Carlsbad Marathon Week 12

6 easy - 12/28/15

With a sore right knee definitely wanted to take this run as easy as possible.  Maybe got a touch fast the last mile but overall was pretty good.  Nice and cool out.

But the big story is the sore knee - hoping it will heal up quickly for a fast 6 tomorrow followed by a rest day.

4x1.5 strength - 12/29/15 

Well if was definitely way overdue: a bad workout.  This was supposed to be 4x1.5 at ten seconds faster than marathon pace w/800m recovery.  I had thoughts of course of just running the 6 miles at around 7:20mm straight out.  That did not happen.

I meant to run at lunch at work BUT I had a meeting run long so I couldn't do that.  So I ate lunch and then waited an hour and then went.  I very rarely run at 2:30 in the afternoon after a good-sized lunch and now I know why.

After a mile warm up I kicked it into gear - unfortunately the first 2 miles or so from that point on were uphill and I almost immediately had incredible side-stitches - like I've never had before during this training that's for sure.  Very painful, could hardly breath kind of side-stitches.  I tried to stretch it out and move around but no success.

So after 1.5 painful miles I walked for 2 minutes hoping they would go away.  It did get very slightly better but not by much.  I trundled off on the next 1.5 mile leg and was once again hurting pretty bad.  Somehow I was able to finish the second interval and just started walking again for about 2 minutes. 

I knew the last 2 would be flat-to-downhill and the third one was barely manageable.

After another 2 minute walk I set out on the last interval - it was going pretty good (lots of downhill) until the last half mile - which was mostly uphill - which came extremely close to killing me.

The side-stitches hurt really bad it was ridiculous.  The last 2 tenths were hellacious but I did get it done.

I walked back the remaining half mile or so the office.  I am #proud I did manage to get this done but it was horrific and not what I needed getting close to the end of training.  Of course I ended up going too fast for all 4 intervals anyway because I"m dumb.  They went something like 7:06, 7:11, 7:15, 7:04 for the 4 1.5 intervals.  Should have been 7:20-7:30.

Right knee is still a bit sore but I think it's getting better.

I NEED that rest day tomorrow like you cannot believe.  Ideally I wouldn't even get out of bed but that's not in the cards :)

Oh 10 mile tempo on Thursday is sounding REAL nice, yeah right.

REST - 12/30/15

OMG REST IS AWESOME

10 tempo - 12/31/15

This was harder than it should have been.  On the plus side got the run the first 6 miles of the marathon and then turned around and ran the last 6 miles of the marathon for 12 miles (1 warm up, 1 cool down).  On the negative side it was too fast by at least 10s/mile - averaged 7:25 for the 10 miles which felt too fast and towards the end - last couple miles or so - I felt it.  Was no where near as comfortable as the 10 tempo last week.

Other than all of that am very happy to have this behind me and glad I only have 6 easy after New Years Eve tonight :)

Right knee felt fine during the run but felt a bit sore immediately afterwards.  I cannot believe the marathon is coming up - only 2 hard runs left (6 fast Tuesday an 10 tempo next Thursday).  That is pretty scary - can't I just keep training instead?

Anyway this run really reinforced my idea that 7:40mm is hopefully my marathon pace - NOT 7:25.  At the 6 mile turnaround point - which was heading up the one big hill in the marathon I don't think I could have made it up the hill at that pace.

Overall great last run of the month + year - going out with a bang I guess!

6 easy - 1/1/16

Happy New Year!!!  Wanted/needed to take this run easy after last night's shenanigans - you'll note I didn't actually start this run until 11:15am - so had some recovery time from too much food & drink ringing in 2016.  This was indeed the recovery of all recovery runs.

10 long - 1/2/2016

Not sure where this came from but went very well.  Felt strong and comfortable at a good pace with lots of elevation.  Maybe it's all the sleep as this run didn't start until 9:30am so lots of lying in bed for a nice change.  Going to be sad when I have to start getting up early again...

10 long - 1/3/2016

A 9am start so slowly getting up earlier :).  This was all on the Carlsbad marathon course except for a change I ran down the hill first and finished coming back up it.  What was interesting was the 'coming back up it part' around mile 6 is exactly where in the actual marathon we start running up the hill - that's about as 'interesting' as things get around here I guess!

As the run progressed I sped up even though I was going UP the hill instead of down it - oh well.  Regardless was happy to have this run (and this week) done and in the books.

RECAP and next week

A touch over 50 miles for the week - considering most of this week was during vacation time things overall went well.

But HOLY CRAP now within 2 week of the marathon - can't I just keep training?  That part seems to be going pretty well and the marathon is scary.

Next week is the last of actual 'training' and even then it's pretty thin.  8 miles on Monday - which I need to take VERY easy after the 2 ten miles this past weekend went too fast.  The last bit of speed work on Tuesday and the Biggie:  the final 10 tempo on Thursday and then it really slows down for the taper.

Holy crap holy crap holy crap.