Marathon Training Week 7 of 23

Week seven was a rough one. My Tuesday cross-training session was 40 min instead of 30. Let me tell you, an extra 10 min is a long time! My heart-rate monitor's battery was running low but the only way I knew that is that my HR was reading low. At first I kept trying to work harder then I realized what must be happening -- so Mon & Tue workouts were a little choppy. I missed my Friday cross-training due to a number of factors. My Saturday run was in some heat, and with insufficient sleep, but I got through it. And I had an extra rest day on Thursday because on Wednesday (drum roll please...) I did my first tempo-run workout! The training program I am using has 3 different tempo run workouts. The easiest is Tempo-C:

5 min warmup walk @ 13:30 pace
10 min easy run at 10:00 pace
5 min moderate-hard run at 8:00 pace
1 min walk @ 13:30 pace
5 min moderate-hard run at 8:00 pace
1 min walk @ 13:30 pace
5 min moderate-hard run at 8:00 pace
1 min walk @ 13:30 pace
10 min easy run @ 10:00 pace
5 min cooldown walk @ no particular pace
---
followed by 4 sets of striders:
each set =
1) 30 sec gradual buildup from slow easy jog to all-out sprint, concentrating not on speed, per se, but on good form, and quick footstrike.
2) then 1:00 of walking cooldown

Tempo-B & Tempo-A (later in the 23 week program) will have me doing longer sets of faster-paced runs in the middle of the run. Tempo B will be 10-min fast runs x 2, and Tempo-A will be a full 20-min of fast run! Woof!

Highlight of the week: Between the tempo workout and not enough sleep last night before this morning's run, I had two *really* hard workouts, but I *did* 'em! I keep finding out there is more inside me than I thought there ever could be, and that is a really good feeling!

Milestones -- sum totals = >20,000 calories burned (or around 5.75 pounds of fat); >150 miles run, & >24 hrs of running! That's an avg pace of 10:32 (including warmup/cooldown/recovery walks!)

Week 7 totals:
Running Distance: 18.3 mi
Running Time: 03:08:38 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.8 mph
Max Speed: 12.8 mph
Avg HR: 140 bpm
Max HR: 178 bpm
Calories burned: 2,407

Cycling Approx Distance: 15.8 mi
Cycling Time: 00:50:00 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 19 mph
Avg HR: 117 bpm
Max HR: 131 bpm

And here's a link to week 7's long run of 6 miles.

Sum totals so far:
Running Distance: 152.46 mi
Running Time: 26:47:08 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.7 mph
Max Speed: 12.8 mph
Avg HR: 148 bpm
Max HR: 182 bpm
Calories burned: 20,144

Cycling Approx Distance: 123 mi
Cycling Time: 07:17:31 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 19 mph
Avg HR: 128 bpm
Max HR: 153 bpm

Monthly Mileage Totals:
May: 23.68 mi (24th thru 31st)
June: 95.02 mi
July: 33.76 mi (1st thru 10th)

Previous week's totals:
Week 6 totals:
Running Distance: 31.29 mi
Running Time: 05:36:58 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.6 mph
Max Speed: 11.9 mph
Avg HR: 146 bpm
Max HR: 172 bpm
Calories burned: 4,149

Cycling Approx Distance: 12.5 mi
Cycling Time: 00:40:00 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 19 mph
Avg HR: 130 bpm
Max HR: 144 bpm

And here's a link to week 6's long run of 9 miles.

~ Keith