Update: The 7 Week Marathon PR Training Program

I first introduced you about my magical 7-week marathon PR training program a few weeks ago.  You know, the one I put together in a half-assed attempt to walk away with a marathon PR in NOLA?  

7 weeks to a marathon PR

I have actually had NOLA lined up as my PR race since like May thinking that it would be my first flat marathon and thus an easy one for a PR.  This was also well before I decided that it was a good idea to run marathons every 2 to 5 weeks.  So an obscene number of a few other marathons may have gotten in the way of what would be considered proper training.  It's pretty hard to do any sort of focused training when your next marathon is only 3 or 4 weeks away.  And it's even harder when your left ass just doesn't want to cooperate with you. 

To update you (because I know that you have been dying to know how this great plan has been going), I have actually had some pretty amazing runs in the past few weeks.  Just when I thought that all my speed had been lost, my little legs went ahead and surprised me!  

Two weeks after the Louisiana Marathon, I had a solo 18 miler on my schedule.  Needless to say, I was less than stoked.  Not about the 18 mile part.  More about the solo part.  I don't mind running alone but it had been quite sometime since running that far by myself.  My plan called for 18 miles at around an 11:00 minute pace so I rationally made a goal to run 18 miles in 3 hours, which, if you can do marathon math, is much faster than the prescribed 11:00 pace.  So I parked my car in a good central location and then made yet another plan to run out one way for 45 minutes and then back.  This would put me back by my car at an hour and half into my run in case I needed to drop anything off.  Then I would continue out the other way for 45 minutes and then back.  This would get me back to my car at the 3 hour mark and hopefully close to 18 miles.  So pretty much defeating the purpose of the "long slow run."  

So I get to the first 45 minutes and see that I'm going along at a good pace.  Got in just about 4.4 miles.  So then I make another goal that I need to run the same amount of distance (or greater) in each of the next three 45 minute segments of my run.  This is some mind-blowing sh!t right here!  

Source

So I pretty much keep a good even pace (even getting slightly faster) for the next two 45 minute segments of the run.  Well that last 45 minute segment was gonna be tough because it had some decent hills in it, but when Krissy sets her mind to do something, she pretty much does it. Cause I ain't got time to be foolin' around.

This has nothing to do with running, but it's my blog and I think it's funny.

So I pick up the pace just a bit for that last 45 minutes and reach my car with a few minutes to spare before hitting my 3 hours.  And I'm at like 17.8 miles.  Well since 18 was really my goal, I just kept running like any good Type A runner would do until my Garmin made its little beepity beep indicating that I had completed the 18 miles that I set out to do.  18 miles in 3:02:34 - 10:08 pace.  That's like insanely fast for me for 18 miles.  

Proof!

So that long run was either really really good or really really bad, depending on your perspective.  Yeah, it was way too fast for a training run and I am a big believer in doing your long runs at a very slow pace, BUT, I didn't feel like I was running too hard and felt like I was running at a good conversational pace.  So there!

So then last week, I had 22 miles on the schedule, so I decided to do that inside the Mississippi River Marathon.  You can read about that run in my recap because I'm too lazy to type it up all over again. 

Besides for the long runs, I've also been doing some "speed" work and tempo runs, although I use those terms rather loosely since anything that I am capable of doing is far from what one would consider "speedy."  I mostly do these runs on the treadmill because I am very lazy and I don't have to think about pacing myself.  Yes, I see the drawbacks of this method, but whatevs.  Last week I did take my mile repeats and marathon pace run out to the streets and boy oh boy it was a lot of work to keep looking at that stupid watch every 30 seconds to make sure I was on pace.  I find marathon pace runs to be the hardest for me since my normal pace is about 15 seconds faster per mile.  My body just wants to run a 9:45, not a 10:00.  So I didn't fight it.
 
So, am I ready for a PR this weekend?  Maybe.  Am I obsessively stalking the weather?  Definitely.