Marathon Training: Week Fifteen

Still in Panama City this week.  Tried something slightly different; I cranked up the volume of work at the gym on Monday and Thursday, in an effort to slightly alter the schedule and give me a day off on Friday.  I think I prefer the lower volume, higher frequency approach to lifting, so I’m guessing I’ll return to that next week.  With these higher running miles coming up, I think the key to not overtraining is to keep the volume at the gym on the lower side, even if it calls for an extra day at the gym.  That said, this week’s 17-miler was brutal!  Here’s the lowdown:

Sun – 1-8-12: 30-minute powerwalk (Panama City)

Mon – 1-9-12: Weights at the gym (Free form – higher volume)

Tue – 1-10-12: 7-mile tempo run.  Felt good… like all was back to normal after a couple weeks of sketchy knees and shins.  Did a 1-mile warm-up, three faster, one regular, one faster, then a cool-down mile.  Wound up with an 8:56 average pace, plus I had a couple “sub-8′s” in there which, again, I was happy to have, given what’s been going on lately.

Wed – 1-11-12:  A nice 6-mile run at a comfortable 9:31 pace.

Thu – 1-12-12:  Weights at the gym (Free form – higher volume)

Fri – 1-13-12:  Day off

Sat – 1-14-12:  17-mile run… that totally kicked my ass!  This was a tough one, to be honest.  I even tried to integrate more short bits of walking throughout.  Still, the last three miles were really uncomfortable.  But I forced myself to continue.  And when I was finally finished, I could feel my knees tighten with each passing moment… so much so, that I could barely make it up a short flight of stairs.  It was brutal.  And it’s not getting much better.  I’m concerned that I maybe injured something… and I have no idea how I’m going to be ready to run again on Tuesday.

BR