Didn’t really feel like writing this week… I am writing a paper at work (this is a very good thing, but it dampens the enthusiasm to blog).
Not going to do daily recaps but I ran 73.1 miles last week. For the last few weeks of marathon training we are cutting back to two workouts, a strength-focused track session and a long run. I have been doing more short/easy doubles than you would think would be recommended for marathon training, but I’m not worried about the details so much. The track session this week was another beast. Was assigned 4 x [2K @ 8:08-8:10, 1 min rest, 1K @ 3:51-3:53, 3 min rest]. For reference, that is a little under half marathon pace for the 2Ks (which were easy) and 10K pace for the 1Ks (which were decidedly not, and I only hit one in range). Ended up with 8:05, 3:55, 8:09, 3:52, 8:05, 3:58, 8:08, 3:56. Long run was a solid 22 miler @ 7:49 pace. I kept it easy but rather spontaneously chose to push the last 2 miles at 7:10ish, which was good mentally as usually I have given up the ghost by that point.
Today I took the day off completely. I had the realization this week that I am NOT pushing myself to the limit this training cycle. Am I pushing myself to the edge in my key workouts? Yes. In races? Yes. But I backed off on cross training and some ancillary things and because of that I don’t feel the same kind of extreme exhaustion that I have occasionally felt in training. It’s hard to put aside the guilt/negative feelings about this, but in a way, I think it’s good for me to experience this feeling. (Or am I just framing my laziness in a positive light? Well, it can’t hurt to learn how to do that…) Because that means that even if I run a race and think, “I don’t know how I can top that,” well, I can feel that there is more in the tank. Last year this would have been the extreme limit. Now it’s doable. So maybe next year this is the foundation to build on.
One complain-y thing, though: for training purposes, this is not a good year for a January marathon. On Christmas Day I am doing a long marathon pace run, definitely by myself since I will be in the Bay Area. On New Year’s Day I will be doing my last 20+ miler. Happy holidays! Enjoy being lonely and in pain! Good thing I actually like running…
In non-running news I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and signed up for Pinterest, both of which I recommend 
I hear ya on the long runs on Christmas and New Years. I’ve rearranged my schedule to do them on Friday. I mean, who wants to run 22 miles on Jan. 1?????? Bleh. Another great week for you! There’s nothing lazy about 70+ miles…
So you do the last “big” long run two weeks out?
My race is on the 15th of January as well. I think I’ll do my last long run on Christmas eve. For a fleeting moment I thought about waking up at 4:30am on Christmas to do it the “official” three weeks out so that I could be done by the time people were ready for Christmas morning, but then I was like wait….no.
In the past, I have done my longest long run (22) 3 weeks out, then an 18-19, then a 12-14, then the race, just because that seemed to be what most people/plans recommend. So this is a new thing. However, I also have done a 10K-12K race very close to race day (8-10 days) a couple times and been OK. We won’t be doing that as it is admittedly risky, but taken together and with my other experiences our sense is that for me personally, a 3 week taper is probably overkill. Fortunately my familly goes to church and does gifts on Christmas Eve…
Big week!!
Should be an interesting experiment, since you’re allowing yourself more recovery time in between workouts. It could be beneficial and it might also lead to less injuries, which would be a huge plus I’m sure you’d agree.
I’ve been wrestling with the same kind of question this year. I used to run my workouts all out every time. This year I’ve been a little more measured and sticking to the paces I think I should be hitting. I discovered I used to run my 800m repeats at 3k pace instead of 5k and if I stick to 5k pace, I can run 4 extra. I guess the biggest difference for me is that I don’t have dead sore legs all the time anymore. But I don’t really have to data to tell which is more beneficial though, since I spent this year coming back from injury. I guess the proof will be in the PR!