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Marathon Training: Week 4

If you're following along, here is the fourth week of training according to the 4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon book.  The paces below are specifically for the 4-hour goal.  If anyone would like the paces for 4:15, 4:30, 4:45, or 5:00, I can start posting them alongside my plan if you let me know.

I am also posting on DailyMile, but everything (and more!) will be posted here as well.  This "Marathon Training" series is an experiment for me both in fitness and in blogging, as I am going to go into more detail than in previous training cycles, now documented on my NEW Training page.

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Last Week in Review:

Here is the original schedule from last week and my comments/modifications.

Overall, it's going okay.  I still have not missed any workouts.  13 more weeks to keep that streak as best I can, though!  The long run part still isn't easy, but what I've been noticing is that the last few miles have been my strong points, and maybe that's a good thing for races.  I am convinced that the Vega Optimizer is helping me on my runs, as I have been carrying my water bottle with me, which slows me down.  Still, I am coming in at a pace that is nearly a minute faster than prescribed... though I feel like I am running soooo slow as it is (especially in the early miles).


Week of Aug 1 (Week 3)
Monday - jog 40 minutes (followed by pushups and abs work that left me sore for 2 days)
Tuesday - cross-train 30 minutes (elliptical and then added upper body strength)
Wednesday - 10 x 400 m (.25 mi), 2:05-2:15 pace (about 7.2-7.4 mph) (did 10 at 2:00 pace)
Thursday - cross-train 30 minutes or rest (cycled for half an hour with some squats after)
Friday - cross-train 30 minutes (just did 30 min elliptical and rushed to work)
Saturday - 11 mi 10:40-11:20 pace (about 5.2-5.5 mph) (9:56 pace... )


This Week:

This week's schedule is very similar to last week's, except a couple more speed repeats on Wednesday and a couple more miles on Saturday (I said the same thing last week :/).  The weekend long run is half-marathon length!  Aggggh!  I'm not sure if I can say that I am more confident about this or not.  I STILL feel slow and STILL find the workouts harder than they probably are supposed to be.  Plus, I looked ahead at the schedule (tsk, tsk!) and got intimidated by the second phase of training (Stamina phase).

Week of Aug 8 (Week 4)
Monday - jog 40 minutes
Tuesday - cross-train 30 minutes
Wednesday - 12 x 400 m (.25 mi), 2:05-2:15 pace (about 7.2-7.4 mph)
Thursday - cross-train 40 minutes or rest
Friday - cross-train 30 minutes
Saturday - 13 mi 10:40-11:20 pace (about 5.2-5.5 mph)

How is everyone's Fall race training coming along?  What Fall races are you doing/thinking of doing?

To be continued...
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Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2011 at 9:11 AM

    I always get so intimidated when I look ahead at my training plan and see the longer runs coming up. So I just take it one week at a time.

    Great week you had.

    ReplyDelete

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