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March 5, 2006
waiting for robo
(sitting here waiting for a very big file to copy from one place to another)
It's been a long week, but the hay is in the barn, I guess. This week I ran 97.6 miles, most of it very slow to spare my legs for the two workouts that really mattered. The first of those two - Tuesday, 14 miles with the last 4 @6:40 - I didn't quite get. I felt ok and wasn't yet tired or beat-up feeling, but I seemed to settle in at 6:50 and I found it easier to daydream than to push 10s faster and hold it. I ended up with 6:43 pace, not dead-on but ok.
Despite the fact that I ran everything else really easy, I was still tired and sore by this morning's 18, which was my last long run and was supposed to be 7:05 - 7:10s for the last 11 miles. Surprise, surprise, it turned out ok. There was a bit of a northeast wind, enough so I noticed it while going north or east, so I decided this would really be a good training run for Shamrock (what else could I do? pout?). During the headwind parts I tried to concentrate on cadence instead of freaking out at the drop in pace. That good turnover helped me gain some ground during the tailwind parts. There were a couple off-pace miles, but I ended up running the last 11 at 6:59 pace, which will never be my marathon pace but it was a good hard run. I learned I can deal with some wind, and I re-learned that I hate running in wind. Of course Shamrock won't be exactly like this: that course is essentially 6.5mi south, then 13mi north, then 6.7mi south again. Unlike my neighborhood, the course doesn't change direction every quarter- or half-mile or so. So if the wind is out of the north that day, I'm screwed.
Taper starts now. This coming week will only be 48 miles, though there's an 800s workout, a mid-week MP workout, and a 5K Saturday morning (yikes, now that I think about it, that's kinda hard). Next weekend I will work my very last overnight, and the week after will include 25 measly miles, which gives me plenty of time to work very very hard at not freaking out.
file's done. thanks, robocopy.
Posted by joe positive at March 5, 2006 4:07 PM