Madison Marathon Training: Week 15/16 Recap

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I ended up doing a combination of weeks 15 and 16 last week in an effort to catch up to my plan.  If you missed last week's recap, I discovered that I am a week behind my training plan due to miscounting weeks.  I know.  Some days it is hard to count up to 18.  {Eye roll to myself.}  Anyways, I didn't want to entirely just skip week 15 because that is peak week on my plan so I ended up coming pretty darn close to peak week mileage.  Plan for week 15 called for 63 miles, plan for week 16 called for 56 miles.  I ended up with 61.7.

Overall it was a decent week.  I was very nervous about the 10 mile tempo and I felt so good that I ended up running it in 6:41 avg.  I think a lot of this has to do with afternoon vs. morning running.  I just do not usually feel good running first thing in the morning; and because of that, I am opting to really take advantage of some flexibility in my work schedule to accommodate afternoon runs during the week.  I had to choose between the 3 x 2 mile workout or the 4 x 1.5 and I chose the 3 x 2 because I find that to be more difficult. 

Here was my week:

Sunday Oct 21

Plan says:  8 easy miles

What I did:  8.15 miles, 1:09:21 (8:30 avg)

Monday Oct 22

Plan says: Off

What I did:  Off

Tuesday Oct 23

Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 2 miles with 0.5 mile recovery in between each set, 1.5 mile cool down

What I did: This was challenging as my legs felt tired, but I was able to complete the workout and execute my pacing better than the first time I did this workout, a few weeks ago.  I had one of those "An OTQ marathon is running 6:17 pace and I struggled through running that for 2 miles, how am I eventually going to do a full at that pace?!" mental spirals that are so not helpful!

1.5 mile warm up, 11:43 (7:49 avg pace)

1 - 2 miles, 12:46 (6:23 avg pace) / 0.5 mile 4:15 (8:31 avg pace)
2 - 2 miles, 12:36 (6:18 avg pace) / 0.5 mile 4:19 (8:39 avg pace)
3 - 2 miles, 12:54 (6:27 avg pace) / 0.5 mile 4:02 (8:04 avg pace)

1.52 mile cool down, 12:19 (8:07 avg pace)

Wednesday Oct 24

Plan says:  easy 6 miles

What I did:  Squeezed this in on the afternoon.  6.51 miles, 53:10 (8:10 avg pace)

Thursday Oct 25

Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 10 miles tempo, 1.5 miles cool down

What I did:  I left work early to get this done in the afternoon.  I was so so nervous about this...so much so that my legs felt shaky in the first few miles.  Good practice for race day, I guess.  I used the Gu Roctane gels and loved them so I think I will be using them for race day and just dealing with the viscosity.  (I have used Gu gels in all of my races to date and have been trying some other options because I find it difficult to choke down Gu in the last miles.  No other gels have been quite as successful as the Gu gels for me, so I'm just going to stick with them for race day.)

1.50 mile, 12:06 (8:04 avg pace)
10 miles, 1:06:53 (6:41 avg pace)
1.5 miles, 12:01 (7:59 avg pace)

Friday Oct 26

Plan says:  easy 7 miles

What I did:  7.5 miles, 1:00:47 (8:06 avg pace)

Saturday Oct 27

Plan says:  long 16 miles

What I did:  This is my third and final 16 miler on the plan.  My 16 milers have not been that speedy - and truthfully, I have felt tired for every single one.  As I mentioned earlier, I think a large part of this is that two of my 16 mile runs have been done at 5 in the morning, off of little fuel.  My best 16 mile run was the first one, which I had the ability to do in the afternoon, off of lunch fuel.  I haven't freaked out too much though because even though my pace is on the slow end, it is still within the range prescribed.  This is a case where I see other people's long runs on social media and comparison sometimes gets the best of me.  Head down...stick to the plan.  It hasn't failed me yet!

16.01 miles, 2:14:38 (8:25 avg pace)

Plan Total: Between 56-63 miles

What I did: 61.7 miles