Shamrock Marathon Training: Week 16

I'm a little late getting this up because, to be honest, I didn't really feel like writing it. Last week was my first week of taper, which I suppose really didn't start until the weekend because the week was still pretty typical of training recently. I got really lazy this weekend and I'm afraid I took the resting part of taper a little too much to heart, but I guess I can't change it now.

Training for:

Shamrock Marathon

Virginia Beach, VA

March 19

Goal: 

sub-4:00

Week 16

(2/27-3/2)

Monday 2/27

Rest Day

Much needed after my last big weekend of training!

Tuesday 2/28
45 minute YTri Spin / 5 mile run @ 9:06

We had a sub for spin this morning and I seriously considered not going. She didn't take attendance so I definitely could have skipped and no one would have known! I thought that overall the class was just fine. I was tired and just not super into it!

I ran 5 miles after work, which has been my standard short run for several weeks now, and I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of the 5 mile easy run - just in time for the mileage to drop down!

Wednesday 3/1

8 mile speedwork @ 9:00

This was my last workout run of this training cycle! I was nervous how it was going to go since I hadn't done speedwork in 4 weeks, which is really only one week longer than usual since my plan rotates speed, hill, and tempo workouts, but it felt like a long time. I did 1 mile warmup @~9:30, 8x800s @ 7:47 with 400 recovery in between @ ~11:00 (I usually had to walk for a minute to get my heart rate back down then went back to running, so I'm guessing that's what each interval averaged out to), and 1 mile cooldown ~9:15. It definitely felt hard, but manageable - crazy how much different it felt than doing half the number of intervals at a slower pace when I first started this training cycle!

Thursday 3/2

5.5 mile YTri run @ 8:48

The run this morning was just okay! We took a different route that was mostly flat and ran partly along a path I'd never been on before, and it just wasn't my favorite.

Friday 3/3
2150yd YTri Swim @ 1:49/100yd

Part of our set today was a 300yd time trial, and I swam 30 seconds faster than I did for my first one last month. My average pace per 100yd for the TT went down from 1:47 to 1:37, faster than I think I have ever swam, ever. It was hard but I tried to stay as in control as I could. I'm really happy with my swim progress so far, which is good because that's the main reason I joined YTri in the first place.

Saturday 3/4

10 mile run @ 8:43

Sunday 2/26

5 mile run @ 9:07 / 40 mile trainer ride

I don't want to do too many big rides too close to the marathon, so I put in my schedule to do 50 miles on the trainer today and have that be my last long ride until after Shamrock. I kept putting it off for various reasons - cleaning, tired, headache, just didn't feel like it - until it just got harder and harder to find the time and motivation to spend 3+ hours riding when I still had other stuff to do. 

This was the longest I've been on my bike since October! I really need to start getting it together for my half Ironman and century ride in May, and I'm running out of weekends to do longer rides. I've been telling myself for weeks that I would start doing long rides on the weekends and I just haven't, but today that changed. I was committed to getting 40 miles done on a hilly course - check!

I have already started riding the taper roller coaster and have a lot of thoughts about how this training cycle has gone, how I'm feeling about my race goals, etc. These last few weeks have been hard on my body - I know they're supposed to be, but I just hope I've done the right amount of work and that now I have enough time to recover and that those things will be the right combination for hitting my goal.