getting caught up...and Eastern States 20 miler recap

It's race week, and I haven't updated this training log since I was at the halfway point of the cycle.  Oops.  It's worth mentioning off the bat that one of the reasons I haven't had time to put much effort into the log is simply that the training, and work, and family, have just all gone really well, and taken up a lot of my time over the last 2 months.

So, the plan here is to do a one big update of the last couple months, I'll try my best to remember to mention some of the highs and lows, and then later this week I would like to update again with my thoughts pre and post Sugarloaf.


8 weeks to go target range: 60-65 miles.  ACTUAL: 66
7 weeks to go target range: 65-69 miles.  ACTUAL: 68
6 weeks to go target range: 70-72 miles.  ACTUAL: 75
5 weeks to go target range: 48-55 miles.  ACTUAL: 45
4 weeks to go target range: 47-55 miles.  ACTUAL: 58
3 weeks to go target range: 50-58 miles.  ACTUAL: 62
2 weeks to go target range: 42-42 miles.  ACTUAL: 48



Everything to plan!  Weeks 8-7-6 to go was the big block of the workout, and it kicked off with my second B-race of the Sugarloaf Plan, the Eastern States 20-miler.  ES20 is a flat, fast-ish course that most running were likely using as a marathon tune-up, and probably for Boston.  For me, it was a chance to practice race day running, and to put in (hopefully) 20 miles at target marathon pace.  I was coming off a rest week (of 50 miles) and I believe I received a massage either the week of or the week prior.  The loose plan for the race was 5 miles at 7:15, 5 miles at 7:10, 5 miles at 7:05 and then try real hard to keep moving close to 7 min miles for miles 15-20. Things went mostly to plan through 15 miles, and while the last 5 weren't what I was hoping for, they weren't a disaster. 





One of the goals for the race was to work on a fuel plan, and I took before and at ever 5 miles.  The 7:10 split at mile 19 was thanks to a friendly competition I invented with myself.  He had passed me when I was doing my 7:10, then I passed him back when I started doing 7:05s, and then he passed me back after mile 17, and at mile 19, just after seeing my family on the course in Hampton Beach, I decided to dig down a bit if I could to at least pass him before the finish, which I did.  These are the silly games I play.  The course was fairly sparse with runners, so I was working by myself most of the race, so having someone else to play catch-up to helped.  Hopefully there will be a good amount of runners close to my pace at Sugarloaf.

I actually didn't feel that overdressed...

The other goal was to try and finish the 20 miles at BQ pace, and at the finish to be able to say to myself "I could have done that for another 6 miles, no problem."  That was definitely not how it finished for me though.  While I did finish just at BQ pace (7:12 for my GPS distance) I'm afraid that if I had to run 6 more miles that day, they would have been in the 7:20-7:40 ballpark.  But, with a good deal of training left to go, as well as a normal taper prior to Sugarloaf, I was still left hopeful that BQ was achievable based on the ES20 effort.

The next few weeks are sort of a blur.  Most of the runs went well...certainly I did a better job with my tempo/intermediate length runs than I did with my long runs...I sort of suffered through some of the long runs, which included just one more 20+ miler at the end of my peak week, which was 75 miles!   In a followup post, I'll include a chart with the data of the long runs, but I've done a decent job of summarizing how the long runs went in Strava, so I'll just need to reference that in the future if I'm curious.

The 75 mile peak week was a big deal to me, both mentally and physically.  Boston's peak was 50 miles, Philly's peak was 64 miles, and my goal for Sugarloaf all along was to build the plan around a 75 mile peak week.  The goal for a fall marathon would be an 80 mile peak week and next year's Boston, an 85-90 mile peak week.  (I actually touched some of these future targets in this big block as I had to compress my longs to a Sunday followed by Saturday effort, giving me 88 miles in a 7 day stretch.)  Of course by the end of the 75 miles, yes I was tired and worn out, but by that time of year, the weather had turned very nice for running, and my body seems to respond well to blocks of 3 buildup weeks followed by a rest week, and that was the case following this big block.
 
 So, most importantly, aside from being generally fatigued over this stretch, and always pressed for time, I made it through this stretch injury free, and no worse for the wear.