chilly morning constitutional
9 miles in 1:13:10 (8:08 pace) ~45 degrees
rainy weekend
i didn’t run on saturday. call me a wimp but i really didn’t feel like running in the rain. instead, i caught up on some stuff around the house and even got in a nap.
by sunday i was a bit restless from not running the previous two days. i headed out for a 7 miler in the rain and came home soaked in a few ticks less than 58 minutes which is about 8:17 pace.
this morning i headed west on the glacial drumlin and doubled back for 8 miles in 1:06:20 which amounts to 8:17 pace. (deja vu, eh?)
here’s an update of my weekly mileage breakdown in preparation for marathon #20…
wk 1 – 52 miles
wk 2 – 50 miles
wk 3 – 46.5 miles
wk 4 – 54 miles
wk 5 – 57 miles
wk 6 – 56.25 miles
wk 7 – 45 miles
wk 8 – 70 miles
wk 9 – 30 miles
honestly, i prefer looking at monthly miles versus weekly miles. the reason for this is displayed in week 8 & 9. just because i ran two long runs within six days it looks like i had a monster week. the next week i ended up only running four days, which looks like i was a complete slacker. that being said, i do wish i had gotten in one more twenty miler this past weekend.
slept in today
i opted for a little extra "shut eye" this morning rather than a morning constitutional. i’m hoping to run 20M tomorrow but we’re supposed to get an all-day soaker of a storm that may get in the way. we’ll see.
for your reading pleasure, Physicist subtracts showboating, says Bolt could have run 9.55 in Beijing 100.
gimme eight
8 miles in 1:03 (7:53 avg pace)
i got an extra bit of lift this morning in the last mile. while climbing the last big hill on comanche, a song that my brother (Alan) created called Awakening (mp3 – 5MB) shuffled onto my iPod and propelled me up the hill.
my dad bounced me the title of the book i referred to in yesterdays post. it’s "Consistent Winning: A Remarkable New Training System That Lets You Peak on Demand"
day 59
a number of years ago i bought a book for my dad that equated numerology into a training methodology. my unofficial executive summary of the book said that in order to perform at your very best on race day, your training cycle should span 12 weeks and that around the 59th day of the cycle you should have a "rest break" of a few days off to prevent getting sick, injured, etc.
my dad quotes from the book – which thankfully is out-of-print – almost religiously. that being said, i do buy into the idea that the 12 week cycle is ideal for building toward a marathon. i also buy in that day 59 is a point in the training cycle where you’re "red-lining" and have to pay attention so you don’t push over that line.
in the spirit of not crossing over the red line, i did get in 7 miles this morning but really didn’t focus much on what pace i was running. assessing where i’m currently at, my motivation is waning but i don’t seem to have any aches and pains that would be a precursor to an injury. regardless, at this point i just want to get my last long run in this weekend then taper the miles down over the last 3 weeks to lakefront.