Training Summary: 3/22 - 3/28

Mon - 8 miles
Tue - 6.5 miles
Wed - 10 miles
Thu - 6 miles
Fri - 9.5 miles
Sat - 5 miles including 6X20 sec strides
Sun - 12 miles
Total: 57 miles

Not a bad week. I feel like I made some progress and accomplished most everything I wanted to. I didn’t have a specific plan or anything, but heading into the week I was thinking around 55 miles, so I exceeded that by a couple. At the same time, I was hoping to add some strides towards the end of two or three runs, but only got them done once. I felt like I was pushing it in terms of the volume, so I didn’t want to add too much on top of that. On the injury front, my knee continued to improve throughout the week, but still isn’t quite 100%. My shin still hurts a little from time to time as well. Neither is bad enough to cause any problems, but it sure would be nice to get to a point where I’m completely pain free. Hopefully this coming week will be when that finally happens.

Nothing much to report in terms of the runs themselves. I did finally get up and go a little on Saturday, throwing in 6X20 sec strides in the last mile. It felt great to turn my legs over a little for the first time in months, but while it seemed like I was running REALLY fast, I’m sure I wasn’t. I also had a good run on Sunday, definitely my best since starting back. In spite of the miserable conditions (34 deg and light-to-steady rain) and hilly course, I was able to average 6:55/mile for 12 miles, and the average for the last 8 was in the mid-6:40’s, including the last two in 6:29 and 6:42. I felt a little rough around miles 9 and 10, but for the most part it was solid and didn’t seem to wipe me out too bad, which is a good sign.

This week should be about the same in terms of volume, since I’m pretty happy with that for right now and actually a little ahead of where I thought I’d be. The goals now are 1) start slowly but surely adding in some quality and 2) see if I can’t get my knee and shin to the point where they’re nothing but a memory. I plan on attacking the first goal by adding strides towards the end of 2-3 runs this week and maybe even doing a run where I pick up the pace for 10-15 min (a mini-tempo of sorts, only at a pace much slower than a normal tempo run). I’ll work towards the other by continuing to treat everything as diligently as possible.

I want to conclude with a big congrats to training partner Matthew Wright on his huge 10k PR at the Monument Avenue 10k in Richmond on Saturday. He took nearly 90 sec off his previous PR, crossing the line in 36:48. I just found out that he actually PR’d for 5k as well, not once but twice. When you set your 5k PR in the second half of a 10k, you know you’ve had a breakthrough! Great job, Matthew! That’s the first of many big PR’s to come.