Trust The Process

9:30am - 11 miles with Lauren along the tow path near Princeton University. It was very humid again today and Lauren was having a difficult time. Avg pace was 10:30 including the few short walking periods. I had originally planned to run an additional 7 by myself right after our run but we needed to make it back for lunch and to relieve my mother in law who was watching Russ.

1:30pm - we ate lunch and I had to run about 20 minutes later to squeeze in the 7 miles before our afternoon/dinner plans. This was a miserable run. I had bad cramps for the first 2 miles since I had just ate and the heat/humidity was intense. I had to work pretty hard just to run around 8:25 avg pace.

Progressive tempo run today on the TM (1%).  My legs felt great today after the day off yesterday.

1.5 mile warm up with strides;

3 miles @ 6:27;

2 miles @ 6:22;

1 mile @ 6:18;

.5 miles @ 6:15;

.25 miles @ 6:11;

.25 miles @ 6:07

.5 mile cool down

6:22 avg pace for the 7 tempo miles

Noon - 5 miles in 39 minutes

7:30pm - 10 miles outside. 7:39 avg pace

Noon - 6 recovery miles.  8:38 avg pace.

8pm - 12 easy miles on the TM at home after i put Russ to sleep.  8:07 avg pace.  This was a hard workout after a heavy mileage week for me and only a few hours of sleep last night since I stayed up to watch the Ravens get crushed last night.

6 recovery miles at home on the TM. 8:54 avg pace. 70 miles this week which is a first for me.

I decided this moning to do a mini taper this week before the half marathon so I ran 13 instead of 18, but still kept the intensity high.

3 mile warm up;

6 miles at marathon pace (6:38, 6:48, 7:03, 6:46, 6:43, 6:44);

2 recovery miles;

1 mile half marathon pace effort (6:32);

1 mile cool down

I wish the marathon pace miles would have felt a little bit easier today. My pace was kind of all over the place during those miles. The heavy mileage for me last week and the humidity today didn't help. Looking back, the avg pace for these miles was probably 5-10 seconds too fast. After the half marathon next week, I will lock into an official goal marathon pace which I think will help keeping my marathon pace splits more consistent.

Off day tomorrow.

Speedwork session today on the TM (1% incline).

2 mile warm up;

6 x .5 miles with .25 mile recovery.  Speedwork splits pace per mile (5:46, 5:46, 5:46, 5:42, 5:39, 5:36).  Recovery pace was 8:57 per mile;

1.5 mile cool down.

Total time was 58 minutes.  My legs felt really good today.  I could have completed a few more reps at progressively faster pace I think, but didn't want to go overboard with the race coming up on Sunday.

Took the day off today

Progressive run at home on the TM including one mile @MP then one mile slightly faster than HM pace.

4 miles before the race tomorrow.  7:30 avg pace with 1 mile at MP.

The weather was really nice today, about 52 degress at the start and not too windy.  The goal was to break 1:25:00 today.  I felt really great today, probably due to the light mileage this week.  Overall, I think I paced this just right with pretty consistent splits.  I started slowing a little bit during the last two miles, but not too much.  It suggests that I didn't leave too much in the tank.  Mile splits were: 6:12, 6:10, 6:19 (19:45 5k), 6:24, 6:22, 6:19 (39:45 10k - new unofficial PR), 6:19, 6:24, 6:37 (this was my slowest mile last year too, there is a bit of an uphill before the bridge over the river), 6:20, 6:16, 6:23, 6:25.  My watch didn't turn off right away so I am not sure about the final .1.  Final time was 1:23:40, almost 5 minutes faster than last year.  This was a big confidence booster before Chicago and think sub 3 is very reachable.

This was my 6th Half Marathon with a summary of my results below:

3/20/10 - Rock n Roll DC - 1:54:19

9/19/10 - Rock n Roll Philly - 1:44:41

9/18/11 - Rock n Roll Philly - 1:37:44

3/17/12 - Rock n Roll DC - 1:34:01

9/16/12 - Rock n Roll Philly - 1:28:23

9/15/13 - Rock n Roll Philly - 1:23:40

My fingers are crossed this coming week so see if my BQ-1:22 will get me in for 2014.  I guess I will find out on Friday.

10 easy miles after work along the banks. 8:08 avg pace.

7 easy miles this evening out by the upenn and Drexel campuses. 8:22 avg pace.

6 miles on the TM in 45:15, including 1.5 MP miles (6:44 pace).

Last 20 miler before the taper.the run included 6MP miles (6:53 avg pace) with the other 14 miles around 8:00 avg pace.

Lauren called me about 12 miles into the run. When I grabbed my phone out of my water bottle hand clutch pocket thingy, my license and debit card fell onto the street. Whoops! Cancelled the debit card as soon as I figured it out, no charges made. When I called the bank, they told me someone called to report they found my card. Still cancelled the card, but I am hopeful the individual that called also found my license and will mail it back to me.

7.25 miles on the TM during my lunch break including 6 MP miles in the middle (6:49, 6:49, 6:49, 6:44, 6:40, 6:40). My legs felt fresh today after the day off.

6 miles on the TM. 7:41 avg pace.

Bad news everyone, I missed the 2014 Boston Marathon cutoff by 16 seconds! When I crossed the finish line last November 1:22 under my qualifying standard, there was no doubt in my mind that I would get a bib in 2014. Obviously a lot has happened since then.

I have accepted this and plan to get into the 2015 race with a qualifying time in Chicago in two weeks, but I have one complaint with the registration process. It bothers me that I was most likely snubbed by individuals who qualified during the weekend between week 1 and 2 of the registration process. Why should the qualifying window be different if you ran BQ minus 20, 10, or 5 than if you just ran BQ. On top of that, the individuals who qualified on 9/14 or 9/15 will be able to use that same race to qualify for 2015. I wish I had known that loophole. Instead of running a half marathon on 9/15,I could have run a marathon and bettered my qualifying time. I ran the half in 1:23:40, I think I had the fitness to run 3:03:22 or better that day. Oh well, I can wait until 2015.

7 miles on the TM in 50 minutes including 4 MP miles (6:40 pace).

5 recovery miles on the TM. 8:40 avg pace

This was my last "hard" workout before the marathon.  I ran a Yasso 800 on the TM (1 percent incline) and crushed it.  Each interval was followed with a 400m at 8:34/mile pace recovery.

2 mile warm up with strides.

The 800 sets were as follows:

3 @ 5:49/mile pace

3 @ 5:46/mile pace

2 @ 5:42/mile pace

1 @ 5:36/mile pace

1 @ 5:27/mile pace

about 5:44/mile avg pace.

This workout and the half marathon 2 weeks ago @ 1:23:40 suggests that sub 3 hours for the marathon should be a reasonable goal, maybe a few minutes faster.  I will plan to run with the 3hr pace group to start and will see how I feel from there.

11:15am - 17 miles along the banks to forbidden dr and back. 7:47 avg pace. My legs felt really good for the first 14 miles then my legs got very sore during the last 3. I ran 27 miles in the last 18 hours and will probably be pretty sore the next few days. Wll take it very east the next few days. It's going to be a long 2 weeks waiting to get to the starting line in Chicago and I need to be smart to get there fresh.