Low Mileage Week

I just didn't have "it" this week. Whatever "it" is, I had none. Maybe it was Saturday's race. Maybe it was the chest cold I've had this week. Maybe it was the business travel with late nights. Or maybe all those are just excuses and I should have done better. This is a recovery week, but 45 miles is a bit low, even for a recovery week. I couldn't hold tempo pace on Tuesday, and I didn't do any mid-week medium-long runs. I'm going to take an optimistic approach and say that one easy week won't sabotage my training. Maybe it will even help because I'll be fresher and ready to attack in the coming weeks. Optimism or wishful thinking?

This morning, I rode over to Carl's house and met with him and Shane O'Neill for a long-ish run. Carl knows the area and he led the way to show us a good route. We tackled some decent hills along Eastview and through some neighborhoods north of Eastview. Then there were more gradual hills coming back on Old Madison Pike. After that, Shane and I peeled off to tackle Thomas Drive and Stoneway Trail up to the top of Rainbow mountain. That's the hill that Madelyn Patton calls "the dragon". It is a nasty hill. We ended up running almost 16.5 miles total. I appreciate Shane's patience on what must have been an excruciatingly slow run for him. I certainly enjoyed the company this morning.

I need to incorporate hills into my long and medium long runs more often to get ready for Nashville. Now, I know a good route.

I still feel generally behind on my marathon training this time around. I'm confused about marathon pace. I want to aim for 3 hours and then if I blow up, I blow up. But deep down, I know that 3 hours isn't possible for me yet, so blowing up is no longer "if". So, should my marathon pace be a more reasonable 7:05 or 7:00? I need to figure this out soon.