Marathon Training Week 10

This was my 3rd straight week of stepping up the mileage and I felt it.  I've been careful of sticking close to the 10% rule, but that is really just a guideline.  I've been lucky enough to remain injury free, but know that it can be the cumulative mileage that hits you later so I'm making sure to take a cut back week and actually have cutbacks planned for 2 of the next 3 weeks since I also want sort of a taper before the Chicago Half Marathon so that I can use that as a benchmark race.

Early in the week I was dragging a bit.  I kicked things up a notch at the end of my long run the prior week and it definitely left me drained for a few days.  I kept my runs nice and easy and hoped the fatigue would pass in a couple of days.  On Wednesday my legs were still feeling tired, but I headed to track night with the Redditors anyways.  I was planning on attempting an 8x800m workout and figured I would let my body be my guide.  The first interval felt a big tough so I eased up a bit to make sure I would have enough in the tank to finish all 8.  I finished the first one in 3:20 which is absolutely flying for me and I was dumbstruck.  I wasn't that fast when I did my 6x800m 2 weeks prior and thought it might have been a fluke.  The next interval I let myself relax more and tried not to push too hard.  I completed it in 3:19.  Whoops!  And so this went for the rest of the session.  I did eventually slow down for a couple of the later intervals bottoming out at 3:26.  For the last one though I decided to finish strong and once again hit 3:20.  It was such an adrenaline rush to be hitting new and unexpected speeds for the workout.

Over the weekend I forced myself to get up early so I could my runs in before the Air and Water Show crowds appeared on the lakefront.  This meant a 4:30AM wake up on Sunday.  I logged 18 miles this weekend and it wasn't easy.  It was pretty humid out on Sunday and the low hanging clouds never cleared.  The effort level moved slightly above easy levels for the 2nd half, but I didn't let my heart rate get too out of control.  I also managed to negative split the run finishing the 2nd half a full minute faster than the first half.  Go figure.

Mon - 3.07
Tue - 6.5
Wed - 7.11 (8x800m)
Thu - 5.02
Fri - 6.11
Sat - 8.14
Sun - 18.01

Weekly Miles - 54
Monthly Miles - 126.05