Less than 11 weeks to the TCS New York City Marathon: Last week's training

It feels great to have NYC locked into my schedule again after a rough year of repeated injuries. I hope that I am on track for a healthy November return, and I am doing my best to be tuned-in to my body and feel out any signs of concern. I believe I am doing everything I can to make this comeback last and get back to racing. I have consulted with an orthopedic surgeon, checked my bone density, met with an endocrinologist, added more specific strength training, and most importantly, I am ramping up volume at a much slower rate.

With that said, it's been difficult to stay patient the last few months. Aqua jogging continues to amaze me in it's ability to become more boring just when I think it has hit a low. It will continue to be a part of my life for quite some time still, but fortunately it is minimal compared to my running now! When I was able to return to workouts, they were mostly fartleks and hills, and a decent level of fitness felt far away for a couple months. That has definitely changed over the last few weeks, and this last weekend in particular was a surprising break though given my low volume and only a few solid long runs under my belt.

For those who have followed my training in the past, the workout has become a staple during marathon training. 3 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo, 10 mile moderate-easy run, 4 mile tempo, short cooldown. My quickest 4 mile tempo over the last couple months has been 19:17, although that has been several weeks, so a reasonable goal in my mind was to try to match this in my tempos on Sunday. I ended up being able to run 19:05 and 18:56 feeling much more comfortable than I thought was possible at this stage. I'm not sure where the strength came from to run miles 17-21 for the day so well, but it's motivating to see that I can match some of my best marathon workouts with lower volume than normal. The goal will be to keep the volume below 120 miles per week for the entire build-up, but maintain the same level of intensity on workout and long run days. At 95 miles per week (in 6 days), I still have a ways to go, and now is probably the most likely time to get hurt as volume continues to edge up and my fitness level may be beyond what my bones are ready for. I have to stay vigilant and be ready to take off days and pool days as necessary, throwing my mileage goals out the window when needed.

Being in Czech for the past six weeks has also been helpful to mix up the environment and get some aqua jogging in outdoors along with some great biking. The terrain near my in-laws is hilly and at some elevation, making it a great place for me to ignore times and go by effort early on. I just returned to Portland on Friday and will be here for the remainder of my build-up.

Feel free to take a look at some of my training and progression from the last several weeks. With about 10.5 weeks to go, I actually think I will be ready for my best marathon yet following my years of big base mileage and feeling more refreshed going into hard training sessions.

Thanks again for reading, and I'll be back to posting weekly training updates all the way to Nov. 6th!

NYC 2016
WEEKS TO GO	Miles/days	Xtrain
22	46/6		6-Jun	50 min
		6	7-Jun	50 + short fartlek
			8-Jun	55 min
			9-Jun	55+ strides
			10-Jun	off
			11-Jun	40-45 min + hills
			12-Jun	65-70 min
21	51/6	6	13-Jun	55 min
			14-Jun	20 min warm up, 4 mile 19:29 +4 x200m, 15 min cool down
			15-Jun	Off
			16-Jun	40-45 min +4-6 x 200m strides
			17-Jun	60 min
			18-Jun	60 min including 15-18 min of fartlek on half recoveries
			19-Jun	70 min
20	45/5	6	20-Jun	Off
			21-Jun	60 min + Strides
			22-Jun	25 warm up, 4 mile 19:18, 15 cool down
			23-Jun	60 min
			24-Jun	30 min + 10 x 30-40 secod hills
			25-Jun	Off
			26-Jun	75 min
19	55/6	6	27-Jun	45 min + strides
			28-Jun	70 including  21 min of fartlek
			29-Jun	60 min
			30-Jun	Off
			1-Jul	60 min + Strides
			2-Jul	25 warm up, 4 mile 19:20, 20 min cool down
			3-Jul	80?
18	80/6	4	4-Jul	60 min
			5-Jul	10 x 1 mile, 5:14->4:42, x=4:56
			6-Jul	OFF
			7-Jul	70 + strides, PM 30 min
			8-Jul	70 min
			9-Jul	15 x 200 hills, PM 30 min
			10-Jul	1:45, 16
17	55/5	4 hours	11-Jul	OFF
			12-Jul	30 min warm up, 4 mile tempo @ 19:00-19:10 + 6 x 200m @ 31ish, 20 min cool down
			13-Jul	70 min
			14-Jul	60 min
			15-Jul	30 min + 10-15 x hills, 30 min cool down
			16-Jul	80 min
			17-Jul	OFF
16	75/6	4 hours	18-Jul	10-11 miles + Strides
			19-Jul	10 x 1 mile, 5:05 -->4:35, 1 min to 90 second recoveries
			20-Jul	8-9 miles easy
			21-Jul	12-13 miles
			22-Jul	OFF
			23-Jul	30 min + 10-15 hills, 30 min cool down
			24-Jul	15 miles, push 10-11-12 @ 5:00-5:10
15	85/6	4 hours	25-Jul	am 10 miles, pm: 5 miles
			26-Jul	am 13 miles
			27-Jul	30 minute warm up, 3 mile@71-72, 2 min, 2 mile@ 70-71, 1 min, 1 mile @69-70, 20 min cool down
			28-Jul	am 10 miles, pm 5 miles
			29-Jul	OFF
			30-Jul	25 min warm up, Fartlek 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 equal recovery, 15 min cool down
			31-Jul	17 miles
14	90/6	3 hours	1-Aug	am 10 miles, pm 5 miles
			2-Aug	8 x 1 mile on hilly course, 2 min rest (4:50-4:30)
			3-Aug	13 miles
			4-Aug	am 8 miles, pm 7 miles
			5-Aug	OFF
			6-Aug	am 10 miles, pm 5 miles
			7-Aug	18 miles, push 12-15 @4:56-5:00
13	60/5	5 hours	8-Aug	OFF
			9-Aug	10 + drills and strides
			10-Aug	10 mile tempo @ 5:00
			11-Aug	10 miles
			12-Aug	OFF
			13-Aug	30 min + 15 x hill, 30 min
			14-Aug	20 miles easy
12	95/6	3 hours	15-Aug	AM: 11 miles, PM: 5 miles
			16-Aug	AM: 12 miles, PM: 5 miles
			17-Aug	7 x mile on hilly course (4:50-4:30), 3 minutes rest
			18-Aug	1 hour easy
			19-Aug	OFF-travel from Prague to Portland
			20-Aug	1 hour easy
			21-Aug	3 mi warmup, 4 mi tempo @ 19:05, 10 miles @ 57:00, 4 mile tempo @ 18:56, 1 mi cooldown