Less than 7 weeks to the Berlin Marathon: Last week's training

It's easy to find a little extra motivation for training watching the IAAF World Champs this year with all the fantastic performances so far. It has been a real pleasure to see the US efforts by Amy Cragg, Jenny Simpson, and Evan Jager, and plenty of excellent races off the podium as well. Seeing the disappointment on the faces of the US men in the 10km after running PBs in a championship race really shows how far US distance running has come over the last several years in terms of expectations and mentality. There is still a good deal of racing left, and several great US distance stars on deck.

As for my training, I had another productive week in southern Czech. I'm feeling stronger over the difficult terrain and slight elevation, and my workouts and easy runs are slowly starting to show it. I'm feeling exhausted most of the time, which is a normal part of marathon training, and I'm combating the fatigue with daily naps, long nights of sleep, and a high protein diet. It feels good to be putting in this kind of mileage again. Before NYC this last fall, I limited myself to 100 miles per week, and while my workouts went well, I went into them quite fresh which isn't necessarily ideal during marathon prep. My mileage is now oscillating from 120 -130 miles per week now, but with 1 very easy day in order to average closer to 20 miles per day on the other days of the week. So far the body is holding up very well, so my long term goal remains to get back to 140+ miles per week come next spring. It's been a long road since the injuries began in 2015, but I'm very close to being back to where I want to be.

The next 5 weeks will be the real meat of the training cycle and I'll be able to make a more realistic goal for Berlin during this time. Getting back to Portland and knocking out a few faster long runs on a more Berlin like course should give me the last bit of confidence that I'll need heading into September 24th. I booked my flight yesterday, planning to arrive a week early to adjust to the time change and recover from the flight. That step has made the race feel much more tangible and I'm fighting off any sudden sense of urgency as I am not even half-way through this training block.

Some of the training posted below was already posted last week, but I wanted to get back to a Monday-Sunday calendar going forward, so what you see is my last completed week of training which started 8 weeks before Berlin. Thanks again for reading and follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Weeks to go: 8	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	14	6	40 minutes	20
Tuesday	12.5 + drills and strides	off		12.5
Wednesday	4 mi tempo @ 4:45-4:46, 30 minute run, 3 mi tempo @ 4:42-4:43	4		22
Thursday	12	6	40 minutes	18.5
Friday	1 hour + 8 x 200 meter hills	5		17
Saturday	7	off	40 minutes	7
Sunday	25 miles, 18-22 @ 4:52	off		25
Total:				122