Keith: June 17th - June 23rd

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson.

Though there is a certain amount of luck required to run your best marathon on any given day, in reality you make your own luck by putting in the work beforehand. It really is as simple as that.

Mon: 24.04m easy
Tues: am: jog with 6 x {15 stride, 45s jog} - 8.16m
pm: 3m warm-up, then 12m progressive tempo (avg 85%) - 6:03 per mile, short cool-down (15.58m)
Wed: rest.
Thurs: am: 1m jog, 1m easy, 9.77m steady (11.77m)
pm: 8.14m jog
Fri: am: jog with 10 x {15 stride, 45s jog} - 8.21m
pm: 3.2m warm-up, 5 x {5mins @ LT  / 5mins steady - 5:30 and 7:00 per mile average respectively}, 3.2m easy (14.54m)
Sat: Progressive - 2m jog, 5m easy, 3.6m steady (10.6m)
Sun: 3m warm-up, 6m @ 5:46 per mile (estimated current Marathon Pace), 3m+ cool-down (12.37m)

Total: 113.41

Another solid week.

Tuesday's tempo was mildly progressive. The first 2m were @ 80%, the next 8m @ 85%, and the last 2m @ 90% (5:50 per mile). All in all, it felt good, despite it being quite muggy.

On Wednesday I had my latest osteo treatment, and, as has happened before, due to the manipulations, my legs felt very heavy and stiff over the following days (was like this until after Saturday's run). Due to the initial stiffness I took Wednesday as my rest day this week. The good news is, though, that I'm apparently almost back to normal (at least in that respect :-) ).

Friday's session was looking to work between 10m-HM effort and to get the body used to recovering at a pace quicker than a jog. Today, with my first attempt at this type of run and I was quite pleased with how it went, especially as I was still stiff from Wednesday. Over time, as this becomes more marathon specific the quicker section will become closer to marathon effort and the steady section will also get quite a bit quicker.

Come Sunday morning, I decided to do something I usually don't and ran to pace. I had estimated, based on the other effort runs during the week that current Marathon Pace was about 5:46 per mile. This pace felt about right for marathon effort, despite it being a bit windy and that I was wearing a little extra clothing.

With 17 weeks to go I feel like I'm getting things lined up nicely for a very good end result.