Trust The Process

18 miles this afternoon along the banks.  My legs were pretty sore from the race yesterday so I was not looking forward to this run.  My body responded well given the circumstances.  My avg pace was 7:57 including two cool down miles at 9:15 pace.

I got home, had dinner, and then took an epsom salt bath which made my legs feel much better.

4 weeks until the marathon.  Looking forward to the taper.

Off day tomorrow

Lunch break - 5 recovery miles on the TM (1.5 incline).  8:58 avg pace

Evening - 5 recovery miles around the city.  8:54 avg pace.

Got some speed/marathon pace miles in this morning on the treadmill (1.5 incline).

2.5 mile warm up

2 x 1 mile @ 6:00 with .5 mile recovery (8:25 pace);

2 x .5 mile @ 6:00 with .25 mile recovery (8:25 pace);

1 mile @ 6:58 pace;

2 mile cool down

The run felt pretty good.  No cramping or hamstring issues.  I think the 6:00 pace is a bit too aggresive for 1 mile splits for me at this time and I probably would have been better off running more mile sets at a slightly slower pace.

I was scheduled to run 15 miles this morning, but I didn't sleep well and turned my alarm off when it sounded at 4:30am. 

I squeezed in 8 miles during my lunch break on the TM (1.5 incline). 

1 mile warm up @ 8:30

2 miles @ 7:41 pace

4.5 MP miles (6:58 pace)

.5 mile cool down (8:30 pace)

7 easy miles on the TM during my lunch break (1.5 incline).  avg pace was 7:45.  the run felt really good today.

5k in my neighborhood in philly tomorrow.  it starts two blocks from my house and the course runs past my house.  looking to do better than my 7th place finish last year. 

There was tougher competition this year compared to last.  At least there wasn't freezing rain this year.

I ran a fairly consistent race.  I didn't start too fast and my splits were pretty even.  My mile splits were 6:00, 6:15, 6:15, 6:03 pace for final 0.21 miles.  I wanted to break 19 minutes today, but my time was 19:43.  Technically a PR by one second, but my watch measured the course at 3.21 miles (6:09 avg pace) which is equivalent to 19:05 for 3.1 miles.  I am happy with 19:05 equivalent which suggests an equivalent marathon time just over 3:05. 

I have my final 20 mile training run tomorrow.  I hope to run the last 14 miles at MP.  We will see how that goes.  With the hurricane coming tomorrow, I may have to do the long run on the TM.  We'll see.