Virtual MCM Training – Week 11

I am training for the Marine Corps Marathon, which will be held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My race day will be on October 18. I’m in full on taper mode now. Usually, that means cutting mileage down, but I had the Allison Woods Halloween Hobble 6 hour race this week. Originally, the Marine Corps Marathon would have been on October 25, two weeks after Allison Woods. But since the live MCM got canceled, my friends chose October 18 to run our virtual MCM together. So that put the two races a week apart for me.

Monday – 25 minute bike

Tuesday – 6 mile workout
Normally I do my run workouts on Wednesdays, but my coach recommended I move the workout up a day since I changed my goals for Allison Woods. Originally, I was going to just go and have fun and soak up the race atmosphere. But after giving it some thought, I decided to aim for some big goals for Saturday’s race.

My workout was pretty light. It felt like a “tune up” for my legs with a 2 mile warm up, 3 miles at marathon goal pace, and a 1 mile cool down.

Wednesday – 4 miles easy
My past several runs from Saturday through Tuesday had not felt all that great. Finally, on this run I felt relaxed and light and bouncy.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Easy 3 miles
This was a quick lunchtime run on the treadmill. After work, Kim and I hit the road for North Carolina.

Saturday – Allison Woods Halloween Hobble 6 Hour

We ended up getting hit by the remnants of Hurricane Delta during the race. So it rained on and off the entire day. The trails quickly deteriorated into a total mud fest. I was able to get in 6 loops for 24 miles total – my “B” goal. I’ll have a full race report later this week.