Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

My marathon training continues to go pretty well, although my total weekly mileage is not quite where it should be.  My goal was to peak at 45 mpw or more, and I’ve been stuck at no more than 40 for the last five weeks.  The limiting factor is my right achilles tendon, which continues to be a bit tender.

Last week I ran about 38 miles, culminating in a 13 mile long run on Sunday — shorter than the 20 miler the weekend before.  I decided my legs could use a bit of recovery.  But that leaves me still needing to get a couple of 20+ mile  runs in before my December 7 marathon, less than six weeks away.

Last night I joined my running group in a very long interval workout.  The emphasis now is on marathon training, so we run longer, higher mileage interval sessions than during the spring and summer.  This one was the longest yet: 2 miles, 1 mile, 800 meters, and then repeat, for a total of 7 speed miles.  That’s a lot of mileage to try to go fast, so you have to slow down and pace yourself a bit.  This workout was a test of being able to push a challenging pace over a fairly long distance.

I was pleased with how it went.  I decided to start out the first interval at a pace that was under control, so I wouldn’t slow down as the workout went on.  Darkness is falling earlier now, so the temperature is pleasant at that time of day (5:45 p.m.), making running easier.

My times for the intervals, with recovery running/water breaks of 3:30 to 5 minutes in between, were:

2 miles:   13:45 (6:52 pace)

1 mile:     6:35  (6:35 pace)

800 m     3:18  (6:37 pace)

2 miles:   13:42 (6:51 pace)

1 mile:     6:30   (6:30 pace)

800 m:   3:05   (6:11 pace)

I paced it well enough that I had reserves to up the pace at the end.

Based on this workout, I’m confident I have the aerobic conditioning to meet my goal of 3:20 in the upcoming marathon.  What’s in question is my stamina, as well as my endurance.  I’m very confident I can maintain a 7:30 pace or so through about 18 miles, but beyond that I have no idea what will happen.  The 30K run I’m doing the weekend after this one will be a good tuneup and test of my stamina.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 10:18 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.