GOALS:
So here I am, 29 June 2010, 109 days from Marathon Morning and I have not chosen a marathon time goal as of yet. I was waiting to see how my training developed and where I felt I’d be. It was never to be a game-day decision, but I wanted to really get a feel for my workouts and my fitness. Also, I want to place any goal a little out of my reach. Just enough to get me out of bed on those early Sunday mornings; enough to push me through the first few reps of a speed workout; enough to keep me honest on effort based workouts. As a result my time goal for RnR Philadelphia was also in limbo. Per my coach’s recommendation, I’ll just run this race as a GMP workout. I’m hoping to push GMP in the early miles and race the end at a full effort. And with no further ado…
For Baltimore, my goal is to run with an overall average pace of 8:30 min/mile; for a net time of 3:42.30. With the training that I have upcoming and the challenge of this specific course, I believe this goal to be reasonable and attainable, but not overly easy. I still reserve the right to edit this time over the next 108 days! As my training progresses or regresses, this time will surely change. However, this is my start point. This goal finishing time will be the litmus test that I will use to judge my workouts. I won’t be changing my paces until my fitness shows the change is needed; we train against current ability, not perceived ability. The Baltimore course profile shows significant up hills early and pretty good down hills toward the end. But is rolling throughout.
As my ‘Cherry Marathon’ I want to enjoy the course and experience as much as possible; I also want to run a good race though. If I was just looking for a way to go sightseeing around Baltimore, I’d drive the 45 minutes and skip the 4 months of training, hundreds of running miles, and inability to not talk about running to anyone that will listen.
That brings me to RnR Philadelphia. With it being four weeks out from Baltimore, I don’t get to race it as I normally would to fully test my fitness. The race will be a hybrid of a Goal Marathon Effort Run and a Speedy Tempo Session; I hope. Ideally, I’d run the first 10 miles at Goal Marathon Effort then drop down to HM or even 10k pace for the last 5k. So if I’m saying 8:30 for the first 10 miles, that will put me around 1:25:00 at the 10 mile point. Finishing between HM-10k pace would bring the last 5k or so around 7:49 for 24:20. All together that would put me on a perfect race day goal for Philly being at or right under 1:50:00. Philly is a fairly flat course with several former national and world records having been set on it.
The new road ahead:
Not much has changed in my training since my last blog. I emailed my coach about increasing my weekly mileage, and she agreed. As a result, I will have slightly more volume, mainly because I responded well to the intensity that we had been working on. The beginnings of that was my 5-miler this morning (as opposed to the 4 miles I had scheduled previously). Coach Nicole answered my question swiftly and without any reservations to my request. I am gaining more and more respect and trust for her with every passing workout. Online coaches are hit and miss, I really lucked out with mine. No complaints.
Upcoming workouts:
Tuesday, 29 June
5 miles easy
Wednesday, 30 June
9 miles moderate with 4 x (1mile @ HM Effort followed by 400m @ 5k effort)
Thursday, 1 July
Rest (or 3-4 recovery miles)
Friday, 2 July
3-4 miles easy
Saturday, 2 July
16 miles moderate with 4 x Strides, 10 x Sprints, then 5 x 200m, 3 miles at LT-HM Effort, finish with 5 x 200m
Sunday, 2 July
3 recovery miles
You have to believe that you can achieve it and then work your ass off to get there.
~ Jaymee Marty
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