Week 5 - "Cross Training"

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

Theodore Roosevelt

When you have been training for a couple of months the sessions start to wear on you. Your body is tired, you mind is tired and your spirit is flickering. Add in the chaos of Life and the weight on your sole becomes heavier. We all go through this one time or another in our training. I tend to feel it right about now two fifths through this run program.

11 weeks into the marathon program and I am in a “down week”. The down week is typically made up of shorter distances on the long runs on this program. Finishing the 4th of 5 – 20 milers on Friday puts me at only a 15 miler for the long run this week. I have opted to run the ING Half Marathon in order to get the “race pace” feel in my blood. Being among thousands of runners will test my will power to hold the pace and finish the half at my marathon pace. I will make up the 2 extra miles before and after the Half.

The trick to staying on pace for me will be to hang with the Mizuno Pace Group for 12 out of the 13.1 miles on Sunday. Once I hit the 12-mile marker, I will break loose from the group and increase my pace 30 seconds to 1 minute faster for the last 1.1 miles. This strategy will even out the average pace to come in where the plan states I should.

With four runs scheduled this week,(Tempo, Track, Tempo, Long) and swimming, weights and my responsibilities as a husband and father, when Sunday comes that knot better be big enough to sit on.

Coach Mike’s Workout for Tuesday:

300M Warm-up
200M Stroke (I used paddles and buoy)
100M Kick, no fins
100M Perfect stroke
15 X 50M Drills on the :55’s
1. Fist
2. Single Arm up & back
3. Fast
4. Alternative Stroke to Free
5. Catch-up
Repeat 3 times
6 X 400M on the 7’s
100M at 1:44 split
100M at 1:41 split
100M at 1:37 split
100M at 1:33 split
2 X 200M at sub 3:05 (We hit 3:03 on the first and 2:49 on the second)
200M Cool down

Lane 1 swimmers: Evan, Melissa, Brian and myself. Everyone pulled the load when able, but some of the swimmers could have used a rope with a knot in it, but we got through the workout and hit the marks.