Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Week 15 of 20 Marathon training

Wow, what a difference a week makes.  This time last week, I was punching away at the computer trying to make sense of a poor half marathon that I just ran.  I know I have been fairly negative about everything the past month.  Basically, since I have been training outdoors.  Well, this finally will be a positive post.  I had a great week of training this week.  The weather here in Ohio finally creeped above freezing and I was able to do my full training.  My plan going into the marathon was to do my runs, then ride to build additional endurance.  I did this late last year and improved my half marathon time by 14 minutes in a 6 week period.  Going into 2011, I was eager to see if I could parlay this type of training to the marathon.  Well, it has been a massive fail.  As it has been a horrible Spring here.  The good news is I have 2 1/2 weeks till taper to put the final touches on my training.  My long run this week was 22 miles.  I spent the past week pondering how I was going to survive it.  It almost felt like I had a giant 22 following me, every where I went.  I did the 22 miler this past Saturday and I broke it done like this.  A four mile easy run and then a 10 mile race, followed by a 8 mile survival.  As I started I felt pretty good on the 4 miler and slowed my self down repeatedly.  I then moved on to the 10 mile race and ran faster than I have since I ever have.  Without trying, I ran a faster 13.1 than I ran the week prior.  After the race I said goodbye some running friends as they all said I was crazy for running another 8, but I took off and ended up keeping a solid pace between 9-10 minutes per mile.  I couldn't believe it.  I was finally running over 20 miles without wishing for death.  I even finished the 22 mile run 9 minutes faster than the 20 miles I ran 2 weeks before.  So, how did I celebrate?  I quickly drove home stopping at Chipotle (needed to refuel).  Snarfed a burrito and headed out for a 22 bike ride to Kent and back.  I was shocked as I felt about 80% on the bike, even keeping a 18-20 mph pace.  I quickly dubbed the workout the double deuce.  It took a total of 4 1/2 hours and I burned over 4,900 calories.  I needed that day as it was the first time I told myself I can do 26.2.

Total miles:  114 (all outside)
Running:  34
Cycling:  80
Avg run pace:  9:13
Cals burned:  9,078
Time training:  10 hours 3 minutes.

BEAL

3 comments:

MissFit Island said...

Awesome progress! Any running on the Towpath is great.

Matty O said...

Your body is rewarding you for your hard work now :)

Great numbers man. Just wait for the rest of the summer now too :) Don't waste your running fitness either, keep your summer speckled with other road races to maintain the run fitness!

GREAT JOB!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Nice run, I cant do that, thats for sure