My lead-up to the Rock n’ Roll NOLA Marathon next weekend has been a little bizarre, and definitely not according to any recognized training plan. Mostly this is because of my Honduras mission trip and subsequent upper respiratory infection.
The week before the trip I got in just over 32-miles of total running, which is significantly less than my normal 50 to 55. Last week in Honduras, I was only able to run 3-times for 15 total miles. Those 5-mile loops were crazy hard with almost 1,600’ of cumulative elevation gain, which was mostly in the last mile…
Near the end of our trip I came down with some type of upper respiratory virus that quickly turned into an infection. My plan had been to run a 20-miler last Sunday after we returned, but I ended up being too sick. I was finally able to get 20 in on Tuesday of this week, though this was less than 2-weeks from NOLA.
I ended up feeling very good during the 20, though I was still sick and taking antibiotics. I was able to maintain a comfortable 8:10 pace throughout, and felt the best in the last 5-miles.
After an easy 5-miler on Tuesday, I had a fantastic track workout last night. Here’s a rundown:
- 2.4-Mile warmup
- 6 x 100m stride outs
- 1600m fresh (6:15) / 400m recovery
- 800m fresh (2:58) / 300m recovery
- 800m fresh (2:57) / 400m recovery
- 1600m fresh (6:05)
- 1.75-Mile cool down
I was expecting to be TOAST after my illness (and still being on antibiotics) and the 20-miler on Tuesday, but ended up feeling great. That last mile repeat was the best I’ve felt at track in a long time.
This morning Nathan, Paxton and I did an easy 4-mile shakeout run, and we plan to join the group tomorrow for a 15-miler. With that, it should be a 52-mile week this week. Next week I plan to run 15-miles total before the race on Saturday, which means that my 4-weeks leading up to NOLA will look like this:
- 32-Miles
- 15-Miles
- 52-Miles
- 15-Miles
Not exactly tapering by the book, but I guess we’ll see what happens next week.
Beast Mode….ON!