Training Summary: 3/3 - 3/9

Mon: AM – 8.5 miles; PM – 5 miles
Tue: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 8 miles, including hill bursts
Wed: 10.5 miles, including strides
Thu: AM – 4.5 miles; PM – 7.5 miles
Fri: 10.5 miles, including 5X1000m cruise intervals
Sat: 7 miles
Sun: 15 miles
Total: 81 miles

This was my fourth week in a row of solid volume in what has been a planned, albeit short, period of base building. My last four weeks have been 71, 77, 80, and now 81 miles respectively, for a total of 309 miles (77.25 per week average), and I deem the block to have been a success. I feel like I got my legs back under me, improved my fitness, and I’m feeling pretty good overall. That’s basically everything I was hoping to accomplish, so I’m pleased.

As for this past week, it started on an interesting note with a run in a snow storm Monday morning. I thought that might be my only run of the day based on the forecast, but fortunately I was able to get out again in the afternoon. As crazy as the weather has been this winter, it could have been worse when it comes to missing days, so I guess I can only complain so much.

Tuesday through Thursday were basically just logging the miles. I did do some hill bursts on Tuesday as well as some strides (10X20 sec on with 40 sec recovery) on Wednesday. Friday was the only real workout of the week, and it consisted of 5X1000m on the track with 60 sec recovery. This was a cruise interval workout, so the goal was to hit everything around 10k pace. I wound up averaging 5:36 pace (34:43 for 10k), which is probably about right. However, I have to admit, I thought this workout would be relatively easy and it wasn’t. I could definitely tell I haven’t done much in the way of faster paced running lately.

After an easy day on Saturday, I finished the week with the usual long run in the hills of Fincastle Sunday morning. This was sort of an odd run, because I didn’t feel bad, but at the same time I really didn’t want to be out there for an hour and 45 minutes. I had to battle feeling flat for much of this week, which is probably an indication that I need a down week.

A down week is exactly what’s on tap for this coming week. I’ll cut my mileage back to the 65-70 range, but I’ll also be reintroducing real workouts and starting the process of getting race fit. Ideally I would like another 3-4 week block of base building, but if I’m going to race well this spring, I’m going to have to forgo that and start working on my speed and speed endurance. I certainly have not had an ideal start to this year, but I believe I’ve positioned myself fairly well to salvage a good spring racing season as long as everything goes well from here on out. Just gotta put my head down, do some work, and hope I get a little good luck for a change as well. Onward!