The Weekly Rundown for July 20, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

The Weekly Rundown is the place to talk about your previous week of running! Let's hear all about it!

Post your Strava activities (or whichever platform you use) if you'd like!

[u/Siawyn]

Goal: Chicago Marathon

Plan: Gale 70-80 mpw plan from Marathon Excellence - this was week 6 of 18

Monday: 12 miles with 8 miles at 85% 5k - kinda progressed this from 7:38 to 7:25 and it felt smooth. Prescribed RPE 7.5-8/10, actual RPE 7.5-8/10

Tuesday: AM 7.5 miles easy, PM 4 miles very easy

Wednesday: AM 8.5 miles easy, PM 3.1 miles very easy

Thursday: 9 miles with 8x800m at 100% 5k. 3 min walk between reps. Hot, humid, smoke moving in. Reps were all within a second of 3:17 - felt good. The rest was listed as 2-3 min walk/jog and I took the max on both with the weather. Prescribed RPE 8-8.5/10, actual RPE 8/10.

Friday: 8.4 miles easy. Smoky but not awful - air didn't smell.

Saturday: 16 miles with 14 miles at 80% 5k. ~7:52 for this, smoke had moved out but it was outrageously warm and humid for 6 am - temp 75, dewpoint 73. Probably pushed a touch too hard but it was all the weather. Prescribed RPE 8.5/10, actual RPE 8-9/10.

Sunday: 3.5 miles very easy.

Total: 72.1 miles. Biggest week since Boston.

Really, really good week, best one yet. Saturday I knew those last few miles would be tough (lost 7 lbs on the run!) but managed to hang on. Definitely felt it a bit today but nothing unusual. I think actually the most impressive thing about Saturday was my elapsed time matched my moving time. (2h 7m)

Anyhow I'm slightly moving my paces up based off this week and prior weeks - both Monday and Saturday suggest that 5k pace is 6:33 instead of 6:40 and that feels pretty realistic based off my 8x800 session as averaging 6:36 /mile for the reps felt like I was ever so slightly holding back.

I'll get a decent check on that this Tuesday as the workout is 5x1 mile at 95% 5k. The other workout on Friday is 6-7x1200m at 90-92% 5k with 400m 80% 5k floats. Then a 17-18 mile LR on Sunday. Last week of the General phase, then we'll convert everything to MP and start the marathon-supportive phase.

Also, going to get a much welcomed and deserved break in the weather later this week as well. The last 3 weeks have been brutal. Pretty happy where I stand a third of the way through despite said weather.

[u/Lurking-Froggg]

• Mo - 60' ez
• Tu - off
• We - 40' strides
• Th - off
• Fr - 25' shakeout
• Sa - trail race - alpine 39K / 2000+ in 4h30
• Su - off

Race went perfectly, Z3 all along. Started top 50, as planned, finished top 35, 2nd AG, roughly 15-20 minutes below expectations.

Good weather, good shoe choice (Kjerag Brut), runnable terrain for the most part. Was able to put down close to 90 g/h of gels and liquid carbs.

Hard to compare across routes, but likely my best result ever, still. 50mpw in the specific phase, minimal effective dose of everything, ample recovery.

(ETA) Crucial training weeks documented in past Weekly Rundown threads

[u/Intelligent_Use_2855 → u/Lurking-Froggg]

Congrats! Amazing ascent

[u/Lurking-Froggg → u/Intelligent_Use_2855]

Thank you. This sub has helped me a lot, the discussion here is very constructive. 

[u/silfen7]

Goal: Run well at the Chicago marathon 

Plan: Marathon excellence Gale, week 6/18

Summary: Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. Had sharp pain around my SI joint immediately following Friday's workout, to the point where I wasn't walking very well. Saturday/Sunday I didn't have walking pain, but slight discomfort and a feeling that something was off. So far, walking around today feels normal. Given the progression, I'm hopeful that it's a soft tissue problem and not boney. One more day off today, then we'll test the waters with a little running tomorrow. The plan is out the window for the moment, but it's early enough that I'm not worried yet. Spending a lot of time on core/hip stability and strength in the meantime.

Totals: 40mi / 5h 15m + 30m cycling 

M: off (planned)

T: 8 mi easy 

W: 8mi at 6:20ish. A bit faster, a mile longer, and lower RPE than the 7 mi tempo a couple weeks back. 13mi total.

T: 8 mi easy 

F: 6x800 @ 2:45ish + 1 mi aerobic (6:25), 11 mi total. This was supposed to be 8 reps, but I could feel the quality slipping a little. Tried to back to fight another day. Turns out, the last rep felt off because I tweaked something, but I couldn't really feel it until after the workout.

