Marathon Training: Week 15

If you're following along, here is the FIFTEENTH week of training according to the 4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon book. The paces bealow 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, documented on my Training page.

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Last Week in Review:

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

This week's long run... was pretty much a death march. After the first 14.5 miles, I needed to take a break. It was sort of downhill at that point, and the heat came in and pretty much wiped me out after 19 miles. No matter how "The Ukrainian" tried to pace me, I was groaning. But we were determined to finish, and even walking was difficult by then. Pretty sure it was about 80 degrees when we were done, which is not bad to some, but on this concrete path and lack of shade, the heat radiated all over.

Excuses. Oh well.

Week of Oct 17 (Week 14)

Monday - jog 40 minutes <-- did not run due to knee pain from last week

Tuesday - cross-train 30 minutes <-- did a lot of walking???

Wednesday - 8 mi at 8:45-8:50/mi <-- skipped due to vacation

Thursday - jog 30 minutes

Friday - rest
Saturday - 23 mi at 10:40-11:10 pace <-- ran about 19 of these and walked the rest for a total of 23.82 mi

Sunday - rest

This Week:

For better or worse, can you say.... TAPER? Hooray! I'll chalk this up as a bad run, since I did do the 21 a few weeks ago with relatively little difficulty compared to this week.

The schedule has changed... particularly Wednesdays... when I get to take it easy and jog instead of bust my guts in a tempo run.

Since I'm now in taper phase, I am going to for once take my rest seriously. I have never understood the "science" of tapering, but I do know I should run less yet not slack off completely. This is when I'm glad I have this program to follow.

As for eats and such, I'm not really going to worry about carbo-loading of any sort until maybe next week or so. I have been pretty good about not overeating over the course of this training plan, and beyond recovering from the 23+-miler, I will probably be eating pretty conservatively/healthy/carb-light this week. My appetite has been variable lately, so I want to give it a chance to reset itself.

Week of Oct 24 (Week 15)

Monday - rest

Tuesday - cross-train 30 minutes

Wednesday - jog 30 minutes

Thursday - cross-train 30 minutes

Friday - jog 30 minutes
Saturday - 10 mi at 10:40-11:10 pace

Sunday - rest

What taper strategies do you follow? Or if you've never tapered, what would you advise me to do with the slight bit more time that I have? More stretching? More research on running? More sleeping? More eating??

To be continued...

Giveaway Winner! -- Sony W Series MP3 Player (Update)

Updated Post: 3/20/11 As promised, here are the Sony W Series giveaway winners: -- both have been contacted and prizes sent -- Please e-mail me at (Gmail) Nobel4Lit2 with your addresses, and I'll ship out the units soon! Thanks to everyone who entered. Stay tuned for another giveaway soon (maybe later this week)! (Note: I ended up putting everyone's retweets starting after the comments when it came to numbering the entries.) Original Post: 3/10/11 Sunday, March 20 2011, the day I will run LA Marathon for the 4th time (and embark on my 8th 26.2 journey overall), will also be very special because it will mark the 5th year since I did my FIRST training run with the intention of running a marathon. (Check out that life-changing post HERE ). Yep, on March 20, 2006, I went to the track and ran my first 3.25 miles with the dreams of marathon glory (or even half-marathon glory). I think it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was a sprint/tra...

Rebecca Michaels Performance Clothing (Giveaway)

UPDATE: 6/21/12 -- This giveaway is closed, and the winner is #43, Jacqueline!! I will contact you, but if you miss it, please e-mail me! ------ I'd like to credit in advance "The Ukrainian" who helped me stage some photos for this post. =) Perhaps because I don't dress well when working out, I was offered the opportunity to try some fun pieces from the Rebecca Michaels summer collection. Since I complained about my issues with headbands staying on my head, I also got to try their Violet Love headbands. "The Ukrainian" didn't hesitate in throwing one on, and I think he said he looks like Rambo in it. Anyway, I'll start with my experience with the headbands . They are very soft and actually look SUPER cute on! They also cover a large portion of the top of your head, so those little fly-aways don't come drooping down. Or is that just me? My hair is normally cut in layers, so I do experience this quite a bit. Unfortun...

Sharkies Prize Pack (giveaway)

It's giveaway time! On a long run recently, I took a couple packs of Sharkies Organic Sports Chews with me to keep me going on a hot day. I got through those 15 miles eating these, versus normal gels. I've been opting to eat chews over gels in my running nowadays because I just find them more palatable and easier on my stomach for some reason. Plus, they do pack a few more calories, which is a good thing in this case. I normally associate cute little chews with candy, but these actually contain natural electrolytes. Plus, they were light to carry and very tasty, too! Each pack is about 140 calories. The only downside I found to the sport chews is that they stuck to my teeth a tiny bit more than my normal choices, and the packaging gave me a fight at times. This could easily be solved by conslidating them into a baggie pre-run, or eating them BEFORE running would be much easier than during. Want to win the prize pack below?...

Abby @ Have Dental Floss, Will TravelOctober 22, 2011 at 6:01 PM
I have to say, I know most people hate tapering, but I love it! My life is so full that there's always more things to fill my time, and after so many weeks of hard training, it's nice not to feel battered for a little while.
RunToTheFinishOctober 23, 2011 at 11:00 AM
it took me awhile to find a taper that works best for me. I've found that I can't drop off my mileage too dramatically more than two weeks out or i'm just sluggish on race day
JeanOctober 23, 2011 at 11:53 AM
I always taper, but I have never really paid that much attention to the details. I don't do anything differently other than reducing mileage. For a marathon, after the peak long run, the next long run might be 18, and the final long run maybe 13. After running the 13, if I am feeling like the run was incomplete, then I know it worked and I am ready to go! :)
Paige @ Running Around NormalOctober 23, 2011 at 4:19 PM
You can do it!! A four hour marathon is quite an achievement! I've never run a marathon, but I bet the taper week would be my favorite, haha
Britne @ Shabbott's HabitsOctober 28, 2011 at 2:27 PM
Yey for the taper! You're doing great!

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