Marathon prep workout: Wall, meet Kevin. Kevin, meet wall.

Well, that hurt.

On my last post, I said Thursday's workout, which featured a 5-mile portion where we ran two minutes hard and two minutes easy, was the hardest of the summer.

Check that.

Saturday's workout - the second of four marathon prep workouts we've had this summer - was the toughest of the year. It broke me. I met the wall and it is unforgiving.

The workout was this: A two-mile warm up. Then 3 miles at marathon pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown, followed by 3 miles at half marathon pace, followed by a half-mile cooldown. We repeated this workout so that we ended up running marathon pace (MGP) for 9 miles and half marathon pace (HMGP) for 6 miles. We ended the workout with a 1 to 3 mile cool down. The total mileage for me was 20.5 miles.

The purpose of the workout, coach said, was to see if we could hang at marathon pace after three miles running 20 to 30 seconds faster during the half marathon portion of the workout. The half-mile cooldown was also a key component of the workout: not only did it give you a little rest, but it made you have to get back on pace after your body had shutdown during the rest.

Since I'm trying to run a 3:20 marathon, my goal marathon pace is 7:40 min/mile and my half marathon pace is 7:20 min/mile. I told myself, made a promise to myself that I wouldnt let myself go faster than 7:30 for marathon pace. Stupidly, however, I didn't have a real good plan for what my half-marathon pace should be. So, each of my half-marathon-pace miles were sub 7:05.

And, it turns out, I didn't keep my marathon-goal-pace promise either.

So, I was at pace or faster than pace on 15 of the 17 miles. The two miles where I failed were the last two miles. I hit the wall. Everything hurt. The only reason I kept going is because Mike was screaming at me, "Come on, don't punk out.. Do it for Noah .... You only got two miles to go. ... Come on don't you want this." I haven't felt pain like that since the end of a marathon. But I never walked and my pace didn't drop off too much - 8:00 min/mile instead of 7:40.

I could blame the heat (low 80s by the end of the workout). But I won't. I knew it was hot. But I ran faster than pace anyway and it finally got me in the end. Good thing this was just a workout. There is no way I'll do any of my miles during my goal marathon at half-marathon pace.

Here is the mile-by-mile break down


Mile 1 2 3 Avg
==========================
MGP ---- 7:30...7:31....7:38 ---- 7:33

HMGP -- 6:59...6:56....7:04 --- 6:59

MGP ---- 7:22...7:31....7:25 --- 7:26

HMGP -- 7:02...7:02.....7:00 --- 7:01

MGP ---- 7:35...8:02.....8:00 --- 7:52