Racing my way back into shape

Or otherwise known as cramming. I am not recommending this by the way, just like your teachers in high school did not recommend cramming for tests (but most of us did it anyway).

After taking a break since my December marathon, and hardly racing at all in that time, I have strung together an ambitious build up of mileage over the past month and a half and I have simultaneously turned up the intensity on workouts AND raced the past two weekends with plans for several more races in the upcoming weeks. The results of these races has not been my primary concern--getting out and really running hard has--but it has been tough at times to turn in results that are a bit below my expectations for myself, and made worse by the fact I am running them on tired legs that are still in shock from the increase in training intensity. Most of these races are on courses I have run multiple times so that I could also get some sense of where my fitness is. At least I am within the range of previous results instead of in personal worst territory, so that's good.

Last week I hit 75 miles, which included a 10k race, a 17 mile mid week run and a 22.5 mile long run, plus 4 days in the pool and a core session. It equaled out to about 15 hours of training which would explain why my bed time kept creeping up closer to the 8 pm hour.

I'm about 5 weeks out from my next marathon. The one that I said I was "just running for fun with no goals." (I don't think anyone ever believed that anyways). Obviously, I have no grand delusions of coming close to a PR, but "the number I'd like to hit" keeps dropping in my mind. I went from thinking a 3:30-3:35 was the best I could muster, to maybe I can squeeze out a 3:20, to thinking maybe I can get that number down to a 3:15, weather permitting of course (I learned the hard way that a marathon in Texas, particularly April, can be sinfully hot and miserable).

So basically that's my plan over the next several weeks: do race-like efforts as frequently as possible, and continue to do so on tired legs as to simulate the feeling at the end of a marathon. This strategy is what I would call high-risk, high-reward. If you can hold up without getting injured, racing your way into shape can be a very effective strategy because it is absolutely specific to race day.

Having said all of this, I'm hoping to do well on April 21 (marathon day). I'm not in pr shape by any means, but things are progressing well every week. All we can ask when we race is that we have a strong performance relative to the shape we are in. We can always strive for this no matter what shape we are in.

Last week's training:
Monday: 2,850 yd swim
Tuesday: Speed (Tempo + Fartlek combo)- 10 miles; 2,700 yd swim
Wednesday: 17 miles @7:58 pace; 40 min strength/core
Thursday: 5 miles easy; 2,750 yd swim
Friday: 10.2 miles with hills; 2,700 yd swim
Saturday: St. Patty's Day 10k in 41:23. No watch again. Windy and warm. 3rd overall, 1st female. 10 miles total for the day.
Sunday: 22.5 miles @8:23 pace. Humid. Hilly.

St. Patty's Day 10k. 3rd, 1st and 2 overall, respectively.