There’s still time to change the road you’re on

I can’t recall ever putting as much pressure on myself to execute one workout as I did on Friday. In my head I know it’s never about one workout, it’s about the combination of workouts over a period of time which really matters.

In my past three marathon build-ups I’ve always nailed my half marathon race and had marathon specific sessions week after week. During this build-up the half marathon wasn’t quite what I wanted and since then I haven’t felt like I’m training for a marathon, partly because my foot flared up and then I got sick. Since last Sunday I started feeling better and I got a nice little session on Wednesday to make sure I felt good enough to tackle a longer effort two days later.  I felt as though Friday’s marathon specific session was going to tell me a lot about my marathon fitness.

On Friday I had a 70 minute tempo run. I usually do a 90 minute tempo a little earlier in the build-up and perhaps I could have handled a 90 minute tempo but then I would be rolling the dice in regards to digging a hole and not fully recovering. Anyways, the plan was to drop the pace down every 20 minutes, hoping that the last 10 minutes would be under marathon race pace. Luckily the weather cooperated (maybe a little windy but nothing too bad) and I was feeling pretty good. I ran the first 20 minutes at 3:10/km, right where I wanted to be. Unfortunately my progression was not as steep as I wanted and I only ran faster than marathon pace for the last five minutes.

I was pleased enough with the session even though I was hoping for something a little quicker.  There are still a few more hard sessions to go before I fly to the Netherlands, have to keep the momentum rolling. And get the nice weather rolling too!

Here are the elite men’s entries for the Rotterdam marathon

Atsedu Tsegay (Eth, debut),
Joel Kimurer (Ken, 2.08.18)
Gidena Gebremedhin (Eth, 2.08.28)
Brett Gotcher (US, 2.10.36)
Reid Coolsaet (Can, 2.10.55)
Birhanu Melese (2.12.38)
Alebachew Debas Wale (Eth, 2.13.37)
Mike Morgan (US, 2.14.22)
Willem Van Schuerbeeck (Bel, 2.16.14)
Stijn Fincioen (Bel, 2.17.57)
Benjamin Barbier (Bel, debut)
Dieter Vanstreels (Bel, debut)
Javier Guerra (Spa, debut)