Tobacco Road Marathon Training - Week 4/11

Week 4

Monday

Did: 25 min stretching/yoga + 20 min weights

Not super high-intensity or motivation, but got up early and felt good about doing some focused stretching.

Tuesday

Planned: speedwork

Did: 6.41 mi @ 8:23/mi Track Tuesday

I was running late so I didn't get a long workout on the track. Got 4x800 done (3:28, 3:29, 3:23, 3:22) and finished out #10kTuesday with an added loop around downtown.

Wednesday

Planned: 10 EZ (last 4 optional at race pace)

Did: 10.0 @ 9:38/mi EZ run

Took a late afternoon easy run on the Swamp Rabbit, listened to some true crime podcasts, and just enjoyed some peaceful easy miles. I'd thought about giving the last 4 miles some speed, but some GI uneasiness made me decide to keep it at an easy pace. 

Thursday

Planned: Altamont

Did: 5.7 mi Altamont run

Climbed the mountain today! Hard as usual, but always good to do that climb.

Friday

Did: 2.6 mi walk

Took it easy today with just an afternoon walk, was happy for the day of mostly rest leading into a big training weekend.

Saturday

Planned: 20 EZ

Did: 20.04 mi @ 8:38/mi avg

Ohhhhh man, what a great long run this was! Super stoked at the overall pace which I attribute to a variety of folks joining me for different parts of the run. Started downtown with one group, chased another group for several miles, ran through a snow flurry, ran a few with Matt, then finished up the last 7 miles solo. I could tell I was running out of steam when I got back to my starting point at mile 17 and had to make up a 3-mile loop around downtown to get the rest of the miles. That was a struggle, but at least navigating kept me occupied for some of that. Was very exited for my post-run coffee and scone at Spill the Beans! 

Morning sunrise with snow clouds ahead!

All smiles 😁

Delicious

Sunday

Planned: 10 goal pace (8:01/mi) miles

Did: 10.04 mi @ 7:38/mi avg

I was not feeling like doing this run. I'd had a busy morning of house decluttering, ran some errands, and had decided to stop at the trail to do my run on my way home. I parked and sat in my car for a little while, talking myself into it. Were my legs up for the challenge? Had I eaten enough? Too much? Was I hydrated? Should I wear my jacket or not? (Spoiler alert... I wore the jacket but definitely should have left it behind). 

Once I talked myself out of the car, I took off and figured I'd just see how it went. Immediately I needed a pitstop, and thankfully that only required a half-mile initial sprint up the trail to the Furman lake bathrooms. Felt much better and kept heading north...planned to turn around at the memorial gardens north of TR, then finish out the rest of the necessary miles with a short segment south of where I'd parked. 

First mile felt like garbage... gasping for air, unsure how I would keep up what felt like a hard pace for so many miles, and I took a few glances at my watch that told me I wasn't even running below a 9:00/mi pace...ACK. I bargained with myself, and said I'd do 3 miles and if I still felt like crap, I would turn it into 3x3mi tempo intervals. Thankfully, I found my groove after a couple of miles and around mile 2.5 decided I was fine and would stop worrying about pace and run whatever felt like a hard but not unsustainable pace. Also, knowing the second half would be downhill helped. :) Felt good at the turnaround point, the miles getting back to Furman were tough but felt solid, especially after I passed the spur to Foot Hills Rd. (truly the crest of the slight uphill in the southbound direction). I had Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in my head that kept me going (and the beat seemed to push a good pace). 

Passed the parking lot and had one mile left, so I knew I could push to the end.

Target time for the run was 1h20m... intentionally didn't look at my pace or time for the entire run (after about the first mile) and looked as I hit stop at the finish... 1h16m. BOOM. 💥

So happy with myself

Miles for the week: 52.19

Just a perfectly-executed week of training. I'm so happy with this. 

Tobacco Road Marathon Training - Week 3/11

Residual snow on the ground and altered school/work schedule are really going to make things difficult this week. Plus they're predicting MORE snow on Friday! 😩

Week 3

Monday

Did: 2 mi walk

Took a neighborhood walk in the snow... sunshine was nice, but the ice & snow on the ground still makes things difficult!

