Friday, March 13, 2009

Marathon Pace Workout

Thursday was probably the worst my body has felt in a while, aside from when I was injured. When I went for a short easy 5-mile run yesterday morning the body and legs just felt totally fatigued. The planned training for that day was an easy 5 in the morning and then an easy 5-7 miles in the evening. I decided to skip the evening run to get in some well-needed rest. It was a good decision on my part because I felt much better in today's workout.

During lunch hour I went for an easy 5.1 miles and then did some core exercises immediately after. Four hours later I was back in my running shoes for the planned workout of the day, 12 miles with the middle 6-8 miles at goal marathon pace. I chose to do 8 miles at MP. Time was 46:40 with mile splits at 5:52, 5:52, 5:53, 5:49, 5:46, 5:52, 5:47, & 5:49. The overall average pace was 5:50, which is about 2-4 seconds faster than what I'm considering goal MP. Below is a comparison of today's workout with the same one I did last year on September 19. I was 1 second faster per mile today with 5 miles already in the legs a few hours earlier. A step in the right direction.

13 MAR 09: 5:52, 5:52, 5:53, 5:49, 5:46, 5:52, 5:47, & 5:49 (46:40 - 5:50 pace)
19 SEP 08: 5:52, 5:53, 5:53, 5:49, 5:54, 5:51, 5:48, & 5:45 (46:45 - 5:51 pace)

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