Well, turns out most badminton racquets run at least $20, which is likely more than I could get for a pair of reeking, worn-down racing shoes. So I got back to training. And training has been going really, really well.
It didn’t at first though. After Grandma’s, I gave myself 3 easy weeks, culminating in the aforementioned 5k race, after which I entered a phase I think of as “serious training”. Most running books will warn of the dangers of increasing mileage too quickly, but I went ahead and jumped from 65 miles (during the last recovery week) to 100 miles the next week. I knocked out a few light workouts with one of the Trinity runners that was in town, which was fun, but any workouts that I did on my own were...difficult.
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| Cruisin' at 5:38 pace |
5:40 pace felt incredibly fast, given that I had less than a month earlier gone 5:38 pace for 26.2 miles. I would finish tempo runs feeling like I could MAYBE go one more mile, and then only if someone held a gun to my head.
Then, about two and a half weeks ago, something flipped. Around this time I was competing with some coworkers in a 4x400m vs 1600m race, during which I ran the 1600 in 4:32. Maybe this is what caused the shift, or maybe it was just good timing, but since that day, I’ve felt like a million bucks. That week was 120 miles. The next was 126. This past week I took a few days much easier, but still hit 123 miles.
And the workout...oh the workouts. I did 11 miles alternating fast and slow with Rob at an average of 5:52 per mile just 2 days after the 1600m race. The next workout was 5k @ 16:25, followed by 4x200 (granted, with very, very long recovery) at 29 apiece. Three days later I did a tempo on our bread and butter Hill Country Village route, covering 10 rolling, hilly miles in 54:54, my best time on that course by over a minute.
One 24 mile long run later and a few easy runs later, I was doing 8x1600m on the track at an average of 5:13 each, but with the 400m recoveries done so fast that I came through 16k in under 55 minutes. That workout, done 20 seconds faster than I did it in March of this year, sandwiched between setting my 5k and 10k PRs, showed that I’m in terrific shape for races in the 5k to half marathon range. But what about that pesky marathon I’m supposed to be training for?
Well, this morning I took advantage of the (cough, cough) wonderful weather we’re having this weekend to knock out a new standard workout for me in a marathon buildup: 1x marathon at roughly 10% slower than goal pace. Since my goal pace is somewhere in the 5:30-5:35 range, that means doing 26.2 miles at 6:03 to 6:09 per mile, which, given the weather (overnight low of 78, dew point of 73-75), I would have been happy with anything 6:15 and below. But, true to form, I went out at 6:05 pace for the first 18-20 miles, suffered for the last 10k, and ended up covering a marathon in 2:40:38 (6:07/mile), my 5th fastest marathon ever. That is a long way to go by yourself, but I’m glad that I was able to stay focused long enough and not wimp out 24 miles in, when it’s all too easy to say “oh, I’ve already done enough”. As of today, I have 11 weeks to prepare for the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon, so it’s just a matter of keeping the hot streak going, and not pushing myself too hard too soon.
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| Me circa 2011 Whine Run |
Next up for me is the Labor Day Whine Run 5 Miler, next Monday, which I’ve done the last 2 years. I’m really excited to get out and race again, as it feels like forever since I’ve lined up and put myself out there.
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