Training 1/30-2/5

1/30- Well deserved day of rest. Flew back to the Ham, worked a half day then shut it down.

1/31- Getting back to the normal routine now. Easy 6 in 44:12 (7:22 pace). Slight soreness in the IT band but outside of that, I felt great. Slowed down some in the 2nd half but that was only because I intentionally backed off after seeing a 7:13 split for Mile 2 without even pushing. How to train this week? It could be a bit tricky. I have 13 days until I race 26.2 but I am fresh off a half taper. I don't want to push too hard but I feel I could lose fitness if I go too easy. I think mileage near 40 is in order this week. That's solid but not extreme then it will be very little next week.
Grade:A-/1 credit/distance=6.5

2/1- Sensational performance after a rough day at work. I had to go indoors because I got stuck at the oral surgeon's office. It was just a check up and everything looks good. Easy 7 in 50:32 (7:13 pace). That's a 3:09 marathon if I held it for 26.2. Yes, it really did feel easy. The pace was fast because I am fresh. I did race 13.1 3 days ago but it was the only hard run I did all week.
Tempo tomorrow and I think my Saturday's run will be a MLR. Those 2 will be my only quality sessions before Mercedes.
Grade:A+/1 credit/distance=7.5

2/2- Tempo on Lakeshore. Very good but not a great performance. Finished with a time of 33:05 (6:37 pace) with a fairly even pace. Sloppy form and labored breathing. Felt just a tad off form but there's no need to panic. I won't have A+ stuff every day. Easy tomorrow.
Grade:B+/2 credits/distance=5.0

2/3- Indoor 5 in 37:07 (7:26 pace). Strong performance. Felt just a little bit of effort in the 2nd half but did maintain an even pace. If this one had been an 8 miler, the pace would have slowed. 26 miles at this pace seems daunting. The strain of this week is beginning to take its toll. Fortunately, the weekend will be easy because I'm in semi-taper mode.
Grade:A-/1 credit/distance=5.5

2/4- Good to see the Gnomes again. Unfortunately, the run was only average. 10 miles in 78:53 (7:53 pace). Pretty much what I planned on doing. Very uneven pace and this run required some effort. It really should have felt more comfortable. In fairness, I'm only 36 hours removed from a tempo and have not had a day off since Monday. Also, I ate nothing this morning. Not a good day overall. Need an easy 5 to hit 40 on the week. Let the taper madness begin.
Grade:B-/2 credits/distance=10.5

2/5- Lakeshore 5 in 36:09 (7:14 pace). Effort was comfortable. One discouraging development is that it appears that I need to take Paramin (blood sugar pill) regularly. That's probably why I didn't do so good yesterday and today felt so much easier even at a faster pace. I'm not pleased about that at all but I still claim healing. In this case, if I miss a few doses every now and then, it won't hurt me. If I take too much of it, it won't hurt me either. Let's hope that it does not progress to X # of pills per day or else! That's a prayer request. Added a mile cool later.
Grade:A-/1 credit/distance=6.0

Weekly summary:
A decent week of running. Outside of that, this week sucked but that's another issue. One week to go until marathon race day. No matter what the result, I will not run another until at least 2014. I won't be disappointed if it does not go well because my goal race was the 3M half. Still that said, it would have to be a disaster for me to not PR. If I can run 3:20ish on a moderately hilly course, I'd like to think that 3:10 is within reach in a downhill race esp. with 2.5 more years of good health.
Distance=41.0/ GPA= 27.4/8= 3.43