Training kicks up

In May I decided training for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon was a good idea. I spent the next few weeks building my long run to a point where I felt comfortable kicking off marathon training.

I kicked off training the week of July 1st. I'm making this training fit into my schedule, so my week generally goes like this:

Monday - long run

Tuesday - track/workout

Wednesday - easy recovery

Thursday - longer recovery

Friday - not quite long run/workout

Saturday - off

Sunday - off

It's not an ideal schedule, but it works for me. I'm working in 4 weeks blocks, where I do 3 higher mileage weeks before coming down for a recovery week. 

The first training block went fairly well. I build my long runs up to 32k, and felt comfortable. My down week was good, with an easy 25k long run, a good longer tempo workout, and a couple of easy days.

The biggest thing I've struggled with is training paces, and what I should be doing on my long runs to get fit. So, last Monday (August 5th) I went out to do 35k. This would be my longest run in a few years, so I should probably take it fairly easily, right? Well, not really.

After 10 miles, I decided to run a tempo type of 10k, with the idea of teaching my body to run tired. So, I threw in a 37:09 10k from 16-26k. The rest of my run was fast, and felt pretty good considering it was a long, hard run. I ended up averaging 3:57/k for the run, but the last 25k were at 3:45/k. That was very encouraging, as I'm still trying to get a grasp on my fitness, but tiring.

Tuesday is track day, and the Guelph Victor's had their 3000m time trial set up. Now, I knew I should be taking it easy, but I'm a "do as I say not as I do" kinda guy, and ended up going after it in the time trail. I ended up with a solid time, but the last km was rough. We followed up the 3k with a couple of 800m repeats. I was pretty tired at the end of the day, and knew I probably shouldn't have gone that hard.

Wednesday and Thursday were easy days. Wednesday I normally run my 3 year old to her daycare in the stroller. It's about 9km to the daycare, and another km or so to work, so that was easy. Thursday was a fairly easy 16k.

Friday came, and I wanted to get in over 20k, and get some tempo in. I decided to do a hilly run with 30 minutes tempo. Bad idea. I focused too much on pace, not enough on how I felt, and was completely beat up by the run. I did a good job hitting the times, but it was far too difficult. 2 days off should help keep recovery coming, and hopefully I'll feel good for Monday's long run. 

Week total: 5 runs, 96km