After 2 weeks of dragging my butt out the door, I have finally found my motivation again.\u00a0 This week was a success!\u00a0 My highest mileage week in the last year and I made sure to focus on balancing my training.\u00a0 Instead of moderate intensity days every time I ran, I balanced faster more intense running with\u00a0very easy recovery days.\u00a0 The result: 45 miles in 5 days, 2 high quality workouts\u00a0and a renewed drive to\u00a0conquer this marathon.<\/p>\n
The week<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Monday<\/strong>:\u00a0 Cross training and full body weight training and core.\u00a0 Spinning for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n Tuesday:<\/strong>\u00a0 Am:\u00a0 6 miles with Tim at about 7:40 per mile pace.\u00a0 Pm:\u00a0 3 miles @ 7:00 per mile pace. I don’t usually double unless I need to clear my head.\u00a0 Today was one of those days.<\/p>\n Wednesday<\/strong>:\u00a0 Cross training and weight training. Core training.<\/p>\n Thursday:<\/strong>\u00a0 10.5 miles with 10 x 60 second hill runs at faster than 5k race pace with jog down recovery.\u00a0 felt good to stretch out the legs and work hard today.\u00a0 I am hoping that sessions like this will help develop more strength and also make marathon pace seem easier.<\/p>\n Friday:<\/strong> 7 miles recovery running.\u00a0 8:00+ per mile<\/p>\n Saturday<\/strong>: 7.5 miles recovery day #2. 8:15 per mile<\/p>\n Sunday:<\/strong>\u00a0 Marathon Pace Run.\u00a0 The goal today was to run 2 miles to warm up\u00a0 my body and then\u00a0 straight into 8 miles at planned marathon pace and cool down for 1 mile.\u00a0 My problem is that I have no idea what marathon pace will be , so I guessed 7:15 per mile and thought that if it felt easy I would drop the pace as long as I thought I could go 26.2 miles at that pace.\u00a0 Great run other than some hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n My splits(from Garmin 405): 7:15, 7:13,7:15,7:12,7:02,6:54,6:52,6:49 (course\u00a0had rolling hills).\u00a0 I don’t think that I can hold 6:xx pace for the full distance for my first marathon but I do think with more training I could get there.\u00a0 So for now I think 7:00-7:15 is a good target. (11 miles total).<\/p>\n Hills Explained: <\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.runnersworld.com\/article\/0,7120,s6-238-263-264-13520-0,00.html<\/a><\/p>\n