A Great Week

This was probably my best week of running since I decided I was going to run the marathon. And that's saying something, considering I'm just coming off a really frustrating left foot injury. The foot issue is gone and this week I put up some of the best splits since my high-school cross country days.

During a 7-mile speed workout on Thursday, I ran one of the miles in 5:57. That's my first sub-six-minute mile since high school, and I weighed 30 pounds less back then. For the entire speed workout, I averaged 8:11 per mile. Then, funny enough, I ran five miles normal the next day and also averaged exactly 8:11 per mile.

To top it off, I nearly duplicated that pace during an 18-mile run on Sunday night. I was only down to run 16, but I felt so good for the first eight miles that I decided tacking on another two wouldn't hurt. Besides a nasty cramp in my side around mile 15, my legs and body felt fantastic for the entire run.

Here were my splits for the 18 miles:

7:55/8:16/8:16/8:16/8:12/8:05/8:11/8:05/8:06 (short water break)
8:15/8:16/8:21/8:20/8:24/8:15 (cramped up)
8:54 (ran through cramp)
8:06/7:39

My goal of every run is to make my last mile my fastest. That way, I learn to push hard, but still leave enough in the tank to push even harder through the finish. Once the cramp died down, I was able to post two of my best splits in the last two miles. That was especially satisfying.

The whole run was in 2 hours, 28 minutes, 2 seconds, or 8:13 per mile. If I maintain that type of pace on marathon day, I'll finish in around 3 hours, 35 minutes. In a perfect world, my goal is to run the 26.2 in 3:30, so I'm on the right track. When I ran 20 miles a few weekends ago, I did so around 9:00/mile, so this run went much better.

My weekly mileage was 36, which is the most I've ever run in one week during this training. I'm off today, and this will be an easier week for me. I'm down to run 27 miles with no run more than 7 miles, but I might up my Sunday run to 10 to make up some for the two weeks I didn't run at all. Then, two Sundays from now, I'm scheduled to run 20 on my birthday.

Stay tuned for more...