I love this thread! Every week you guys are kickin ass. Keep it up for the final haul.
Navy - I agree with the advice to start off around 2:50 until 17-18 in. It would be much better if you ran an "easy" 2:50 with something left in the tank than if you bonk and run/walk home to 3+. For your past marathons, did you do a lot of longer 20+ mile runs? Just wondering because it looks like you hit the wall pretty hard. Maybe you need to try more GU/gatorade during the race? Idk, just throwing it out there.
Race: Lakefront
Goal: 2:37-2:38
This was a big week for me with a nice tune-up half marathon that I was really pleased with. Also, this was the most mileage I have done on almost all singles (only one double and also had one short day) so it looks like everything is coming together!
M - Moderate 13 mi in 1:29 (6:50ish) with schools track club
Tu - AM: Easy 5 PM: Easy 5 (total time was 1:07:42 but it felt way more relaxed than the pace would indicate)
W - Moderate 11 mi in 1:16 with track club
Th - Workout with track club guys. First short quick stuff I have done in a while (they are all training for 8k and I am stuck in my slow marathon stuff). 4 mi WU, 10x100-150m strides, 6x~200m (33 sec per) with long 600m recovery, 4 strides, 4 mi CD. Entire workout was barefoot on a grassy field so my calves were pretty sore afterwards.
F - Recovery 5 (38 min). I really needed the recovery! Calves were pretty tight from Thurs.
Sat - 1/2 marathon tune-up race. Plan was to run first 6 @ 6mpm and then try to drop down to 5:40-5:45s for the last 7 but, the plan changed. I got caught up with a bunch of guys training for the same marathon as me with the same goal time and we decided to go for ~1:16 or so. Splits were 5:44, 5:58, 6:03 (little long), 5:33 (little short), 5:53, 5:44, 5:42, 5:38, 5:41, 5:36, 5:37, 5:36, 5:32, :33 for a total time of 1:14:55. I was pretty pumped and also PRed for 10 miles en route. Calves were also pretty sore so I think I could have pushed it a bit more towards the end but didn't want to risk anything. This was a really big confidence booster for me! Total for day was 16
Sun - Moderate 14 mi (7:00s). Legs were pretty dead for first 6 miles but next 8 were really smooth and dipped under 7:00s.
Total mileage: 80 in 8 runs
Like I said, I was really pleased with how this week goes and now have a bunch of guys I can run the marathon with (from the race on Saturday). Game plan for race day is ~1:19:00 for the first half and then drop the hammer (if possible) at mile 20.
Keep up the good work everyone!