And now for the current stuff….

My current PR for a full is 4:16.  By no means am I disappointed with this.  In fact, I’m still elated that I have been able to run one in that time.  If you’d asked me 4 years ago, I’d have never thought it was possible.

But like all runners, all athletes actually, I needed a new goal.  So this past spring, I decided that I wanted to break the 4 hour mark for a full marathon.  All my recent half marathons predict that I should be able to do it if I train.  Being that I didn’t have any major races set for the summer or early fall, I decided that I would set Rock N Roll St. Louis in October as my goal race, with the Tulsa Route 66 marathon in November as my back-up. 

The base training for this started in early spring and led to a handful of PRs at other distances through late spring and into summer including 5 miles (3x:xx), 10k (47:xx), half marathon (1:44:xx) and 5k (22:xx).   My base training followed this schedule:

Monday – rest

Tuesday – speed work

Wednesday – rest or 3 easy miles

Thursday – 3 to 5 miles

Friday – rest

Saturday – 10 miles

Sunday – 6 miles

It seems to be doing the trick, so I’m sticking with it through my marathon training, with the addition of long runs on Saturdays in accordance with Hal Higdon’s 30-week personal best marathon plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51150/Marathon-Personal-Best-Training-Program).

This past Saturday, I completed a wonderful rainy 14-mile training run.   (Yes, the rain was more than welcome after a summer of record heat and a massive drought.)

Tuesday was speed work and included a 1.5-mile warm up followed by 6x400m with 400m recovery (spring splits were 1:36, 1:38, 1:37, 1:39, 1:39 and 1:31).

Wednesday was a phenomenal 3-mile recovery run, though it wasn’t as easy as I planned it to be.  In fact, it was just the opposite, posting one of the best times I’ve had on that particular course (7:55/mile average).  I blame the slightly cooler temps for that one.

Tonight I have 5 on the schedule as a group run with the Belleville Running Club (www.bellevillerunningclub.com)