I <3 Hunger Games

Here’s why I didn’t blog for a couple days yesterday. My friend lent me the Hunger Games and … yeah. It’s really good.

I was able to pull myself away for a run last night. Which was good. I hadn’t been feeling too well Saturday – Sunday – Monday. I can’t tell if it is overtraining or allergies or what. It’s too early for allergies, but the weather is abnormally wonderful.

Happy first day of Spring!

I worried it might be overtraining but the symptoms didn’t match up quite right. I had been following the plan, albeit running a little too fast on my longer runs. And I felt sore, but … it was more like, I had chills. And shaky. And just that feeling you get when you’re body is fighting off some kind of infection, the achy, nervy feeling.

I’m at the 8-mile mid-week run point of the plan. This is the longest mid-week run Hal ever makes you do.

I remember, in reflection of our training last time around, I said that the hardest part about marathon training was not the long runs on the weekends, but the long mid-week runs. Fit it in at the beginning or the end, it’s just most of your non-eating, non-sleeping free time to be spent running.

The nice weather and longer days helps. It really, really does. I don’t know if I could have done this mentally in January, where my only outside option would be in the dark.

I worry that I haven’t been doing my long runs slow enough to this point. You don’t really have to force yourself to go really slow for those runs like you do when the run is 17 miles.  These have been my long runs:

• 3/17, 11 miles @ 10:03 pace
• 3/11 15 miles @ 10:37 pace
• 3/03 10 miles @10:41 pace (an hour after a 5K @ 7:57 pace)
• 2/25 9 miles @ 9:26 pace
• 2/19 12 miles at 10:10 pace

I know I’m faster then when I ran my first marathon @ 11:14 pace, but I had targeted this marathon pace to be 10:30. Considering I didn’t feel great this week, on this week that’s supposed to be an easy week, that’s a sign that I need to slow down, not readjust my goals.

Most books and blogs I’ve read tell you to run a minute to 1:30 slower than your marathon goal pace. The idea is that you need to recover between your runs, and also that you need to build your body’s aerobic capacity for an endurance event. If you’re not recovered for your next big run you’re not going to make the most out of training, and if you don’t develop that cellular endurance …. well, it will put your goals in jeopardy.