This week has been a "reverse taper" of sorts, apparently, in an effort to get some additional difficult runs in prior to my taper before my next marathon in a few weeks. It's been a tough go since my running the Brookings Marathon last week.
Monday was easy, being a simple 4-mile jog at a comfortable pace. On Tuesday, I had a 10k time trial. I was supposed to break 40 minutes again, but couldn't hold it together like previously, so wound up getting 42 minutes. (Not shabby in itself, but not making the goal.). Wednesday was 8 miles @ 7:00 pace. Managed it, but it was a little tough on the legs. Thursday was 7 miles (the middle 2 being at 6:30 pace) -- again, legs were burning a bit at the higher pace. Friday saw things blow up a fair bit. While just a 6 mile run, it was supposed to be at race pace. I dropped my pace for the last mile given both the burn in my thighs and the heavy breathing.
Despite having yesterday off from running (I did some cross-training which had no effect on legs), today's run fell apart from the get-go. Despite it being gorgeous running conditions for a 20-miler (slight wind, 45F starting temp), and using a course profiler that should have been a little easier than what the W&OD Trail would have had in store for me, it was just too much. By 6 miles, my Garmin was screaming at me for high HR, and I was certainly feeling it. By 16.5 Miles, I was barely holding on to some semblance of a running pace, and slammed into the wall at Mile 17 -- walked the last 3 miles. I was supposed to have about 2:20 for this run and wound up just under 3:02.
Some active recovery runs for this week, and another attempt at 20 miles next Sunday at a slower pace to fully kick off my taper. Fingers crossed that things go a bit better for me.
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