Peak Week

Monday- 8.08 miles @ 7:03
Tuesday- 8 miles @ 7:18 (including a 5k TT @18:29)
Wednesday- 14 miles @ 7:22 (last 8 @ 6:49)
Thursday- 5 miles @ 7:58
Friday- 11.85 miles @ 7:39 (trail run)
Saturday- 21 miles @ 8:00
Sunday- 3.22 @ 10:50 (recovery run)
Total: 71.2 miles @ 7:46

I am very happy with this week! I hit the mileage I wanted to peak at and got in two sets of back-to-back hard workouts.

The first back-to-back was Tuesday/Wednesday. Tuesday was planned to be 8 miles with 5 at goal marathon pace. Unfortunately, I had an unplanned visit to the dentist that morning so I missed the start of the run (it was with a small group from my club). So, I decided to just haul until I caught them. Well, after I ran a 5k PR and was still about a half a mile back I decided to shut it down and cruise the rest of the run. They had already started the fast portion of the run (6:49's) so I knew I would have no chance at catching them. Slightly off track, I really need to find a 5k race to set an official PR. First I hit the PR as a split in a 10k, then I run faster than that in a training run. I guess my fitness is much better than it ever has been. Wednesday I ran on the treadmill. Mostly because I wanted to get in a lot of downhill miles. The marathon I am targeting in 3 weeks (still not 100% sure if we can afford it financially) has a long downhill section from ~15 miles in to the 20 mile mark. Here are the stats for that run:


2 miles @ 8:34 @ 1% 2 miles @ 8:00 @ 1% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 2% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 3% 8 miles @ 6:49 @ -3%

The second back-to-back was Friday/Saturday. Friday's run doesn't look to difficult but it was hard. It was a fairly hilly trail run with two runners much faster than I could ever hope to be. One is a former Division II runner who has a 1500m time under 4:00 and the other is a current DI runner. It was a walk in the park for them and a hard run for me. Saturday we had planned on 22 miles but decided that 21 was long enough. We (a friend training for Boston and myself) averaged ~8:15 for the first 15 miles and then picked up the pace to 7:3x. My last mile was a 6:37. Definitely a boost of confidence that I can pull that time out for the last mile of a 21 mile run with the week I had leading up to it.


Until next time...