I ran this week’s long run along the Esplanade. (Took the picture before the shirt came off in the humidity.)

I think I’ve mentioned this before - the thing I’m having the most difficulty with this training session (although this has been an issue with previous training sessions as well) is sleeping.

Thursday night I woke up at 3:25 and tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 5:15.

And when it went off, I did not feel rested at all.

I decided to skip Friday’s run. (After I was up about 20 minutes I felt a little better rested, but the decision was already made.)

I think it’s the first run this session that I’ve flat-out skipped…maybe the second.

It felt like the right thing to do - next week is going to be a little crazy with Reach the Beach, and I’ll certainly be tired then too.

So I figured I’d take advantage of the opportunity to skip this one, and hopefully it makes me stronger in the grand scheme of things.

Let’s take a look at the week, and then I’ll tell you more about it:

Monday: 4 miles, 10:52/mi (This was the holiday, so I had plenty of time. I also did a 5-minute core workout and 10 minutes of upper body)

Tuesday: 30 minutes Strength for Runners workout (this week the two strength workouts were ones I have done from the Peloton Marathon Training Program in years past. I don’t love doing them over and over but I do like popping them into my training here and there.)

Wednesday: Intervals run - 7.06 miles in 1:16:46 - this one was 8 quarter-mile repeats at 2:20 with a 200-meter recovery. I had to run around the neighborhood because the track has been taken over on Wednesday evening by little kids soccer. I also mixed in a 5-minute core workout beforehand.

Thursday: 30 minute Strength for Runners workout on Peloton

Friday: Skipped the run

Saturday: 8 miles, 10:10/mile

I didn’t psych myself out about this week’s long run. It was “just” 8 miles…but there were 4 at tempo pace. It went well - other than the fact that it was super humid again on Saturday morning. Hopefully there won’t be too many more running days like that in 2025.

Here’s where my head was at on Saturday, though - I kept thinking about the practicality of the workout. It was 2 miles warming up, 4 miles at tempo pace (I set my watch for between 9 and 10 minute miles, I hit closer to 9), and then 2 miles cooling down. My brain knows that this workout is intended to train my body and my thinking for that mile 20, mile 21 bit, when it’s tired, and to have my body know that I have run the goal pace - around 11:15/mi - when it was tired.

I did it Saturday of week 10. I should remember that.

But I don’t know if I will.

I kind of out-think myself when I’m running a marathon. I guess that’s the mental part everyone talks about. I don’t always think of myself in athletic terms during the race - I just think of myself as some regular joe trying to get to the finish.

But I should trust more that I’ve done the athletic work with all of these runs. Maybe that will help get me inching closer to my sub-5 hour goal. And for what it’s worth, I compared the 8 miles with 4 at tempo this week to the 8 miles with 2 at tempo from a couple of weeks ago, and I have improved, if they are comparable. (I think they are.)

Anyway, next week will be weird - I have Reach the Beach, and one guy dropped out with an injury so we all got some more miles. I’ll be closer to 16 - or more - with another leg and re-adjusted mileages on my original legs, I think.

There’s a meeting where I’ll learn more on Sunday evening.

And I’ll certainly write about it after the fact - and Week 11’s recap might be a little thinner next week.

Total Miles for Week 10: 19.06

Total Miles Overall: 231.44