With my injury still bothering me and considering of the last few weeks speed sessions bad results, I decided to stop and regroup.
With the California Internation Marathon in Sacramento coming up, I decided to do a couple of endurance sessions. Since I had not had a proper long run in weeks, I decided to tried to regain a bit of endurance before the marathon. Of course, given the lack of training, I knew I was not going to break any records, but my priority was to try to get as much endurance training in the last couple of weeks to make sure the marathon would not be an ordeal and that I would be able to enjoy it.
On 11/18/12, I did a 14 miler, which was pretty hard. I had wanted to do 20, but on that day, I this is all I could manage. I completed the run in the trails behind Draper temple and the trails were extremely muddy and slippery.
Consequently the run was very slow and a bit more energy draining than usual.
Then I took a 3 day break to let the knee recover a bit (it was still a bit painful in these long runs), I order to be ready for the Thanksgiving 5k.
That race was a bit of a disaster. I finished it in about 21:30. A pretty slow time considering I have done 19:30-ish in training. This confirms the trend of bad results and lack of fitness I have seen on the track lately, Sure the course was tough with half of it uphill with nice inclines, but I really felt slow and sluggish throughout the run.
On 11/25/12, I completed another run in the hills behind Draper temple. Again, I had planned a 16 miler but 11 really felt quite enough. With steep uphill sections, this trail is more demanding than the Porter Rockwell trail that I usually deal with and as a consequence, long runs become tiring much more quickly. Still... For marathon training this is very light... Well quite inadequate in fact.
I decided to run a last time on the Wednesday before the marathon. An 8 miler, at around marathon pace. This run felt pretty good. I finished it in about 58 minutes without pushing to the max. However, in the following next 3 days, my legs were incredibly sore. This was very concerning to me and outlining yet again my lack of fitness. I have done this run many times in the past, often quicker and without leg soreness of this extent. The marathon was going to be tough. At least my knee was starting to feel a bit better...
With the California Internation Marathon in Sacramento coming up, I decided to do a couple of endurance sessions. Since I had not had a proper long run in weeks, I decided to tried to regain a bit of endurance before the marathon. Of course, given the lack of training, I knew I was not going to break any records, but my priority was to try to get as much endurance training in the last couple of weeks to make sure the marathon would not be an ordeal and that I would be able to enjoy it.
On 11/18/12, I did a 14 miler, which was pretty hard. I had wanted to do 20, but on that day, I this is all I could manage. I completed the run in the trails behind Draper temple and the trails were extremely muddy and slippery.
Consequently the run was very slow and a bit more energy draining than usual.
Then I took a 3 day break to let the knee recover a bit (it was still a bit painful in these long runs), I order to be ready for the Thanksgiving 5k.
That race was a bit of a disaster. I finished it in about 21:30. A pretty slow time considering I have done 19:30-ish in training. This confirms the trend of bad results and lack of fitness I have seen on the track lately, Sure the course was tough with half of it uphill with nice inclines, but I really felt slow and sluggish throughout the run.
On 11/25/12, I completed another run in the hills behind Draper temple. Again, I had planned a 16 miler but 11 really felt quite enough. With steep uphill sections, this trail is more demanding than the Porter Rockwell trail that I usually deal with and as a consequence, long runs become tiring much more quickly. Still... For marathon training this is very light... Well quite inadequate in fact.
I decided to run a last time on the Wednesday before the marathon. An 8 miler, at around marathon pace. This run felt pretty good. I finished it in about 58 minutes without pushing to the max. However, in the following next 3 days, my legs were incredibly sore. This was very concerning to me and outlining yet again my lack of fitness. I have done this run many times in the past, often quicker and without leg soreness of this extent. The marathon was going to be tough. At least my knee was starting to feel a bit better...
