Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

Sharing is caring!

9/2/2019

  • AM: 10 miles easy. Last run from the cottage. See ya next summer, Hubbard Lake! (Hopefully, for most of the summer)
  • No afternoon run. After cleaning the cottage and driving home, I’m whooped!

9/3/19

  • Strength Day! Upped it up to an 8x1mile @ MP-10 with 2:30 jog today. All under 5:10 and usually was under 2:30 for the jog recovery. I’ll take that!
  • 17 Miles for the day. Did some light foam rolling in the evening.

Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

9/4/19

  • 10 miles in the morning with the guys. Lots of new faces on that team, except for Mike. They certainly let it rip though. 6:20’s coming back in
  • Appointments in the afternoon and curriculum night at the school. No PM room. One hour of Rolfing with Dawn. I can’t believe I pay for this!

9/5/19

  • Nothing crazy. 12 and 4. Did strides in the PM run and little bit of strength afterwards. The temps have dropped and paces naturally have too.

9/6/19

  • MP Day!
    • 5×2 Miles at MP. Still just kind of feeling it out with pace. Settled in at 5:15 ish. Recovery jogs were solid. I am recognizing that the recovery is making a big difference in these. Will explain later.
    • 19 for the morning.

Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

9/7/19

  • AM: 13 and change.
  • PM 4 and change. PM run was real slow!

9/8/19

  • Another 14 and 4. Did do strides during the PM run. Weren’t very fast, but squeezed in after church lunch and going to in laws. Woof!

108 Miles for the week. A couple solid workouts. Wished I could have gotten another PM run in, but such is life!


9/9/19

  • Feeling the last several days. Here’s another lesson we’ll discuss at the end. Was supposed to do a workout. I actually had a 3×3 mile at MP on my schedule, but switched it up to an 18 miler. I hit at 6:16 per mile pace (getting progressively faster the first to second loop. Staying pretty steady on the last loop. A good opportunity to still get something bigger in, but not dig myself into a hole. I can recover quickly from a long run, so it helped bridge the gap between harder workouts.
  • 18 miles

Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

9/10/19

  • 11 and 4 easy, averaging about 7 minute pace for each. Allowing the recovery to set in. Did do 6×12 second strides on the second run.

9/11/19

  • 12 and 4 easy. Nothing to write home about. Feeling tired, but not overwhelmed.

9/12/19

  • 10×3:00 Hard. I’ll just let you read my log in Strava for the commentary. Good effort though. Under 5 minute pace, so 30 minutes worth of sub 5 work. Warm and humid again.
    • About 15.5 miles for the morning.

Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!

9/13/19

  • 12 miles slow. Really warm and humid again.
  • No PM run- took my brother in law to his eye doctor appointment at U of M. Got home and we were in a severe thunderstorm warning. Stayed home and ate pizza instead! Whole family went to bed early.

[yith_wc_productslider id=74766]

9/14/19

  • Later AM run because Nikki has her workouts on Saturdays. Didn’t get out til about 10 am. At least last night’s thunderstorms blew in a cold front. Gorgeous morning for 12 easy (6:57/mile).

9/15/19

  • MP Day!
    • Went to Stony since Nikki takes Sundays off and I can leave the house early. Did 3-4-3 at marathon pace. Was honestly thinking that if I could just keep at 5:20’s that would be solid. Ended up averaging 5:15’s. One about 5:20 and a few about 5:12. Recovery jogs were much faster than in the past. I am typically about 8 minute pace and ended up being under 7 minute pace. Cool down was quicker too, but I am really running by effort.
    • 17 for the morning.

110 Miles for the week, which is the most for me since probably 2018. Really finding my groove with life, work, training balance. Not my best week for strength training, but did get some basic work in.


Indy Monumental Marathon 9 and 10 weeks out!


My Two-Week Takeaways:

  1. Recovery time is a simple variable that can be altered a number of ways. We can refer to it as a single run, time between workouts, time between segments, and time between repeats. The latter is what I want to focus on. A simple rule is that the harder the repeat (faster the pace) the more recovery time. So, a 400 meter repeat may be a 400 meter jog, but it might take 100-150% of the time. Example, you may run a 400 meter repeat in 2:00, but your recovery jog might be 3:00- even though you ran another 400 meter. So it’s not necessarily the distance we are looking at for recovery, rather the amount of recovery time. Now, if a 5k rep allows for a 100% recovery time, then a marathon rep should be significantly less. Take for example, my 8×1. I ran hard for roughly 5 minutes and recovered for 50% of that time. Then, this past Sunday I did 3-4-3 and took under 7 minute jogs- roughly 30-40% recovery time. My aha moment is that I have been keeping the recovery distances about the same but keeping the paces a little more steady. What I have noticed is that my repeat times are down a few seconds per mile, but my recovery paces are faster. To me, it has shown more where my true current fitness is, rather than the repeat times alone.
  2. The second takeaway is learning how to adjust without sacrificing. The 18 miler was a perfect example. I modified the planned days to allow me to recover, yet this still was the biggest mileage week I have had in months. I began the week feeling like a wreck and ended the week on a very high note. How? I simply did a workout I knew I could do with less relative effort first. This essentially gave me a few more days of easier running before I came back with two significant workouts later in the week. So, by being flexible, I only “sacrificed” the days I originally had penciled in, but still gained all the workouts that where planned for the week. Recovery doesn’t have to mean missing workouts, but rather rearranging to fit your strengths and weaknesses. So many times we just want to plow through and mark days as completed when they were originally scheduled. Doesn’t have to be that way!

Want to follow my training? Hit me up on Strava!

Related Articles