Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Less than 4 weeks to the TCS New York City Marathon: Last week's training

We're down to just under four weeks to the TCS NYC Marathon, and I've completed my last big week of volume for this marathon build-up. With last week being at 140 miles, each week from now on will drop by 15-20 miles per week heading into the race on November 2nd. I still have several hard workouts in front of me, but they will ideally be getting progressively faster as I drop the volume and start to freshen up.

Sunday's long run consisted of my pace job in Berlin, which I discussed in last week's blog. The other workout for the week was a 6 x 2km repeat workout followed by an hour of moderate running (averaging around 5:40 pace) with a 200 meter jog recovery. While the 2km repeats were slightly faster than I have run before, the hour run preceding the workout was significantly faster than my last attempt at this workout in the spring and the recovery shorter. It's fair to say that I recovered from the pace job and travel from Berlin very quickly.

The last long run workout will be coming up next weekend in Victoria, BC. My wife will be running her first marathon at the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon, and after writing her training for the last three months, I will have to be there to see how it turns out! The course will be flat and scenic, it will be very well organized, and the weather will be exactly what we're used to; it's the perfect place for Eva to debut in the marathon. I have a 15-16 mile tempo planned for that weekend, and Jonathan Foweraker, the Elite Athlete Coordinator, has generously allowed me to enter the marathon in order to practice my fluids during my long tempo. He has been extremely accommodating, and I'm looking forward making the short trip north and being part of the race weekend.

As the mileage slowly starts to wind down, I have more time and energy to think about the TCS NYC Marathon. My coach, Dave Smith, and I are chiseling away at a race plan based on the various scenarios that my be presented. My travel is sorted, promotional material is being put together, and I'm beginning to slightly feel the reach of the pre-race jitters. These next few weeks will fly by, and I'll be jogging around in Central Park before I know it. I've got to make the next couple of weeks of training count in order to take another big step forward in my marathon career. Feel free to check out last week's training below, and follow me here on Twitter for more updates. Thanks again for reading. Big shout-out to Starting Line Designs for the new Blog, Twitter, and Facebook artwork!

Week 8 AM PM Strength/Drills Mileage
Sunday Warmup + pacemaking Berlin @ 5:19 pace off
27





Monday Off – travel from Berlin to Portland 14
14





Tuesday 15 6 + drills and grass strides
20





Wednesday 14 5 40 minutes 19





Thursday 1 hour moderate run, 6 x 2km (5:54, 5:52, 5:52, 5:52, 5:52, 5:52) w/200 meter jog recovery 4 mile shakeout
23





Friday 12.5 6 40 minutes 18.5





Saturday 10 5 + drills and strides
18.5





TOTAL


140

4 comments:

  1. I'll get my buddy to steal some of your bottles to prepare you for NYC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck to Eva in her first marathon!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ryan,

    You are logging some serious miles. I enjoyed reading about your training and travels. Nice job in London. Looks like sub 2:10 is just around the corner. Good luck with everything. Your old teacher, Mr. Stone

    ReplyDelete