To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

I had to rearrange a lot of my schedule this week Billy. i think it is all ok. I basically moved my Friday off day to sunday and pulled up my EB and long run on Friday and Saturday. I am super happy the weather was fantastic in NH, a T + D of 110. I worked late last night so no early start for me this morning. My long run was ok. I had terrible sleep, not a great dinner before long run, and junk food all night while working till past midnight. I was bad and did not eat breakfast before i ran, i just could not stomach it. I got it done though. I had to rearrange so i can fly home early. i was supposed to be here till Tuesday morning but due to some Yeti issues (my other dog not my avatar dog), i need to come home early and Sunday flight was the best i could do. The only direct flight is at 6 am so i wanted to get my run in today. Hope everyone is having a good training week.
 
I had to rearrange a lot of my schedule this week Billy. i think it is all ok. I basically moved my Friday off day to sunday and pulled up my EB and long run on Friday and Saturday. I am super happy the weather was fantastic in NH, a T + D of 110. I worked late last night so no early start for me this morning. My long run was ok. I had terrible sleep, not a great dinner before long run, and junk food all night while working till past midnight. I was bad and did not eat breakfast before i ran, i just could not stomach it. I got it done though. I had to rearrange so i can fly home early. i was supposed to be here till Tuesday morning but due to some Yeti issues (my other dog not my avatar dog), i need to come home early and Sunday flight was the best i could do. The only direct flight is at 6 am so i wanted to get my run in today. Hope everyone is having a good training week.

Always nice to have better weather. Be very careful repeating this past weekend's long run. By eating no breakfast prior to the run and it being 110 minutes in duration you're treading some more tricky territory. It's adviseable you avoid that happening again. Did you at least have some nutrition while you ran? Congrats on getting it all done though! Sounds like a busy week!
 
Yes I did have nutrition while I ran. Made sure I started it at mile 3 normally I would wait till 6 to start but I knew the lack of BF would be an issue. Yes there was nothing good about my night before my long run. I have a set routine usually and it was completely messed up. I am glad I got it done and will be able to go home tomorrow which will hopefully help reduce a bit of stress. Agreed I don't really want to have my long run like that again.
 


62 Days to Go (I will run a sub-3 hour marathon and qualify for Boston!)

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Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace)

7/25/17 - T - 3 mile WU + Ladder (400, 800, 400, 800, 1000, 800, 400, 800, 400) w/ 45 sec RI + 3 mile CD (8/9)
7/26/17 - W - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
7/27/17 - R - 2 mile WU + 10 mile Progression + 2 mile CD (9/10)
7/28/17 - F - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
7/29/17 - Sat - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
7/30/17 - Sun - 13 miles @ 7:35 min/mile + 4 miles @ 6:58 min/mile (16/16)
7/31/17 - M - OFF

Total (training) mileage = 60 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 33/35 (94%)

Monday was the last tee ball class. G was a bit sick (runny nose), but I decided to take her anyway. The class was lightly attended because it was a make-up so I'm sure others forgot. It was an eventful class. G found "footprints" and called coach over to solve the "mystery". G thought they were chickens, but we thought maybe cranes. She spent a good 10 minutes inspecting them. Then she brought another boy over "M" who thought they were dinosaur footprints. "M" and G seemed to have fun. They decided to hold hands during the running warm-up. In fact, they convinced everyone to join them. Funny looking to see 5 kids running and trying to hold hands. Then, we worked on ground balls and G wouldn't leave "M"s side. Then they did base running and G and M held hands again. Then they played a real game of tee ball. Unfortunately, they were on opposite teams... NO.... NO.... NOOOOOO?!?!?!? LOL, she got over it eventually. She hit the ball off the tee and ran to first, and then just kept running into the outfield..... Everyone had a good laugh. After class was over G asked the boy if he wanted to come over for a sleepover. Then the boy gave her a flower. Then they hugged and his dad said "see you at prom". LOL! We got in the car and I asked G what his name was - "You tell me". It was M, G. 5 minutes later. What was his name? "You tell me." So much for remembering... :P

Tuesday is CV Ladder Time!

