A Little Bit Faster

~Weekly Stats~
Runs: 6
Rest Days: 1
Miles: 64.9
Time: 8:41:49

This week I started doing more speed work and marathon pace work. I have a target marathon in mind but am waiting to post about it. I still am not sure if I can afford the race. It is several hours away so I would need to stay overnight somewhere, cost of gas is going up and the race fee itself. Since my wife and I are only working part time and I have student loans that we are paying off, this race may not be in the cards. But if it is, I want to be ready for it.

I had three quality runs this week. Tuesday was an 8 mile run with 6 miles at goal marathon pace. I ran with a friend who is training for Boston. Luckily, my goal marathon pace is his tempo pace. So we targeted 6:51 per mile and ended up running 6:49's.

Thursday was my 6 mile run with 4x1 mile @goal 10k pace. Splits for that were 6:06, 6:05, 6:07 and 6:02; this was slightly faster than last week and gave me a lot of confidence in my chances at a PR in two weeks.

My final quality run was my long run yesterday. I ran 20.4 miles @8:14 pace. I would have like the average pace to be a bit faster but it was crazy windy during the run. I think the gusts were up to 40 mph. There were several places where we felt we were being pushed back. I ran the first 17 with Tom. Here is the breakdown of those miles; 11 @ 8:19, 5 @ 7:19, 1 @ 8:5x. We ran with another group of people who were going at a slower pace. Once we finished the distance Tom wanted, I headed back out on the trail to catch the other three runners in our group and finish with them. In all it was a good run.

I have noticed my patellar tendinitis flaring up a little. That is why I took today off from running. I have had my knee taped up all week but it really bothered me during the last few miles yesterday. I think part of it is how much I have picked up my speed this month. In January, I ran 250 miles @ 9:04 pace. So far I have 225 miles @ 8:15 pace this month. Next week I am going to make sure my easy runs are super easy and hopefully that will help. If not, I may need to re-hash my training schedule.

I was able to get to the gym twice this week for strength work! The goal is to keep that up all year. I do need to change the days I am lifting though. Stupidly, I lifted Friday knowing I had a long run Saturday morning. My arms were definitely sore and my water bottle felt like it weighed twenty pounds. No more weights on Friday. Next week will be my last at this mileage and intensity before my 10k. I plan on backing off mileage a little that week to give myself a better shot at a PR.