JohnK

10 miles easy. Felt pretty good, should be up for a longer run tomorrow with about half the miles at MP.

19 miles in 2:10.15. Started with 2 fairly easy (14:35) then ran 15 at ~MP in 1:40.40 (6:42.5 ave.) and the last 2 easy (15:00). The MP section consisted of miles in 6:42, 6:48, 6:48, 6:46, 6:48, 6:45, 6:41, 6:46, 6:47, 6:42, 6:42, 6:40, 6:36, 6:40, 6:39 & 6:37. (Those last two were on the track, 3200 in 13:12, and I added a four seconds to give a full 2 miles.) Felt strong today although I was fading just a bit at the end. But I had run 73 miles in the previous 6 days whereas prior to a marathon I'll run less than half as much -- it sure helps to remind myself of this fact!

6 miles relaxed. Felt fine, just some general fatigue. Pleased with myself for keeping it to an easy 45 minutes as this was exactly what I needed.

10 miles, easy except for several ~150m build-ups late in the run. Felt good, still just a touch of fatigue from Saturday's hard run but basically fine.

13 miles, first 1.5 easy then 4 x 3000m on UGA track in 11:54, 11:45, 11:31, 11:18 (w/ a 400m recovery jog after each of the first 3) then 3.25 miles cool-down. Felt quite good and ran it as I intended, with the first 3K just a bit easier than threshold pace and then each subsequent 3K somewhat faster. Really pleased with the last one, ~6:03.5 mile pace.

9 miles easy. Felt fine, just a little overall fatigue from yesterday's workout.

14 miles, first ten minutes easy then light/moderate fartlek for about 25 minutes and the remainder of the run easy except for several ~150m build-ups. Felt pretty good but didn't want too hard of a run today so this seemed about right.

8 miles easy. Fell okay, a bit tired although not bad. Will go long tomorrow -- last 20+ miler before the marathon on March 1st -- unless I don't feel quite up to it in which case I'll delay until Sunday.

20 miles in 2:21.10 (7:03.5 pace). Decided against dropping it down to MP as I didn't want this to be a terribly demanding effort. So I just kept it fairly steady the entire run although a bit faster the second half (1:11.12 + 1:09.58). It felt very comfortable, and as I finished I knew I could continue for another 10K at 7:00 pace or better, so this gives me at least some confidence that if I hit 20 miles in 2:15.30-2:16.00 on race day I'll have a good shot at sub-3:00. I'd say my plan now is to run ~6:45 pace for 20 miles and then use whatever I've got left at that point. I don't see much chance of picking up the pace after 20 miles, but keeping it under 7:00/mile will be good enough.

8 miles easy. Felt good, not unusually fatigued from yesterday's 20 miler.

8 miles easy, felt good. Am cutting back on the mileage just a bit this week, three weeks out from the marathon. Will probably get in about 70.

13 miles, first 4 easy then 9 miles fartlek. Included one pretty hard mile in 5:53 and a half mile in 2:49, also six or seven 3:00 sections at threshold and several 1:00 faster efforts. Overall a good workout.

8 miles easy. Felt a little tired but not too bad. Not enough sleep lately.

12 miles, first 5.5 easy then ran a 5,000m on UGA track in 19:44 starting with a 1:45 first 400 and dropping the pace very gradually (1-2 seconds per lap). First 1600 was 6:46, second 1600 was 6:20 and then I finished with 5:56 (91, 90, 88, 87) and :42 for the final 200m. 3.5 miles cool-down. I was pleased with this, especially as it was breezy and quite chilly out (low 20s -- guess that's balmy for folks from Idaho and the Utah mountains). By no means a killer workout, but then I'm supposed to be lightening up a bit this week and I just wanted something to get the legs going somewhat faster than MP. 

Easy 7 miler. Felt good.

17 miles, easy the first 2 then 13.1 miles on the track (52.75 laps) in 1:28.18 and 2 miles cool-down. I divided the 13.1 miles into 5K segments, running the first and third relatively easily (22:10 and 21:53) and the second and fourth somewhat faster than MP (20:20 and 19:40). I was 1:24:03 at 20K and I continued at sub-MP the final 2.75 laps (4:15). This all went quite well -- I felt strong and while the faster 5K didn't feel slow or real easy I'm more confident that I have the fitness to average ~21:00 per 5K for a full marathon. I ran this on the track for several reasons, one being that I wanted to monitor the pace closely, plus I was wearing flats that I'd only worn twice before and I was a bit worried about developing a blister, so this way if I felt the beginnings of a blister I could easily run home to change shoes before it got bad. Close to perfect conditions this a.m. -- low 50s with just a slight breeze. Hope I get this in two weeks (and even a bit cooler would be ideal).

