Last night, I warmed up with 3 easy miles (28:xx) and then did 2 miles of tempo. My tempo miles were 7:14 and 7:08, which is pretty close to where I expected to be right now. If things go well, I'll gradually increase my tempo speed at the same heart rate over the next two months.
I follow Jack Daniels's rule for tempo, trying to run at 86%-88% of my max. By keeping my HR in a narrow range of 4 BPM, I can see if I'm really progressing as time goes by. Typically, I start the year in the 7:15 mpm range, and by the time I'm into my taper for a target race, my tempo miles are close to 6:50 mpm.
I'll gradually increase the number of tempo miles per week, starting at 2 this week and maxing out at 7 or 8 by late May or early June. Then, in June, as I start to taper for WS, I'll cut my total mileage and cut my tempo miles down, and that's when I hope to see paces of 6:50 or better.
I lifted this morning, and I lost track of set counts. I think I did an extra round in my first group of giant sets. If so, I did a total of 90 squats rather than 80, and 90 weighted step-ups (each leg) rather than 80. I wanted to be sure I didn't do less than scheduled, so I did at least 80 reps of the leg lifts. The upper body work had a bit more variation, and I did no more than 40 reps of anything there.
Despite beautiful weather, I won't run tonight with a race on Saturday. I'll probably take the dogs for a short walk before we take my daughter out to dinner to celebrate her 10th birthday.
Tomorrow morning, I'll run an easy 4 before work, and then rest until Saturday morning's race.
It looks like the temperatures in Boston for the next few days will be cooler than here in Vermont. That will be good news for my race on Saturday and good news for the marathoners on Monday. The current high temperature for the marathon is forecast to be 52F and the high on Saturday for my race should be 59F.
We'll see 70F here in VT for the first time this spring in the next couple of days.
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