Trust The Process

5 recovery miles outside this afternoon.  avg pace was 8:58.  my foot was pretty sore all day so i was icing it and wearing my compression socks throught the day.  it felt ok during the run until the last half mile where i was getting a bit of a burning feeling under the ball across my foot.  i am going to get a full night sleep and do my long run tomorrow mid day.  we will have to see how it goes.

Progressive long run up to marathon pace.  15 total miles.  I ran the first 7 miles in 59:45, starting at around 9:15 pace and finishing at around 8:15 pace.  I ran the last 8 miles at marathon pace (7:02).  My foot was in pain a few times during the run, but overall I felt really good during the run and definately could have run a few more miles at MP.  Since the weather was bad today, I ran at the gym on the treadmill (1.0 incline).  I know, very boring.

Medium Long run of 12 miles this morning on the treadmill.  I was off and on heavy showers this morning so I decided to run at the gym.  The first 6 miles were @ 8:15 avg pace and the last 6 miles were @ 7:42 avg pace. 

I wasn't feeling great during this run eventhough I slept well last night.  7:42 pace felt harder than it should have. 

11 general aerobic miles this morning on the treadmill.  First 6 miles @ 8:14 avg pace, last 5 miles @ 7:48 avg pace (1.5 incline).  Today's pace felt easier than yesterday eventhough the pace was almost identical.  My foot started to hurt during the last mile so I took the last .25 slow.  I have a well needed recovery day tomorrow.  Hoping my foot starts to feel better soon.

Today was my son's first day at day care :(.  It was just a half day but it will be full time starting tomorrow as my wife returns to work.  things will definately change going forward, but hopefully i can continue to train the way i have been for the last two months.

5 recovery miles after work on the treadmill (1.5 incline, 8:58 avg pace).

I had a late lunch and completely stuffed myself with a philly style roast pork hoagie and fries.  as a result, i felt sick all afternoon and almost threw up on the treadmill.  i was happy to be done with this workout and will probably have a piece of fruit or bowl of cereal for dinner.

9 miles on the treadmill this afternoon, including 4 fast tempo miles.  This is my last speed/tempo workout before the half next Sunday so I were a little faster than scheduled.

I started with 2 slow warm up miles in my Guide 5s.  I swichted into my flats and ran one more warm up mile with a few strides, 4 miles in 26:03 (1.5 incline), and two cool down miles.  The tempo miles were hard, but I feel like I could have run the 4 miles at least 30 seconds faster. 

My foot is pretty sore post run.  I will take tomorrows recovery run very slow.

Unscheduled day off.  Instead of running 5 slow recovery miles, I skipped the run since my foot was still pretty sore, plus I walked around a lot doing errands throughout the day.

Long run today.  17 miles along the banks to Manayunk and back, including the final 4 miles or so of the half mararthon course for next week.  Avg pace was 8:11.  I ran one warm up mile, 10 miles around 8:20, 5 miles around 7:35, and one slow down mile.

9 general aerobic miles this morning alongh the banks.  avg pace was 7:48.  the run felt good once my foot got loose plus the temperature was 55 and breezy which was nice.  hopefully there will be similar conditions for the race on sunday.

It was a hectic day so i only had time for 5 miles during my lunch break.  avg pace was 7:49.

6 miles on the treadmill during my lunch break.  Avg pace was 7:42 including the final mile at half-marathon race pace (6:49).  The run felt good and my foot feels ok afterwards.

9 easy miles this morning along the banks.  avg pace was 7:58.  there was a headwind today, but the run felt a little harder than expected. 

packet pickup today for the half marathon on Sunday

Recovery day.  6 miles this morning along the banks.  5.5 miles at avg 9:00 pace with .5 miles at HM pace.  My new shoes finally came in the mail on Friday so I got to break in one of the two pairs today.

Perfect race conditions today.  Cool with a little breeze.  I got a late start out of my house this morning so I didn't get in the warm up that I wanted.  I jogged to my corral just in time for the national anthem.

I wanted to break 1:30 today.  I started out the first few miles a little bit faster than goal pace, but it felt good so I just went with it.  I was able to keep a pretty consistant pace throughout the whole race which felt really good.  I ran in my flats and my foot held up well with only slight discomfort during the last 4 miles.  My final time was 1:28:23, over 90 seconds faster than my goal pace and over 9 minutes faster than last years time of 1:37:44.