3 mile WU + Ladder (400, 800, 400, 800, 1000, 800, 400, 800, 400) w/ 45 sec RI + 3 mile CD

The T+D was 139 with partly cloudy skies. The week starts with the ladder, then the progression, and then the fast finish long run. Ready to crush the week!

CV Pace = 6:23 min/mile (LT-2%)
CV Window=
400m - 94-95 sec
800m - 3:08.5-3:14.5
1000m - 3:56-4:04

The warmup felt good. Unfortunately I reaggrevated the groin injury during G's tee ball practice yesterday. But everything's fine. It's only slightly noticeable and pretty minimal at this point.

CV = 94, 3:10, 95, 3:12, 3:56, 3:12, 95, 3:13, 91

The pace felt almost too easy today. I felt in control almost the entire time. I did get challenged to a race during the last interval by a boy on a scooter and another boy running. I'm not one to back down from a challenge! Always fun to see the enjoyment the kids get out of racing me mid-run. We'll say they won by an inch. :) Other than the impromptu race at the end we were doing quite well with the pacing. 8/9 intervals hit overall! Now it's time for another attempt at the Progression!

On Wednesday I did my best to get the run in. There was a storm predicted for 5:45-6:20pm. So I could either get a reduced run in or have to have a long night. I went with the reduced run. I was only able to get 4.2 of the 7 in before the storms rolled in. I ran for as long as there wasn't thunder. Quite a bit of rain though. The average pace was an 8:59 min/mile with a HR of 124.

Thursday was the second attempt at the Progression run. Last time I viewed it as an "easier" hard day and was kicked in the rear in the last three miles. This time I wasn't taking it lightly. I was ready for a fight. The T+D was 143, sun, and 11 mph wind.

2 mile WU + 10 mile Progression + 2 mile CD

Progression Pace = 8:08, 7:58, 7:48, 7:38, 7:28, 7:18, 7:08, 6:58, 6:41, 6:23
Progression Window = +/- 5 seconds

Unlike the last time, this time my recovery advisor score was a 0 going into the run. Unfortunately last night's run had to be cut short a bit because of another thunderstorm. Knee was feeling good and so was the groin.

Progression paces = 8:11, 8:00, 7:51, 7:38, 7:29, 7:20, 7:07, 6:59, 6:39, 6:48

Everything through the 7:07 min/mile felt good. Comfortable, within my wheel house, etc. The real run started with the MP mile. I was happy to hit that one. The last time I did the 10 mile Progression I failed to hit the HMP or 10k split. So, I ran the same route again with the hope I could nail them this time. I was struggling but still capable to hit the HMP, but that 10k pace was brutal! I kept pushing but my body just said no. So ended up with 9/10 intervals within pace. I'm happy since I've got progress since the last Progression by hitting the HMP split. Still got room to grow and trying to hit that last 10k split. Solid run!

Friday was an easy day. An average pace of 8:55 with 126 HR. Nothing to note.

Saturday morning the weather finally broke. Hallelujah! It was a T+D of 110. Downright beautiful!

The Ladder on Tuesday and then a Progression on Thursday. The cherry on top of the Sunday (haha) was today's long run with a fast finish.

13 miles @ Long Run + 4 miles @ M Tempo

Long Run Pace = 7:35 min/mile
Long Run Window = 7:25-7:45
M Tempo = 6:58 min/mile
M Tempo Window = 6:48-7:08 min/mile

I had been eyeing up this run for a while because of the prospect of amazing summer weather. Last night it was clear that the window of 6am-8am would be amazing and after 8am the T+D would rise rapidly. So I decided to sacrifice a touch of sleep for the near ideal temps. So the run's T+D was 113-124, minimal wind and sun. Downright beautiful for a summer morning and near the worst case T+D for Lakefront in 9 weeks (based on the past 5 years data).

