November 24th-30th Training.

Monday: 6.2 miles (7:19); 9 miles (6:40ish)

Tuesday: 10.1 miles with 5 miles of .15 on/.35 off. Ran the .35 off a little faster than normal and averaged 5:55 for the fartlek with the faster portion in the lower 4:30s. Since I'm coming off a sickness and am in a semi off-season, I just wanted to introduce the legs to a little bit of faster work without having to dig at all.

Wednesday: 9.4 miles (6:42); 6.8 miles (7:17)

Thursday: 9.7 miles with 5k in 16:40. Jumped into a Turkey Trot and won some money and a pair of shoes at the local shoe store, so I ended up getting Ellis a pair.  Felt like crap on the warm-up and the effort was harder than I would have liked.  Granted the course was hilly and I ran "tactically" but running a 15:40 would have been pretty tough today. I was planning on running again but Mary was in the room for the last 10 minutes of a crime show I was watching and she got too scared to stay home alone.

Friday: 9.7 miles (6:40); 6.8 miles (7:25)

Saturday: 20 miles (6:16). Bribed Brock Baker with breakfast if he came to my place to run.  The plan was 10 miles normal and then progress the pace from 6:00-5:30ish the last 10.  I felt really, really rusty on the faster miles and after a little over 6.5 miles at 5:52 average, I sissied out and we ran easily the last few miles. Normally these kind of sessions come really easily to me but it felt like I was running on soggy grass or something and my legs just wouldn't respond. Since Brock ran a solo 24:10 5 miler on Thanksgiving after a 119 mile week, I didn't feel as guilty backing off.

Sunday: 6.3 miles (7:11); 8.8 miles (7:02)

Week Total: 109.8 miles. Not bad for a missed second run.  I'm hoping the rough end to the week was due to my sickness the week prior (which really wore me out) and that my body is in a state of catch-up.  Hopefully brighter things and more volume are ahead this week. I closed out November with 394.7 miles opposed to the 478 in the November of last year, which also included a lot of intensity. But I still have 5.5 months to get in shape.