week 12

[Coach Cane]

Congratulations on getting through your first 20-miler.  Here's the 
plan for this week: 

We're going to continue our focus on quality miles on Tuesday.  We'll 
begin at an easy pace counterclockwise on the lower loop.  From there 
we'll do 30 minutes of "Strawberry Fields" loops and then a cooldown 
back to the start.  The Strawberry fields loop begins at 74th St. 
along the west drive.  Head up the exit ramp to the top of the hill, 
over the top and down the other side, then make a left and go back 
along the west drive to the start of the hill.  Don't treat this as a 
brutal hill repeat workout, but rather as a continuous, rolling loop. 
Focus on form - drive with your arms, head up, lifting your knees. 

***Remember that you will be crossing the main drive during this run. Please

don't endanger yourself or anyone else by running against traffic (except in the rec

lane) or crossing without checking first.***

As for the weekend, as previously mentioned, you're strongly 
encouraged to race the Staten Island Half Marathon on Sunday, 
in lieu of the group run. Nonetheless, we will have the regularly 
scheduled run for those of you who are unable to make it on Sunday. 
The run will be - surprise! - a hard 13.1 miles.  Doing a half 
marathon one month out is a popular strategy because it gives us a gauge of 
your fitness as well as a challenging workout.  Over the last few 
weeks we've been talking more about marathon goal pace, and once we 
see what you can do at a half marathon, we'll get a better idea of 
what's realistic for double the distance. 

After all these weeks of constantly reminding you that your long training runs should 

be done slower than MGP, this week we're letting go of the reins. You are encouraged 

to really race the Half. Hopefully we'll see a time around 30 seconds per mile faster than

your MGP, otherwise we need to reconsider your MGP. Next week we'll do one last long run before 

your taper, and there, once again you will be urged to train at MGP + :30/mile.  Remember that the goal 

is for everything to come together on race day - not in Central Park during a random run in September 

or October. So go run hard on Sunday (or Saturday if you can't make it to SI), but remember not to exceed

the prescribed speed on other long runs.

In addition to the group workouts, here's what i'd like you to do 
this 
week: 
M: rest 
T: group 
W: easy 3.5-6, preferably on soft surface.  x-training is acceptable 
Th: easy 4-7. 
F: rest 
Sa: 13.1 with group OR easy 3 miles if not racing. 
Su: easy 3 mile recovery jog OR race