Although not the highest mileage week I've done I feel that this one may have been one of the most intense and rewarding. After running the 5k last Saturday I had decided to skip my usual Monday marathon pace workout on the greenway and instead just put in some easy miles out at Umstead. But once I got started out there on a perfect day for running and was feeling pretty good after the 1st mile, I got the crazy idea to hammer the course. I was running what I call the "T" route which I have probably done over 50 times in the last 7 years and my best time on the route was set back in 2007. I have not come close to that time since then and was not expecting to come within a few minutes of it on this day. Boy howdy was I surprised when I just kept clicking off the miles and running up the hills like they were bumps. By the end of the run I had beaten my best by nearly 4 minutes ! Talk about a confidence booster !
So Tuesday was suppose to be my day for mile repeats. Probably not a good idea a day after hammering 12.4 miles of hills and I was really hoping Amy would want to wait until Wednesday to do it. No luck, so we met on the greenway with my depleted and sore legs. Amazingly once we got started about halfway through the first repeat I felt great and we did all of them faster than the same workout 2 weeks ago and added an extra one.
Wednesday was tough. I was tired and felt beat up so I just ran an easy 6. Maybe I should have just rested but I wanted to run. Thursday I was feeling a little better and had a fun 10 miler in the rain.
On Friday you would think I would have run easy again but at the last minute I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and do a tempo run while at Umstead. Ok. So I did 2 x 2mile repeats at 10k race pace. Once again I felt great !
Finished up the week with a very nice 12.3 miles on the greenway with Jenn The Ultra Angel. 53 miles total for the week with 3 hard but very satisfying workouts.
Back in November of last year I made out a training plan for Boston that I would begin a week after resting after the Derby 50K. So far I have been able to stick to the plan and have not missed any of the key workouts and on all of the those I was able to complete them at the planned paces. The only workout I had to cut short was a planned 20 miler that I quit at 18 because I hadn't recovered completely from being sick. It seems the timing for getting sick worked out ok because it hit me on what was suppose to be an easy recovery week anyway.
Hopefully the next couple of weeks will continue to go as well as the past three months. After that I'll have 3 weeks to taper before the big one. Stay tuned.
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