Swift Fish Net

My marathon training has gone better than I expected it to. I ended up finishing the Parks Half with a 7:45 per mile average. I was hoping for 7:50, and I think I was around that through 10 miles. I felt good enough in the last 3 miles to pick it up. I finished in 1:41:27. Perhaps it would have been better to stick with the 7:50 pace as my left quad was sore for a week afterwards. Race results listings are now updated to include it and the two PCL DNSes.

Yesterday, I got my long run up to 20 miles on the C&O canal towpath. Looking at my training log, I noticed that it had been exactly one day less than a year since I last did a 20 mile training run. I ran two 5 mile out and backs downstream and upstream from Carderock. It is my favorite starting point for running on the C&O when I want to avoid hills. After three straight weeks of hills along Rock Creek, I needed an easier route. The run went well except for a muscle spasm in my left calf. Fortunately, the spasm dissipated quickly. It was fine during an easy 7 miles just 24 hours later.

I am still noticing some improvement with my knee every week. Hopefully, it will keep up this pattern, and I’ll get it back to 100%, eventually. It’s down to just six more weeks of training before Chickamauga. The plan is for one more 20 miler three weeks out. Otherwise, I need to add in some more marathon pace efforts. The problem is that I am not really sure what marathon pace I should be aiming for. Perhaps I’ll go with 7:45 for now. After the Army 10 Miler, I should have a better indication of my conditioning a bit closer to the race.