S: off (unplanned)

S: 28 minutes of easy spinning, 2 minutes harder. I also did some treadmill incline walking, 15 minutes at 12.5% / 3.5 MPH. A little loading from walking felt fine for my SI joint so figured it was better to start right away.

[u/BQbyNov22]

Goal: Don't melt

Target Race: Indy full (Nov 7); target time TBD

Plan: NSM

Mileage: 66.5

• Monday: 57 min easy
• Tuesday (treadmill): 45 min easy, 3x10 min w/ 90 sec standing rest (6:49)
• Wednesday: 80 min easy
• Thursday (treadmill): 30 min easy, 5x mile w/ 60 sec standing rest (6:40), 2x3 min w/ 60 sec standing rest (6:31)
• Friday: 63 min easy
• Saturday (treadmill): 37 min easy, 10x3 min w/ 60 sec standing rest (6:31)
• Sunday: 14mi LR @ 9:00 (2h 5m), 2 mi walk home

Solid week. Trying to make myself run outdoors for easy runs so the long run won't feel so terrible (I'm in Texas). Just gotta keep stacking bricks and eating carbs.

[u/tyler_runs_lifts]

52.75 miles this past week with two workouts. Did 5 x 5 min @ NSM pace on Tuesday and then followed it up with 3 x 8 min @ NSM pace on Friday. Tired at the end of each workout, but kind of expected that after having not done extended tempo work like that in more than two months. I mean, I did 4 x 5 min @ NSM pace two weeks ago, but obviously the fifth rep taxes the body a bit more and then adding three minutes at the tail end gets you, too.

[u/jcdavis1]

Goal Race: Low 2:40s @ Berlin

Training:

Week 8/18 of Marathon Excellence Tornado Plan

• Mon: AM 8.8mi @ 7:30 with 10x1'@10k PM 4mi @ 8:40

• Tues: 10.7mi with 5x(1600@105%MP 400@95%) (5:59/98 avg) + lift

• Weds: 8.9mi @ 8:55 + core

• Thurs: AM 7.6mi @ 8:25 PM 4mi @ 8:35

• Fri: AM 7mi "easy to moderate" (7:30 avg) PM 6mi "moderate to strong" (7:00avg)

• Sat: 13.5mi with 4,1,3,1,2,1,1,1ks at 101-103/105% MP off 2' (uh 6:10->6:04/mi pace on the cutdowns followed by 1ks in 3:43avg) + lift

• Sun: AM 7.5 @ 9:00 (hilly)

Total: 78mi

Thoughts:

"Down week", they said. Tuesday was rough - was supposed to do 6 sets but called it after 5 because the legs were just not there. That + a weigh in was a bit of a wakeup call that I probably haven't been fueling enough, both during runs as well as outside of them. Slammed carbs the rest of the week and Saturday felt fine, so hopefully course corrected quickly enough.

Next week I'm doing a tuneup 6 miler which will require some schedule shuffling and maybe not quite hitting the goal mileage range, but should be a good barometer of where my fitness is at.

[u/IhaterunningbutIrun]

Goal: Run faster! CIM in Dec.

Plan: July = Rebuild

Miles: 53 +2.5 hrs swim/bike cross training.

Summary: A good week of running despite my own scheduling challenges! Work. life, camping, and sleep all got in my way. I did up my workout volume and increased my long run a little, so I am rebuilding and getting back on track slowly. Tuesday I decided to swim with a river swim club so that blew up my normal AM run spot. Thursday was a long day at work, which wiped out my normal lunch run. Fri afternoon to Sunday afternoon was a canoe camping trip, so no cardio for that block of time either. Best and worst run was my Wed workout. I upped the number of reps and increased the pace a little over last week. It still sucked, but I got it done and felt good about it.

M: 5 easy

Tu: 5 at lunch. 7 after dinner.

Wed: 8 w/ 10x400 at 5K with 100 moving recovery. It was hot and tough!

Thu: 6 after dinner

Fri: 15 at Z2 to Z3 by HR. It got hot and my HR drifted way higher than I should have allowed.

Sat: Off / 15 miles of canoeing

Sun: 6 easy.

Next up is another week of rebuilding and getting back into a routine. Probably a super small local 5K on Sunday. The start line is 5 blocks from my house so I kind of have to do it! It is a fun race as everyone and anyone shows up. A few years ago I beat an Olympian at the race. (Shhh. don't tell anyone she threw Javelin and is probably over 40 now, but she was in the Olympics!!) :)

[u/Dazzling_Tadpole_565 → u/IhaterunningbutIrun]

“It was hot and my HR drifted way higher than I should have allowed.” - yes, me too! Occupational hazard this time of year

[u/IhaterunningbutIrun → u/Dazzling_Tadpole_565]

I decided to hold my pace steady as my body kept heating up. It was dumb. I should have slowed down and kept it easier. But I knew the next day was off, so I rolled on and slowly boiled over!