Long Run = 8:44, 7:42, 7:41, 7:30, 7:41, 7:33, 7:29, 7:37, 7:33, 7:29, 7:28, 7:30, 7:26

As always that first mile is slow because of carrying the water. So I really start counting things after the first mile. I was a bit stiff in the first mile. I almost didn't get it under the window and wondered whether this was a sign of things to come. The second interval was as expected. But things started to turn around during the third interval. A little over halfway through I did a pace check and saw 7:18. Whoa buddy! Time to slow down. While this may feel fine, we're only a few miles into this. PULL BACK! So I pulled back on got that interval back into the window. From there things started to normalize and I was really locked into the pace. I was getting excited counting down the miles until the fast finish because I was feeling pretty good. The average pace was 7:33 with all 12/12 intervals within range and an average HR of 137 (which is actually a touch below historical of 138-142 for a long run). Solid!

M Tempo = 6:57, 6:57, 6:52, 6:52

Now was go time! I had planned the route so this would hit my Three Mile Loop with a good portion of it being this M Tempo portion. Things went really well and felt very very comfortable. I felt like I was flying, but not quite the feeling of "it" just yet. I ended up with an average pace of 6:54, 4/4 intervals hit and a HR average of 150 (which is within range of 148-152). Also, got a new CR on the Three Mile Loop of 21:41 (which I've run over 280 times apparently and this only counts once per run). Garmin also awarded me a new HM PR of 1:36:17 (besting a portion of Disney World Marathon by 10 seconds). All around a great run and a mega confidence booster. Based on historical Lakefront Marathon data, my projected time is now 2:59-3:05. 9 weeks to go....

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Looking ahead, this is what was scheduled for the next two weeks:

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Primarily, I'm looking at 8/6/17 through 8/11/17. After doing the Progression twice, I now know it is most certainly not an "easy" hard workout. It quite possibly might be the hardest of the hard workouts (at least from a recovery advisor standpoint). So doing an 18 mile run (2:16), then a Progression, and then a 19 mile hybrid in such a short span is probably not a wise idea. So, I'm going to swap out the Progression for a HM Tempo interval workout.

Secondly, I'm liking where I'm at right now. The last couple of weeks have seen solid interval hit rates. The orange workout (8/11) is a 19 mile hybrid. In addition, it's on Friday instead of Sunday which means there is a reduced recovery window from the 18 mile LR on 8/6. I had originally added an extra layer of difficulty with a "glycogen depletion run". These runs can be tricky, but the payoff can be helpful on race day. However, given where I'm at currently, I don't want to take the risk of harming future workouts between the reduced recovery, near max run, and depletion workout. So, I'll still do the 19 mile hybrid, but I'm dropping the depletion aspect.

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Woah, in awe that you managed to hit so many of your goal paces so closely. The idea of 13 mile long run and THEN tempo miles after makes my legs tired just thinking about it but you did well. And it was nice of the weather to help you out.
I think I am the same with the first mile sometimes takes me a while to get the legs going (even though I'm not carrying water) and then eventually my legs start going and I have to "woah woah pull back" like you were describing. Not always, but plenty of times. Although yesterday I was just begging my legs to keep moving during my long run. Maybe I needed a neighborhood kid to race me for motivation.

I have a feeling G is going to break a thousand hearts by the time prom rolls around. Making boys fall in love and then forgetting their names. Haha!
 
She hit the ball off the tee and ran to first, and then just kept running into the outfield

This is absolutely adorable.

So ended up with 9/10 intervals within pace.

Seriously impressive, given how tough this run is.

All around a great run and a mega confidence booster. Based on historical Lakefront Marathon data, my projected time is now 2:59-3:05. 9 weeks to go....

Yay! Fantastic running week, you've got to be super proud of your progress and the increased comfort you're feeling. Good for you!
 
Amazing work last week! If I ran your easy pace, my heart rate would literally be through the roof. I know you worked hard to be where you're at, and its so great to see!

T-ball with G sounds like the cutest thing ever. I love that she is so friendly with other kids!!
 
Woah, in awe that you managed to hit so many of your goal paces so closely.

Thanks! It was a good week!

The idea of 13 mile long run and THEN tempo miles after makes my legs tired just thinking about it but you did well. And it was nice of the weather to help you out.

I felt like it was a good simulation! And a bonus to hit a new unofficial HM PR! Still got a 14+4 coming up on 8/27!

