Week 7 - Marathon Training
Given the choice of two miseries—the heat of summer or the cold, wet wind of winter—I choose the misery of training in winter. I’m baffled by those who suggest that summer training is the more preferable, and I hear them insist that avoiding the heat is a simple matter of waking up early enough to run in the cooler part of the day. My problem is not so much the air temperature as it is the solar light radiating off the concrete surface, so for me that would mean running prior to sunrise, and that time of day for me is preciously dedicated to sleep.
Week 7 - Training Record
Monday - 7.2 miles Easy
Tuesday - 8.8 miles w/ 3 x Tempo Interval
Wednesday - 6.3 miles Easy
Thursday - 7.1 miles w/ 5 x 1k @ 5k pace
Friday - 13.2 miles Long Run
Saturday - 6.2 miles Easy
Total: 48.8 miles
Certainly, running in the midst of a December tempest is hardly a source of joy, but it beats suffering a spiked heart rate while running 9-minute pace in 80 degree temps. But so far this winter, the offshore El Niño has produced unseasonably warm temperatures (mid-forties to low-fifties) and relatively rain-free days. I am one of those runners who arranges my workout around a window without precipitation. I check out the weather app on my phone throughout the day and make my plan accordingly, but will always choose running in the rain in daylight over no rain after dark.
As it turned out, this week produced some dastardly weather on the only two days I had scheduled a workout.
Tuesday’s cold front roared through the region, packing heavy rain and sustained winds of over twenty miles per hour and gusts up to forty. I ran headway into one of those gusts in the last few minutes of my workout. The clouds were daunting and I was wet to the skin within minutes of starting my run, despite wearing three layers, long pants, and a running jacket. Forty miles away, in Port Orchard, a tornado touched down and destroyed several homes. In December. In Washington. (But whatever, climate change “isn’t real.”)
Week 8 - Training Plan
Monday - 5k Race
Tuesday - Easy
Wednesday - 800m Hill Repeats
Thursday - Easy
Friday - Long Run
Saturday - Easy
Target: 48-52 miles
Finally feeling somewhat recovered after donating blood, I opted to run a series of longer tempo repeats, gauged by time rather than distance. I prefer running by distance, but I recognize the need to keep workouts fresh to avoid falling into a training rut. The last couple times I ran tempo repeats covered my favorite distance—the mile. Optimal distance for tempo repeats is anywhere from six to fifteen minutes in length. I planned a knock-down workout of three repeats—fourteen minutes, twelve minutes, and ten minutes, with three minute recoveries between each bout.
I tried to take the workout in a direction that didn’t head directly into the wind, but it was one of those days that no matter which way I turned, the wind blew right into me. My pace range was between 6:55-7:12, but I knew that would be a challenge.
Repeat #1 – 2.00 mi – 14:08 (7:04 pace)
Repeat #2 – 1.73 mi – 12:18 (7:06 pace)
Repeat #3 – 1.41 mi – 10:03 (7:08 pace)
The rest of the week was filled with perfect running weather, except for Thursday—the one day I had another workout scheduled, this time 5 x 1000m repeats at 5k effort between 4:00-4:15 (6:27-6:50 pace). My reasoning was because I plan to run a 5k race on Christmas Eve with my family, and I wanted to let my legs feel a little bit of stress at the VO2 max effort. Rest interval was three minutes. Disrupted by rain and swirling winds, the workout didn’t “feel” good even though I hit the time targets.
Lap 1 – 4:06.
Lap 2 – 4:13.5 (into wind)
Lap 3 – 4:10.0
Lap 4 – 4:13.2 (into wind)
Lap 5 – 4:10.1
That would accumulate to a 5k of 20:53, a little more than ten seconds off my adult PR. I don’t expect to run that time on Christmas Eve, but it’s nice to know that I have run this pace on a day when I didn’t feel my best.
I pushed my long run up a day, to Friday, to allow for more recovery leading into Monday’s race. My plan was to run ten or eleven miles, but I felt good and comfortable and ended up coving just over thirteen at 7:50 pace. Strange how 24 hours can make a difference in the weather quality and my own physiology.
Next week will not only include the low-stress 5k race, but also some longer hill repeats. The mileage will bump up to a max of 52 before dropping again in Week 9, which will end in a 10k race. After that it’s three consecutive weeks of hard training until a half-marathon race at the end of Week 13.
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