,       152

7-12:       7:58,       153

12-17:     7:44,       158

17-20:     7:35,       163

20-21:     7:18,       173

21-22:     7:15,       176

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2-22:       7:50,     ~156

From 2-22 miles was a round-trip loop, so net eleveation change was zero, at a pace 32 sec/mile slower than my goal pace. My guess is that the grade at St. George would convert this to around 7:30-7:35 pace which is 12-17 seconds slower than goal pace. As strong as I felt today, I really like my position if I manage my training correctly and stay healthy over the next 3 weeks, which raises a big question for me.

I've only been training at a decent level for seven weeks. Consequently, I still see measurable improvement every week as my workload has continued to climb. I have a pretty good idea of how I want to handle training from 10 days out, but am thinking I will probably be best served by training pretty hard this coming week, minus the long run. I also need to fit in some more downhill work. It would have been great to have had a summer of full training and pushed my training gains to the limit by now, but achilles tendonitis kept me at 25 miles/week for way to long.

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A.M. Weight = 179.3

A.M. 3-part Track Workout at East High.

No ill-effects from my 22 miler. I felt surprisingly good.

Warm-up

Drills

4 x 800 w/ 1 lap jog at somewhere between 5k and 10k race pace, difficult to tell this morning, not hard though, that much was clear: 3:04 (179), 3:02 (182), 3:00 (181), 3:00 (181)

2 x 400 fast and relaxed: 65/3:00/66

2 miles at AT/LT: 7:01 (173)/6:44(177) (slower than real AT/LT because I'm dealing with fatigue from the 400s, by design)

Cool-down

HRs from memory because I somehow deleted this file after I uploaded it. They should be at most 1 beat off.

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P.M. Easy Base I Run.

Easy, relaxed run. Felt pleasant as I put in more distance and time on my feet.

5.68 mi/51:11 = 8:48/mi @ HR 142

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A.M. Weight = 180.7

A.M. Easy Base I run out and back along Foothill, 8.1 miles

Despite some good miles and a workout yesterday, I felt pretty good today. I was light on my feet and had good rhythm. Nonetheless, I made sure it stayed easy because I plan on running down Emigration Canyon tomorrow morning and need my legs to be responsive.

Out: 8:49/mi @ HR 145

Back: 8:18/mi @ HR 143

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P.M. Easy run without HRM. Blood sugar felt low and overall I did not feel good. First time in a very long time I've felt this way. I think I didn't eat enough today and my body is reacting to the increased volume. I need to be careful here. I'll eat some extra dinner tonight. 

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A.M. Weight = 179.0

A.M. Laps around Liberty Park.

Laps were 1.39-1.40 miles

Time,            Pace,          Ave HR

1. 14:01,      10:01,          129

2. 12:10,      8:45,            139

3. 11:38,      8:22,            146

4. 11:16,      8:04,            150

5. 10:49,      7:45,            155

I felt much better this morning. Last night I ate some vegetarian lasagna, carrots, tomatoes, and then decided I needed way more food so I piled on a couple of good old American corn dogs will a plate full of tater tots. With transfats being removed from foods, my feeling is that foods like this aren't "bad" for you if eaten in the context of an active lifestyle with an otherwise nutrient rich diet.

Last night I decided to put off the Emigration run until tomorrow morning. I didn't know how I would feel and its important that I'm not flat for this workout. If all goes well, I'll run it tomorrow morning. I'll make sure I eat enought today.

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A.M. Weight = 179.3

A.M. Run down Emigration Canyon

Andrea was nice enough to drop me off a mile over Pinecrest at 6 o'clock this morning. Despite the relatively short distance from this point to the valley, I still felt a little strange being dropped off in the dark in what by all appearances could be the middle of nowhere. The moon was bright enough for me to see well enough and my ears were sensitized and picking up the smallest sounds.

The first mile was uphill as intended for a warm-up. Temps were pretty mild this morning at the crest.  Going uphill for the first mile gave my legs a chance to warm-up well before attempting to skillfully navigate the long descent. I increased my tempo and effort gradually while winding down the canyon and finally through the streets of Sugarhouse to my home. My legs were very responsive and handled the downhill many times better than during the Salt Lake Half which was a painful and humbling rust-buster. I was able to float and spring and sense and correct the smallest unecessary tension throughout my body.

I still have a long way to go to return to competitive fitness but I am optimistic that if I have a normal day I will be able to get my Boston Qualifier at St. George. This run was good preparation and a confidence booster.  I'd like to get in one more downhill workout before the race.

