Training Summary: 10/4 - 10/10

Mon - 7 miles on the trails/grass at Greenfield
Tue - 7.5 miles from Hanging Rock, drills after
Wed - 9.5 miles from the Ramada including 8X30 sec strides w/ 60 sec rec starting 45 min in
Thu - 6 miles easy in Salem, drills after
Fri - 9 miles in Salem - ~20 min w-up, Wildwood Short in 25:57 as a tempo run, ~15 min c-down
Sat - 5.5 miles easy on the trails/grass at Greenfield
Sun - 13.5 miles in Fincastle (hilly!)
Total: 58 miles

In spite of a killer week at work, this was definitely my best week of training in a long time. I got in solid volume, mixed with some quality, and felt decent doing it. What I need to do now is string together a whole bunch of these type weeks, and I might finally get somewhere, so there’s the goal, plain and simple.

On the injury front, my shin seems to be headed in the right direction and is becoming less and less of an issue. In fact, most days I didn’t really even notice it. I still need to work on my right achilles bursitis, but it’s holding. My foot seems good for the most part, but I have noticed it here and there lately. I haven’t had any major issues by any means, but when you’ve had an injury as severe as this one was and you know it has a high rate of recurrence, even a couple twinges make you nervous. I think it’s fine, but I’ll definitely be monitoring it closely.

As for the specifics, Wednesday’s run went quite well and is one of my favorite things to do in a base phase. It’s a page from the Lydiard method of training and is designed to get your legs turning over a bit while staying completely aerobic. I think it’s a low-risk, high-return workout that helps you stay in touch with basic speed and prepares you for faster running down the road. I normally start with 6-8 strides and work up to 12. Friday’s tempo run, on the other hand, did not go so well and was very frustrating. I think part of it was a long week catching up to me (and the 85 degree temps didn’t help), but regardless, I was pretty aggravated when I finished. My goal was to run Wildwood Short in under 26 min and feel relatively comfortable doing it. I achieved the first part of the goal, just barely, but not the second. It wasn’t an all out effort or anything, but it was A LOT harder than I wanted for that sort of pace. When you’ve run the same loop over three and a half minutes faster, it’s pretty discouraging to see just how far you have to go to get back in shape. In fact, it was one of those days that makes me question whether or not it’s even possible. However, the good news is everything held together, and as long as that continues to be the case, I can at least work on the fitness. I finished the week off with a very solid long run for me. Dave, Andrew, Matthew, and I ran the Wildcat Hollar loop from Central Academy in Fincastle, which has over 1,110’ of ascent and the same amount of descent obviously, for a total elevation change of 2,220’+. I was cussing Andrew for being the one to suggest we do it because it’s one of the hilliest loops in Fincastle (which is saying something), but when it was over I was pretty pleased with the way it went. I would have never expected to run any sub-7’s on that course, and not only was almost every mile after the first couple under 7, but we hit several 6:40’s in there as well. I paid the price for it the last 15 min or so, but held up well enough, especially for my first true long run in over 5 months.

I expected a very rough run yesterday coming off Sunday’s run, but instead found myself feeling pretty good with no aches or pains whatsoever. That said, I think I just might be starting to get into a groove, which would be really nice considering how much of struggle the past few weeks have been. The plan for the upcoming week is to drop the mileage back just a little, continue with a couple days of drills, a day of strides, and extend the tempo run out a bit. I’ll basically put that routine on repeat for a while until I adapt and get ready to shake things up a bit. As I told Matthew on Friday, I can’t even imagine running something like a sub-5 mile right now, much less racing a 5k at that pace, but at the same time, I guess I’ve made a lot of progress from the point where I couldn’t even walk just a little over two months ago. Hopefully if I stay smart and do what I need to do, I’ll get there. Only time will tell.