Training Summary: 10/12 - 10/18

Mon - 8.5 miles
Tue - 9.5 miles (Stride Workout - 8X30 sec)
Wed - 11.5 miles (Medium Long Run)
Thu - 6 miles
Fri - 5 miles
Sat - 13 miles (Bank of Fincastle 10k in 35:38 for 1st overall)
Sun - 15 miles (Long Run)
Total: 68.5 miles

Another solid week of training in the books! Coming in, I was afraid I might be a little tired from the week before, but I actually felt pretty good throughout. The weather was a challenge, especially on Wednesday when it was 42 degrees with a steady rain, but otherwise no worries. The plan for the week was to drop back a bit, and I achieved that goal well enough. It might not have hurt to have run a couple less miles, but with everything feeling good, I think it all worked out fine.

I did my normal stride workout on Tuesday. Andy, Andrew, and I hit up the Hanging Rock loop and did 8X30 sec starting around 6 miles in. The run was actually pretty quick right from the start and the strides were no exception, probably going faster than I have up to this point. Wednesday was the medium long run in the aforementioned nasty conditions. In spite of the weather, it was a really solid run, working all the way down into the 6:20's towards the end. I followed that with easy days on Thursday and Friday then the Bank of Fincastle 10k on Saturday. I’ll get up a recap on the race in the next day or so, but it went very well and exceeded my expectations. I closed the week out with 15 solo miles from my house. I purposefully kept the effort very controlled on this one even though I really didn’t have any soreness at all from the day before. It was a typically hilly run and I dropped the pace throughout, running significantly negative splits in the process. The last few miles were all in the 6:40’s and 15 was 6:39 to finish the run feeling a little tired but very strong.

I’m more excited than ever now about the direction my training is going. I’m back to doing what works for me and back to enjoying it and having fun as well. I have a long way to go to get where I want to be, but I’m definitely making progress and feel like if I stay smart and stick to the plan I will eventually get there. I seem to have come through the race in good shape and am looking forward to a solid week coming up. Hope everyone has a good one!