Training confidence
Marathon training seems to be going well. For the month of October I have run the second highest number of miles for a month ever. In November of 2004 I ran 145. So far this month I've run 140. The running totals for the previous three months are 55, 37, and 65. The huge ramp-up could be cause for concern, but cycling miles are drastically down, so effort that traditionally went to riding is now being spent on running.
While this week is technically a step-back week for me, this morning's track session was the toughest one of the year. John, JJ and I ran 1600, 3200 and 2x800. It's a good thing my long run for the week was only 10 miles. I beat my split for the 1600 by 3 seconds, missed the 3200 by 1 second, missed the first 800 by 2 seconds and nailed my last 800. The net of all the intervals? I hit the splits required for someone looking to finish the marathon in 3:30.
Now I need to continue working on the aerobic engine with slower (not slow) long runs, aiming for somewhere around 8:30 m/m splits. I have a hard time with this part of the training, and I ran my 17 mile run last week at 8:20 pace. My race pace will be 8:00, so I'm almost not training but racing the long runs. I need more discipline!