Marathon Training (Week 6)

Boom! Another week in the books. This was also suppose to be a slight down week with two decent workouts, an easy long run, and my first week of student-teaching at the elementary level. Well, the student-teaching started midweek and it was just setting up the classroom and a few parent teacher conferences. Although, it was a bit demanding as my daily routine will have to start even earlier now. Either way, I decided to take this week slightly down and the following week of the race a bit easy as well. I capped the week off with 111 miles and some confidence with those two workouts.

After taking a much needed rest day on Monday after that God Forsaken La Luz trail "race", I had a pretty productive 6 mile tempo run on Tuesday on the river, followed by some rest days, a speed workout on Friday and a medium effort 20 miler on Sunday. The tempo along the river was great, especially since I got to allow my legs some turnover from beating myself up on that trail race. I averaged 5:22 for the distance and got to steeple a few barriers along the way. The mornings here in Albuquerque are starting to cool off and stay cool for a longer duration of the morning. It's either that perception, or that fact that I'm starting earlier... But, summer is winding down, and the beautiful months of fall are approaching, along with the tempered climate. After a few easy days of running and some strides, Friday's session was an exciting one. Getting back on the track is nice, and the track never lies. So the workout was 8 x 1000m with 400m recovery jog. The last time I was on the track I did 1000 meter repeats, so naturally it would be nice to hit them faster. You can really get caught up in time and comparison to other track workouts, which I may have done. However, I had a great workout and felt good for the rest of the week, including the long run, which was done at the river. The long run took place at Alameda, and we headed north into the Bosque trail, which is shaded and has plenty of turns on soft pack dirt. The 20 miler was a nice run to end the week.

Next week is the Edmonton Half marathon, and I'm getting pretty excited for it. I know it's going to be fast, and there'll be plenty of fast guys to hang with. Since the USA uniform arrived on Friday, I'm very anxious to put it on and get after it! Nothing like some friendly competition to get the blood flowing for a PR.

Mon - Off Day

Tue - am. 6 mile tempo (5:20, 5:19, 5:18, 5:25, 5:24, 5:23, 5:14) total: 12 / pm. 8 easy

Wed - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 12 miles med.

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 5 miles easy w/4x hill strides

Fri - am. Track 8x1000m w/400m jog recovery (3:08, 2:59, 3:00, 2:59, 3:00, 3:00, 2:59, 2:56) total: 11 miles / pm. 10 miles easy

Sat - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 5 miles easy w/5x hill strides

Sun - am. 20 miles med.

Total: 111