Week three of marathon training, and the mileage continues to mount. The midweek medium-long runs built up to 13 miles each, so that’s two half-marathons before the weekend has even started. They went well though, and I was pleased with the pace/effort especially given the warm and humid conditions this week. Now we’re at the end of August I’m hoping the temperatures might back off a little. I hate to wish the summer away, but all these early starts is hard work, and I almost miss the cold, dark winter runs…
Talking of early starts, I was out the door by 7am Sunday to get my toughest long run yet done – 20 miles with 12 at marathon pace. I felt a bit tired heading down to Regent’s Park but once I started the laps of the park I settled in to a good rhythm and in the end averaged bang-on 3:05 marathon pace, and at a lower average HR than the last marathon pace run I did. Definitely had to dig in towards the end to maintain the pace, but overall very pleased with the session.
Overall then another good week. One more big mileage week next week before a bit of a recovery week, although Pfitzinger has kindly scheduled a 4 mile tempo run in that week!? Still, will be nice to drop the mileage back slightly before heading in to the final high mileage block before tapering starts. Feels slightly strange with this truncated training plan compared to the 18 weeks I’ve done previously, but so far so good, and given that I went in already in good shape I’m hoping it will work well for me. We shall find out at the end of October!
In other news I purchased my first pair of spikes. Not sure I really need any, but I had a discount voucher and loved the look so couldn’t resist. Looking forward to trying them out soon.