Week 10: BQ Training with Run Less Run Faster

Sep 30, 2013 by Greg Fowler

Here is my report for week ten of sixteen of my Outer Banks 2013 marathon training. I am following the 3:25:00 Boston Qualifier plan outlined in the book Run Less Run Faster.

To review past weeks, click here.

Short version: Excellent week, accomplishing all three runs.  A cold front blew through last weekend, sweeping summer away (I hope!).  The cooler weather made a big difference in my ability this week.

For the long version, keep reading.

Cross Training. Wednesday and Thursday

Successfully completed the two prescribed swim workouts -4 lengths easy; 3 x (2 lengths easy, 2 lengths fast, 30 seconds RI); 6 x(1 length easy, 1 length fast, 15 seconds RI).  A really short work out.

Grade: Pass

Run workout #1. Monday

Yep, Monday track time  This week’s workout was a new one, 2 sets of 3 x 1200m in 4:47 with 2:00 rest interval.  Had a four minute rest interval between sets for a total of 6 x 1200m.

Results:

• 1200m #1: 4:46
• 1200m #2: 4:44
• 1200m: #3 4:47
• 1200m: #4 4:46
• 1200m: #5 4:45
• 1200m: #6 4:43

Grade: A.  Maybe A+.  I took care to ease up on the first couple, hoping I could finish faster on the last ones.  It worked.

Run workout #2. Tuesday

Up until this week, all the tempo runs had been a mile or two easy warm up, followed by two to six hard miles, then an easy mile or two cool down.  This week, seemingly out of left field, the plan called for 10 miles at a 7:49 pace.  Seemed quite a jump.  I can’t remember the last time I did a mid week double digit run, either.  This run worried me for three reasons.  The first was the just mentioned big jump in mileage at a pretty aggressive pace.  The second reason was my schedule.  I had to violate one of the main principles of the program which is not running back to back days.  Unfortunately, with two cross country meets this week, I couldn’t figure out another way.

So, I set out at 6:15pm Tuesday night with the third worry – impending darkness.  Now I run in the dark a lot, but I stay in my neighborhood, where it is safer.  For a 10 mile run, though, I rarely do the neighborhood because that is four laps and too many hills.  For the tempo RLRF workouts, I’ve tried to balance the hills.  So, I headed out of the neighborhood with an hour of daylight left and my reflective gear.  Don’t know if it was the attention to nutrition and hydration during the day, the new gels I was trying or the cool weather, but this was one of my best runs yet.  I did the 10 miles in 1:17:15.

Grade: A+. That’s a 7:42 pace for the ten miles.  It was also a negative split.  I average 7:46 on miles 1-5 and 7:39 on miles 6-10.  I was 7:45 through nine and pushed it on mile 10, coming in at 7:13 for the last mile.  That will lower the average a bit.

Run Workout #3. Friday

This week’s long run called for 15 miles at an 8:09 pace. After last week’s disappointing 20 miler, I wanted to redeem myself and finish up strong for a great week. I set out at sunrise to almost perfect running weather, low 60’s and comfortable humidity.

As usual, besides meeting the time goal, the secondary goal was a negative split.  I had not been too successful with this on the long runs.

Grade: A. I started out a bit fast, and after five miles was on an 8:07 pace.  I slowed it down a bit on the next five and with five miles to go, I felt great and my overall pace had slipped to 8:10.  Time to turn it up a bit. I ran the last five miles at a 7:55 pace, including stepping down 7:57, 7:55, 7:54 on the last three.  This gave me 2:01:38, an 8:05/mile pace for the fifteen miles.  Also met the negative split goal.

Week Ten Summary

This week was a good confidence booster, especially the ten mile tempo run at 7:49.  If you recall, 7:49 is the marathon target pace.  This was the first double digit run at that pace, and I did very well.  Still a long ways to go, but it felt great to pull it off, especially the day after a tough track workout.

Here’s a graphic showing hit or miss on the workouts over the past ten weeks. For the tempo and long runs, I included mileage and pace targets (not including the easy warm up and cool down miles for the tempo runs). The actual pace result is in parentheses:

Up Next

Here’s what is in store for week eleven:

Run #1: Track work. 1000m in 3:56; 2o00m in 8:14; 1000 in 3:56; 1000m in 3:36.  400m RI between each
Run #2: 1 easy mile, 5 miles @ 7:49/mile, 1 easy mile
Run #3: 20 miles @ 8:19/mile.

Cross Training: Swim, of course: Kick 4 lengths; swim 20 minutes; kick 4 lengths

Big concern this week is the twenty mile long run.  I haven’t met goal on the last two twenties, and I’d really like to meet this one.

 

Stay tuned and POFIFOTO!