Friday, July 3, 2009

Week 9, Where's the Taper?

View from the Marin side of the bridge on Sunday's run

Sunday: 8 miles @ 10:12 pace; I went to Crissy Field to run the hill leading up to the Golden Gate Bridge and the bridge itself. I even did a second repeat of the steepest section of the incline leading up from Crissy Field. Holy heart raising incline! The good news about this part of the course is that what goes up... I am planning to do this again at least once or twice before the marathon.

Tuesday: 10 miles, including 4x 1600m @ 8:55 pace (got them done at 8:49, 8:41, 8:51, 8:32) This was my final interval workout before the marathon. I really like interval workouts. You are only ever really thinking of the next mile or half a mile recovery at a time and before you know it you've got 10 miles done! These were much more do-able today vs. my post physical therapy fiasco a few weeks ago.

I ran back and forth along a portion of Golden Gate Park. So the first and third intervals were done heading in the same direction. I am now 100% convinced that while the whole thing is slightly rolling, it is more downhill heading east vs. west in that portion of the park. The second and fourth intervals (heading east) were a little bit easier than the first and third ones. This is nice because the marathon heads east on this portion of the course.

Wednesday: 11 miles @ 10:45 pace; My body was definitely tired after Tuesday's run. I also developed a strange pain in the back of my knee during Tuesday's run (when you bring your heel up towards your butt the back of my knee would hurt). It hurt while running Tuesday and I almost nixed the Wednesday run. Today, however, no pain whatsoever during running, though the heel-to-butt movement (which with my non-existent kick does not happen much when actually running) still elicited pain.

Friday: 16 miles @ 11:16 pace; Still have that odd pain when squeezing heel-to-butt but nothing while walking/running and it is improving. Had planned to take this slow but my body was dragging today and went really slow without much braking effort. I even took some walking breaks which brought my pace down even further. Told myself to suck it up the last two miles and banged those out in 10:18 and 9:50, respectively. So not a total hit-the-wall bonk but still a pretty crappy run. I'm a little bummed about the way I felt during today's run. But I am trying to remind myself that I have had weeks of awesome runs and they can't all be great ones. I am hoping this was just a very off day for me and not some sign that my body is starting to feel like I am running it into the ground. I hit a monthly mileage PR of 167 miles in June.

I have just one more high mileage week before taper starts. If I were doing a traditional 3 week taper, today would have been my last 20 miler. Since I felt so bad on my long run today I am pretty thankful I am not doing a 3 week taper. A lot of people say they hate to taper. I understand the taper-craziness but I actually look forward to the taper. There is a very shiny 3 miler waiting for me on July 21st. And the week before that I get to run 6 milers!! Sweet, sweet 6 milers!!

13 comments:

Marci said...

Great mileage, you are working so hard for this marathon! Keep up the great work!

ShirleyPerly said...

Good week of running!

Yes, for one reason or another, all runs don't go as well as we'd like and it's tempting to try to "make-up" for the bad ones. I hope that strange knee pain continues to subside. You really sound like you've done everything right and it's just now a matter of getting to race day healthy.

Marlene said...

Congrats on the milestone in June and some more awesome run. Bummer that your long run didn't go great, but you'll have a chance to redeem yourself.

Almost taper time!!! That 3-miler is going to feel SOOO short. You're going to hit 3 miles and think 'What? I'm done already? I was just getting started...'

Southbaygirl said...

woman you are insane! Look at all that mileage! I really feel like a slacker!!! But I'm not doing the full in SF just the half!!!

Can't wait to meet you in SF!!!

Mica said...

Awesome mileage, especially the 10-miler with 1600 intervals--hardcore!

Enjoy your taper!

RG said...

Great photo!

Alisa said...

Awesome runs, awesome photo! Can't wait for SF, even though I haven't been putting int he miles I probably should. I'm looking forward to the experience!

Alisa said...

P.S. Mr. Pi gets that weird back of the knee pain. His usually goes away. Wonder what it is?

rUntoNamAste said...

Sorry to hear about the knee pain. You reigned supreme and got your mileage in so good job! I recently got put on to Arnica sports creme (can be found at Whole Foods). It works wonders and doesn't stink either so you can apply it anywhere, anytime!

I <3 tapering. And so does my body after months of gruelling training. Good luck, you're almost there!

Aron said...

you are doing soooo awesome!!! you training is really going well, keep it up and see you in sf in a couple weeks :)

Runner Leana said...

Wow, that is a whole lotta runnin! Nicely done!! Hopefully the pain behind your knee has gone ahead.

Anonymous said...

yay intervals!!! hehe great job on your training! you're doing fabulous and I can't wait to see you at SF :)

Marathon Maritza said...

Wow, excellent training runs and GREAT job on the intervals! It's scary how like my paces your paces look! You are doing awesome!

I know you are maybe feeling a bit nervous at this point, which is always how it gets toward the end of the training cycle, going into taper. You have to trust that you have done the work. That's it, it's done. You have to just focus on keeping fit and staying healthy for race day, where you will kick butt and leave it all out there.

GO GO GO!