January 11th-24th Training

Monday: 9 miles (7:30)

Tuesday: 6.2 miles (6:55); 5 miles (7:07)

Wednesday: 7 miles (6:51); 5.5 miles (7:07)

Thursday: 8 miles with pickups (6:44); 3.4 miles (7:06)

Friday: 4.1 miles (7:16). I was going to do a progression on my 9.3 mile route, but trying that at 5:30am, when it's eight degrees, and no warm-up wasn't a good idea; 10.7 miles with 6x400m at 68 with 400m jog. I was planning on 8-10 of these at 68-70, which I felt would be attainable with the long recovery jog.  But after four of them, I was hurting but I made myself do six.  Man, at this point, I'm hoping my iron is still really low.  Not too long ago, I could run 20x400m at 64-65 with 1:00 rest. I have a long way to go!

Saturday: 10 miles (7:06)

Sunday: 13.8 miles (6:35).  The plan was to do 10 miles easy and then 8 miles at 5:45-5:50.  Well, that was Hunter Hall's plan but the kid played hooky and cancelled.  Spencer and I debated it but after about 12 miles, we both said we felt like crap, so we bagged it.

Week Total: 83.2 miles.  Finally into the 80s!  While I'm nowhere near were I want to be, fitness wise, at least the volume is rising.


Monday: 8 miles with 7 mile progression (5:45).  I just ran a "natural" progression where I started a bit faster than a normal easy run (6:14 first mile) and worked down.  I had a 5:17 6th mile, due to the generous, long downhill and I was hoping to run a low 5:00 on the last one.  I ran a hard effort and was struggling but only managed a 5:37.  There was a headwind the entire last mile, but I still thought I'd run quite a bit faster at the end and it FELT like I was running a lot faster; 6.3 miles (6:55)

Tuesday: 6.8 miles (6:50): 3.4 miles (6:58)

Wednesday: No running. Roads were slick with ice and we were out on a snow day.  No way to run.

Thursday: 5.4 miles with 4x2:00 on/off at 5:00 pace on the treadmill.  I was hoping to get in closer to eight pickups, along with a three mile cooldown, but I was on a freaking treadmill. I was surprised with how smooth it felt for the first 2-3 but by the fourth, I was getting really hot and I was satisfied with the stimulus.

Friday: No running. Eight inches of snow.

Saturday: No running. Still a ton of snow but I bet I got in at least 4 miles or so of walking since we sledded twice (hill was about 3/4 a mile a way) and went up and down the hill quite a bit.  It's funny that we make our kids wear a helmet when they are riding their bikes on the sidewalk but we were torpedoing down the street, without wearing a thing.  The cars removed a lot of the snow, so we were able to slide down a sheet of ice, which was insanely fast.  No one got hurt.

Sunday: 11.7 miles (6:54). Lazy running with Joey and Connor in Nashville.  Felt really flat and my quads were sore from sledding, a long

Week Total: 41.6 miles. I was planning on hitting 90 before the weather hit.  Garbage week, but I'll know out 90 this week.