My watch was dead this morning when I woke up and it made me miss the days of just knowing how far certain running routes were and starting my timex and not worrying about it. I like the accumulation of data and statistics, but may try a period without the GPS watch after this marathon. Just run on time. Sounds humorously nostalgic. But will it really count, if people can't see it and "like" it on Strava...who knows.

Living in a rural area I have the benefit of section lines; each intersection is a mile from the last, so keeping track of my mileage (or calculating where to turn during a run to get a specific number of miles) would be super-easy for me. I bet this same thing would be an absolute pain in a city.

Thunder storms this morning, instead of just rain like yesterday, so no run yet. Hoping to make up some of the miles later today so I can stay on track to hitting a big mileage milestone by the end of the week.

Full disclosure: the image I posted of my log is actually hosted on my blog. So I used the link address from my blog- not from the log itself. I assumed it would work if you did the log itself. So maybe upload it to drop box or something and then link?

I did the long run-workout thingy! It went really well, actually. I think that may be the thing which turned me from in-a-funk to mentally-read-to-train-for-a-marathon. I did 5.5mi by myself, then 3.3mi warmup with team, then "5x2000m @ LT with 90sec rest". The intervals went 8:43 (7:00 pace), 8:36, 8:33, 8:17 (6:38 pace), 8:20. Intentionally started slow, and that 8:17 was a little too quick. I think LT is about 6:50 right now. Felt pretty strong the whole time and just locked into the track circles. So that, plus a ~1.3mi cd = 16.4mi. 

Who is this impostor pretending to be rlk?   (Whoever it is, I like her!  Lookit all those capital letters beginning sentences!)

I had one of those game-changer workouts this morning! 

For the majority of training it's been crazy warm/humid and I haven't hit any paces that are notably faster than my previous marathon training cycle. And my half marathon "race" ended up being more of a workout. So I really felt like I was flying blind. Either it was just too warm for me to hit the paces faster than I did last winter, or I simply hadn't increased my fitness.

But THEN. . .  it was 72 degrees out this morning and I ran a workout way faster than expected. I honestly thought this would just be another run where I would simply grind it out and just try to survive the heat. I ran it based on effort and thought my paces would be on the slower side. But instead, I ran it really fast.

The workout was 2 miles at HMP, 5 minute recovery jog, 4 x 1-mile at 10K pace with 3-minute recovery jogs. I did this workout in 67 degrees on August 8th, and the paces were 7:05, 7:00, 6:51, 6:54, 6:53, 6:46.

This morning, I expected pretty much the same thing split-wise, but I decided I would simply run by effort without trying to hit particular paces. And I ran: 7:03, 6:48, 6:38, 6:30, 6:22, 6:28.

So for the 1-mile intervals at 10K pace, I brought that down from an average of 6:51 in early August to 6:30 today. I should mention that my 10K PR pace is 6:44 in cool weather. So to run what felt like 10K pace in hot weather at 6:30 average was super exciting. And I felt really strong throughout it- not completely gassed at the end.

RLK: I did that exact same workout two weeks ago. Not an easy one, and I found the five-lap intervals to be really mentally exhausting. It was awesome that you were able to progress through the workout, getting faster as you went on. Great work!

 

 

e11... or e78? - 

 

Hehe. I was wondering the same thing! Feeling better after Berlin?

Still having some issues with my lower back/hip. SI joint, maybe? It's irksome, and uncomfortable at times, but doesn't cause enough problems to prevent me from running. I just wish I could get it resolved.

thanks e1178! I am already enjoying it, and thinking about the future

CK - yes, feeling better now. I am finally able to eat normally, which is a big change. My legs were feeling fantastic these last few days, so I just wanted to get better to be able to go out for a shakeout. This lunch break I finally did, but went with a colleague who's a 2:33-marathoner, we did part of the warm up together. Probably not the smartest thing since he's warm up pace is close to my T pace. After a few kms, he took off (at a leisurely 6 min pace) and I slowed down some since my hammstrings felt quite tight. Even though the legs do feel quite good, clearly they are not as recovered as I thought.

Sorry to hear about the lingering hip/back issues. Probably seeing a professional would be a good idea, as e78 suggests. We need you at 100% on race day.

rlk - Hi there!

Well, the training log on this site does indeed have automated Garmin uploads. It's under 'Tools'. I turned it on yesterday, and this morning's run magically appeared in the log. How very 21st century.