NYC Marathon Training: Week 6
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Week six of training had its highs and lows. Some runs were better than others. It was a strong, rather intense, workout week. Thankful it ended on a good note. Lesson of the week: bad runs happen, regardless of physical conditioning. And just as surely, those bad runs are followed by the good ones. As of today (Sunday, Aug 26), the NYC Marathon is 69 days away.
Monday: Rest day. Break between Sunday’s spin and Tuesday’s intervals.
Tuesday: Intervals. Dodgy set of treadmill intervals. Evening workout immediately after nap. Not a good combination. Wasn’t able to drop pace nearly enough. Gave it what I could without losing control of my form. All intervals were at same speed.
- Total = 7 mi – 1:00:00 – 8:34 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 2 x 1200m @ 6:56 min/mi; 4 x 800m @ 6:48 min/mi
- Actual repeats = (1) 7:14; (2) 7:14; (3) 7:14; (4) 7:14; (5) 7:14; (6) 7:14
Wednesday: Rest day.
Thursday: Tempo run. This run felt spot-on. Didn’t have high expectations since it was an evening run after a full day on my feet. However, everything fell into place. Felt in control of pace – a nice balance of working hard and feeling comfortable. Only off split was on Cat Hill.
- Total = 7.01 mi – 56:01 – 7:59 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 5 mi @ 7:50 min/mi
- Actual splits = (1) 8:02; (2) 7:44; (3) 7:45; (4) 7:52; (5) 7:37
Friday: Rest day.
Saturday: Long run. First long run attempt of the weekend. Legs had many aches and pains. After several miles, still no sign of loosening up. Mind also wasn’t fully present and prepared. Miserable couple miles before I decided to call it a day. Epsom salt soak and foam rolling. Discovered many trigger points in calves and quads.
- Total = 4.75 mi – 41:53 – 8:49 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 20 mi @ 9:08 min/mi
- Actual = 4.75 mi @ 8:49 min/mi
Sunday: Long run. Second long run attempt of the weekend. Woke up with legs feeling much better. Debated running 15 miles to combine with previous day’s mileage for total of 20 miles. Decided to take a full re-do and ran 20 miles. Body felt great on this run. Form was comfortable throughout. Seems I over-paced quite a bit compared to plan. Didn’t spend much time analyzing Garmin during the run. Finished feeling strong.
- Total = 20.01 mi – 2:46:51 – 8:20 min/mi avg pace
- Plan = 20 mi @ 9:08 min/mi
- Actual = 20.01 @ 8:20 min/mi
Cross-training. Spin for 45 minutes. Granted, I wouldn’t normally do back-to-back, same-day cardio workouts. Because of Saturday’s running mishap, didn’t have enough time to cancel bike reservation. Decided to spin to shake the legs out, post-long run.
Total weekly mileage: 38.77 miles
See all weekly training recaps here.
LV runs NYC 
nice week of training! congrats on that AWESOME LONG RUN!!! while i do believe they should be a bit slower than goal pace so we don’t wear ourselves out before the race even gets here… i still think it’s important to throw some speed into them once in a while too! (i’m not a coach though!)
if i remember correctly you hardly looked at your garmin at all! good for you for being able to get out of your head && just run! i know i can struggle with that sometimes. keep this run with you && remember it. use it as a secret weapon come NYCM!
Thank you – I completely agree. That run really just got away from me pace-wise. But if I can replicate that feeling on race day, that would be brilliant! 🙂 x