It seems that this must be the point in the training routine where I'm prone to start worrying about my speed. I did it last time, and I'm doing it again. I can't help it, apparently. I'm not a fast runner yet, and I don't have enough marathons under my belt to judge how much better I am (or worse) than last time.
On the positive side, there are some things I'm doing better this time around.
First, I'm simply running more. I'm putting in more running mileage and less walking mileage.
I've also done a much better job this year of running no matter the weather. My very first long run fell on a weekend where I had to work the morning shift and then we had guests over that night, so the only available time I had to run was at 2:30 on a 90 degree afternoon. But I did it anyway, it was miserable, and it has gotten much easier to run in the heat since then. I've even found out that I rather enjoy running in the rain. Granted, having "Seventh Level of Hell" weather followed by "Start Building an Ark" weather has apparently caused a weather pattern called "Unleash the Swarms" which is decidedly unpleasant to run in. Sunday I was briefly attacked by biting flies, and Monday I was swarmed by what looked like flying ants as soon as I stepped out the door. And neither of those things should even exist. But even the bugs buzzing in my ears and biting me through my skapris hasn't kept me off the road.
Also, I haven't struggled as bad with my long runs this time. Last year I never made it past 16 miles, and that wasn't on the run that was intended to be 16 miles, it was supposed to be 18, and what was supposed to be 16 got cut short at 12 or someing. So far I've only had two problem long runs this year. After a really good (despite the sunburn) 14-miler, I headed out the next weekend for what I hoped would be a nice, cool, rainy 10-miler. Then a nasty thunderstorm rolled in, and despite my desire to keep going I finally gave in to common sense and cut the run short. Given how well I felt doing 14 miles, I expected the following week's 16-miler to go pretty smoothly. Much to my disappointment, I started breaking down on mile 12. I went from feeling a little less energetic than normal to feeling like I was dragging an elephant. It took all I had not to stop after 14, but after 15 miles I quit. My muscles were on fire and I was almost in tears, partly from pain and partly from frustration. My first thought was that this was the consequence of not completing the 10-mile run, but after some clear-headed analysis I realized I had simply hit the wall. Like a semi. And that the real difference between my 14-miler and 16-miler was that the day before 14 I had eaten what I thought was way too much. We'd had a housewarming, and I'd spent all day eating carb-heavy foods like pasta salad and veggies and chips and even s'mores. The day before the 16-miler I'd simply not eaten enough. I didn't start the run on a full tank, and I paid for it in the end.
So I'm now also paying more attention to my running diet and making sure I don't go into my long runs already too glycogen depleted to finish them.
On the down side this year, though, I'm about 30 pounds heavier than on race day 2011, which I know impacts my speed. And although I think I'm losing a little weight with training and definitely toning up a lot, I know I can't drop much in the next 7 weeks.
And despite my far more consistent training, I don't seem to be getting faster.
So I'm starting to feel like my regimen has become a little stale. My thought going in was that I'm still enough of a novice marathoner that just completing the required miles would be sufficient to make positive progress. But I don't feel like there's a whole lot of progress going on. The big question is not if I can make it through the marathon distance, but how much faster I can do it than last time, and I'm worrying that if I don't start pushing myself a lot harder, I'm in for another race where I barely make it in ahead of the sweep vehicles.
So with 7 weeks until race day, I'm shaking up my routine. I've always held the day after my long runs as sacred rest days, but in an effort to teach my body to run more efficiently, I'm throwing that idea out and putting in recovery runs instead with a rest day after that. I did 3 recovery miles on Monday after my push-a-little-closer-to-race-pace 12 mile run on Sunday, and felt it was both challenging and beneficial. I was definitely sore Monday and even the easy pace run felt like an effort on tired legs. But the next day I wasn't sore anymore, and I guess time will tell if this will help my ability to run past the point of fatigue.
My other new killer workout is hill sprints. I'm hoping they'll produce a noticeable difference in both speed and cardio fitness. I did them the first time last Friday for a total (sprints and downhill recoveries combined) of 1 mile, and came away feeling like my ass had certainly been kicked. Far harder than my short workouts usually feel. So this Wednesday I did a total of 5 miles, alternating a regular mile runs with mile sets of hill sprints. Then I went ahead and did Zumba on Thursday (and felt every second of it) to make sure I really pushed into fatigue-land.
I've got an 18 mile long run tomorrow, and I think next week I'm going to try a Yasso 800s workout to maybe see just how far off track (or on) I am. And hopefully at some point I'll find some extra speed and stop worrying.
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