I hit 87 miles, my second biggest week ever, and everything felt pretty good. I doubled on Tues, Thurs and Sun and took monday off. My general plan for getting ready for an october marathon is going to be based on 4 week cycles, including 3 weeks of increasing mileage followed by a 4th down week (ideally with a race that weekend).
I have been doing my tuesday workouts barefoot on grass, which has been surprisingly pleasant. I think that it is easier to run barefoot when you are really running hard versus just doing a general aerobic run with no shoes. This is probably because at 2 mile or 1 mile race pace my form/leg turnover is much closer to an optimal stride than my general 7:15 minute mile shuffle. Who knows.
I have been trying to pick my coaches brain at the workouts to try and figure out how to be faster for the 5k, and his response is that it takes time, focus and specific hard work. Because I haven't met any of those criteria with my training since the San Diego marathon, it has been pointed out that I am not going to be running fast this time of year. The discussion I had with him reminded me that I am totally naive to effective training, and that I need to adjust my standards for myself. I know now that I am not going to set a PR every week for the rest of the year, especially with sluggish marathon training legs.
I did do OK at the 5k I ran this weekend however, as it was on trails and I had my highest overall finish ever (4th). I ran without a watch, and stayed pretty close to the leader for the first mile, and then fell off the pace a little bit and ended up battling for 2nd place for most of the race. I got passed with about 400 meters to go, and had no answer left. I came in at 17:29, which is about what I expected. I have another 5k this weekend that I will be more rested for, but it is in the 90's where the race is, so it will be a tough one.
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