- MPW peak: 56.3
- Average MPW over hillz/strength training block: ~51
- Peak long run: 17 miles
- Long run quality:
- week 1 | 13.6 (progression) + 3.6 extra cooldown miles
- week 2 | 17 (LSD, mostly flat)
- week 3 | 12 (run tour of lower Manhattan, mostly flat, day after a steady state run in Central Park)
- week 4 | 13.2 (very hilly/marin headlands trails -> 2.25 hr)
- Tempo run progression:
- week 1 | 20 minutes (track)
- week 2 | 30 minutes (track)
- week 3 | uptempo intervals w/ UCSF tri team: 2x400m, 1x800m, 1x1600m, 1x800m @ 5K pace, 2x400m @ 1-mile pace
- week 4 | 20 minutes (track) / 25 minutes (road)
A few things I've noticed:
- Recovery days have slowed down significantly. I can't get my stride length up to get faster than 10:30min/mile, which is okay with me. But man, does that look bad on my Strava. (hah)
- Easy days have begun to feel like a chore. Where I used to love running easy every day, I now don't feel like going on easy 90 minute runs. I know they are necessary in order to balance my higher intensity days. But knowing they are necessary probably just makes it harder for me to execute. It could also be because I feel more fatigued from my hard days... it almost feels like my aerobic fitness is at a decline? Is it just in my head?
- Stretch yoga! <3
- The high volume approach is having it's effect on me. I can feel the accumulated fatigue - it makes me tired. But I feel that my body is also making the appropriate adaptations for the marathon.
- Despite high volume, I haven't gotten sick since November. Maybe a little more tired if I've been around someone who's had a bad cold but no sign of the sniffles. I'll take this as a sign that my aerobic system is very strong. And that I've been getting enough sleep.
Things I didn't execute so well:
- Long run length was inconsistent. Due to fear of injury, I limited my long runs to considerably shorter to what I'd built up to.... I had meant to keep my long runs between 14-17 miles this cycle. Hopefully, my endurance adaptations did not decline over this training period.
- Neglected strength training. At the outset of this block, I decided I should also do a significant amount of core work and resistance band work on my legs/hip flexors. Not only did I neglect that part of this training block, I had no idea when to do it. After my hard days? On my easy days? When?! I think having a coach would have helped nicely with this. At the very least, I should have stuck with my core work schedule (which consists mostly of planks..). I would also like to get back into doing more upper body stuff (push-ups, reverse pull-ups).
- Occasionally skipped an ice session. Icing my knees and shins has been pretty important to help relieve inflammation. I've skipped it occasionally due to not having ice packs around.
- Nutrition. For some reason, I've been craving more carbs and sugars. It seems I eat a lot to compensate for the high intensity :(. It didn't help that all I did was EAT while I was on vacation in Boston/New York.
- Disregarded recovery week. I think one mistake I made before this training block was try to incorporate more cycling cross training on a recovery week. If it's a recovery week, treat it as such!
Going forward, 8 weeks out from the marathon, I feel confident that I can finish it. I hope my body holds up! Here is my training plan:
If I were to tweak my training in the future, I would spend a longer amount of time building up easy mileage to about 60-70 miles per week (minimum 9 hours per week)... possibly four full months of low intensity stuff (but being okay with a good cycling workout here and there).... I would try to build up to where I could comfortably run 8:30/mile at heart rate under 150bpm. And I definitely wouldn't run Big Sur for a serious go at qualifying for Boston...
If not training for a marathon, I'd probably just run and bike at whatever pace. Man, am I looking forward to a few months (after Big Sur) of trying to get faster on the bike...
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