Week 15 - San Francisco Marathon Training

It's hard to believe the the bulk of training is now behind me and it's taper time. Like it or not, there isn't much more I can do to improve my fitness for the marathon. All I can do now is ruin it with too much or too little taper (I have yet to get this right!).

This was a lucky week for me. I made a very poor choice in my Wednesday run, but didn't hurt myself and was able to recover for a great weekend of running.

Looking back, I think I took on too much in the way of hills on Wednesday in search of some added stress relief. Moving two weeks before and then starting a new job the week of peak training probably wasn't ideal. I made it through, though, with some still-decent training. Now I just need to play it smart until I hit the starting line.

Week 15 Summary:

Total Mileage: 49.5
Average Pace: 9:19
Goals Achieved: 5 of 6 (No strength training - yeah, gave up on that a while ago)

Week 15 Details:

Monday: Happy 4th of July! We took a family BOB run to celebrate - 4 miles (probably 10 min pace), no Garmin and a Starbucks stop in the middle. It was awesome.

Tuesday: Rest Day and my first day at a new job!

Wednesday: 8:00 pm - 8.5 miles of nothing but hill (10:32 pace). I'm lucky I came out of this un-injured.

Thursday: 8:00 pm - 5 miles of damage control (8:54 pace).

Friday: Rest day - soreness from Wednesday's fiasco hit full-force.

Saturday: 1:45 pm - 10 GMP EASY miles easy (8:58 pace). Damage control continued today with an easier and shorter-than-planned run. My legs still felt like too-tight rubber bands.

Sunday: 7:45 am – 22 miles (9:00 pace). This was, perhaps, my best long-run ever. It was effortless and controlled. I ran easy miles when I needed and GMP miles when I wanted. They all felt good. Now, fingers are crossed hoping I'll be able to repeat the feeling in 3 weeks!