I think I am the same with the first mile sometimes takes me a while to get the legs going (even though I'm not carrying water) and then eventually my legs start going and I have to "woah woah pull back" like you were describing. Not always, but plenty of times. Although yesterday I was just begging my legs to keep moving during my long run.

Most certainly. The body is like, "are you really sure?" "Well, alright if we're doing this then let's DO THIS!"

Maybe I needed a neighborhood kid to race me for motivation.

Oh they help tremendously! You should find a few to race. They seem so eager to beat me all the time.

I have a feeling G is going to break a thousand hearts by the time prom rolls around. Making boys fall in love and then forgetting their names. Haha!

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Seriously impressive, given how tough this run is.

Thanks!

Yay! Fantastic running week, you've got to be super proud of your progress and the increased comfort you're feeling. Good for you!

Thanks!

Amazing work last week!

Thanks!

If I ran your easy pace, my heart rate would literally be through the roof. I know you worked hard to be where you're at, and its so great to see!

It's all relative right! It's nice to graph the little changes, but the dramatic ones are fun to look at as well. Also keep in mind that my maxHR is deceivingly low. So my HR of 125 could be more like someone else's 150s just because my max is in the mid 170s.

T-ball with G sounds like the cutest thing ever. I love that she is so friendly with other kids!!

I certainly think she's the cutest thing ever! Well not so much this morning when she was making pterodactyl noises...
 
Sorry @DopeyBadger using your thread to whine and vent. Work has just been tough. I knew the week would be hard. Last night I was working till 10 pm because we had an issue. It's just taking its toll on me. I was super tired getting up this morning no usual 5:30. I got up at 6:45. I was working from home today and figured no issues getting started a little late this morning. First thing is deal with dogs. Which is harder than it sounds, one is in a cart and the other is super old. The old one had us up at 3:30, then he peed in the elevator trying to get him out this morning. My morning was not starting good. I then went for my run. It was WU+ CV 3x1000 meters + CD. For a change I hit my intervals. It was challenging pace but doable and very pleased with myself. Then I had meetings all afternoon. So while it has been a tough day and old dog makes me sad, am pleased I had a good run. I hit intervals and enjoyed the challenge. Not sure spin will happen tomorrow, it means a 4:30 wake up and I am severely under rested from the last 10 days of work. At least I had a good run.
 
Sorry @DopeyBadger using your thread to whine and vent. Work has just been tough. I knew the week would be hard. Last night I was working till 10 pm because we had an issue. It's just taking its toll on me. I was super tired getting up this morning no usual 5:30. I got up at 6:45. I was working from home today and figured no issues getting started a little late this morning. First thing is deal with dogs. Which is harder than it sounds, one is in a cart and the other is super old. The old one had us up at 3:30, then he peed in the elevator trying to get him out this morning. My morning was not starting good. I then went for my run. It was WU+ CV 3x1000 meters + CD. For a change I hit my intervals. It was challenging pace but doable and very pleased with myself. Then I had meetings all afternoon. So while it has been a tough day and old dog makes me sad, am pleased I had a good run. I hit intervals and enjoyed the challenge. Not sure spin will happen tomorrow, it means a 4:30 wake up and I am severely under rested from the last 10 days of work. At least I had a good run.

Vent away! Congrats on getting the run done. But make sure you take care of yourself. Sleep definitely plays an integral role in training. So if you need to take a hard workout day off to catch back up with some sleep, then go for it.
 
55 Days to Go (I will run a sub-3 hour marathon and qualify for Boston!)

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Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace)

8/1/17 - T - 2 mile WU + 6 x 1 mile @ 6:41 min/mile w/ 0.25 mile RI + 2 mile CD (6/6)
8/2/17 - W - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
8/3/17 - R - 1 mile WU + 9 miles @ 6:58 min/mile + 5 mile CD (9/9)
8/4/17 - F - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
8/5/17 - Sat - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
8/6/17 - Sun - 18 miles @ 7:35 min/mile (15/17)
8/7/17 - M - OFF

Total (training) mileage = 65.5 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 30/32 (94%)

Monday was a swimming day. I finally got to see G swim since it's now in the afternoon and it wasn't cancelled! Not much to report on. The teacher was much more vocal and didn't let G get too wild which was a nice change. G has a tendency to wrap adults around her fingers. But this teacher was good at balancing structure with fun.

