AM - 14 miles. Warmed up 4 miles. LT Reps: 6 x 1 Mile - 5:07, 5:04, 5:04, 5:02, 5:03, 5:02. Rest interval was ~0.3 mi jog back to the start. Cooled down 2.5 miles. Good session this morning. Was shooting for HM "date pace" (~5:05-5:10) and went a little faster, but it was a very controlled workout. No hammering the last rep, tried to keep them as consistent as possible. PM - 35 minutes pool running w/ Andrea. For now, I'm trying to give my legs 24 hours of rest after harder workouts. I've been thinking a lot about what I have planned for this training cycle. I feel like I have learned a lot about training for the marathon and there are a lot of things I want to incorporate. However, this is actually a somewhat shorter buildup, so I'm not going to be able to get everything I want in there. The key is finding the mixture of the most important elements, figuring out how they fit together (that's what coaches get paid the big bucks for!) and executing them properly. The other thing to consider is how this marathon builds into the rest of the year... in 2012, I was in fantastic shape in March/April and really never got to a higher fitness level. For this upcoming year, I want it to be more of a progression... I'll run the marathon in March, then probably two national championship races in the spring/summer (25K & HM), and then potentially go for the OTQ in the fall season. There has to be more cycling up and down in order to run better as the year goes on. So I'm not going to play all my cards in these next two months - some things will get saved to provide a different type of stimulus down the road a bit. Its exciting, because while its taken me a while to figure it out, I think I've fine-tuned my approach (or at least have a plan) and can make a big jump in 2013. The conversations that Andrea and I have (especially during these afternoons in the pool) - breaking down all of my ideas, simplifying, and letting the most important things rise to the top - are incredibly valuable.
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