Blessing in disguise

Week of 2/5-11

I'm starting to feel the pre-race jitters! I was combing through the Austin Marathon website and felt my heart skip a couple beats. Part of this may have to do with the fact that this isn't a home court marathon and I still have to get through the uncertainty of getting to Austin. I went through my old log and found that I have work-outs logged, but was very sparing on description. Oh well, these things are out of my control, and mental energy is better used at this point focusing on things I can control, like eating and sleeping!

Week of 2/5 - 2/11 Recap:
Mon: AM - 30 min. light pool run, PM - 30 min. functional training
Tue: off
Wed: AM - 40 min. pool run
Thu: 7m total, 2m w/u, 3x1600 @ 6:15 pace (161/172) & 400m recoveries, 1.5m c/d
Fri: off
Sat: 6.8m easy (8:27, 139/172)
Sun: 12.7m (7:42, 147/164)
Total: 26.5m

This week started off pretty slow. As I predicted, I went too hard on Sunday and I was "blessed" with some suprapatellar (top of the knee) pain Monday morning. This was a classic case of knowing the consequences of an action, but doing it anyway. I should have backed off on the hill repeats and shortened the cool-down. The pool run on Monday was very low impact and I went easy on the functional training. Tuesday rolled around and I was beginning to think this knee pain was more serious, so I just took the whole day off. Fortunately by Wednesday, the stiffness was largely gone after my usual pool run. So, lesson learned. In fact, the injury really was a blessing in disguise in that it got me back on track on my taper. The rest allowed me to cruise through the mile intervals on Thursday. I didn't have access to a track, so I ran these on treadmill at 9.6mph with the incline set to 1.0. The effort felt about a 10K pace or even a bit slower. I went back and looked at my log and on December 21st, I did a very similar work-out. It's amazing how quickly the body adapts!

1.8m w/u
Treadmill: 5 min @ 7.5mph, 6 x 4:00 @ 9.2,9.4, w/ 1:00 RI @ 7.5mph, 5 min @ 7.5 mph
1.8m c/d back home
Warm-up felt great. 6:20 mile is still tough, although it felt better towards the end. HRM bugged out, but saw some readings up around 172-173 towards the end, so reasonable. More like a critical velocity work-out. A little tired when I got home, but overall happy with the result.

Saturday's run was not comfortable, even though my HR was not high during the run. I chalked that up to spending an hour out in the cold changing a flat on Friday (bleh!), and then staying out pretty late. Saturday also turned into a party day because my lovely wife surprised me with tickets to the Boston Wine Expo. The venue itself was a bit hectic and crowded, but we managed to find some hidden gems amongst the sea of wine. I thought standing around for 4 hours sipping wine was going to kill my run on Sunday, so I spent the rest of the evening really hydrating. I planned a scenic route through the Arnold Arboretum. After mile 5, things started moving from comfortable to kind of pushing the pace. I was seeing HRs in the low 150s and thought maybe I was just tired and dehydrated from yesterday's imbibing. It wasn't until mile 10 that I realized I was running much faster than I thought. This last long run was a great confidence booster.

I'm entering the homestretch now. This last week will be very light and I'm hoping to bring it in to Austin feeling fresh and energized.

Next weeks plan
Mon 2/12: AM pool run, PM functional training
Tue 2/13: 8m total, 2m w/u, 2x1.75m @ MP, 2m c/d
Wed 2/14: AM pool run
Thu 2/15: 5m very easy ~9:00
Fri 2/16: Travel to Austin!
Sat 2/17: 4m shake out, last 4m of the marathon course
Sun 2/18: GAME TIME, break 3:10 at Austin!

7 days to go!