G wanted to give us a pose! She looks so determined.

Swimming G.jpg

Tuesday was another HM Tempo day!

2 mile WU + 6 x 1 mile @ 6:41 min/mile w/ 0.25 mile RI + 2 mile CD

T+D of 140 with full sun and minimal wind

My legs felt surprisingly fresh throughout the last two days. The dynamic WU indicated I was good but not 100%. I got about 0.5 miles of the WU in and realized I had to use the bathroom. I tried to tough it out but after 2.3 miles decided I wasn't going to make the entire run without stopping. Just mis-timed my water consumption today I guess.

HM Tempo pace = 6:41 min/mile
HM Tempo window = +/- 10 sec (6:31-6:51 min/mile)

Thinking back this pace is pretty close to my Daniels Threshold pace (6:38) from the spring. The difference between these workouts and Daniels was two-fold:

1) Recovery for Daniels T pace was 1 minute between intervals, whereas today it was 0.25 miles.

2) Daniels T pace was completely flat, whereas today it was a mix of flat, downhill and uphills.

The pace felt really comfortable throughout.

HM Tempo = 6:41, 6:43, 6:43, 6:44, 6:48, 6:43

The groin felt a little tight running up the hill on the 3rd interval so I gave myself a flat break on the 4th interval. Things returned to normal for the 5th and 6th interval. This was a solid run! Also, set a new CR on my Flat Half Mile Loop of 3:11. Looks like I've run this loop at least 680+ times. So woot woot on the new CR!

Wednesday was another easy day. A T+D of 143 with an average pace of 8:48 with a heart rate of 126.

Ohhh, the weather. The one thing that's tough with running 6 days per week and 90, 120, and 150 minute workouts is trying to squeeze them in-between inclement weather. So the weather Wednesday night was predicting all day thunderstorms. The weather Thursday morning at 5am when I woke up was predicting no thunderstorms until 2pm. Then at 6:30am as I was preparing to get ready, a small vicious thunderstorm popped up with heavy rain and lightening several miles south of home. I predicted using the finger method and distance traveled in the past hour that if it hit, it would be at 8:30am. That was going to be a problem with a 120 minute run and at 90 minutes the storm would hit. So I decided to alter the original workout to maximize the possible training time prior to the storm.

Original - 3 mile WU + 9 mile M Tempo + 3 mile CD
Changed to - 1 mile WU + 9 mile M Tempo + whatever I could fit in (up to remaining 5 miles)

M Tempo pace = 6:58 min/mile
M Tempo window = +/- 10 sec (6:48-7:08)

The T+D was 125, with minimal wind, a little bit of rain, and full clouds.

M Tempo = 6:58, 6:56, 6:48, 6:56, 6:53, 6:58, 6:55, 7:03, 6:53

The WU felt good so I was fairly confident the workout would go well. The last few longer distance runs I have been taking very short breaks at the "aid" station. Today, I aimed to try and run by the "aid" station and grab a water bottle while running. Needless to say, the run went well. A couple of things worked in my favor:

1) Ideal weather conditions
2) The motivation of knowing an impending storm may cut the run short
3) Local garage sale weekend with lots of spectators. I thrive on an audience.

Thankfully, the storm never came. All in all, 9/9 intervals were hit with an average pace of 6:56. This is a pretty rare workout for me, as I don't usually hit a full 100% of intervals on a M Tempo workout. In fact, with 9 total intervals at this pace I'd say this has happened less than a handful of times ever. The average HR was 151 which falls within the marathon zone for me (148-152). A serious record setting day which felt very calm and comfortable throughout. Any one of these recent workouts would make me proud, but to string them together has me over the moon. I learned a lot from the Lakefront 2016 training. This time, it's train smarter, not harder! I feel so close to the end of this 5 year journey. The dream is so close I can feel it. From 100 pounds overweight and a 35 min 5k equivalent, to the cusp of the top 2% of US marathon finishers with a sub-3 marathon. Current projections have me at 2:59:17 - 3:04:50. 8 weeks to go...

