We are less than two weeks away from Toronto!
And I'm forced to taper.
I've had pretty good last 2 weeks of training, which I didn't blog because I was um..lazy. But I did have a mental breakdown last week which ended up with a PR 10M race on Sunday, which was completely illegal (hey, I placed 10th in my age group)! My Coach almost fired me. I'm glad he didn't because getting fired right now will totes suck.
Monday 9/30 was boring out-n-back on the East River again. I went out too fast and tried to control speed. At one point I just gave up because going slower is more exhausting on my muscles for some reason. Coach says it's cuz I'm a 'tard and I try to run in slo-mo. WHICH IS TRUE.
Tuesday 10/1. FASTER FINISH WEEK 4. I think I did like easy 4M on the treadmill in the morning, which went badly. I didn't want to run at all. My earbuds failed to cooperate and running with DM's Delta Machine didn't help. I mean, it's got a song called "SLOW" in it.
FF was one of my favorites, 20min Out-n-Back, which I failed to capitalize on. This should have been much faster both ways. I cheated going out and I failed to pick up on the way back. Legs felt like lead because of the illegal racing.
Wednesday 10/2. Again, this Midweek Miles should have been a lot better feeling that it was. I barely hit target pace in the middle and towards the end, shins and calves and everything hurt. I had to go on hated Bridle Path for the last 2M as recovery. Just couldn't pound the asphalt anymore. I think not having more than 12 hour rest did me in...
Thursday 10/3 started good with a Pilates class in the AM and good night's sleep. It also allowed me to get a 36 hour rest from the last run. So the Lower Loop Progressive Run went decently. Coach wanted 7:10-7:20 (5K Pace) for the last loop, but yo, that ain't happening unless I'm super fresh and have a bunny or a chaser. I'm off by a few seconds, but I declare it fair.
Finally a rest day on Friday, which I spent the whole day dreading the 18M Progressive Long Run. 8:15, 7:55, 7:45. Yikes.
Saturday 10/5. Here comes the last long run. Garmin failed to cooperate at the crucial moment, of course.
There is a big cheat going on here. The last giant Harlem Hill has a "5 second before" break where I gather courage and pray to the Harlem Hill gods, then a "10 second after" break where I congratulated my single hill repeat (I guess it's not a repeat at this point, but whateves).
The lesson here is that I can do 8:00-7:50. I cannot do 7:45-7:40 for 26.2. Which means this Toronto will not be a PR race. That's OK. It will be a good comeback race after a year full of crappy times. I think it'll take me another 2-3 months of solid work to get to 7:45 pace. Which brings me to Boston 2014!!!!!!!!
