Last weekend before the marathon – what to do…
I wanted to get my heart rate up, but not kill my body. I also wanted to get my body feeling loose, light, spring-y, and ready to run.
Knowing that, this morning I decided to go to the track. It’s a great open space to do some movement prep, running drills, and elasticity.
When I say elasticity, i mean something similar to plyometrics, but the way I do them is with stability and elasticity in mind, so, only 4-5 reps of perfect executions, both single and double leg and only a few movements. So I’m not killing the muscles / joints, just enlivening them!
I spent about 1 hour doing my movement prep which is an active warm up that includes things like glute bridges and mini-band monster walks, knee hugs, leg cradles, lunges w/ a stretch, etc. I intermix those with running drills including, marching, skipping, straight leg skipping, and one leg runs. I finish up with elasticity. Many of these movements you can see on the Sportskool videos under my VIDEOS, fyi!
By then I was definitely loose, light, spring-y and ready to run!
I chose to do one of my favorite run workouts. It’s a 5km on the track but run as follows:
8 x (400m run + 200m ez) and finished with an additional 200m ez to make 5km total.
My goal today was simply to start at an easy pace and either hold it or go faster if I felt like it.
My first 400 was 1:45 (7min/mi) I was excited it felt so easy!
My first 200 was :52 (also 7min/mi)
From there I was able to decrease my 400s by about 2 seconds every time, and maintain my 200s @ about :52. My last 400 was strong @ 1:29 (5:56/mi) and I finished the whole 5km in 20:45. Or 6:45/mi pace. Nice.
I’ve decided I’ll start my marathon @ 8min/mi. I’m not sure I’ll even be able to go that slow (remember I'm a 5/10k-er) but I have a feeling that will be my best bet for finishing the marathon strong – and hopefully even negative splitting it, which I hear is the way to go, if you can…
This coming week I plan to keep it easy, but get in a few things early in the week like a solid swim workout Monday. Tuesday: a movement/strength session and another short interval workout on the Woodway Force focusing on my running form. Wednesday, an easy swim and easy movement, similar to what I warmed up with today…then…chill. ☺
