Last weekend was a solid weekend. Kimi and I finished off a 70+ mile week with 5x1 mile repeats. After the way this year shaped up, something clicked in my mind making a mile simply start to feel short. I think it all happened during my training cycle for the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember a workout vividly that seemed to change the way I view some of the shorter workouts. It was a 10 mile tempo run followed by an additional 1 mile which I ran in 5:19. That was the day that seemed to have changed everything for my speed training. Going into this weekend's 5x1mile repeats, I realized that running a mile hard just doesn't seem to be as daunting a task as it used to be. Kimi and I started out with a mile in 5:38 which was okay. It wasn't great but the first one hardly ever is. The second and third repeats were much better as they were starting to approach the pace we wanted them to be at. They both clicked off right around 5:33. I really wanted to get these repeats down to closer to 5:25 miles which I knew would be a true challenge as that starts to really reach a challenging pace for both of us. We started to gain confidence heading into the fourth and fifth repeats knowing that we had the speed in us and just had to go get it. The fourth mile was a 5:24 and our fifth was 5:23. Our confidence was right where we needed it to be. We cooled down to the car which was just over a mile away and then quickly went home to shower so we could go watch people finish at the Run for the Ranch half marathon.
On Sunday, we added another 16 mile long run that was marathon specific meaning it had some 90 second pushes during the last 6 miles. This was an interesting long run style that we're trying out a bit. This should help simulate the latter stages of the race helping us remain strong through the final 10k which is typically the hardest part of a marathon. This is even more critical for me as it is usually where I have my races blow up leaving me just shy of reaching my goals.
This week has been a tough one so far as I've been battling a bit of a tooth ache which is limiting my training a bit. I'm hoping to be back at it today so I can at least maintain my streak of 60+ mile weeks. We have a critical 20 mile workout this weekend that I really don't want to miss. It's a 5,4,3,2,1 mile workout with each segment getting faster as they get shorter. We shall see how it goes.
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