My Garmin read the course at 13.2 miles (6:42 avg pace).  Splits were as follows:

6:39, 6:34, 6:43 (20:41 5k), 6:40, 6:47, 6:35 (41:51 10k), 6:46, 6:44, 6:58, 6:50 (1:07:39 10 miles), 6:41, 6:39, 6:40, 6:05 pace (final .2 per Garmin)

13 miles this morning in the rain along the banks.  with 15 miles scheduled for tomorrow and since my legs felt dead today, i took it easy.  avg pace was 8:38.

I was out the door at 430am this morning to run 15 miles before dropping my son off at day care and going to work.  i ran along the banks out to manayunk and back.  my legs responded better than yesterday but i still didn't feel 100 percent.  i went a little bit faster than yesterday but didnt push it.  avg pace was 8:13 per mile.

Recovery day.  5.1 easy miles outside after work.  It was really nice out and it felt great to get out there on an easy jog to take my mind off of the awful week I have had at work this week.  Avg pace was 8:58.

Tempo run tomorrow.

Tempo run during my lunch break on the treadmill.  two warm up miles followed by 5 miles @ 6:30 pace (1.5 incline) and one cool down mile.  total time was 58 minutes.  i dont want to say the tempo pace felt easy, but it definately felt very comfortable.

5 easy miles this morning.  russ woke us up around 6am to eat but went back to sleep so lauren and i were able to sleep in until 10am.  i had to rush out the door to squeeze the run in since we had brunch plans.  i forgot to eat a banana before i left so i was starving during the run.  

Instead of running along the banks, i ran up 23rd st and went out west on chestnut through university city and north on 34th through drexel's campus to get familiar with that section of the philly marathon course.  i was expecting incline but it was a little more than i expected. shortly after going through campus on 34th st, it immediately turned "hoodish" so i was happy to turn around shortly after to head back home.  i still want to get familiar with the rest of the west philly section of the course but will probably do so in the car.

Avg pace was 8:36.  it feels good to get in 60+ miles this week.  18 miles tomorrow.

Long run today (19 miles).  I ran out to west philly similar to yesterday but continued along the marathon route past the zoo to MLK.  From there, I took MLK to the Falls Bridge and ran out Kelly towards Manayunk and to the Manayunk toe path.  I turned around when I hit 10 miles and headed back home along Kelly to the banks.  I stopped at 19 miles and walked about a half mile home to cool down.  The run felt really good today although my legs were getting sore near the end of the run.  Avg pace was 7:50/mile.

8 miles this morning along the banks.  it is definately starting to feel like fall.  i may experiment with my arm warmers for the first time tomorrow.  avg pace was 8:04.

5 miles this morning along the banks to manayunk and back.  i tried out my arm warmers and they worked well.  avg pace was 8:04. i was hoping to pick up the pace for the second half of the run but had some serious intestinal distress starting at mile 7.  the sun had come up enough by mile 11 that i was able to stop at a port a pot.  i was able to pick up the pace at the end but the middle miles were slower than planned.

This is my first time having any stomach issues in at least the last 2 months.  hopefully the trend doesn't continue.  i think i can blame all the feta and greek vegetables we had on the pizza we baked last night. 

5 recovery miles on the TM during my lunch break.  Avg pace was 8:32 (1.5 incline).  Tempo run tomorrow.

Tempo run today on the TM.  i got very busy at work again so i cut the total mileage of the run short by 3 miles, but got in the scheduled tempo miles.

2 warm up miles, 4 miles @ 6:27 pace (1.5 incline), and 1 cool down mile.  it was a hard run today.  i probably pushed the pace a bit too hard especially since i didn't have my flats on.  overall i am happy to continue to see faster tempo paces compared to the last tempo run.

8 recovery miles this afternoon along the banks.  8:50 avg pace.

17 miles this morning, including about 14 miles along the philly marathon course.  I am getting very familiar with the course at this point.  The first 8 miles were at around 8:15 pace with the second 8 miles closer to 7:35 pace.  I finished with an easy cool down mile.  Total avg pace was 7:54.

I am hoping to watch football all day on the couch.  Hopefully, my wife is on board with that plan.

Tomorrow is an off day from running, but I am thinking about starting back up some core exercises on my off days and on my recovery days.  I'm thinking the core work can help shed some excess body fat and hopefully help maintain proper running form in the late miles of the marathon.