Just over 3 weeks to go until I get the opportunity to redeem myself from my prior attempt at a sub 2:37 marathon. To be honest, I don't think I'll be at my absolute best in 3 weeks but if I can make it through without a side stitch slowing me down again, a sub 2:40 is still something I think I can make happen.
Last weekend I went out to the Frisco trail on Saturday to nail down one of the hardest tempo run workouts we ever do. I had a scheduled 10 mile tempo run with a 1 mile recovery and then 1 more hard mile. On top of that, the 10 mile portion was to include 4 miles at marathon pace, and then 1 at half marathon pace or close to it, and then repeat that for the second 5 miles as well. It was a hot morning but I was determined to not let it stop me from hitting my paces. We woke up at 5:45 and immediately got in the car to start taking out tables to the trail for the water bottles to sit on. I usually use this type of workout to practice nutrition intake along with fluid consumption during the hard effort. Unfortunately, I thought Kimi had grabbed the Nutrilite Endurance cubes and she thought I had grabbed them so I was simply out of luck on that part of it. I still had the water which helped immensely.
Kimi and I were slated for different workouts on this particular day since we are training for drastically different races. However, we both started at the same spot but I just had to let her go since her pace was set to be faster than mine. It's been a long time since I've had to do tempo runs or workouts of any kind by myself so everything felt a little weird getting started. Fortunately I managed to get it going and started clipping off solid splits. My first 4 miles were all under 6 minute pace. Then the 5th mile started and I was to pick it up. I did exactly that. I went from about a 5:57 to a 5:47. The first mile back at marathon pace is always a difficult one because it's hard to slow the rhythm some but not completely ruin it. I kept that mile around 5:57 and then started clipping them off again. During the 9th mile I decided I was going to make it the entire distance but that I didn't feel up to running the 1 extra mile. I was going to change the workout mid-stream and finish with a 10th mile that was around 5:40 and then just call it good.
I finished and thought I was done until Kimi came along having already finished up her workout and encouraged me to do the 1 more mile. I sure am glad she did. I rolled that mile in 5:19 and was flat shocked. I never saw it coming. I started out hard and thought I'd simply have fatigue enough to drop me back to a 5:30-35. Sure enough, I got to the quarter mile and was rolling around 5:15 and just kept working it. Half mile, and still @ 5:18. Then with a quarter to go, the pace had slowed just a bit to 5:20. Thankfully, Kimi jumped into the final quarter and helped me bring it home. I still had a 3 mile cool down to complete but after a workout of this magnitude, the cool down pace just doesn't matter. I trotted for 3 miles and called it a day.
This Saturday, I've got the last really long 'long-run' to complete. It's the 24 miler day. I intend to have a good one and I'm excited that the weather is supposed to be a lot cooler. That will help me out a bunch.
I'll be sure to let you all know how it went when I write my final post prior to the marathon!