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Seems like 7/16 was just an outlier because the other M Tempo runs have all been very solid. Things seem to be lining up quite well for race day!

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Friday was a funny run. Everything was normal until I rounded the corner to head towards the "aid station" at the park. In the distance, I could see two figures staring at me. One an adult and one a child. As I got closer I started to recognize the small kid (maybe 3-4 years old), as one who races me every once in a while and lives near the park. The adult was his mom. She apologized, and I asked why. She said that she heard her two boys laughing outside her house and investigated. They had taken my water bottles and were drinking them. LOL! She had brought them back and had him apologize for drinking them. I told her not to worry. We all introduced ourselves to each other and then went about our afternoons. I'll have to keep an eye out for little C more often now. Not only does he want to race me, but he wants to handicap me in the race by taking away my hydration. Game on little man!

As for the run, it was a T+D of 123 with clouds. Average easy pace was 8:44 with a 125 heart rate.

Saturday was another easy day. Because of another kid's birthday party, this was an earlier run. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning. The T+D was 119 with clouds. The average pace was 8:16 with a heart rate of 130.

Sunday was long run day.

T+D of 120-130 with clouds and no wind. Another beautiful summer morning. I'm really getting spoiled by these and can only dream to have something as nice in 8 weeks for race day.

Long Run pace = 7:35 min/mile
Long Run window = +/- 10 seconds (7:25-7:45)

I was super excited coming into this run for one reason: the two other hard workouts this week (HM Tempo intervals and M Tempo) were both 100% hit rate workouts. Which meant if I could hit 100% of intervals today, I could nail a very elusive 100% week during the middle of a training cycle. This is extremely rare for me and maybe something I've only done 3-4 times in the last 2 years of tracking splits. So, I had my eyes on the prize - a 17/17 interval hit rate. I figured the first interval (not including the first mile because of water being carried) would be the hardest to hit. Then it would just be a matter of holding pace throughout.

Long Run = 8:29, 7:37, 7:41, 7:26, 7:39, 7:37, 7:28, 7:28, 7:30, 7:32, 7:23, 7:28, 7:25, 7:20, 7:29, 7:28, 7:28, 7:29

The run felt good throughout. I hit that always tricky first interval and thought I had this in the bag. I almost missed it on mile 4 when I noticed I was just under pace at 7:24 with about 0.2 miles to go. I was able to slow down just enough to squeeze that one in at 7:26. Things settled in and I really didn't need to focus on the pace anymore. Split after split was coming in as desired regardless if it was flat, uphill or downhill. Mile #9 I could tell things were getting a little tougher and it was "end of the marathon simulation time". Then during mile #11 I looked down with about 0.3 to go and saw 7:18 lap pace. I was like "crud"! How I'm going to get this one in now... So I slowed up and did my best to get the interval in window. After about 0.1 miles, I checked again, now it was 7:19. UGGHHH! I slowed down and yet only gained one second on lap pace. ARRGHH... Alas, the split ended at 7:23 and I just missed getting it within window. No matter. Keep trying to get the others in window! Again splits 12 and 13 were within window, and then came 14. I didn't even check mid-mile what the pace was. I was concentrating on taking my E-Gel nutrition at this point. So when the split came up at 7:20, I was like OMG, what the heck!!! So I again reminded myself that I better check myself before I wreck myself. Finally I came to the last mile. I was really starting to feel it. This is exactly the feeling I want at the end of this type of run. I want just to get close to that feeling of pushing it. This was far from an all out effort (as a long run should be slow and steady), but it also helps simulate the end of the race. I had been doing the mental math on the route and realized it was going to be a bit long, but I wasn't terribly concerned. So I ended up at 18.30 miles. All in all, 15/17 intervals hit! Now that's all well and good, but I really need to be careful here. While it was 15/17 hit, the two misses were too fast, and the overall average of the run was 7:30 vs 7:35. Not a huge gap, but if I do this too much, then I'm going to induce too much fatigue over the long term of the plan and it'll cost me on race day. So I've got to pull back even more with these longer runs to keep them within pace. Now that I'm 8 weeks out, there is no more changing paces. Any change between now and race day would have non-fully realized benefits and might also cost me on race day. The average HR for the 17 miles was 141. This is just within historical HR long run average of 138-142.

