Mon: AM – 4 miles; PM – 7 miles
Tue: AM – 4 miles; PM – 8.5 miles, including hill bursts
Wed: 9 miles
Thu: AM – 3.5 miles; PM – 6 miles
Fri: 5 miles
Sat: 10 miles, including 4-mile race
Sun: 13 miles
Total: 70 miles
My down week didn’t go quite as planned. I hit exactly what I wanted in terms of mileage, basically a 20% cutback from what I’d been running. However, that’s about all that went according to schedule. I came into the week pretty beat up after a tough weekend that included a hilly race on Saturday followed by a rough long run on Sunday in which I got dehydrated and really struggled the last half hour. As a result, I just never recovered like I wanted. Like I mentioned recently, one thing I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older is that you pay a much heavier price for mistakes and it takes you longer to dig out of a hole than it once did. That’s pretty much exactly what I experienced this week.
Monday and Tuesday weren’t bad days, but they were below average. I was a little on the sore side both days, and even though I was running a few less miles than usual and taking it easy, I just didn’t feel that good. I did manage to run a good session of hill bursts on Tuesday evening, perhaps even too good, because my legs felt tired and heavy on Wednesday, which was supposed to be a workout day. I say “supposed to be” because once again Mother Nature had other ideas. I guess I should be happy we didn’t have the 3+ inches in an hour downpour experienced just a few miles away, but the rain was steady enough that day to make doing any faster paced work pointless.
After easy days on Thursday and Friday, I headed into the John Henry Days Four Miler on Saturday hoping to run well. My goal was to break 22 min, and I was thinking something in the 21:45 range was possible. However, it just didn’t happen. I didn’t get out like I wanted to, running the first mile in 5:24, and I never felt like I had my legs fully under me. I always forget that this course is deceptively challenging. It seems fast, and I’ve run 21:18 on it, but it’s definitely not what you would call flat. My second and third miles, particularly the second which I ran in 5:38, cost me, and even though I was able to go under 5:30 in the last mile, I missed my goal by 5 seconds, running 22:05. I got the overall win and ran 6 seconds faster than I ran in this same race last year, so I wasn’t totally unhappy with how it went, but I have to admit to being a little disappointed. Still, I think things are headed in the right direction overall, so I just have to stick with it and be patient.
I finished the week with a long run on the Jackson River Trail with a nice group that included Jim Cox-Nicol who was in from London for the day. It’s always good to catch up with Jim, and aside from the humidity, we had a decent morning to run. The pace was a little faster than I expected, with the average for the last 7 miles being 6:49, but that always seems to happen when Jim joins us. I started to feel it a little towards the end, but for the most part I felt quite good, especially for the day after a race. I was actually thinking during the run that I wish my legs had felt that good the day before.
This week is back to the grind as I start my next up phase for the next 2-3 weeks. It looks like it’s going to be a hot one, so the effort level may have to be adjusted accordingly and hydration will be at a premium. We haven’t had too many heat waves so far this summer, so let the East Coast Altitude Training (ECAT) begin.
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