September 7th-13th Training

Monday: 18.5 miles with 20k in 63:27. Bad race but I'll write an extensive recap by the end of the week.  I thought I could run 5:00s the first half and then chase people down.  I ran 5:00s the first half, as planned but struggled the last 5k and never chased anyone down.  Legs had nothing and would not go.  Frustrating race since it's bad race #3 in a row.

Tuesday: 10.5 miles (7:45). Quads completely trashed.

Wednesday: 9 miles (7:37). Same as yesterday

Thursday: 10.1 miles (6:37); 6.8 miles (7:18)

Friday: 9.2 miles with 9xhill blasts (7:20); 5.9 miles (7:24)

Saturday: 23.6 miles with 21.45 miles at 5:34 average. If things went well, the plan was a mile warm-up and then a 26.2 mile progression run.  The first 20 was divided into five mile segments and dropping 5s a mile per segment, starting at 5:40-5:45.  I had Chris Duncan run with me for the first 10 and Spencer Cole for the first five.  The first ten went really smoothly.  I then met Ben Li for the next ten and took a Double-Latte Powergel, which I'm planning on using in Chicago.  After 13, I hit a really rough patch and felt really light-headed and weak, which I was hoping wasn't due to the gel.  I felt better a few miles later but we were running on the slow end.  After dropping Ben off at 20, I had up to 6.2 miles at 5:15 pace. My hamstrings were really worn out when I stopped for a gel and water and after running almost 1.5 miles at just under 5:30 pace I knew I should call it.

The weather was really good, but my hamstrings felt really heavy and I could not go.  They were beat up on the hills yesterday, so hopefully it's just lingering fatigue from the race since my legs were really jacked up earlier in the week.

Sunday: 6.8 miles (6:54); 7.2 miles (7:17). Long day but my legs felt like a million bucks. Go figure.  We also had our first elementary cross country meet and my boys scored a narrow victory over my school from last year, and my girls scored just 16 points with second place scoring 81.  Not bad for a bunch of newbies.

Week Total: 107.6 miles. Not a great week.  While I put in a hard effort, I had a rough race and then came back with a rough long run. I'm hoping it's just cumulative fatigue and I'm one good marathon workout away from being confident.  I have four weeks now and wish I had a little more time to train in the cooler weather, but I think I'll be ready.