Building up and falling apart

Weeks 14 through 16 of training followed the same pattern - sore and weak beginnings, strong middles and disastrous ends.

The weeks on Hal Higdon's Advanced 1 are front-loaded with short and/or easy runs. Even in the heavy, 50+ mile weeks, the five-, 10-, and five-mile runs on the first three days are at a comfortable pace. Coming off a long run, the first day is rough, the second a struggle to be better, and the third a mostly-recovered gallop.

The fourth day is reserved for speed business - hill training, speed intervals, or tempo run, depending on the week. I tackled these like a monster, pushing hard on six uphills (1/3-mile at around 2:07 each) and two crazy fast downhills (1:53 each), eight 800-meter track intervals at an average of 2:57 (which is faster than I should have been doing) and tempo runs up to 50 minutes with 15 minutes in the middle at 10K pace.

The fifth day is rest, thankfully, because the sixth day is a pace run. I admit, I worked harder than I should have with these. Every other week is pace, but I did it every week - doing runs of up to 10 miles at goal marathon pace of 7:01 - a lofty goal, yes, but I like a challenge and I want to break my 2009 PR.

By the time the seventh-day long run came around each week, I was not in top shape, fatigued from the work of the previous days:

My 13-miler in the summer heat was pathetic and painful, with aches everywhere.

My final 20-miler, along the Delaware and Raritan Canal (this time on the Pennsylvania side, 10 miles south and back from New Hope) started wonderfully but with a devolved in the middle and led to a crash into "the wall" at Mile 18.

My final 13-miler was another slow slog, with aches in my lower back, extensor tendons, and quadriceps.

From here, the plan is to taper the mileage, which is most welcome. But I can not help but feel like my peak training ended with a whimper and not with the strong, resounding triumph for which I had hoped.

It is going to be a shaky couple of weeks until the race.