Two other things to note - this is the longest mileage training run since April 12th, 2015. On that day, was the last time I did a 20 mile training run. After that training cycle, I changed to the 150 minute max mindset. That training run was 3 hours and 14 minutes (9:42 min/mile training pace). Today's 18.3 mile run was 2:18. Almost an hour faster and just two miles shorter. That April 2015 training cycle led to a 4:58:53 marathon finish (my worst). Now, I hope to be on the verge of a 2:XX:XX marathon.

Another thing is I have seriously ramped up the elevation gain without realizing it. I changed up my route to have more access to water and in doing so increased the hills during every run. But I was just perusing the data the other data and it blew me away how much I increased hill work. In June and July of 2016, I did 5396 and 7963 ft respectively. With nearly identical mileage, I've done 9756 and 12577 ft in June/July of 2017. That's an 81% and 58% increase. Now the watch changed between now and then, so maybe that has something to do with it. But regardless, I have a feeling that's going to be super helpful come race day as well!
 
All in all, 9/9 intervals were hit with an average pace of 6:56.

Wow! A stellar run as part of a stellar week. I'm loving reading about your confidence building and as you put in the work necessary to get to your goal.

Question: I've seen you "live update" others runs in the past ("She just hit the 5k mat!"). Is that something those of us who have been following on your journey will be able to during your big race? I would love to cheer you on from afar, in real time!

Any one of these recent workouts would make me proud, but to string them together has me over the moon.

HOORAY!

I have a feeling that's going to be super helpful come race day as well!

Assuming you're taking care of your achilles, I would imagine that it has to be helpful! I realized that with my newer running routes, I've cut some elevation out of my weeks inadvertently. I'll be working to get that added back in between now and Parks.
 
Wow! A stellar run as part of a stellar week. I'm loving reading about your confidence building and as you put in the work necessary to get to your goal.

Thanks! The dream is really becoming a reality at this point.

Question: I've seen you "live update" others runs in the past ("She just hit the 5k mat!"). Is that something those of us who have been following on your journey will be able to during your big race? I would love to cheer you on from afar, in real time!

You should be able to. Not many timing mats at Lakefront though. Usually a 10k/7 miler, 13.1, 20 mile, and finish. Although none of that information is up yet on their site. I'll be sure to add any pertinent information when it gets closer. Once the timing gets closer, I'll also give you timing splits to expect as to how I'm doing (which I can convert to time of day as well). That's kind of what this picture is doing at the moment.

screen-shot-2017-08-06-at-5-07-55-pm-png.259413


I used the last two years of Lakefront splits to determine a good scenario (2015 when I crushed it) and average scenario (2016 where I trained too hard and injured myself during the run/ran flat of energy). The column "2017" uses the splits from the previous races relative to how the training went to determine what 2017 may look like under similar conditions. Thus, if I look at the 13.1 mile timing mat. The expectation as of today is to see me hit that mat at 1:31:38 for the best case scenario, 1:30:55 if using a 1.5% cap through 12 miles, and 1:31:03 for the average scenario. So when you watch live, you'd be looking for a split between 1:30:55-1:31:38 to know that I'm where I want to be. The real tell tale timing mat is the 20 miler (2:16-2:18) as that will likely determine how realistic a 2:58-3:04 becomes.

Assuming you're taking care of your achilles

All good with the Achillies. It had the initial problem with the sting, but after a few runs hasn't been an issue anymore. Although it does still have some discoloration to it.

I would imagine that it has to be helpful! I realized that with my newer running routes, I've cut some elevation out of my weeks inadvertently. I'll be working to get that added back in between now and Parks.

Especially since Lakefront is a net downhill. It's not a massive downhill by any means, but it's necessary to incorporate those hills to thrive in this run. Especially with the largest climb happening at mile 21-22.
 
More great training. Interesting that you discovered you inadvertently increased your hill training. I suspect as well that it will pay dividends for you!

Love the shot of G. Nice power posing going on!
 

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