3/13/10

Saturday's Training - Am: 15 mile tempo Pm: 35 mins easy

Mileage - 25 miles

Today's training was horrible. I still don't know why but my legs were still killing me from the last few days (which consisted of doing very little!). They felt like I had run a hard hill race. It was that dead legged sore to touch feeling. It was bad enough that I was walking down stairs backwards so it wouldn't feel so bad. We drove down to Phoenix last night so the pace of the tempo was supposed be 5 min miles as I was down from altitude. Julie and I got ready (she was going to be on the bike handing me my fluids and gel) and headed out to where the start of the workout would be. Only a mile into the warm up I said to Julie that there is no way that I am going to do this workout because I felt so bad. I had to summon everything I had just to get some drills done and get into my flats. My achilles was feeling OK although there was a slight ache and when I changed into my flats there was no difference in the pain so I just said to myself that would start the workout and just see how I felt. I was doing the tempo around a 2.4 mile road loop called Lakewood so it was going to be a monotonous 6 laps but I have done a 10 mile tempo here before and it seemed to go by pretty quickly so I just hoped it wouldn't be too mind numbing.

I started the run and ran the first 3 miles in 5.06, 5.00 and 5.04. This was a decent start but I felt bad and wasn't sure if I should just call it quits or push on and see how I felt as I went on. I was taking on fluids every 3 miles and doing fine with that I was really happy about that as this is the factor I was most worried about during the marathon but now I am very confident with this aspect so no more worries there. The next 4 mile went by without too much incidence (5.02, 5.03, 5.05, and 5.03) although I was finding the loop very tough because it was getting very windy and I really had to concentrate to maintain the pace I was running. I was close to breaking point on the next mile as I again headed into the wind and my legs were screaming for me to stop. This is where I really had to use my head to get through the rest of the run. I used a few different things to keep me going. There was Greg telling me about how this period of training was just about getting tough and strong for the race, there were images of the other Brits training for the marathon and there was the last few miles of the London course and getting through them, feeling good and sprinting down The Mall to the finish line. It also helped that I was getting to the halfway point and I always find it easier once I get to this point as I am just counting down miles from there on out. Tough , tough, tough is all that was going through my mind with a background beat by the Black Eyed Peas to keep my legs going. I took on some gel with some caffiene in it which turned out to be disastrous. I got the first gulp down with my electrolyte drink but as I tried for a second mouthful a bunch of air just squirted out of my bottle instead of the drink and I ended up coughing everything up all over my shoulder and sputtering for the next half mile. I did feel like I was running faster for some reason though although my splits were getting slower. I told myself that if I ran slower than a 5.10 mile that I would stop as I was getting really far off pace then. Mile 13 was a 5.11 but I willed myself to finish the workout as it was only a couple of mile left at that point. The last mile seemed to take for ever. I must have checked my Garmin about 8 times and I literally fell to the ground as I stepped across the 15.00 mile point!

I took me a little while to get up and finish off my drinks. I ran the 15 mile is 76.30 which is an average of 5.06s. I was really disappointed as I was supposed to run 5 flats. My achilles had tightened up at this point so I knew the warm down would be a tough one. I jogged a very slow 2 mile (20 mins) warm down but as I was running this, the better I felt about the workout. I almost didn't start the workout because I was so sore and feeling so bad so I felt good that even on my worst of day I could still run a half decent pace. I decided at that point that today was going to be my worst day in my marathon training and everything would only get better from here on out.

I got back and took a nap before heading over to Tempe to see Dr John Ball about my achilles. He found a whole range of problems with my legs and hips but he reassured me that this was quite normal for any runner. After some hard probing and jabbing in some uncomfortable areas Julie and I headed out to the mall and then back to the house so I could do a 5 mile shake out run. I quickly jumped in the pool afterwards to give myself an ice bath. It wasn't that cold (58F) but it was enough to give my legs some respite.

After a great dinner with Julie's family and the priest who is marrying Julie and I, we all relaxed in front of the TV and watched Couples Retreat before heading to bed for a good nights sleep.