March 7th-13th

Monday: 5.4 miles (6:43); Skipped second run. Felt like crap the second half of the day and had a fever in the afternoon.

Tuesday: No running. Fever is gone, but felt trashed.

Wednesday: 5.4 miles (7:30); Skipped second run. Still drained.

Thursday: 10.1 miles (6:53)

Friday: 10.6 miles (6:37); 3.7 miles (8:06)

Saturday: 8 miles (6:42). I was going to run 20 with a five mile fast finish with Joey.  My legs felt like crap from the start and Joey had a bum achilles, so he was only able to do about four miles or so. We ran into Kevin Barrett right before he was going to start his fast finish at 6;35ish, so I paced him through that and called it a day.

Sunday: 20 miles with four miles fast finish (6:16). Goal was a five mile fast finish at sub 5:25. Felt good through 14 and was in the mid 6:20s for my average.  I ran the first three miles in 5:24, 5:23 and 5:18 and then my legs started having trouble turning over about halfway through the fourth mile.  I called it a day at four miles and closed that one in 5:21, and was pretty worn out at the end.

Week Total: 63.2 miles. My original plan was to run 100 miles this week, with the fast finish and some 400s but the sickness put an end to that.  I only had a fever for less than 12 hours but I was completely worn out for a couple of days afterward.  I guess I put a whooping on my immune system after the half-marathon.  Thanks a lot, Joey.

I have to start training hard and forcing through things, even if I don't feel like it.  When you're a little bit out of shape, it's best to ease into things and let your fitness develop naturally, before you start to really get into specific type workouts.  I'm over five months removed from consistent structure, so I don't have time to tip-toe into workouts anymore.

So for the next 4-5 weeks, I need 100+ miles and some longer workouts, along with some sprinkling of speed.  And I also promise that I'll finish my last two race recaps this week.