Marathon Training, Once Again, Begins

Eight weeks from race day means six weeks of what I think of as “true” marathon training (the last two weeks is the taper).  Granted I’ve already done lots of training - some of it pretty marathon specific - but now is when everything else gets thrown out the window so I can focus solely on running 26.2 miles as fast as possible.

Wednesday was my first workout in this cycle.  It was on the shorter end of the spectrum (no 20 mile tempo runs yet), but it’s good to kick things off with something a little more manageable.  The workout was 3 by 3 miles fast with 1 mile recoveries at a quick pace, plus an extra fast mile at the end, which I usually make 1.1 miles so I can get a nice even half marathon.  So 3 miles hard, 1 mile medium, 3 miles hard, 1 mile medium, 3 miles hard, 1 mile medium, then 1 mile hard.

When I start focusing on a particular marathon training cycle, I’m looking to dial in on a certain pace.  You can’t always know ahead of time what’s reasonable to shoot for in the race, but by repeatedly trying to sense how different paces feel, you can hopefully prevent an outright disaster.  So going into the workout I was trying to get a handle on how fast 5:30 felt, with an eye towards having 5:35 or so be my goal pace this fall.

But this time I ran 16:14, 16:05, and 15:59 for the 3 mile segments.  The recoveries were 6:06, 5:56, and 6:00, and the final fast mile was 5:09.  In the end I covered a half marathon in 1:12:05.  So what did I learn?  Well, I’m faster than I’ve ever been before - usually it’s a struggle to keep the repeats in the 16:35-16:45 range.  And averaging 5:30 pace for the whole workout makes me think that soon that pace will be achievable for a marathon - which would be 2:24, or three and a half minutes faster than my PR.

But whether that day will arrive by November 11th remains to be seen.  For now, the workouts will get longer, and harder, and with any luck I’ll continue feeling as good as I’ve felt thus far.  

Next on tap is a hilly 24 mile progressive long run on Sunday.  I don’t have a specific goal for this workout, other than to run the last ten miles at sub 6 minute pace and get the overall pace to low 6:00s as well.  Happy running everyone.