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Carmel Marathon 2020 Weeks 2 & 3

Training for the Carmel Marathon on April 4th, 2020 in Carmel Indiana
Goal: 2:51

Week 2
Runs: 8
Weekly Milage: 72
Cumulative Milage: 139
Workouts / Long Run: 17 with 8 at Marathon Pace

Performance Management Chart for the week showing my running fitness progression from the beginning of the cycle through the current week.


The main focus this week was just building my milage a little from last week, about 5 more miles, while being ready for my first MP workout. I am pretty focused right now and I struggled some last week with wanting to do more that the plan called for. I really wanted to add in a threshold workout. Marathon training is about discipline and long term thinking though. I could have added in some threshold miles and it probably would have been ok but doing the plan the way the plan is written will get me where I want to go and will keep me feeling on track and help me from wavering in the other direction as well. I'm doing the plan, period.

I ran my first double in a while. I really hate doubles but if you want to run high milage they are a good way to get there. It was just an easy 4 and I let myself listen to a podcast to distract me.

The MP Long run went really well. 9 miles easy followed by 8 miles at marathon pace. I had Steve and Chad with me as usual. We ran down in Indianapolis again this week and picked up a couple of Steve's friends for part of the run as well. So again this week I got to feel like I was part of something a little bigger than just myself. I ended up averaging about 10 seconds faster than current MP as determined from the Monumental in November. This was a good confidence boost because I was able to pick it up in the last mile and I was in basic trainers not the vaporfly's I wore for the Monumental.

Week 3
Runs: 9
Weekly Milage: 83
Cumulative Milage: 222
Workout: 5 mile LT Wave
Long run: 20 miles

Performance Management Chart for the week showing my running fitness progression from the beginning of the cycle through the current week.


The focus this was again building milage a little and adding another run. A 5 mile threshold run was on the schedule for Monday and a 20 mile long run on Saturday but we got a bout 3-4 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday morning so I just ran the milage hoping that something would workout later in the week. Something kind of worked out on Thursday. I had a 12 mile run scheduled and the roads were dry and the wind was manageable but it was really cold, feels like -1. I modified the workout to be 1/2 mile at about marathon pace followed by 1/2 mile at a little faster than threshold. I was pleased with the results.

Saturday of week 3 saw my long run back up to 20 and there isn't much to remark on except that I got the miles in with Steve and Chad.

Next week I'll be holding my milage and frequency from this week and I plan on bumping up the long run another couple of miles.


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