Harlansburg

Living in Sussex means lots of training on the Bugline.  I like the paved trail because I live right about in the middle of its 14 mile length.  It's basically flat which is nice when training for a flat marathon like Lakefront.  Surprising how few people are out early in the morning.  I'd give the nod to bikers for getting out earlier than runners.  I guess the serious ones have discovered the less pedestrians the better.  Sound wisdom.

This week I thought about injecting more speed work into my training.  I ran halves this week and I don't have access to the big gear.  One reaches a certain speed and that is it.  After all isn't marathon racing all about finding the cruising speed?  I decided after stepping outside of myself that two things were of issue.  First I would risk tweaking/pulling/injuring a leg muscle.  Second the marathon requires establishing a forbearance against the rigors which set in past 20 miles.  Dancing around the track doing 200/400s didn't seem to fit the logic as well as doing long tempo runs near or at race pace.  Having followed the principles of Kevin Beck before and succeeding there is no reason to adjust plans now 15 years later.  For more on this great read you can search Kevin Beck an all your eggs in one basket marathon approach.  A very good read.

7/26 - HR 53, 10.0 (10:15) Minooka (Dean/Andrea) easy
7/27 - HR 53, 10.0 (7:45) moderate
7/28 - HR 58, 10.0 w/ 8 x 880y w/ 440y rest
7/29 - HR 52, 8.0 (8:54) easy
7/30 - HR 56, 10.0 (7:38) moderate
7/31 - HR 52, 6.0 (7:21) moderate
8/1 - HR 54, 6.0 (10:41) easy

Tomorrow is my first long time trial on the track.  I will do a 20k.  To run a 3:10 you need 7:14s and for 3:05 you need 7:03s.  I suspect I will be in this range.  Half of the miles I ran on Friday were around 7:14.  I'm going to try and work on the pacing and lean towards a slower first couple miles.  I hope to be running no later than 5:30am so I better set the coffee pot up tonight.