The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update

For the 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update it feels as though the corner may have been turned. After a few tough weeks of low energy and feeling drained, there are some signs of better things on the horizon. There were a couple of good, positive sessions and a few mornings where I was able to bounce out of bed at my normal hour. It's been a while since I've felt this kind of energy. Maybe still not 100% there, but definitely going in the right direction. I do have blood tests scheduled for Friday of this week 10, and all going well, I will be back to feeling full strength before then. But, it will be beneficial to have a look at everything and see if there is anything amiss.

Probably the biggest indicator of my energy level is typically sleep and my ability/willingness to get out of bed early in the morning. It is also an indication of how well I'm sleeping at night. If I can wake up refreshed it means a lot and gets the day off on the right foot. There were some days this past week that didn't occur including another night with 11 hours sleep. However, as the week went on, things were looking up.

2:49 Marathon Project Feedback

When trying to figure out what the problem was I went to the internet to ask for some feedback. I have to say, I received some excellent feedback. I thank everyone for their thoughts and opinions. A common opinion that came up was the possibility of over-training being the culprit. This was actually my initial thought as well as the symptoms are spot-on. However, on closer inspection, over the course of the first 9 weeks I'm averaging 53 miles per week. If you know me or have followed along from the start, you will recognise that this is not a high volume. Additionally, this is lower than where I would have been in my previous 10 or so marathon blocks by week 9.

Some additional feedback that I received was about tracking heart rate variability. I'm intrigued by this, as you may imagine, especially given my bionic heart 😜. I will be including a weekly average daily HRV reading, similar to what I do for resting heart rate. I'm a numbers nerd and this sounds extremely useful. I will need to learn more about it.

Food and nutrition weren't great in week 9, but once again, for me, low energy makes everything more difficult to focus on. As the week went on, there were signs of some momentum building. Perhaps the most encouraging part of week 9 were the 2 higher intensity running sessions that I came away feeling closer to my normal self.

The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update: The Daily Updates

With week 9 being a forced cutback week, I had no real high expectations for successful sessions on Thursday or Saturday. These were a 6 mile (10k) progression run and a 10 mile (16k steady effort run). These two sessions went very well and I came away feeling satisfied with the efforts as you will see.

Monday:

Monday was a no running day. I spent the vast majority of the day at my computer once again. Writing and video editing is becoming my normal Monday session.

Running Details:
N/A

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 1889
Protein: 105g
Carbohydrates: 208g
Fat: 73g
Water: 2.25 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: 20 minute bodyweight routine

Sleep: 9 hours 01 minutes

Tuesday:

The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Tuesday session was a 6 mile (10k) hilly run. A hilly run is simply a session run over a course encompassing at least 2 or 3 challenging hills. This is never a problem where I am located.

Running Details:
Distance: 6.69. miles (10.77 km)
Avg Pace: 8:48/mile (5:28/km)
Running Shoes: Asics Novablast 3
Time & Temperature: 14:10 - 28 C (82 F)

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 2015
Protein: 163g
Carbohydrates: 226g
Fat: 51g
Water: 2.25 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: 20 minute bodyweight routine

Sleep: 8 hours 56 minutes

Wednesday:

Wednesday of Week 9 was the second no running day of the week. Coming off a pretty bad night of sleep, I did not have the focus or energy to tackle much. This was probably the low point in the week.

Running Details:
N/A

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 2568
Protein: 165g
Carbohydrates: 288g
Fat: 84g
Water: 3 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: N/A

Sleep: 5 hours 05 minutes

Thursday:

Thursday had me attempting a 6 mile (10k) progression run. I set the watch to km's as this is a more challenging progression. I can't say I started the run feeling too optimistic, but that's why we do these things. If we run them in our heads alone, we would never accomplish anything. As I went through the k's, it never felt as hard as I was expecting. For the last few I felt I was able to push the pace on. Granted, these splits aren't where I would like them to be at this point. However, this was a very encouraging run given the last few weeks. My splits were

KM's (didn't quite make the progression on one KM):
5:55
5:34:
5:24
5:07
4:38
4:45
4:24
4:14
4:08
3:49

The Mile splits were:
9:19
8:41
7:51
7:32
6:53
6:30

Running Details:
Distance: 6.22 miles (10 km)
Avg Pace: 7:44/mile (4:48/km)
Running Shoes: Hoka Rocket x 2
Time & Temperature: 12:33 - 25 C (77 F)

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 1692
Protein: 121g
Carbohydrates: 191g
Fat: 48g
Water: 3 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: 20 minute bodyweight routine

Sleep: 10 hours 52 minutes

Friday:

For the 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update, Friday was another 5k social run in the morning and that was all. As always, it was an enjoyable easy run through the laguna here in Salinas. On this day, my normal running partner was away, but it was great to have the company and the laughs after the run.

