How to Add Speed Workouts to Your Training Plan
April 23, 2024
I feel as if I just began marathon training, yet here I am at week 10 of 16, with a 20 mile long run and a 51 mile week. I think what feels the weirdest about my marathon being six weeks away is that it means that December is six weeks away!
The biggest challenge this week was the weather. On Monday, the forecast predicted the arrival of a pineapple express (not the James Franco movie) for most of the week: high winds, lots of rain, and snow in the mountains. Running in the wind is never as bad as I anticipate but it still isn’t fun.
It was humid but thankfully chilly. I can tolerate the humidity if it’s cold enough, although I certainly wouldn’t cross my fingers and hope for humidity on race day. After a hilly and slow warm-up, I ran these repeats on a half-mile loop with a 2-minute recovery jog between each interval.
I was really pleased with this workout! The last time I ran 8 x 1K was in April when training for the Snohomish Women’s 10K, when I ran a 7:07-7:12/mile for each repeat. This time, I averaged a 7:02/mile, with the slowest (first interval) at 7:05/mile and the last at 6:58/mile. That may only be a few seconds per mile, but seeing that progress makes the hard work so rewarding.
I almost ran on the treadmill, as the wind gusts were reaching around 35-40 mph. I couldn’t find the keycard for our gym – Ryan had it in the pocket of his coat, we realized later – so Ollie and I headed out the door for our run. Surprisingly, the wind was not as harsh as I anticipated. We focused on our effort and ended up having a really good run – I am so glad that I didn’t run on the treadmill!
I did my current go-to routine for core work: kettlebell lunges, stability ball pikes, hamstring ball curls, and dead bugs.
I ran one mile easy (9:07) and then started a mental timer for one hour. I ran 7.5 miles in that hour at marathon effort, but my splits were all over the pace: 7:57, 8:13, 8:20, 7:45, 7:56, 8:17, and 7:49. I’m not sure if it was GPS error, poor pacing, or the effect of the hills – but at least the overall effort was good. I know this route includes areas with consistently spotty GPS signal, which means not too much faith should be invested in the Garmin splits; if you look at the map after the run, the GPS lines form straight lines where the trail sharply serpentines. The trail is windy with sharp turns under a decent tree cover – but it also features constantly rolling hills, which makes it a good option for a marathon pace run.
After Ollie and I finished this run, I took our friend’s puppy out for one slow cool-down mile to make it 10 total for the day.
Rest days during marathon training are so wonderful.
I started out sluggish on this runner, slower than I would have preferred for the first 6 miles. My thoughts began to enter a negative place until I gave myself some honest talk while waiting for a crosswalk: This run is really not this bad. If it gets bad, I can do 18 miles for the day. Long runs are hard. I take time to warm up. Get over yourself, because it’s just a run, and getting upset only makes it worse. The run got a lot better after this point. Sometimes the hardest part of a long run is the first quarter!
Even with the rough start, this was a good run. Yes, it was hard – 20 mph headwind for miles 8-13 didn’t help – but of course a 20 mile run is hard. By the time mile 8 hit, I got into a good groove. That’s half the reason we run marathons, is because of the challenge they provide! I admittedly was excited to be done so I could get out of the rain and wind, untangle my mess of a braid, and eat.
Even with a steady drizzle of cold rain, Ryan and I enjoyed our easy run with Ollie. This run felt good – I recovered surprisingly well from the 20 mile run the day before. My appetite definitely had not recovered though! The marathon hunger is setting in.
Because of the past few days of heavy rains and high winds, we decided to stay home rather than go hiking. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny fall day, so we took a few walks both with and without the dogs. The sunset was gorgeous!
[Tweet “A windy week of #running and the first 20 mile run of #marathon training via @thisrunrecipes”]
How was your week in running?
What weather conditions will you run in?
13 Responses
So much can happen throughout those long runs! I’ve definitely had ones that started out rough and turned out pretty good. Usually we get some pretty windy weather here by late fall. It’s still been warm here, which I don’t want to complain about too much because I know I will miss this weather when winter arrives!
Great job this week!
Thank you! Warm weather is weird this time of year – like you said, winter will be here soon, but there’s something about fall that makes cooler weather more desirable!
I really, really dislike running in the wind. It’s so frustrating because you feel like you are going so slow no matter what your effort is. Great job on getting it done! And how is December only 6 weeks away!??!?!
Thank you! Wind is so frustrating – slowing down against the wind doesn’t make it feel any easier! I always feel extra tired after a windy run.
Looks like you had a great week all around! I try not to avoid bad weather, but I will not run in thunderstorms. Also, I will not do tempo runs if the “feels like” is super hot. I will do them on the treadmill in that case. Running sustained efforts in the heat and humidity take longer to recover from and I’d rather treadmill it so that I can run another one soon after and keep training. I will do short intervals (up to say, 1000s) in hot weather. I’ve never heard of pineapple express weather though, that’s a new term to me.
Your marathon is almost here which is crazy! In just a few weeks it will be time to taper. You had a strong week with the run at goal pace AND the 20 miler.
Thank you! This week was the first time I ever heard that weather term – I did a double take at the news article and thought, isn’t that a movie about stoners? I can’t even imagine doing any intervals in the heat!
Ahhh so exciting to see your paces drop like that over time! Isn’t it amazing how our bodies adapt? So cool. And no yeah, yeah no I don’t like the wind. I started out yesterday in blustery conditions and I immediately felt disheartened about my ability to hit the paces but once I got my head around it, I was okay. But man, it was tough. Your week was AWESOME. Speed work, a 20 miler, WOOHOOO! Good job, Laura!
Thank you! The wind is so tough – even if you can hold the pace, it’s a mental battle the whole time. At least this week’s weather is looking much better!
Awesome progress on your workouts! Such a solid marathon pace workout with rolling hills thrown in there. The humidity and wind are my two least favorite conditions to run in. An wow, how did CIM get so close?!
Thank you! The wind is so rough to run in, but at least it makes the humidity more bearable!
While I’ve never run 20 miles, I do know those pep talks for long runs. Sometimes it really does take an hour to get into a run which can seem crazy but it’s true!
No matter the distance, it always seems to take me a quarter of the run to get into it! Which means on a 20 mile run, it takes practically a whole run itself to warm up!
I will run in pretty much any weather (that isn’t dangerous) but the wind did drive me to the treadmill once this week because so much dust was blowing in my eyes! And I only do short runs when the temperature is <0, because frostbite is nothing to mess around with.