Monday, March 28, 2011

Week 13 of 20 Marathon training





This week can best be categorized as "is the glass half empty or is it half full?"  Some good strides this week and some struggles.  As for the struggles, may average pace was painfully slow this week.  Part of that can be attributed too two recovery runs of five miles each.  One on Friday and the second on Sunday.  My long run this week was also slower than I had hoped for, which I can't be to terribly upset about.  As it was 20 miles outside in a 11 degree windchill.  It was also a hilly route.  Why run a bunch of hills while training for a flat marathon course?  Well, a secondary goal to achieving 20 miles on Saturday was mental toughness.  The plan was to keep moving forward no matter what hill was on what mile and to tackle what ever weather condition was present.  Good news is that I survived, bad news.....crap time.

So, enough with the bad.  How about the highlights.....I ran 50 miles this week and they were all outside.  Which was quite the accomplishment as I am not too sure if there was more than 10 miles ran in temps above freezing.  Also, good was that my average run pace for the weekly runs was close to 9:00 per mile.  I even ran 8 on Thursday at 9:02 pace per mile.   My average heart rate for the week was finally below 160 at 156.  I've been wanting to get below that 160 mark for the marathon to ensure I was burning more fat than glucose that day.




What's on tap for this week?  A couple goals this week.  Since last week was a 100% focus on running.  I hope the weather allows for time on the bike and I need to get back with my lifting program.  I will also run roughly 40-45 miles.  With a long run of 13 miles.  It so happens that there is a half marathon this Sunday.  So, the plan will be to join fellow Team Highlighters @mojamala2 @clecraftbeerrun for some half marathon fun this weekend.

Miles ran:  50
Miles ran outside: 50
Miles on bike: 0
Calories burned:  8,887

BEAL

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for TeamHighlighter this weekend! 50 mile weeks are awesome, keep up the good work! ANd if it makes you feel better my long run times are always way off what I actually want to run them in. But when the race comes I always run them what i want to run them in or faster.

Matty O said...

Don't worry man, all you have to do is jog your memory a bit during the race to look back on these brutal cold runs and say I paid my dues, time to finish this!

Great job with the hills!

Looks like you are at the same pace as Heather! Maybe we will see you at the race?

We are planning on run walking the race in prep for this summer's main event. Need to know how the body feels and what kind of time we will finish in.

Keep up the good work man, right around the corner!