6 miles easy. Felt pretty good, nothing unusual after yesterday's hard effort. Will probably run a fairly hard workout (3 x 1600 at 5K pace, most likely) on Wednesday and am debating whether to race a 5K on Saturday. I wouldn't do it except it's a race at the elementary school our kids attended that I helped start in '04, and I'm still involved with it. I definitely won't run if weather is bad. Guess a 5K seven days out from a marathon shouldn't be a problem as long as I cool down and stretch well afterwards.

9 miles, easy except several ~150m accelerations. Felt good. Have developed a very small cyst on the top of my left foot. It's actually been there several weeks and is not painful, but with a marathon 12 days off I'm finding it easier to worry about such things. Most likely it will eventually go away on its own. Will do a very easy 45 minute run tomorrow and then a 5K pace workout (3 x 1600m on the track, probably) Wed., which will be the last key workout 10 days out from the marathon. I'm determined to eat well and get as much sleep as possible in the time I've got left -- with previous marathon I know I could have been better rested.

6 miles easy with a few accelerations. Felt pretty good.

10 miles, including 4 x 6:00 at about 5K race pace (~5:45-5:50/mile). Decided against doing 4 x 1600m on the track as I wanted to run this more on effort than against the clock. Being as it's my final workout prior to the marathon March 1st I wanted it to be fairly hard but not a workout where I felt I just had to hit certain times. So this was successful -- I felt good, pretty strong, it wasn't incredibly demanding and just hard enough to feel right.

6 miles, easy except for several ~150m accelerations. Felt very good.

6 miles easy. Felt good, looking forward to going a little longer tomorrow and then after than it's pretty much all short and easy until next Saturday. Had thought about racing a 5K tomorrow but have decided against it -- even the slight risk of injury is more than I want to take. And I'm not really in 5K shape anyway. My training has been focused on next Saturday's marathon, not on tomorrow's 5K.

13 miles total today. Early this morning I went 12 easy with the exception of one mile at about MP and total time for the run was 1:28. Felt fine, not outstanding but no complaints with a week to go until marathon day. Later in the morning I ran about a mile while helping at a local 5K race -- ran from the start/finish area to the spot were I served as a course monitor. I'm definitely glad I decided against racing although I was a bit sad to not be taking part. But helping out was good so it's fine.

I don't think I'll take any complete rest days between now and next Saturday because I always feel out of sorts when I don't run. But I want to be very well rested for this marathon, something I haven't really accomplished previously, so I'll just run 30-45 minutes a day and try to get a little more sleep than usual, stretch well, eat well, all the important stuff.

Easy 4 miler. Felt good. Will be running really light the next five days, stretching well, eating properly, getting enough sleep -- taking care of the details and doing everything right.

5 miles, basically easy but I threw in a few fairly hard accelerations. Felt really good this a.m., better rested than usual and anxious for marathon day to be here. Guess I'll do 2 or 3 miles at MP during tomorrow's run (7 or 8 total) then it will be easy 30 minute runs W, Th & F.

6 miles, first 2 easy then 3200 on UGA track in 13:21 (6:42, 6:39) then another 2 miles easy. Had to cut the cool-down short by a mile since heavy rain w/ thunder and lightening struck about 5 minutes into the cool-down and it seemed somewhat dangerous -- I didn't really mind the rain but had no desire to get picked off my a bolt of lightening! Felt good today. The 3200 was very close to goal MP (6:45/mile) and certainly felt comfortable but I'm not entirely confident I can hold that pace for 26.2 miles. My approach is to get myself to 20 miles at that pace and just see what I've got from that point. I definitely won't go out too fast this time -- that's a mistake I've made a few times and I know it's incredibly stupid.

5 miles easy in snow flurries, upper 20s. Felt good.

5 miles easy. Feeling good with ~48 hours until the marathon.

3 mile easy. Felt very good, all systems go. Heading out soon for the 4 hour drive down to Albany, GA -- marathon start tomorrow is 7 a.m. and weather looks A-/B+ and way, way better than the furnace at Chicago last October.