Weekly Totals and Thoughts About Race Pace and Goals for Rock ‘n Roll

WEEKLY
Sunday – 17 miles, including 10 at marathon goal pace
Monday – 0 miles, off day
Tuesday – 8 easy miles (moved furniture at work today)
Wednesday – 0 miles due to back pain as a result of furniture move
Thursday – 0 miles due to back pain as a result of furniture move
Friday – 10 easy miles
Saturday – 10 easy miles
TOTAL: 45 Miles on 4 runs.

I had another minor setback this week causing me to miss two runs and reduce mileage on Friday. The good news is that I am now running with no back pain, although I do feel an occasional tightness every once in awhile when I’m not running. I definitely couldn’t have run on Wednesday. (I could barely stand up.) On Thursday I probably could have run, but I didn’t want to get into that familiar pattern, where I take a day off for a minor injury, run the next day, and end up more injured than I was, so I took a second day just to be cautious.

I’m still running my paces as if I’ll be attempting to break three hours at the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon, although I doubt if that is a realistic goal. At this point, I haven’t run more than ten miles at race pace, and I only have two weeks left until I begin my taper. I will probably get up to 14 miles at race pace by then. The bigger problem is that race pace just doesn’t feel as easy as it should at this point of the training. I haven’t been successful at getting in enough repeats or tempo runs that take the pace faster than race pace. This has been partly caused by missing key workouts due to minor injuries. I’ve been able to get in the miles but have often not been able to push the pace. I think a larger issue is that I didn’t build a big enough base for the training miles I had hoped to log in March, April and the first half of May. As I result I’m laboring on runs that should be easy at this point.

I still plan on running the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon. I have a sports grant from the Coast Guard, so they’ll reimburse me for half of my expenses (travel, food, and registration). If nothing else, it will be a good opportunity to visit family and to gain some race experience. If I feel good, I’ll probably make an attempt to stay with the three hour pacer and hope that I at least run a PR. However, in my head I’m already looking forward to a summer of base building and a serious run at sub-three at Napa in March 2008.