Last two weeks.

Two more weeks of training down, and things are going very well. After backing off of things the week before and after my brother's wedding, I was concerned that I had fallen off of the training volume I was hoping for going into October, but the past two weeks have gone very well.

2 weeks ago I hit 85ish miles, with a killer mile repeats workout (4 in 5:23 5:19 5:12 5:XX (didn't start my watch but it was definitely the fastest), and a great tempo on sunday (1 up then 4 miles around 6:35 pace up to 5 miles at sub 6:10 pace with 5 down easy). I hadn't had a week like that ever, and I think that doubling made it possible to keep things fast and quality.

This week was a 90 miler for me, my first ever, and I only ran 1 double. 83 miles on singles was a lot but I definitely kept it relaxed and easy all week. Today's 20 miler went excellently - I ran with friends and we all ran pretty well. A 7:30 average for the whole run, including some good climbing leads me to believe that I am on my way to being in good shape.

I put about 150 miles on my NB890s the past two weeks, and 20 0r so on my Kinvaras, both are holding up fine.

Belated Update/ 5k PR.

Here is a picture of my 5k two weeks ago (wherein I ran a PR 16:51)

It was the first 5k where I started easy and was able to kick down the stretch. I did not wear a watch, and thus did not get my splits. In general I was ecstatic about the results. I think that assuming I stay healthy I will be able to drop some more time off of that 5k over the fall (especially because I am gunning for a half marathon and not a marathon OCT 9).

For the week I got in 63 miles (two off days - an easy week after a 3 straight 80 mile weeks)

The next week I did not get in as much volume as I wanted (0nly one double and one 0 day) but still managed 72-73 miles. The highlight of that week was a solid 7 mile tempo at 6:06 pace. I ran it on the roads after a 15 mile long run the day before, and was very satisfied with how the effort felt.

My brother got married this week and that combined with being pretty beat up in the legs led me to only run 6 on friday and 0 on saturday. The 18 mile long run I did on sunday did feel good though (although I kept it very VERY slow.

This week I decided to scrap the plan for a Marathon Oct 9 and am going instead for a half at the 1st ever 5 cities marathon (same week). Hopefully this will leave me free to run some shorter races this fall. 2 mile XC race possible this weekend, and road mile coming up next weekend. All of this is exciting, and I am glad to get experience racing.

87miles6days5k4thPlace3rdfivek2runsaday1stweekwithoutalongrun

On that unintelligible attempt at being clever I will start the past weeks blog.

I hit 87 miles, my second biggest week ever, and everything felt pretty good. I doubled on Tues, Thurs and Sun and took monday off. My general plan for getting ready for an october marathon is going to be based on 4 week cycles, including 3 weeks of increasing mileage followed by a 4th down week (ideally with a race that weekend).

I have been doing my tuesday workouts barefoot on grass, which has been surprisingly pleasant. I think that it is easier to run barefoot when you are really running hard versus just doing a general aerobic run with no shoes. This is probably because at 2 mile or 1 mile race pace my form/leg turnover is much closer to an optimal stride than my general 7:15 minute mile shuffle. Who knows.

I have been trying to pick my coaches brain at the workouts to try and figure out how to be faster for the 5k, and his response is that it takes time, focus and specific hard work. Because I haven't met any of those criteria with my training since the San Diego marathon, it has been pointed out that I am not going to be running fast this time of year. The discussion I had with him reminded me that I am totally naive to effective training, and that I need to adjust my standards for myself. I know now that I am not going to set a PR every week for the rest of the year, especially with sluggish marathon training legs.

I did do OK at the 5k I ran this weekend however, as it was on trails and I had my highest overall finish ever (4th). I ran without a watch, and stayed pretty close to the leader for the first mile, and then fell off the pace a little bit and ended up battling for 2nd place for most of the race. I got passed with about 400 meters to go, and had no answer left. I came in at 17:29, which is about what I expected. I have another 5k this weekend that I will be more rested for, but it is in the 90's where the race is, so it will be a tough one.