The race I was training for has been postponed as a result of the worldwide pandemic COVID-19. I chose to still finish the final two weeks of training, which included SOS workouts of a tempo run of 10 miles, a speed run of 5 timed miles, and a tempo run of 6 miles.
The 10 mile tempo run was a 71 degree morning. As I did last year, the route was along the beach road. The week before, we had a cooler morning and the longest midweek run of two 5 mile tempos. We (Daniel, Maureen, Kyle, and I) did that one in the Bluff Ridge neighborhood. They went well, but the 10 miler is a true test of your fitness level. It’s one to pay close attention to. I brought a packet of Maurten 320 in the bottle that mounts to the bely I have. I wanted to practice drinking that solution while at race pace.
The chart below shows the mile split times for that run – a successful one with the pace average at 6:43. I was very happy with this – humid and on tired legs that have stayed healthy for the entire training cycle. I also did well on the first 10 mile tempo run two weeks earlier.
The speed workout on Tuesday was 5 miles to be run at pace minus 10 seconds. There was a 2 minute break in between each mile. We did these on Singer Island. The wind was coming from the E/NE so we had a breeze in the face for laps 1,3,5 and a wind behind us for laps 2,4. Here are those miles…
The final tempo run was 6 miles. Done again along the beach road in Juno and Jupiter, this time Daniel and I had more runners along for this workout. John Reback and Kyle Smith came to run our warmup, tempo miles and cooldown.
For this one I brought water only in the bottle. It was breezy from the SE, meaning a tailwind on the way down and a wind in the face finishing. I felt good on these miles, having a pace average of 6:42 for the 6 miles. See below…
I wrap up the final week of the training with light runs and a chance to allow my legs to taper and recover. I am very satisfied with how this training program delivered these results. I am in considerably faster condition than last year, training at a pace nearly 20 seconds quicker than my Boston 2019 effort. I started in early December with recovery from the Palm Beach Marathon. I interrupted the schedule 8 weeks ago with the A1A Marathon. I had cool mornings for some of the tough runs. I tripped and fell and rolled an ankle on a strength run, but thankfully all else was healthy. I believe that the nice course and cooler weather in PA would have been a great opportunity to run the race in less than 3 hours. I grew and had a good time with friends along the way. Helping Nicole and Kim train for their first marathon has been a wonderful experience. They are two committed and strong runners! I will look to springboard off this growth to run another race in the fall with a similar goal.
May I be able to post these results and this enthusiasm a mere week before that race!
~dm
drun4fun 