Preparing for Santa Cruz

It hasn't been easy.   It hasn't been like it was when I trained for Merced.  I'm not hitting new PR's left and right.  I feel like I've been running with an injured left foot.

Hill Training
When I first started hill training I took it on in terms of finding my maximum potential.  I started with only a few repeats of 8 seconds at 6% incline on the treadmill.  By the time I threw my back out training for Merced I was running at 9.4 miles per hour at a 10% incline, 10 sets.  I've not been able to get back there.

My training was supposed to be like:
Monday - hill sprints 6 miles, 12 sets at 6-10% grade ~9mph.
Tuesday - easy 5 miles
Wednesday - intervals/strength, 9 miles total
Thursday - easy 5 miles
Friday - tempo, 9 miles total
Saturday - hill sprints (as Monday) when Sunday is an easy long run, otherwise and easy 6 miles
Sunday - 2 hours of running or 15 miles if Hansen's calls for 14 miles

I gave up even trying to do hill sprints on Saturday.  Monday has turned into a 3.5 mile easy run ended with 6 sets of hill sprints, 8 seconds each at 8% grade, 8.7-9.2 mph.  Oh well, I can't PR every time I run a half-marathon.

Intervals/Strength
These have been going well.  Just this last week I did 3 x 2 mile strength runs at 8 minute per mile pace.  However, Hansen's only calls for 8:13 pace.  I convinced myself that if I didn't run any mile at 8 minute pace, then how could I expect to hold that pace for 13.1 miles?  I've seen two opinions online.  Let's think of them as hypotheses.

1. "I always run faster on race day, usually a full minute off my per mile pace," or something like that.
2. "You need to be able to hold your expected pace for half an hour to hope to run that pace during race day."

At Merced I ran an 8:05 pace.  However, during my training I was hitting 8:10 or faster during tempo runs, so it seemed like number 2 might be closer to the mark for me.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm over training.  Maybe that is why my left foot feels injured most of the time.

Tempo
These were going okay.  I was hitting and holding the 8:20 or faster pace up to 5 miles, then I got a cold.

Last Friday I couldn't hold the 8:20.  I'm not sure if it is the cold, the fact that I switched from interval to strength training the week before and I'm going faster than the training plan calls for.  I'm not sure if it isn't my left foot.  It also may be because I started training too soon and I'm burning out before the race - I had it in my mind that race day was April 21st, but turns out it was May 21st.  That goofed a lot up in terms of pacing my training.  I didn't catch the mistake until about 8 weeks into training.

Long Runs
Also was going well until recently.  The training plan calls for three 14 mile long runs, two weeks apart, the last two weeks before the race.  I felt that my endurance could have been better for Merced and decided to increase these to 15 mile runs.  I can go the distance, but I'm not getting anywhere near to holding the pace.

Injured left foot?  Over training on Strength Training?

I'm also not doing the "easy" 10 mile run in between the 12/14 mile long runs called for in the plan.  I like running for 2 hours on Sunday.  It is my thing, my spiritual moment.  Ten miles just doesn't feel like enough on that day.  But I do run "easy" pace when those 10 mile days are called for, and hit 11-12 miles in 2 hours.  It just happens.  Of course my pace for 15 miles isn't much (any?) faster.

Conclusions
When I started this bout of training I decided that I would do everything to not peak too soon.  I thought maybe during Merced, with the back going out, all of the short distance PRs, that maybe I peaked too soon.  Of course I knocked a whopping 5 minutes off of my previous half-marathon PR.  So is peaking too soon bad?

Nevertheless, I resisted trying to run faster than training pace, until recently when I convinced my self of number "2" hypothesis for strength training.  Also, being off on the timing for the start of my training has thrown me off of my commitment.  I figure its too late, I blew it.  I'll just have to wait until the next training cycle and nice flat Merced to run a new PR.

So, since I have nothing to lose, I will back off on my strength training.  I will reduce my speed to 7.3 mile per hour (8:13 pace) on the treadmill for all the rest of my training.  I will keep my tempo from going faster than the 8:23 pace - although no danger of that in recent runs. I will be happy to hold that pace for this Friday's 7 mile tempo.

In a nutshell, I will invest in hypothesis "1" above in the hopes that I will run at least 24 seconds faster on my tempo pace on race day and achieve a sub 1 hour 45 minute half-marathon.