Train hard, recover hard, right? That’s my mantra as I approach the peak weeks of training for CIM. Week 12 of 18 included my first ever 20 mile long run. I followed the Hansons Marathon Method for my first marathon and capped out at 16 miles. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the Hansons plan for my own training and am enjoying these marathon training long runs.
I’m self-coached (the perks of being a running coach!) so I make my training up a few weeks at time and am constantly tweaking it to fit the weather (because it’s rainy season in Seattle!) and the areas I need to work on before the race. I didn’t even plan on doing 20 this week until the weather was right and I decided it was the appropriate progression.
Monday:
8 miles: 2 mile warm up, 6 miles at marathon pace or slightly faster over gently rolling hills (8:06, 7:59, 7:43, 8:07, 7:44, 7:51)
Tuesday:
AM: 7 miles easy
PM: 20 minutes strength training: side step-ups, 3-way lunges, side planks, push ups, and lateral band walks
Wednesday:
AM: 10 miles: 2.5 mile warm up + 4 x 2K at tempo pace (7:20-7:25) with 3 minute recovery jog, 1.5 mile cool down
PM: 15 minutes core work + foam rolling
Thursday:
AM: 5 mile recovery run
PM: 25 minutes advanced Pilates
Friday:
AM: 20 mile long run at an easy pace – 8:58/mile. I negative split all of my long runs just by the fact that it takes me what feels like an hour to warm up on a long run.
Saturday & Sunday:
Rest! My husband and I decided to take ourselves and our dogs on an impromptu end-of-season camping trip. I was happy with my 50 miles of the week and glad to just kick back by a campfire and drink a beer.