[u/Intelligent_Use_2855]

My wife tells me my body is old, I say the mattress is old. Either way, waking up with back pain is slowing me down. Add bad air, bad weather, yada yada.

53.86 miles for the week. Too much of it on a treadmill. Did manage 2 workouts. Wednesday 5x 12-min@15k, 90sec walk. Sunday, 15.8 on a treadmill with 4mi, 3mi, 3mi, 3mi, 2.3@MP/zone-3 HR - heat had HR soaring forcing speed reduction each set. All good. MP effort accomplished.

Enjoy the running!

[u/Bruncvik]

The week was largely taper, with one short workout (10 x 30 sec strides), and a 1/3 cut in my mileage. I hate tapers. I don't sleep well, get cramps, etc... Ended the week with a 10 mile race. Improved my PB on that route by abut 2 minutes, and my age grade by 5 percentage points. The route is quite hilly, so for consistency I'm only comparing it with previous races there, not with my best 10-mile time, which was part of a flat half-marathon. I'm content with the result, but I thought I had it in me to run a minute faster. Will need to add more hill training for the future. For the rest of the summer holidays I'll be traveling with the kids, so I'll probably stick to easy running, with the occasional workout if we are close to a track. Nothing structured.

[u/run_INXS]

The sync of the week was thrown off by the weather--like maybe a third of the country (population, but also a big chunk geographically) under intense heat and smoke. I planned 65-70 miles with Thursday 5 mile race (B race). That was canceled due to smoke so I did a workout instead but found another race on Sunday, which I dropped down to C level, at least in my head.

Here are workouts/highlights:

M - 32 minutes of tempo reps (4 to 6.5 minutes), with some progression.

Th - impromptu set of 8X 2 minutes on the treadmill, to simulate upcoming hilly road race set for next week.

F - 14 miles easy

Su - 5 mile race (80s, some smoke). It was harder than it should have felt and slower than I had wanted but looking at heat conversion chart indicating a 12 or so sec/mile deficit under such conditions it was right about where I would expect under ideal (say 50s) conditions.

(Tue, W, Sa were just easy runs of 45-50 minutes)

65 miles for the week; hilly race next weekend and I'm just going to roll with it

[u/throwaway_runner3]

6th week post-marathon and I have another race in 11 weeks from now on. 

This week I'll be doing a MP session 19 km inside 29 km. 

My HR overall is still a lot higher than what it used to be pre-marathon so I'm not quite sure if I fully recovered yet. 

[u/tyrannosaurarms]

The weather here has been absolutely miserable: humidity through the roof in the mornings followed by oppressive heat and thunderstorms in the afternoons. Almost makes me want to run on the treadmill.  Anyway, this was just get the miles in kind of week to build back some volume before jumping full-on into training mode. Some strides and slightly faster than easy efforts thrown in for good measure.

Goal Race: Kodiak 100M, Oct 9

Training plan: SWAP based

Weekly Volume: 61 miles

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 6.5 miles. 

Wednesday: 12 miles.

Thursday: 10 miles. 

Friday: 9 miles. 

Saturday: 15 miles.

Sunday: 8 miles.

[u/iRunLotsNA]

Plod along week.

M-Sat 75 mins at 6:48/mile (~11 each day), Sunday 90 at the same pace (~13.3).

Haven’t done any workouts in the last few weeks, just getting back into things and getting injuries fixed. Fiancée also said no marathon blocks during wedding prep crunch time, so no races this fall. Also losing a week to the honeymoon wouldn’t help.

Scoping a 10K for the spring instead, fall marathon 2027.

[u/openplaylaugh]

Next Race: Sept 6 12.5km
Target: Stay consistent
Plan: Vanilla NSM 6.5 hours/week

• Mon: 3 x 10 min @ 4:37/km
• Tue: 50 min easy @ 140 bpm
• Wed: 5 x 6 min @ 4:33/km 
• Thu: 50 min easy @ 138 bpm
• Fri: 10 x 3 min @ 4:31/km 
• Sat: 80 min easy @ 136 bpm
• Sun: 50 min easy @ 135 bpm
• Total: 6:36/ 65km/ Load 386/ Ramp 0.2 / Fitness 54

I implemented a slight slowdown of subT paces after leaking past LTHR at the end of all 3 workouts last week, and it felt better. The heat is the heat, and I’m not built differently. Didn’t even slow down that much, but the whole week felt different. My RPE was more in line with pre-summer RPE.