My Marathon Training (Read 1390 times)

Thanks everybody for your compliments and well wishes; I appreciate the moral support. My training schedule had a decent amount of speedwork, basically falling into four categories: LT (tempo) runs, intervals, marathon-paced runs, and races. The LT runs were the most common; I ran one of these every other week while base building, and then pretty much every week during my endurance phase. The tempo portions started at 4 miles, building up to 7 miles. I aimed to run these at or below HM pace. The intervals started in the second half of the schedule, and I would do one of these per week. They started with 6x600, then built to 6x1000, 6x1200 and I'll do one 3x1600 during my taper. These are run at 5K pace. My schedule only had two marathon-paced runs, but they are tough workouts. I did one 16 mile long run with 12 miles at MP, and one 18 mile long run with 15 miles at MP. I ran these at or under my BQ pace. Finally, I did about 6 races during or right before my training cycle. I treated the 5Ks as "really hard" interval workouts for purposes of scheduling and recovery, and similarly I treated the 10K, 10 mile, and HM races as "really hard" LT runs. For what its worth, I consider my two best workouts of the entire cycle as (1) my half-marathon race, and (2) my 18/15 marathon-paced run. I feel that I made noticeable fitness breakthroughs shortly after completing these two workouts respectively. I did a little hill work while traveling, but not as much as I'd have liked in a perfect world. I'm a little worried about my quads holding up, but I'm hoping my huge base will compensate to get me to the finish line in one piece. If my legs are trashed after the race, so be it as long as I BQ.

I will take this opportunity to confess, however, that during my 100 mile week I did eat an entire blueberry pie. By myself. In one day.

I will take this opportunity to confess, however, that during my 100 mile week I did eat an entire blueberry pie. By myself. In one day.