Ludicrous Speed!

Week 12: 2/28/11 - 3/6/11 (6 weeks remain)

The half-marathon I ran last Sunday was the beginning of Phase III of the marathon training program; now that we've had base aerobic (Phase I) and Endurance + LT (Phase II), it's time for Race Preparation - lots of speed work. Bring on the intervals!

Monday: Off day.

Tuesday: 7 miles with 5 x 600 meter intervals. Today was the first track workout of the training cycle. I had originally planned to run the workout at 80 seconds per lap (5:20 pace), starting an interval every 4:00 (so as to obtain 2:00 on, 2:00 off). However, I came through the first interval at 1:50, and in spite of trying to will myself to slow down in the second interval, my body seemed to naturally want to run at that pace, so I basically said "FUCK IT, WE'LL DO IT LIVE!" and switched the goal to 1:50 / interval :-). I ended up running all six intervals at around 73 second pace (which is 4:53 mile pace, for those of you keeping score at home). Pretty good day :-).

Wednesday: 15 mile run.

Thursday: 5 miles, recovery

Friday/Saturday: I had a bad allergic reaction to something that basically just knocked me on my ass for both Friday and Saturday; didn't run.

Sunday: 18 mile long run. Pretty mellow today; did the first 8 around the Boston Common/Commonwealth Ave loop with Tim so that he could break in his footgloves, and then finished up around Fresh Pond.

Total weekly mileage: 45 <-- kinda low, but of high quality.