Peak Week(s)

Peak weeks are big. They usually involve the most mileage of a training cycle and some of the toughest workouts. Last week was it--Monday through Friday was my peak week for marathon training. Really, I do more like a peak 12 - 14 days, ending by running a hard (but not as long) long run two weeks before the race. I've read that training takes about 8 - 14 days to give a benefit (read this article if you're interested benefit times), so for my last two marathons I did tough long runs two weeks before the race.

My peak week went well, but not as well as I would have hoped. The thing that threw a wrench in the training was a tough long run. I always have at least one bad long run during a training cycle, but it was too bad it happened on the peak week long run.

On the morning of my long run, a buddy came and raced a 5k beforehand (and smoked me), and then we did a cool down jog together and chatted for a bit. After the race and cool down, I had about 11 miles left. I was hoping to run the last 10 miles at marathon goal pace, but after one easy mile and two miles at miles at goal pace, I knew wasn't going to happen. My legs were heavy from a tough week of training. The race also took its toll, and the heat index by the time I finished the run was 88*.

Eagan parkrun 5k without a stroller

So instead of running the last 10 miles at marathon pace, I decided to do two miles at marathon pace and then mix in some goal pace during the last mile. I hit those paces OK, and my pace overall for 20 miles wasn't bad. I was feeling pretty sick afterward, but I'll write about that a bit more in my next post.

Although my long run didn't go great, the workouts earlier in the week did. Both my speed workout and tempo run went well, and I ran just over 80 miles for the week--the most I've run in quite a while. I'll write about my next big week of training in one of my next posts.

Run well.