I’m currently up in Victoria for the Labour Day long weekend. Yesterday I did my long run along the Galloping Goose trail out from Victoria to Thetis Lake and back. The trail was great although there were portions with very little shade which was rough since it got pretty hot on the way back. My legs and feet held up well until mile 15 but after that it was a slog to get home. That means my leg threshold is moving up though and that’s what matters. I had 3 Clif shot gels and 20 oz of Gatorade out of the road. My energy was good throughout so I feel as though I have my nutrition needs pretty much under control. That’s one less thing to worry about!

I should also mention that I had a great tempo run on Tuesday. My last few tempo runs haven’t felt so good but this time I was able to tune into a “comfortably hard” pace and maintain it. I stopped after 4.5 miles (as was on my schedule) but I felt as though I could have gone for longer. Also check out my heart rates on Thursday and Sunday! They’re less than 160 bpm which is perfect for easy and recovery runs. My long run heart rate was ridiculously high (probably partly due to heat) but I’m choosing to focus on the positive here. It’s nice to have a solid training week in the bank!

My first run of this training week was a 2x1mi speedwork session. I was aiming to do those two miles in about 7:54. I didn’t look at my Garmin during the speed miles and somehow I managed to go under my goal pace to 7:37 and then 7:39. So it seems I can do speedwork at or faster than goal pace but not tempo runs. I have no idea what this means. In the end I paid for the effort with tight/sore hamstrings for the next few days. I did a warm-up mile and some light stretching but I guess it wasn’t quite enough before picking up the pace. I’ll have to do better at that as the number of repeats increase.

Sunday’s long run took me back to part of the Lake Washington / McGilva / Galer / Madison / Interlaken section of the Seattle marathon course (approximately miles 19-23 on the course). That’s my plan for dealing with the late Seattle hills: specificity training. I’m going to run the hills every week I can and hopefully by the time the race rolls around they won’t seem so daunting or so big! This week I made it until mile 12-13 before my legs started to seriously protest. The thought of blueberry/banana pancakes got me through the last mile! I was pretty much toast for the rest of the day though. I napped “Allison style” for about 2 hours in the afternoon. Then I spent the rest of the day watching the last day of the Olympics including the men’s marathon which was very exciting. CBC had great coverage and of course, since I’m on the West coast, NBC pretended they were showing it “live” a few hours later.

I can now list Thunder Bay on the list of cities in which I’ve run. I was in town for my cousin’s wedding and had a 14 miler on the schedule for the morning after the wedding reception. Thanks to the Thunder Bay Recreational Trails website I was able to make out a 7 mile route almost strictly on paved trail from my hotel to Lakehead University. Matt joined me for the outward portion of my run and I met my Dad at the turn around point for a water/gatorade refill. The trails were great but it was a hot morning and the run took its toll on me. I was hurting by about the 10th mile. My heart rate was ridiculously high but I’m willing to blame that on not enough sleep, the 3 drinks I had the night before and of course the heat and lack of shade.

The other highlight of the week was watching the women’s Olympic marathon on Saturday night. Going in I was a little worried about how much coverage there would be but as it turns out between NBC, CBC and SRC I barely missed a minute. I was crushed when Deena Kastor had to drop out and I was inspired by Paula Radcliffe pushing through to the finish. I can’t run a single mile at the pace that these women ran 26.2 and yet I felt a real connection with what was going on half way around the world. So cool. I can’t wait to watch the men’s race next weekend!

On November 30 (16 weeks from today) I will be running the Seattle Marathon. This will be my second marathon and this time my goal is to beat 4 hours. That means taking more than 25 minutes off my previous finish time while running on a more difficult course. Aim big, I say.

Below you can see my training plan (or view it as a pdf here). It’s a home brew plan based on several Runner’s World Smart Coach programs. I didn’t choose a pre-made program because I needed to adjust for a 12 day vacation in September, the Victoria Half Marathon (a tune-up race for me) in October and a Vegas trip in November. I didn’t want to run my last 20 miler in Vegas so I moved it to the following Tuesday (I have the day off for Veteran’s (Remembrance) Day). Then I decided to use a “phase shift” so that in November my training weeks will run from Wednesday – Tuesday instead of my usual Monday – Sunday. The process of creating the training plan was actually quite enjoyable and I’m confident that this plan will get me to the starting line in good shape.

Stay tuned for weekly training updates and general marathon obsession for the next 4 months!!