Tuesday

Did: 6.23 mi @ 9:23/mi

Had to creep my way along the icy patches of the Swamp Rabbit trail to get this one done, and ended up running on some roads that were in better shape than the trail. Got it done, though!

Wednesday

Did: 8.28 mi @ 8:15/mi avg

Took the run to Furman this morning after hearing that the roads on campus were well-cleared. It was a correct assessment! Was able to do some race-pace miles around the Furman mall early in the morning. 

Thursday

Did: 5.54 mi @ 7:58/mi avg

Speedwork at Furman this morning! Went to the Mall again for some loops, ran fast on the straightaways and recovered on the roundabouts at each end. Worked out to 8x intervals of about 0.2 mi each and completed all at <7:00/mi pace (varied from 6:18/mi to 6:50/mi). 

Friday

Did: 3.6 mi walk

Had to get outside despite it not getting much above freezing the whole day 🥶

White squirrel!

Saturday

Did: 18.3 mi @ 8:50/mi moving avg

Oh man, this run went from good > not great > really great. Started off from the Woodlands and headed south on the trail early in the morning. It was pretty chilly to start off but warmed up ok as I got moving. For some reason, as the sun came up I actually got colder (I think the temps actually do drop just a bit right around sunrise) and had to pull on my wool glove liners by the time I got downtown (about 7.5 miles in). 

Sunrise was pretty though!

Hands were so so cold, but I just made myself keep moving. About the time I had passed by the zoo and was heading towards Laurens Rd, my watch buzzed that it had a low battery. Oh dear... I was only at the halfway point of my run! Nothing I could do about it... kept going and hoping it would last (but totally expecting it to die). Ran down Earle Street and felt pretty tired (and cold still), made it over to Washington and back onto the Swamp Rabbit just south of the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery. 

I ran under a moving train! hehe

Decided I'd make a pit stop and thaw out for a bit, which was an excellent idea. I had about 5 miles left, had a snack, and headed back out when I could feel my hands again. I made the decision to do some faster miles at this point, but I didn't dare touch my watch to mark laps for fear it would eat up the battery (which was still holding on!). I ran hard for 2 miles (13.5-15.5), took a half mile easy run break, then another mile (16-17) hard. Based on a few spot checks of my watch I think I was probably around 7:30-7:45 for those miles, which honestly was the best I felt the entire run! My hands were finally warm! I ran easy for the last mile and then decided I wouldn't push my luck any longer with the watch battery and finished at 18.3 miles. Walked the ~3/4 mile back to the car and felt very happy with that run!

Sunday

Did: 3.23 mi hike + 2.44 mi run/walk 

Started out in the morning with a lovely hike with Super D and some friends. 

Station Cove Falls in Oconee State Park

Armadillo sighting!

After the hike, we met with others for lunch and I made the mistake of absolutely chowing down on a massive bowl of mac & beer cheese fries. 

Delicious mistake

Afterwards, I intended to run my race pace miles, but I attempted a couple of miles and my stomach decided the brick of food was not going to allow any kind of pleasant running.

Yuck.

Week-ending thoughts:

Even with the missed Sunday run, still got over 40 miles for the week - very happy about that, and still quite happy with the long Saturday run performance!

Tobacco Road Marathon Training - Week 2/11

Week 2

Monday

Did: 20 min strength & stretch

Started the morning with a very short strength and stretching session before heading into the office for an early meeting.

Tuesday

Planned: Track Tuesday reps (short distance)

Did: 7.00 mi Track Tuesday w/ 9x400m

Great frozen morning on the track! Got out there a little earlier so was able to get in a longer workout. Today's target was 400m repeats at 1:37, which seemed like a pretty easy task but definitely felt it by the end!

Was able to complete 9 repeats, all between 1:31 and 1:36, with a majority of them being right at the 1:#5 mark. Very happy with the consistency there!

