Four 100+ mile training weeks in a row! Mission accomplished. ☺️
It was another solid week, with recovery runs feeling nice and gentle, and I managed the 15 mile medium-long run at a decent 7:17/mi pace. Friday’s tempo run was made a little tougher due to it being quite windy, but despite that I still managed my fastest average pace, 6:28/mi over six miles. I’m fairly confident in conditions closer to last week I could be down below 6:25/mi.
Sunday’s long run also went well, I felt a little tired in myself at times, but despite all the mileage in them the legs felt pretty fresh and strong. I averaged 7:18/mi, and didn’t slow at all towards the end. Given I’m running these long runs fasted, I’m very pleased with how they’ve been going. Hopefully they will be setting me up for a strong finish at Brighton. I’d love to run a negative split, or at least a pretty even one, rather than slow towards the end as I have in previous marathons.
Next week will be a well deserved recovery week, dropping all doubles for a planned mileage of around 70. I’ll also ease up on the pace to make sure the legs have a decent chance to recover. I am running the Worthing Half on Sunday, and at the moment I’m not sure if I will race it, or use it as another marathon pace session. I’m also doing Brighton Half two weeks later, so I’m going to wait and see what the weather is like in Worthing, and how the legs feel. If conditions are good I’ll probably go for it on Sunday, otherwise I’ll hold off and hope for better luck in Brighton.
Looking forward to see how I perform in these tune-up races after this heavy block of training!