End of Week Twenty 3-23-08

Happy Easter!

The first week of my Taper is now complete and I’m left with just seven days until the race. The last of any really hard workouts are also behind me. At this point I have run 465 miles in preparation for the race, which is about 97% of what I will end up running. Many would say that my total mileage is far short of what is considered proper preparation for a marathon. I also suspect that many have run 26.2 on much less. But one thing is true for sure: there is nothing I can do now to change how I trained. The training is essentially over. The preparation continues and there are things I should do and things I should avoid to give me the best chance for a good race, but the legs, the lungs and the heart are as good as they are going to get for the race.

I started week twenty with Maddie and Peter at the track. Maddie is juggling her role in the school production of My Fair Lady with track season. Peter is now preparing for his first track season (7th grade). The three of us went out to the high school track, each with our workout in mind. Maddie was going to do 400’s, Peter was doing some 400’s and 800’s mixed. My plan was to warm up with an easy mile and run a fast 5 miler. A couple weeks ago, I had this day planned to run a 10K as a prediction run for my marathon. I’m glad to say that I have stopped trying to predict my race time based on such measures. And anyway, I felt like running 5 miles.

It was one of the fastest 5 mile runs in my life. My first mile was at 8:08 and got faster each mile; my last split was a pretty fast 7:36. Total time was 39:46 (7:57 pace). This was the fastest workout so far, and I don’t expect any faster next week.

Thanks to this workout, I ended the week with my fastest overall pace (9:00). I am left wondering if there might be something significant in the coincidence of coming up with that number. I ended the week with only 20 miles and not much to mention about the other runs. I probably could have benefited from a few more miles this week, but I’m not too worried, at least about my mileage total for Week Twenty.

While closing out Week Twenty, I realize that the mile repeats and 800 intervals that I planned from the start are not going to happen. I had some success with mile repeats in the past and planned on getting in some track workouts during the Speed Phase as well as the Taper. I think I wrote earlier that I wanted to do these because I enjoyed them and they made me feel fast. At this point I am generally pleased with the speed work I am getting out of the tempo runs. And I am not about to introduce anything new to my training at this point.


The first run of my last week (Week Twenty One) was a 10 miler. I ran two 5 mile loops (same course as my last 20 miler). A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about workouts that would provide me a basis to lock in on my pace for the race. No such thing has actually happened. If one were to view my training log they would find a mix of long runs, fast runs and steady runs in between. My times for these runs surely provide some insight regarding my conditioning and race potential. I’ve had some interest over the weeks trying to justify my ability to run the race in four hours, but when all is said and done, my training can only provide an assessment of my ability. The distance is too far and the experience too much of an unknown for me to have too narrow of a window for my race pace. I don’t want to be misunderstood. My goal is still run this race in four hours, but I need to allow my body to dictate the pace on race day, not my watch.

My intention for this 10 miler was to run it at goal race pace of 9:00. I ended up finishing the 10 miler at an average pace of 8:47. That’s the good news. But I didn’t manage my pacing as well as I hoped. I ran the first 5 miles at 8:40 and the last 5 miles at 8:52. I would have preferred to flip those times in reverse.

It was during this run, when I really started to appreciate the feel for my pace. At mile 5 or 6, I realized that I hadn’t controlled the pace well for the first 5 miles. I slowed down just a bit and got to a place, where I felt like I could speed up if I wanted, or hold steady for a long time. Holding back for a while made my final mile at 8:03 possible. This is the feeling I need to have for the race: control. I expect to be in pain for the final 45 - 60 minutes of the race. But I need to avoid being in pain for any longer. I’m in good enough shape to run pretty fast (out of control) for 10 to 14 miles. But, if I don’t control the pace properly, I think a breakdown would hit pretty soon after the halfway mark and could be pretty severe. I just need to trust my conditioning and hope that my controlled pace is adequate to reach my goals. It might even be faster, but I need to feel it throughout my mind and body, not just my watch.

I’m going to take it easy the rest of the week. I intend to wrap up the loose items in my preparation and will provide a final report before the race.