April 17 - 23

 Mon - 6.3

 Tue - 6.3 @ 8:03 pace

 Wed - 6.3

 Thu - 6.3 w/ 6 x 880y

 Fri - 6.3

 Sat - 31.5 @ 11:30 pace (road)

 Sun - 7.5

 Tot - 70.5

A pound of dutch loaf please

 3 weeks out from Ice Age and I went with the long run option.  Used the house as the aid station and went 7 x 4.5 mile segments for 31.5 miles.  Ran roads and did no walking.  I only timed the running.  Averaged 11:30 per mile and went through the marathon in 5:02:45 (26.22) and the 50k (31.1) in 5:58:05.  When I finished it was 85 degrees and I was waxed.  I was powered by water with some salt in it, a peanut butter sandwich and coffee.  I only carried a bottle on the last loop.  That was my bottle practice session.

 I will cut back about 12-15 miles from my average week next week.  I'll continue to do a couple turnover workouts each week until the run.  If it is cooler on race day the plan is to just jog as it comes, walk the hills, and be conscious of walking more than I normally would.  I always talk myself into running half the hill and towards the end I'm lunch meat.

April 10 - 16

 Mon - 6.3

 Tue - 6.8 w/ 3.0 @ 7:40 pace

 Wed - 6.3

 Thu - 6.3

 Fri - Off

 Sat - 27.0 

 Sun - 9.0

 Tot - 61.7

Boston Pops

 In honor of the Boston Marathon tomorrow I clicked through 26.22 miles in 5:25:13 on the 27 miler today.  Did the .37 mile jog and .13 walk ratio the whole way.  Averaged 12:24 per mile and it felt easy.  It did get hot.  I'll have to acquire some S-Caps!

12:30 pace

 So the reality version of Ice Age is this.  After averaging 12:32 at the January trail 50k, it seems reasonable with the training to run the race as follows.  Jog .37 miles and walk .13 miles a good portion of the way.  I'd probably jog more the first 10 miles and probably walk more the last 10 miles.  This would yield a 10:25 finish time.  This is the format I should aim to try.  I have not finished strong the last 13 miles since 2018.  It would be best to conserve, practice patience, and if there was anything left then finish strong.

 What will probably happen is somewhere in the middle of yesterday's dream post and the reality version of today.  I'll run most of the first 10 and then practice the jog/walk strategy until I catch an occasional hot spot, meaning I will primarily run 2-3 mile segments at a time.  When I arrive at Emma with 9.7 to go it will be whatever is left.  I'm determined not to walk most of it so I need to cool the jets between 21.7 at Rice Lake until Horseman's at 37.  I believe this could get me around 10:15.

April 3 - 9

 Mon - 6.3

 Tue - 6.3 w/ 2.0 @ 7:44 pace

 Wed - 6.3 moderate @ 9:16

 Thu - 6.3 moderate @ 8:49

 Fri - 6.3 

 Sat - 17.2 @ 10:32

 Sun - 13.5

 Tot - 62.2

Red River

 This week had me dreaming about the upcoming Ice Age 50 miler.  Not only in real time dream action, but also when laying awake and pondering.  In the dream, I was telling myself to get out to the transmission tower right of way and start running the downhill portions over and over.  It is Florida, so the hills are gentle declines, but the dream version of me was adding two of these sessions a week to prepare the quads for Ice Age.  

 Now this is not a bad idea.  I put the idea to some thought as I lay awake at 1:30am.  Eventually it works out that I can't start adding workouts without compromising the present course.  Beside, there really is no plan to freewheel downhill like in years past.  Just straight bombing down the hills.  In the day we practiced this at Lapham which had some big long descents.  It is quite possible to crush your quads at Ice Age.  I should be okay.  Who does damage at 12 minute miles.

 So the dreams did not end there.  I pulled the logbook out from 2018 when I finished 20 seconds behind Robert in 8:28:21.  I chased him for about 12 miles.  That is 10:10 pace.   When you look at logs you look for similarities to present times.  Sometimes you are honest with yourself and other times one sorta sandbags.  I don't like to sandbag too much and there are other issues we all deal with.  How could I go from just getting a finish to laying out a plan in my head to shoot for 9:30 weather permitting?

 Well, here are the optimistic views.

- I don't know a lot about much, but I'm pretty fair in knowing about what I could run a marathon in.  I'm pretty certain 4:00 flat is obtainable.   2 x 4:00 = 8:00 + 1:30 = 9:30.

- 2018 average road pace for general runs was around 9:30-9:40.  I averaged 10:10 at Ice Age.  Today the plan is a bit different, but on general long runs like today the average was 10:32 for 17.2 and 10:18 for 23.2 last Saturday.  So roughly 8:30 + 1:00 = 9:30.

- As I lean more towards mainly running now, work on driving down my cruising speed (I do little trail running to achieve this), lower my weight, and run in warmer weather, I ask myself this question.   If you went out conservative like on a regular training run and walk most of the inclines, what pace is top end weather permitting?  My gut feeling was 11:30.  11: 30 x 50 = 575 = 9:35 finish.

 These are all big ideas.  It is difficult to train diligently, see progress and not ponder what the limits are.  Most everyone reading this is just like me.  Like Jim McMahon for the Bears.  Jim could not just slide, or tip toe out of bounds.  He threw his body around always seeing if he could get past another guy.  Eventually you get your head handed to you.  Maybe I will as well, but I wanted some of you out there to know.  You might turn around and I'll be there.

 Pack a lunch.

March 27 - April 2

 Mon - 6.3

 Tue - 6.3

 Wed - 6.3

 Thu - 6.3 w/ 3.0 @ 8:06 pace

 Fri - 6.3

 Sat - 23.3 @ 10:18 pace

 Sun - 6.3

 Tot - 61.1

But I don't even work here

 Each week a bit more confidence is gained as Ice Age approaches.   Six weeks out means about 4 more weeks of decent training.  Today was a long run and today was the day I proved to myself I could obtain one of the metrics.  A couple months ago the plan was the same as it had been.  Run 50-55 a week with a lot of walking and a hand full of long efforts.  Then it was felt if 20 miles could be had at 11:15 pace then this was a good mark.

 Not long after this I saw a picture of myself finishing in 2022.  Fat, slow, and leaning so bad to one side (again), that it motivated me to change some things.  Losing weight had to help.  I need about 5 more pounds to get to my old fighting weight of 172.  I added tempo runs and a few well timed moderate efforts to make me faster.  Then in a rare move, I actually move around 3 days a week near 12-14 minute miles to rest up.

 Today the plan was go find a groove and stay there.  I wasn't going after it like last week, but I wanted the pace to be respectful.  So without any food before or during the run and subsiding on only water and coffee I ran 23.3 miles at 10:18 pace in 4:00:23.  I'm not sure what this tells me, but it does reinforce the high end goal of 10:30 is not off the table.  The goal is just to finish, not chase time, but some days if you ain't blastin' you and lastin'.

 Next week I'll go around 5 hours and practice run/walk strategies at about 2 minutes slower a mile.  I have not sought out the trails much.  I'm trying to increase speed.  Besides, I end up pulling tics out of funky places a day or two later which freaks the wife out.