It’s been awhile since I wrote a training log. Like, since March? I’ve been doing plenty of running and I’ve published quite a few race reports, but maybe it’s time to fill in a few details, at least about what I’ve been up to since the Chicago Marathon on October 13th.
Before switching over to 10K training, I wanted to run one last longer race, the Philadelphia half marathon. I love Philadelphia and a bunch of friends are going to race either the half or the full so I thought I’d tag along. The first two weeks post-Chicago were chilled out with some swimming and biking and very easy running, starting five days post-marathon. As recovery progressed, I ran a little more and started with some light workouts, until last week started to look more normal, as we transitioned to half marathon-specific work.
Coach Mick and I thought about two things going into this shortened training block. First, I asked him about the idea of translating marathon fitness to solid PRs at other distances. He said that can sometimes work, especially for people coming off their first marathon. Marathon training usually implies a significant mileage bump and that is likely to pay off across the board. On the other hand, if you’re already running pretty high mileage, (like me? how did that happen?), then it might be more important to train for specific distances, if you want the best result possible. What did that mean for Philadelphia? A good chance of a good race, without maximizing my potential at the half marathon distance. I decided I was fine with that outcome.
The second training question we talked about was how to structure the long runs between Chicago and Philadelphia, post-recovery. We initially considered keeping them shorter (10-12 miles) because I already have a good aerobic base. Looking back at my training log, though, we discovered that my long run was 15 miles the week before a half marathon PR in June 2018 and 22 miles (!) the week before my most recent half marathon PR in September. We decided to go with long runs of 14, 16, and 14 miles with some pace work included each week.
Here’s the details on the past two weeks.
Week of October 28
Chicago Marathon Celebration Cake: Yes, we made this!
Monday – 4 easy (9:52). This was coming off a combined post-marathon / birthday / Halloween party and felt like a run fueled by champagne and cake. Which it was.
Tuesday – 2 miles easy, 8×200 at 55-60 seconds, 200m jog recovery, 1 mile cool down. Pretty much my standard post-race track session. Usually I lead at the track. Post-marathon, I was chasing down my girlfriends.
Wednesday – Easy swim (1500 yards)
Thursday – 7 miles including strides (8:57 average, middle 5 miles around 8:35), plus a quickie strength workout. Happy Halloween!
Friday – 5 miles (9:10). I was supposed to have a couple of tempo miles in there, but we’d had a big wind storm the night before. I run early on Fridays and there was debris everywhere, including a large tree down, completely blocking the road. I ran a couple of “tempo-ish” miles and called it good.
Saturday – 14 miles, first 10 @9:00, last 4 @8:45. Last weekend, I barely managed 7 slower miles and wondered if I’d have to walk back to my car. Today 14 more upbeat miles felt fantastic. As Coach Mick says, “Recovery is a wonderful thing!”
Cheering at a marathon – maybe even more fun than running one?
Sunday – 4 easy (9:12). Ran in New York before watching friends run the marathon. So fun!
Weekly total: 39 miles
Week of November 4
Monday – Easy swim (1850 yards)
Tuesday – Tempo intervals at goal pace: 2 miles warm up, 4 x 1600 @7:45 w/400 jog recovery, 1 mile cool down. I ran 7:43, 7:44, 7:45, 7:41 for the 1600s. Somewhere along the line I started totally loving the track. This was super fun and even though it was also work, it was good work.
Wednesday – 4 easy (9:08)
Thursday – 8 miles, 1 mile easy, 6 @8-8:15, 1 mile easy. Coach Mick calls this “steady state pace.” I call it “annoying.” It’s more work than easy running and less fun than tempo. Somehow running 8-8:15 is just irritating. My new goal is to learn to love this pace.
Friday – 6 miles, including strides (8:58). Fridays are Girlfriend Run days, but today I missed some of the chatter because I was a little quicker than standard girlfriend pace. Gorgeous frosty fall morning regardless.
Saturday – 4 easy (8:47). Ran from the gym, then weights.
Sunday – 16 miles, first 10 @8:45, 3 @8:30, 2 @8:15, 1 easy. In theory, I love the idea of longer long runs. At about mile 12 today I was wondering what the hell I was doing? Happy to have done it, though!
Weekly total: 46 miles
Wow. You rock, Sarah!