Marathon - Week 7

Another 60+ mile week and my legs are holding up pretty well.  I have 1 more week after this one before my step back week so hopefully my legs will hold up and I won't get injured as I have really jumped the mileage up quickly.  After my stepback I am jumping up to 70 miles a week for 4 weeks before tapering for my marathon. I have re-evaluated my goal for the marathon though as qualifying for Boston my first time out is pretty much out of the question.  I can hold a really great pace in the 7:30-7:40 range on my longs up until about mile 18 or 19 when I hit a wall. It may be because I don't take another Gu (only taking one at mile 7 and 14) but there is no way I could run the 6:55 pace even with a taper.  I do still plan on trying to get close but if I had to guess its unrealistic for me to finish in under 3:20:00, but I will give it my best shot. I would just have to shave 20 minutes off my time.

So one of the ways I have been staying healthy is with some new recovery compression socks from SmartWool.  They make it much easier to get those 2nd runs in on the double days because my legs recover much quicker.  The only drawback was the initial backlash from Tina asking why the hell I spent $30 on a pair of socks from Socks.com.  All I have to say is that if you are running a lot I highly recommend them. The only word of advice though, is don't wear them during the day to work with dress pants as it looks pretty funny when you look down in a meeting and can see grey and blue socks with black dress pants.

I ended up moving my long run to Friday this week because of plans we had this weekend and we ended up going to the Southwick zoo with Colin, Elliott and Casey.  My legs were pretty wiped from the run and I wished I was the one in the stroller for half the trip but I made it through it and Colin seemed to have a great time and even wanted to go into the cage with the tigers.

The highlight of my training week definitely was the sick threshold run I threw down on Sunday.  I nearly ran in the 6s for it but came in right at 7:00s flat.  My fastest miles in it were the first 3 and the last one at 6:30, 6:42, 6:50, 6:50, respectively.  I need to keep improving my speed especially if I want to run some fast times in the 5Ks and 10Ks I have scheduled for this Fall.

Weekly Total: 65.5 miles.

Monday:		51 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Tuesday:		AM: Intervals 2x[800@6:50; 400@6:30; 400@6:00; 1200@7:00]. 7 miles. PM: 46 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Wednesday:		46 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Thursday:		Rest
Friday:		Long Run @ 7:50 pace. 21.5 miles.
Saturday:		48 minutes easy. 6 miles.
Sunday:		AM: 63 minutes threshold @ 7:00 pace. 9 miles. PM: 32 minutes easy. 4 miles.