Training For VA Creeper: Week 6

Training For VA Creeper Marathon

Week 6/16

     Mon: 7 Miles: Treadmill Progression/Intervals: Did a 1/2 mile warm up walk, then kicked it into the low 7's for a starter mile, then a high 6, a mid 6, and a high 7 cool down mile. Wrapped up the 4 miler in about 28 minutes then did a 1/2 mile walk/ 1/2 mile sprint @ 9.5 mph for 2 1/2 miles. I hadn't held those paces in a month or so and it felt good to experience it again. 11 weeks till race day, so I need to start doing this more often.

       Wed: 12 Miles: Primary Loop 12 Miler: It has been a while since I did any regular speed training in the 6's, so I wasn't sure how to pace myself for this. I decided to do a 6-9-9-7 pattern and it went well till the last 2 uphill miles. I decided if I couldn't hit a target pace, then I'd just walk the mile instead of pushing and still coming up slower than target. Time will tell if this is a smart training strategy. I definitely need to start doing this more often as speed work with a goal of staying steady at a 6-9-8-7 pattern by March.

     Fri: 20.51 Miles: Random Parkway 20 Miler: Same route as my week 3 long run, but with faster target paces. I ended up walking 3 miles, so my avg pace looks considerably worse than 3 weeks ago, but the avg speed of the 17 miles I did run was considerably faster. I'm calling it an improvement. Also, it bears repeating from the paragraph above that I didn't even bother trying to run every mile...if it looked like I wasn't going to hit the target pace, then I simply walked that mile. This is a rather big experiment with this training cycle since walk intervals are not something I ever trained with before.

     

Pace	Treadmill	Trail	Asphalt		Total
5
6	3		3		6
7	2		4		6
8			16		16
9			4		4
10
11
12
Walking	2		7		9
Total	7		34		41