Mile,           Pace,           Ave HR,      Net Descent*

1.               10:46            137               -163

2.               7:43              140                220

3.               6:59              152                266

4.               7:00              155                169

5.               6:44              161                150

6.               6:46              163                153

7.               6:44              162                125

8.               6:32              167                126

9.               6:26              167                131

10.             6:27              169                181

11.             5:57              180                72

* The Garmin altimeter function is not nearly as accurate as the distance tracker. Altitude can jump wildly when a satellites are picked up and lost. Having said that, I think in this case these numbers give a fairly accurate description of the drop although I'm a little suspicious the descent during mile 10 was less than the above.

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A.M. Weight = 179.9

A.M. Regeneration run.

Jogged 3 laps around Liberty Park. Quad soreness from yesterday is ~4-5/10 and someone symmetric. This is about what I expected.

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A.M. Weight = 179.3

A.M. Medium Long Run with 4 x 2 miles at LT along the Jordan River Trail

This one was tough. My quads are still a little sore from Thursday's run down Emigration Canyon, so I was a just a little more heavy-legged to begin with than I would have liked for this workout. This one had to happen today because St. George is in two weeks.

I've become more and more comfortable running at MP/AT, which is a little less intense then LT. I haven't done a lot of LT training. However, its close enough in intensity to MP/AT that a big LT workout shouldn't seem too foreign to my body. These workouts are helpful since MP is easier than LT. Big LT workouts make MP more sustainable. As I said above, this one was tough. 4 x 2 miles was about perfect--the last half mile of the final rep was very difficult. I held pace and was glad to be done. There is a reason no one can run a full marathon at LT.

When working hard, the Jordan River Trail can throw off rhythm because the trail is chronically turning, tilting left, tilting right, going under a bridge, etc. It is generally flat, but after riding the redline today, I noticed that there is some consistent vertical undulation. Note that these average HRs will be 2-3 BPM lower than the actual steady state HR because it takes a minute or so to equilibrate. This workout is a confidence builder because I was, on average, about 30 seconds faster per mile (6:48/mi) on flatish ground than my goal marathon pace (7:18/mi) down a substantial grade.

Distance               Pace             Ave HR

1.                           9:59                 129

2.75                       8:26                 146

.25                         9:12                 136

0.5                         7:06                 164

1.5                         6:52                 175

0.27                       9:03                 161

2.0                         6:47                 176

0.22                       9:38                 158

2.0                         6:46                 175

0.4                       11:27                 154

2.0                         6:45                 176

1.0                       10:07                 147

2.11                       9:14                 148

This is my final big workout before St. George. Wednesday of next week will be my final hard workout and will be medium volume.

My achilles didn't allow me to really train until 8 weeks ago. With the time I've had, I've worked as hard and smart as I know how. I've pushed my body as hard as I could while keeping it healthy. Its been challenging physically and mentally. I'm going to really, really enjoy backing down. I'd expected my race fitness to come back easier than it has. I've had to earn every bit and still have a long ways to go, but I've continued to improve and safely drop weight, so I'm headed in the right direction.

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A.M. Weight = 178.7 (First under 179!)

Off

A.M. 21st East Loop very easy. My calves are still sore from Saturday. During the taper my easiest days are going to be super easy. I'll come back up and then go down again--sort of a wave taper.

3.24 mi/31:54 = 9:31/mi @ HR 138

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A.M. Weight = 178.6

A.M. Base I run out and back along Foothill.

My legs felt better than they did yesterday but I still have some soreness and knots in my calves. I probably over-reached a little by running Saturday's big LT workout 2 days after running down Emigration Canyon. I had been thinking about Yasso 800s tomorrow for a hard workout 10 days out from St. George. My gut tells me this is not the right workout for me so I have something different in mind.

Out = 9:09/mi @ HR 146

Back = 8:34/mi @ HR 144

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A.M. Weight = 177.8

A.M. 4 x 1200 @ East High followed by 3200 @ AT

My energy was much, much better than the last 2 days and the knots in my calves are almost gone. The legs had good spring and were responsive, but my back and hips are still a little locked up.

Warm-up, drills,

800 warm-up = 3:12 (1:40, 1:32)

4 x 1200 with 100 walk, 200 jog, 100 walk

1200              Mile Pace           Finishing HR (Max = 198)

4:09.7                5:34                    187

4:13.9                5:37                    189

4:14.2                5:37                    189

4:06.0                5:28                    190

3200 AT (impaired by 1200s)= 14:01, HR equilibrated @ ~174-175

9.6 miles Total. This was exactly what I was looking for in a workout and a much better choice than Yasso 800s. It was nice to be working well under 6:00 pace. I still have a long ways to go, but have also made some significant progress.