Wednesday

Planned: 9 mi with optional 3mi race pace near the end

Did: 9.14 mi @ 9:03/mi avg moving pace

Again opted out of the MP miles since I still feel like I'm adapting my legs to the longer miles. Jumping from a typical 20-25 mpw to 40+mpw last week was a pretty big shock. I can definitely tell I'm using more energy overall because I am HUNGRY all the time.

Did this run in the late afternoon due to some work meetings and such in the morning. It's usually a low-energy part of the day for me, so it was a little tough but still felt nice to do a nice long, easy cruise on the SRT in the cool afternoon sunshine. Sped up in the last mile or so, but not all the way to marathon pace.

Thursday

Planned: Altamont

Did: Altamont, 5.68 mi @ 8:38/mi avg moving pace

Another Thursday climb up the mountain! Beautifully clear and cold morning, and mannnnn the legs were tired after a couple hard days in a row. Always feels good to get this one done! Looking forward to a rest day from running tomorrow.

Friday

Did: 1.7 mi walk

Took advantage of sunshine and enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood at lunch.

Saturday

Did: 3 mi mountain bike ride

Supposed to have a family camping weekend but due to impending winter weather, ended up staying just Friday night and biking Saturday morning. Super D lead us on a 3-mi ride through Poinsett State Park which was quite lovely!

Sunday

Did: 8 mi snow run

Welp, the winter weather they predicted sure came true! Got somewhere between 6-9 inches of snow and had 30-50 mph winds and gusts for a lot of the morning. Our power went out midday, and we retreated to my parents' apartment downtown for the evening since we had no prediction of when power would be restored. Weather finally calmed a bit in the afternoon and got in a very slow 8 mile run around downtown.

Week-ending thoughts:

Just shy of 30 miles for this week, which is much less than the targeted amount. Snow really made for difficult running and I'm feeling all out of sorts with the botched schedule and ability to log miles! 😖

Tobacco Road Marathon Training - Week 1/11

A fresh new training plan, wheeeee!

Monday

Planned: strength

Did: 45 min strength training

Got up early and did a solid 45 minute strength training workout, including both bodyweight exercises and weights. It's been a while since I did more than ~15 mins at a time, so it felt great to get this done!

Finished 2 bodyweight workouts from last week:

15 min AMRAP: 4x each jump squat, Russian twist (R+L=1), shoulder taps (R+L=1), up-downs

18 rounds

30-27-24-21-18-15-12-9 reverse sit-ups + 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6 alternating plank toe taps (L+R = 2) + 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3 touchdown squats

11:38 total time

Then did another 20 mins of weights.

Harley helped coach me through it.

Tuesday

Planned: intervals

Did: 6.26 mi @ 8:31/mi avg with 4x800m

Goal for the 800m intervals was 3:27 according to the training pace calculator I used to develop my plan. I met the downtown group and did my usual ~1.5mi warm-up, then started off on the 800s.

Splits were 8:24, 8:23, 8:24, 8:26, and I put a full 400m recovery (walking the first 100m) between each one. 

Only had time for 4 repeats (would have liked 6...maybe I'll stay at the track longer next week or something) but felt good that I was hitting my goal paces or better without struggling too much. They felt hard but not like I was going all-out, which is exactly what I wanted to feel. I'm kind of glad I had the goal pace in mind because I might have gone out too hard on these otherwise.

Wednesday

Planned: 8 mi (with optional 2x2mi tempo)

Did: 8.06 mi @ 9:15/mi avg

I opted out of the speed miles since this is my first higher-mileage week in a whiiiiile, and I don't want to overdo it this early in training. Plus mentally I was craving a nice easy cruise while listening to some podcasts on this lovely chilly morning, so I did exactly that. It was great!

Pretty winter sunrises 😍

Thursday

Planned: Altamont

Did: Altamont, 5.67 mi @ 9:16/mi moving avg

Back to the mountain this morning! Man, it was hard... I had to stop and walk for a couple hundred yards on the climb up. Glad to get it done but ooooof, need to stay regular on that so it's not so painful!

