Art courtesy of Dela Vega.
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Week seven was an intense training week. It capped off August and my first full month of 2012 NYC Marathon training. Running-wise, I totaled 141.35 miles. This is the highest monthly mileage I’ve had in any marathon training cycle, thus far. I realize Dean Karnazes runs this mileage in a day; but I’m pleased with it. Happy to end the month feeling fit and healthy. Also nice to see training pace falling into line with plan more often now.
Monday: Rest day.
Tuesday: Intervals. This session went really well. Best round of intervals yet. Ran outdoors. Didn’t look at Garmin while running. Concentrated on maintaining relaxed form. Body felt good, no aches or pains. Finally hit that sub-7:00 min/mi pace!
- Total = 6.01 mi – 50:50 – 8:27 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 6 x 800m @ 6:48 min/mi
- Actual repeats = (1) 6:51; (2) 6:48; (3) 6:54; (4) 6:54; (5) 6:54; (6) 7:03
Wednesday: Cross-training. One-hour Body Conceptions by Mahri workout. What a great session! Cardio through dance-inspired dynamic movement and body sculpting using own body weight. Large concentration on engaging core. Really enjoyed trying something new.
Thursday: Rest day. Active recovery. Spent nearly 8 hours out and about walking around the city. Epsom salt soak and foam rolling in evening.
Friday: Tempo run. Early AM sunrise run. Didn’t eat well previous evening, so expected low energy and sluggish legs. Pleasantly surprised to find legs (and whole body) feeling good. Cooler temp was fantastic. No problem dropping down to, and maintaining tempo pace. Intentionally over-paced a bit to fit total mileage into my time constraint.
- Total = 8.01 mi – 1:03:22 – 7:54 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 6 mi @ 8:05 min/mi
- Actual splits = (1) 8:04; (2) 7:47; (3) 7:52; (4) 7:46; (5) 7:43; (6) 7:45
Saturday: Long run. Moved run to evening to give legs recovery time after Fri tempo. Took about two miles to warm up and for legs to feel good. Comfortable pace, controlled form. Shorter long run this week, so made it a hillier route. Also bumped up mileage to a half marathon for my own amusement. Saturday night half marathon for one.
- Total = 13.1 mi – 1:51:20 – 8:27 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 13 mi @ 8:38 min/mi
- Actual = 13.1 mi @ 8:27 min/mi
Sunday: Cross-training. Spin for 45 minutes. Fantastic to have class with Emily again! Speed work, hills, killer arm series, and lots of core work.
Total weekly mileage: 27.12 miles
See all weekly training recaps here.