After the marathon I need to go through an aerobic capacity phase. The base I've been in will have primed by body nicely. I ran 79 on the last lap of the last 1200 and just barely reached HR 190. VO2max for me right now is probably somewhere near 5:00 pace so I need to bridge that gap and try to make a big engine functional at distance greater than 1500 meters.

This was my last "hard" workout before St. George. Saturday will be moderate but I haven't decided what it will be.

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P.M. 21st East Loop

31:32/3.61 mi = 8:10/mi @ HR 150

Hips and back still locked. I may try to get some deep tissue massage tomorrow.

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A.M. Weight = 177.8

A.M. Regeneration run starting at just under 12 minute pace and working down to 8 and 1/2s.

5.01 mi/50:17

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A.M. Weight = 178.3

A.M. Out and back along Foothill.

Out = 8:55/mi @ HR 145

Back = 8:16/mi @ HR 150

Got hit by a Cyclist just off of the Footbridge hence the elevated HR on the return. I am not pleased and will blog about it when I get a chance later today. I came out of it okay with only a few scrapes and bruised hands.

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A.M. Weight = 178.6

A.M. Track work at East

Warm-up,

Drills,

Warm-up 800 = 3:13

8 x 200 very relaxed (2 x 4 x 200 cut-down), 200 jog recovery + stand = 3-4 minutes recovery.

36.0, 34.5, 33.8, 32.6,

35.0, 34.4, 32.0, 30.7.

4800 AT lactate clearance run.

7:10, 7:13 (172), 6:58 (174)

Cool-down

I kept the 200s very relaxed and in control and could run this workout quite a bit faster but it was not suppposed to be hard. Its getting easier and easier to move quickly. Speed by itself doesn't mean a lot, but my performances at 800m through 1/2 marathon were always best when my speed was good. For me, better speed = high neural tone = good economy = performance at all distances. I recognized this early on in my running career but mistakenly thought of it as an inexhaustable golden goose and tried to force better speed. This was a big mistake and made me slower at all distances. It has to be coaxed out gently. I'm hopeful that with smart training, I'll lure it back out. I could feel it coming back a little today. My days of 23 second 200s may never return, but I don't think its unrealistic to bring my 400 down to ~52. With a good base, this would be a very nice weapon is shorter road races.

Anyway, because SGM is the focus, I ran 3 miles at relative AT. Even though the 200s weren't hard, they made AT slower and more difficult initially. The first 200 I took off bounding like a jack rabbit because my nervous system was still fired up. It slowly came back down and I settled into my marathon stride. 1 and 3/4 miles into it, running suddenly became easier and may pace picked up a little. I felt like I could run for a few hours at that pace. May or may not run P.M.

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A.M. Weight = 178.5

A.M. Out and back along Foothill. I had planned not to run today. However, when I woke up, my body told me it needed to run today, so I complied. There is a very fine line between under- and over-tapering. I'm listening to my internal signals very carefully and have/will adjust plans accordingly. I ran very relaxed and felt pretty good with zero soreness from yesterday's track work.

Out = 8:55/mi @ HR 143

Back = 8:06/mi @ HR 146

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A.M. Weight = 179.3

A.M. 4 x 1200 LT Pace at East

Warm-up

Drills

4 x 1200 w/1 lap jog + circle walk to change directions on the track

1200             Finishing HR             Pace/Mile

4:54                174                         6:34

4:52                175                         6:32

4:46                177                         6:24

4:44                177                         6:22

Cool-down

I felt pretty good today. I can feel the rest rejuvinating my legs. They are not completely fresh yet, but I don't want them to be today. With as light as this week is going to be, I should be feeling pretty good Saturday. HR generally topped off at 800 so this workout is a confidence booster. I'm fairly certain I could race at least mid to low 6:20s for an hour so I think these least couple of intervals represent my true LT pace, which means is has come down substantially. I hope to eak out a few more seconds per mile with a well-timed peak. 

I ran this workout in the pair of trainers that I will run the marathon in. Flats would have made me ~2-3 seconds faster.

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A.M. Weight = 178.3

A.M. 4.35 miles at easy Base I pace. I felt lazy, jittery, and rested at the same time.

Awe. . .  that conundrum called tapering.

40:05/4.35 mi = 8:58/mi @ HR 143

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A.M. Weight = 178.8