Sharpening

It's finally happening. This sharpening thing. This past Saturday on a 20 mile, very hilly trail run, I had a reserve of energy and speed that I didn't know existed. At one point, I was actually sprinting up a hill, at mile 15 feeling great. Today, during my speed workout (6 x 1600s), I ran my last 1600 in 5:44. The only reason I didn't do a 7th was due to time. It just might all be coming together.

1:27:44

That was my 1/2 marathon time on Saturday. 6:42 average. I'm moderately happy with this time. In order to run a sub-3 hour marathon, all of the calculators say that you need to run a 1/2 marathon in 1:25, which I really wasn't close to. However, I didn't taper for this race and actually ran hard on both Thursday and Friday. So, moderately happy. I have hope.

I also now have a blister on my left big toe that pretty much encompasses the entire right half of the toe. That's what happens when you wear your racing flats. Shoes that you haven't worn in about 3 months. I needed every advantage I could get for "race" day on Saturday. "Race" because it was only four of us and we weren't racing each other, only the clock. Everyone seemed pretty happy with their times.

I'm thinking of wearing my racing flats for the marathon. I'll run in them during my interval workouts and maybe my medium long days (10 - 13 miles usually on Thursday) and see how it goes. After the "race", I took my flats off, put my trainers on, and ran another 5 miles. My trainers felt like bricks. Bricks do not enable one to run fast. I might try thicker socks to stem off the globe-sized blisters.

Three of the next four weeks have me running in the high 50s, low 60s for mileage. Let's tear down this body even more.

The Dead Zone

I'm entering a phase in my training where I'm simply tired of training. Mentally, not physically. It's been 12.5 weeks, with 7.5 weeks to go and mentally I'm barely hanging on.

Last Saturday's 20 miler that began well, was a disaster in the middle (stomach issues), and exhausting (dehydration) at the end didn't help. The subsequent 24 hours of blood and mucous didn't thrill me either.

I need a vacation.

Dead Legs

Last week, I was completely shredded. Dead Leg City. Every step was like I was running in mud. Therefore, I took this week as a serious recovery/step-back week. I'm only running three times. However, two of those three runs are serious. On Tuesday, I ran 5 1600 repeats. On the treadmill of course at an elevation of 1. First mile after my 1 mile warmup was at 7:03 (speed warmup). Mile 2 was at 6:38. Mile 3 at 6:18 and miles 4 and 5 were at 6:00. The crazy thing was that I felt great. I haven't had a speed workout like that in years. I'm hoping that it wasn't an illusion. I'm running a casual 6 tomorrow and an 18 miler on Saturday, with 9 miles of it being at 6:48 pace. So while the mileage is down, I have two intense workouts.

Cutting back this week has been great. No falling asleep while driving and I've been strong for once. Next week, back to the 50 mile weeks.

One more note. I ran a 22 miler last Saturday. I don't know if other runners experience this, but when I stop running any time after 18 miles, the pain is so intense that I usually audibly moan in pain. It's only when I stop though. Very odd.