December 23rd-29th Training

Monday: 6.8 miles (7:15ish); 8.8 miles (7:20ish)

Tuesday: 6.1 miles (7:15ish); 14.1 miles with 4800m-3:00 jog, 3200m-3:00 jog-1600m on the track. Goal was sub 14:45, 9:30, 4:30 and ran 14:45, 9:30 and 4:31.  Kind of a bummer that I didn't beat any of my times but it was my first good workout in over two weeks, so I'll take it. Ran at night, with an 18 degree wind chill, which made it tough to get my legs moving.  Legs felt pretty loose and light but didn't have that power that I usually have.  I thought for sure I would break 4:30 in the mile but got a little lazy on the third lap with a 69.XX lap.  A couple of weeks ago, I was planning to run 10x1k@3:00 with 1:00 rest and then some 200s on this date. But with the way things have been going lately, I felt like I needed a little bit of extensive running at a faster pace (somewhat the 3200m and especially the 1600m) while still including a little bit of threshold work (the 4800m).

Wednesday: 10.7 miles (6:25); 5.5 miles (7:28)

Thursday: 9.6 miles (6:38); 6.7 miles with 4xhill blasts (7:14)

Friday: 17.4 miles with 3x4.2 mile loop with 1k jog recovery. Goal was to try and run 5:05s.  I ran this at Moss Wright Park, which is a 2.1 mile loop with the first mile being mostly flat and the second having a pretty tough hill. 5:05.00 pace would put me at 21:21 and I ended up running 21:07 (4:56, 5:05, 32, 5:02, 5:00, 32), 21:25 (5:03, 5:06, 32, 5:05, 5:07, 32), 21:31(5:06, 5:10, 34, 5:07, 5:03, 31).  Recovery jogs were 3:37 and 3:38. Obviously, I ran the first interval too fast, despite it feeling pretty smooth.  On the second interval, my legs felt more worn and I struggled up the hill on each loop.  The third interval didn't feel any more tiring than the second other than the hill becoming worse with each loop.  I ran this same workout 22 days out from Houston last year and averaged 5s a mile slower, so I'll take it as a good session; 4.5 miles (7:23). 130.1 miles in the last seven days, which is a new lifetime PR.

Saturday: 11 miles (6:50); 4/7 miles (7:28)

Sunday: 22.1 miles (6:01). Man, after checking my log, I realized this was my first normal paced long run in over two months (October 27th was the last).  Ran 12 miles of flattish running, followed by the hilly Boomer route.  Hills were a little more tiring than usual and started to get pretty thirsty 15-16 miles in and was ready to drink water out of puddles by 18.  I was scoping out the route for a hose but didn't find any. The last time that happened, I found a hose with some nasty tasting water by the quarry only to find out later that I was drinking actual water from the quarry.  Finished feeling pretty good and wish I could get 1-2 more of these before Houston.

Week Total:  128 miles. Much better week than last week.  Since I've improved so much from last week, I'm hoping I'll get another boost this next week.  I normally drop my miles a little bit three weeks out but this week will be another regular week since I missed so much training with the sickness.  This Sunday will probably be my really last tough and grinding workout.