More Bricks on the Building: Week 11 Training Recap Jan 28 - Feb 03

Four weeks in a row logging 50+ miles. Also this is the second week of incorporating a marathon specific long run. Saturday's 17 mile is a further confidence booster as I consider what I may be capable of running in Boston. It feels like I'm really building something when I can successfully take these next steps.

M: Easy 5 with Matt

T: 8+ miles; 1.5mi warmup, then 6 x {1000m at half marathon goal effort, 2:00 recovery jog}, 1.5mi cooldown. 1K interval paces {6:18/mi, 6:10, 5:59, 6:08, 5:56, 6:02}. Just missed Matt at the start, who did hills while I ran intervals.

Note: I ran a 6:15/mi (1:21:48) at the 2012 New Bedford Half Marathon, so my goal half marathon effort is basically any faster pace - I would like to beat that time this year, again in New Bedford that I will run.

W: 10 miles in 1:15: first 5+ with Joe. And, say goodbye to the mid-week 10 milers -- the distance increases to eleven miles starting next week (and then 12 for a few weeks before the taper period).

T: 6+ miles with Joe: 4.75mi run, then 12 x 20 second uphill runs with jog down recovery, .4mi hard run to finish line.

F: Off

S: 17 miles in 2:01:42. 6 miles easy, 8 miles @ marathon goal pace {7:06, 6:45, 6:46, 6:51, 6:51, 6:30,
6:45, 6:44}, 3 miles easy.

Original plan was 15 miles starting at 7:30/mi pace and working down to 7:20. But, running with Joe I adopted his planned workout instead (he is following a different training plan this season).

This is a very good result, since last week I ran 8 miles at marathon pace but it was split into two 4 mile blocks, separated by 4 miles at 90+% of goal pace. Here I was able to string all 8 miles together at pace with no recovery!

S: 4 miles

Summary after 12 weeks of training, with 10 weeks to go to Boston: