Countdown to Ogden: Week 4

I'm writing my weekly recap a bit early as I plan on doing a full recap of the Oakland half marathon tomorrow. It'll be my first time running the race, it could be an interesting shitshow seeing how the weather is a total piece of crap, rumors say the course could be as long as 13.4 miles, and unlike my Kaiser recap, I'll try to be a little more honest with my paces & takeaways. I'm still not quite sure if I want to race it, practice MGP miles, or just call it mileage, and I have a feeling I won't determine that until I see how the weather is tomorrow.

Ogden Marathon training, week 4

Monday:
Goal: 5 mi. @ rec. pace (9:00+)
Actual: Rest

I really wanted the day off.

Tuesday:
Goal: 10 mi. w/ 5 @ LT pace (7:25-7:35)
Actual: 10 mi. @ 8:06

My goal was to start with a 3-mile warm up, do 5 miles @ LT, and a 2-mile cool down. My splits were good, so I thought, but apparently I ran the last couple LT miles too fast, which was somewhat intentional -- I just didn't know I was supposed to control that pace, rather than running it all out. I'll work on holding that pace better next time since Coach Z-Bar says that's where the true lactate threshold benefit comes from.

Splits: (w/u) 8:46, 8:54, 9:02, (LT) 7:39, 7:22, 7:22, 7:16, 7:10, (c/d) 8:28, 8:55

Wednesday:
Goal: 11 mi. @ MGP + 30 sec.-1 min. (8:30-9:00)
Actual: 11 mi. @ 8:22

Nothing to this -- just cruised & enjoyed the back-to-back double-digit days.

Thursday:
Goal: 5 mi. @ rec. pace (9:00+)
Actual: 5.5 mi. @ 8:19

I met up with a bunch of Bay Area bloggers for an after-work run, followed by grilled cheese sandwiches! I ended up running with speeddemon Katie, who always pushes me to go a bit faster. While I never felt uncomfortable during this run, it certainly wasn't recovery pace. Oh well.

Back, left to right: Jojo, me, Naomi, Layla, Kerry, Angela, & Courtney

Front, left to right: Audrey, Aron, Cate, & Katie

Friday:
Goal: 5 mi. @ rec. pace (9:00+)
Actual: 4 mi. @ 8:23

I needed to run a bunch of errands and since the weather was nice, I decided to do just that. Lots of stopping & going to hit up stores during this run, but a great casual run nonetheless.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Oakland Half Marathon... recap here!

When all is said & done, I'll have run 44 miles during my 4th week of training. A nice little step-back week in terms of mileage, but with some faster paces and a race thrown in there.

8 more weeks until Ogden!