Friday

Did: 3.2 mi walk

Didn't really have anything planned today, and got distracted with a lot of work stuff before I realized I needed to get out and do something, so I went for a mid-afternoon walk which was chilly but quite nice.

I'd wanted to do virtual yoga, but they raised the price from $10 to $17 and I just... didn't feel like it. It's not that $7 is gonna break the bank, but just didn't seem worthwhile today. Maybe once this omicron business calms down a bit I'll go to some more in-person classes (which are 100% worth it).

Saturday

Planned: 14 mi EZ

Did: 13.73 mi @ 8:34/mi avg moving pace

Welp, definitely went out too fast on this one... part of that I attribute to trying to warm up, although the cold never stopped being a problem for the whole run! It was in the 26-28F temp range the whole time, and I'm pretty sure I never felt my fingers after I got out of the car. Still, a great way to start the day and run a new route (hills!). 

Sunday

Planned: 7 mi MP (8:01/mi target)

Did: 7.03 mi @ 7:31/mi avg pace

I was not excited about this run. I very nearly said "forget it" because it was cold and raining almost all day. About the time I finally got dressed and went out to park at the trail, the rain started coming down even harder. I sat in the car talking myself into getting out into the cold wet afternoon and pushing myself to run fast. Finally I got myself out of the car and headed off on the trail. I knew an out-and-back to the SRT crossing at Duncan Chapel would be about a half mile short of what I needed, but that was reasonable and I put that in my mind as the goal. Of course just a few minutes into the run the rain picked up and it was falling quite steadily. I settled into what felt like a hard-but-sustainable pace, never looked at my watch, just kept moving. I ended up LOVING this run, felt strong and happy at the end despite going much too fast. 

Rained on and happy

Week-ending thoughts:

Ran almost 41 miles this week and I feel GREAT. Very happy with how the first official week of training went and hope I can sustain the energy and success over the next 2.5 months 'til race day.

Tobacco Road Training Plan Overview

I've worked out my training plan for the Tobacco Road Marathon.

My goal for this race is to qualify for the 2023 Boston Marathon, which must be done by running a qualifying race between Sept 2021 and Nov 2022. For my age group, the qualifying time is 3:35:00 but just barely running that time won't guarantee a spot... they'll take the entire field of qualified applicants and accept a certain number, starting with the fastest and adding people until they've reached their cap. So it's better to run faster than the qualifying standard. 

My goal time is 3:30:xx or overall pace of 8:01/mi   

Gulp. 😳

 

The Plan.

Basic structure: 

• 5 running days per week (Mondays and Fridays are off)
• Track Tuesdays (aka #10kTuesdays) and Altamont Thursdays will remain
• Wednesday will include a midweek long-ish run (with optional tempo/pace miles)
• Saturday long run (with optional goal pace miles at the end)
• Sunday marathon pace run (idea is to hit goal pace on tired legs)

I'm using this calculator to establish my training paces - 

I entered my goal race pace (8:01/mi) and it gives me training paces/times for various distances and types of training runs.

Based on a few runs I've done recently, the paces seem to be quite accurate for my capability and perceived efforts.

For example, the 100% 1-mile I ran a few weeks ago was just a couple seconds slower than the 1-mile Repetition pace. The 100% 5k I ran last week was again very close to the Interval pace.

Seems good! I also like that each "type" of training run has an explanatory link of what it means, what its purpose is, and how to execute it. I'm excited to put a little more structure into my runs for the next few months.

Here's how I've laid out my paces:

Goal Marathon Pace       8:01/mi

Long Run (easy) pace     8:30-9:30/mi

Tempo pace                     7:32/mi

*Tempo or threshold pace is comfortably hard running for either a steady 3-4 miles (or 5 to 6km) or repeated runs of 5 to 15 minutes each, with 1 to 3 minutes of rest between the runs.

Interval (800-1000m) 6:56/mi

recovery should be as long as the interval (3-5 min)

Reps (400-600m)     6:32/mi

recover fully between each one

Gonna be a busy, challenging, and exciting way to finish out the winter but I'm looking forward to it! 😁😁