Training Update..

Time for a quick training update.

The first 4 weeks of marathon training are now behind me. In retrospect, I spent most of July racing 5K’s while still trying to get in some decent quality training miles. My base mileage is currently 40-45 miles per week, although only 35-38 on weeks I ran a race. No complaining allowed though, as I’ve had fun racing.

With Thunder Road just 20 weeks away, it’s time to settle down and get serious about training. I will follow my marathon training plan to the letter from this point on. In August (weeks 5-8 of my plan) the weekly base mileage climbs to about 55, with the longest run being 14 miles. Thank goodness this is the last month of Tues/ Thurs hill repeats and fartlek runs. I will not miss the Dixon Elementary School hill!

The toughest workouts in August will be:

- 8 x 2-min. hill reps @ 7:20 pace w/3 min. active recovery.
- 7 miles at base pace w/8 x 2-min. @ 3,000 pace "sprinkled" in.
- 14 mile long run.