Hometown Run

Monday, April 27
a.m. 47 min Road + 5xstrides
6.6M (6.6)

p.m. 74 min Road + 6xhill sprints
11.0M (17.6)

Tuesday, April 28
a.m. 48:30 Road
7M (24.6)

p.m. 4x1 Mile, 3:15 rec, 3M wu/cd
4:53.5, 4:53.7, 4:50.7, 4:45.0
10M (34.6)

Wednesday, April 29
p.m. 2:12 Road
20.7 (55.3)

Thursday, April 30
a.m. 37:30 Road
5.2M (60.5)

p.m. 69 min Road + 5xstrides
10.3 (70.8)

Friday, May 1
a.m. 35:30 Road
5.1 (75.9)

p.m. 3x2M, 430m Rec, 2M wu/2M cd+4 strides
10:27.6, 10:24.6, 10:22.5 (10:24.9 avg) windy
10M (85.9)

Saturday, May 2
a.m. 39 min Road
5.7M (91.6)

Sunday, May 3
a.m. 2:34:03 marathon/workout, 1st
Eau Claire Marathon
1:19:16/1:14:47
26.2 (117.8)

Total Week Miles: 117.8
Total Year Miles: 1323.0

Another solid week that showed a lot of progress. The mile repeats on Tuesday were hard, but manageable. Its been a year and a half since I've run that kind of pace in workouts. Wednesday was not intended to be that long of a day, but I zigged when I should have zagged out on the country roads so 16 miles turned into 20. And Friday's workout was really encouraging because I remained relaxed during the intervals and recovered very well during the short rests. The pace and effort were just right despite the gale force crosswind I was bucking.

After the workout Friday, Katie and I hopped in the car and drove down to Eau Claire for the weekend. Sunday was the Eau Claire Marathon, the first marathon in EC since the mid-80's. I had originally signed up in November with the intention of peaking for this race after a shorter buildup. At that time I was a little more pessimistic about what kind of shape I could get into by the spring. I thought Eau Claire would be lower key with lower expectations.

As the spring progressed, my workouts revealed that I'm stronger than I anticipated, so in March I decided to go for broke at Grandmas where there would be a faster field - but also more in the way of goals/expectations. However, being from Eau Claire originally, I still wanted to be a part of the marathon this weekend, so I decided to run it as a long run/workout, with pace depending on how I felt. I figured at the Mad City 50k I ran through 26.2 miles right around 2:38 and that had felt pretty easy. Friend, former roommate and coworker, Tony was running as well with approximately the same plan so it felt kind of like a Sunday long run, with water stops.

Of course Tony has never been good at conservative pacing and I acted as enabler for much of the race. The agreed upon 6:10-6:15 pace never materialized as we ran mostly 6:00s, give or take for the first half of the race (1:19:16). The course was set up very well. There were some roads closed to traffic and it was fairly light on the rest. Temps were perfect for about 2 hours, but the last stretch the temps got a little toasty....along with the pace.

Around mile 17 we met back up with the half-marathoners and Tony got a little carried away with the pace. I believe there was a progression from 17-20 of 5:51, 5:42, 5:35, 5:30...and that was just me. By that point Tony was a good 50 meters ahead of me. I wasn't in severe distress, but I was a little wary of going below 5:30/mile as that is what I'm considering the outer fringe of my goal marathon pace. Tony stayed out front until mile 24 when the heavy pace started to take a toll. He hung on much better than I expected given how hard he had been running the last hour. I managed to stay strong until the final hill back into Carson Park, which is just ridiculous for that point in a marathon. Still I managed approximately 6:00 pace up and over and then enjoyed the last ~.2 miles into the finish line.

So many positives came out of the race. I ran a controlled effort, but still managed my goal marathon pace for much of the last 10 miles. I wasn't sore or beat up at all. I think I actually felt a little worse after last Saturday's workout. Even so, I might consider pushing this coming Tuesday's intervals to Wednesday and cut out Thursdays workout. I'll wait and see how I feel. There is still a ways to go until Grandmas.