Running Details:
Distance: 3.16 miles (5 km)
Avg Pace: 8:42/mile (5:24/km)
Running Shoes: New Balance Dynasoft Nitrel
Time & Temperature: 09:11 - 16 C (61 F)

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 2505
Protein: 134g
Carbohydrates: 339g
Fat: 72g
Water: 2.25 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: N/A

Sleep: 7 hours 31 minutes

Saturday:

On Saturday of Week 9 of the 2:49 Marathon Project I had a 10 mile (16k) steady effort run, comfortably hard. I have to say, this was an enjoyable run. For the first time in a long time comfortably hard, felt comfortably hard.

Running Details:
Distance: 9.97 miles (16.05 km)
Avg Pace: 7:07/mile (4:26/km)
Running Shoes: Nike Zoom Tempo Next %
Time & Temperature: 12:31 - 26 C (79 F)

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 1961
Protein: 114g
Carbohydrates: 259g
Fat: 51g
Water: 2 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: N/A

Sleep: 9 hours 17 minutes

Sunday:

For the 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Sunday Runday my wife and I decided to do some running tourism. I've been running the same roads for a very long time now. There was a need to mix it up a little. We decided to head to the beach at Benidorm and get my 14 miler done there and explore the local area a little. It was jam packed and therefore the pace was pretty slow, but that was OK with me on my long slow run.

Running Details:
Distance: 14.32 miles (23 km)
Avg Pace: 9:36/mile (5:32/km)
Running Shoes: Nike Revolution 6
Time & Temperature: 9:36 - 23 C (73 F)

Nutrition Statistics:
Calories: 1974
Protein: 85g
Carbohydrates: 281g
Fat: 61g
Water: 3 Litres

Strength & Conditioning: 20 minute bodyweight routine

Sleep: 6 hours 10 minutes

Body Weight

Unfortunately, for the 2:49 Marathon Week 9 update I did not get a proper weigh-in. For me, it's important to keep the weigh-in consistent. If it isn't done under the same circumstances week-in and week-out, it isn't a good comparison. Therefore, it did not occur and I will have to wait until this coming Friday to get another opportunity to take this measurement. (I suspect I haven't changed a whole lot, but we will see).

Strength & Conditioning

I did my 20 minute routine 3 out of 5 weekdays this week. I managed to get 0 x 20 minute yoga sessions done. Not a great week on either of these two fronts.

The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update Lessons Learned

Week 9 finished up on a relatively high note and I'm back to feeling more optimistic for this week 10 coming. As for a lesson learned, I am going to take a close look into HRV and keeping track of that as well as resting heart rate. I'm intrigued by it and want to learn more about it.

The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 10 Running Sessions

This week's sessions are described in this post and on YouTube. I am back to building this week and hopefully, things will fall into place. If I'm not feeling it, I will adjust as the week goes on. Here are the week 10 running sessions in brief:

Monday: No running
Tuesday: 6 miles (10 k) tempo run with target 4 miles at 6:40/mile pace (4:09/km)
Wednesday: 24 miles (39 km) easy
Thursday: 14 miles (23 km) easy
Friday: Social 5k
Saturday: 20 mile (32 km) easy
Sunday: 10 mile (16 km) easy

The 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 Update Summary

For the 2:49 Marathon Project Week 9 was another tough week. I had low energy and a tough time particularly early in the week. As the week progressed, however, I enjoyed a little better intensity and some decent results on my harder efforts. The week finished strong with me having a much easier time getting into my normal routine. I'm hopeful that I've seen the worst of it and it will only get better from here on out.

Where Can You Follow the 2:49 Marathon Project?

Daily updates will be shared on my Instagram account and Tiktok account. Weekly updates will be in longer form on YouTube, my Facebook page, and here on the A Heart for Running blog.

If you are on any of these platforms, I would very much appreciate a follow. It would be a huge boost to my chances of reaching my goal.

Also, for anyone who wishes to get email updates, please subscribe to the mailing list at the bottom of this page and the weekly updates will be delivered directly to your inbox. Ensure to check your junk box and allow the emails from here through.

#MarathonTraining #RunningTips #EnduranceTraining #RunningCommunity #FitnessJourney #249MarathonProject

Weekly Metrics:

This is the Week 9 Updates

Friday Weigh-in Pounds: --N/A--
Friday Weigh-in Kg: --N/A--
Average Resting HR: 38 bpm (-1 bpm)
Average Nightly Sleep: 8:07 hours (-8 minutes)
Average Daily Protein: 123g/day (-5g)
Average Daily Water: 2068 ml/day (-789ml)
Total Weekly KM's: 64.97 (-38.8 km)
Total Weekly Miles: 40.36 miles (-21.6 miles)

Click here to see last week's metrics

Previous Weeks:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16