Marathon Training Week 15 of 23

Week fifteen was a doozy. The long run was a new PR of 18 miles, and I intentionally planned my route so that Mile 17 and 18 were uphill. No, I'm not a masochist -- but at mile 17 on the Portland Marathon course is where a long slow uphill begins, to get on the St John's bridge. So, I wanted practice climbing hills at mile 17 and beyond. I had been maintaining 10:00 and sub-10:00 times for the first 16, but the last 2 miles were 11:00-ish and 12:00-ish. I don't know that I hit the wall, although 2 miles of uphill definitely kicked my butt! In 2 weeks, on my longest run of the training program (20 miles) I'll do the same thing. OOF! As I was finishing today I started thinking "OK, on race day I'll need to do 8 more miles? Whoa." But then I stopped myself and began repeating the longest of my running mantras

I can't run what was.
I can't run what will be.
I can only run what is.
Run now
carpe viam

Highlights of the week:

1. Running over 37 miles for the week!
2. Running a distance of 18 miles for the first time ever!
3. Running almost 6 1/2 hours total this week!
4. Burning over 4800 calories this week!
but the biggest highlight of all...
5. My Monday run of 60 minutes: I felt good, and strong. The 6+ miles I ran for the 60-min time-frame was at 9:24. My previous 10k PR was 9:38 -- so without even trying, I ran a new 10k+ PR! (see the run here).

Here's the boring stuff:

Week 15 totals:
Running Distance: 37.47 mi
Running Time: 06:29:46 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.8 mph
Max Speed: 11.5 mph
Avg HR: 153 bpm
Max HR: 172 bpm
Calories burned: 4,833

Cycling Approx Distance: 00.0 mi
Cycling Time: 00:00:00 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 0 mph
Avg HR: n/a bpm
Max HR: n/a bpm

And here's the link to week 15's long run of 18 miles.

Sum totals so far:
Running Distance: 355.77 mi
Running Time: 52:02:07 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.7 mph
Max Speed: 12.8 mph
Avg HR: 149 bpm
Max HR: 182 bpm
Calories burned: 46,724

Cycling Approx Distance: 207 mi
Cycling Time: 10:52:50 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 19 mph
Avg HR: 127 bpm
Max HR: 153 bpm

Monthly Running Mileage Totals:
May: 23.68 mi (24th thru 31st)
June: 95.02 mi
July: 104.11 mi
August: 102.53 mi
September: 30.44 (1st thru 4th!)

Previous week's totals:
Week 14 totals:
Running Distance: 20.35 mi
Running Time: 03:33:01 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 5.7 mph
Max Speed: 12.6 mph
Avg HR: 145 bpm
Max HR: 172 bpm
Calories burned: 2,598

Cycling Approx Distance: 00.0 mi
Cycling Time: 00:00:00 h:m:s
Approx Avg Speed 0 mph
Avg HR: n/a bpm
Max HR: n/a bpm

And here's the link to week 14's long run of 8 miles.

~ Keith