Downward direction

Today I did my last 'Mile Repeats' workout.  It was only a 3x1, but I suffered through it.  Due to a late flight on Sunday, I didn't go to bed until 2am on Monday, so that caused me to skip my Monday am workout (I figured I needed more than 2.5 hours of sleep that day).  The Monday workout would have worked out the rest of my lactic acid from Saturday's long run, as well as warmed up my legs for today's workout.  However, I used the 2 mile warmup to do that (to a limited effect).  My mile repeats were: 8:26, 8:45, and 8:35).  This is a far cry from my 8:20's that I did the last time I did this workout (this was a while ago though...).

I ran in 50 degree weather, a little misty outside, and in O'Fallon, IL.  The weather was quite good for running, but it gets light a little later out here, so I ran in total darkness.  I also began my run at 4:30 am CDT (which is 5:30 am EDT, so that wasn't that bad).

Peaked!

Longest week of the training ended yesterday with a 22-miler.  I'm glad that's over :)  Overall, it was a good week, topping out at 50 miles (and making #14 on the buckeyeoutdoors leaderboard!)  Up until around mile 44 or so (of the entire week), I was pain free.  The last four miles though... that's another story.  The good thing is that I made it to mile 18 of my long run before any serious stuff happened -- the serious stuff being totally bonked, left ankle hurting, having to take walk breaks, and doing the death shuffle when running (you know, normal stuff like that).  My pace until then was pretty good, after that, not so much.  Anyway, it's over, and now my taper begins.  Next Saturday's run is only (only?) 15 miles.

Pretty soon I need to become philosophical, but not today :)

Wow, 4 runs this week! (so far)

Can't believe it.  For the first time in awhile, I've actually kept up with my training this week (this is 'famous last words'!).  I didn't have too much trouble getting up this morning, and took a new route (and not one I'm recommending either).  It was too crowded with cars (running along a busy road would do that). However, I did see two other runners (running as a pair), who didn't say 'hello' back to me (this'll be a blog post one day, I think).  Kept pace easy, but a little sad that my 'easy' pace isn't faster.  It's too early to predict my marathon time, but I definitely don't see a PR in my future.

How much longer?

Whew, ran another 6 today.  Got up at 4:30am 4:45am, was glad that it was 51 degrees outside, and went running before my brain figured out what was going on.  I used to think that once I was dressed, I was good to go, but after a bad day, then thought that getting out the door was the point of no return, but then, after another bad day, after running a quarter-mile, I was definitely in good shape to continue running, but then, after *another* bad day (not all of these bad days were in a row...), after running a half-mile, I'd be good to go (you can see a pattern here).

Today, never thought about it, which was good, because if I did, I would have gone back to bed.  I went 6, felt okay with the pace (9:17), also felt my left knee (which wasn't so good), got the kids up, and went to work.  Tomorrow should be a duplicate of today (although I gotta find new places to run).  Saturday will be the last (yay!) long run in my training. 

Found a new Gear!

Wow, I found a new gear today -- well, actually found a gear that I had put away a couple of years ago.  I was dreading the Yasso 800 workout today, and by the 3rd rep, was really feeling it.  However, on the 4th rep, I changed my running form and found my effort decrease while my speed increased (or, at least stayed the same).  I clocked in anywhere from a 7:43 to a 8:03 for each 1/2 mile rep, for all 8 reps, with the last one about a 7:58.  So I'm happy with that!

I'm not sure I mentioned this the last time I talked about Yasso-800's, but one of the things I read about them was that it's more of a negative test on the marathon, rather than a positive test. That is, if you can do them in your time-goal, that doesn't mean you can do the marathon in your time-goal. However, if you cannot do them in your time-goal, there's a good chance that you cannot do the marathon in your time-goal.  However, there's a lot of controversy around the whole thing.  Simply put, it's a good interval workout where you get extended time on your lengths at speed, plus with enough reps so that you are running at speed with depleted energy.  That's fine by me. 

I shouldn't have looked at the old post though -- I just read that I can the previous set *much* faster than today's set.  Should I be worried?

Okay, I heard this in a podcast

...and need to work it into a shirt of some sort. Basically, the guy was saying that the finish time doesn't matter, but the time you spend training to get to the finish -- that's what matters. I understood this to be that the finish time is just a time, but the true measure of you, as a runner (or any athlete) is the time you dedicate beforehand to make to the finish, or even to the start.

Quite a long shirt logo though....

Oh Yeah, I ran today

Brrr, it was cold today. 39 degrees -- at least it wasn't raining. I ran an easy 6, in a 9:11 pace. It was a slower pace than my perceived pace -- basically, I thought I was running faster than what I was actually running. Oh well :) I'm only training for a marathon.

It was cold though. I used my 'throwaway' gloves, the ones I get from racing expos. The problem in, when they get wet (from sweat), they get pretty cold. I have some others that I bought (more than the $2/pair I get at the expo for the throwaways) that seem to not lose heat as much. Maybe I'll try them again. If they work well, I'll purchase more of them in Richmond (but I can't lose them!)

Tomorrow is what I *think* is my last Yasso 800 workout. Oy. I don't look forward to it.