Week 6 12/17-12/23

Well I was able to run just over 100 miles this week in 10 runs and 6 days like I had hoped.  After back to back 20 mile days and working 7 hours a day I was starting to get a little worn down, but I took the next day easy and moved my double to have another 20 mile day before my recovery day and it ended up turning out good without getting me too tired.  I’m glad I can now say I ran 100 miles in a week.

12/17 - My first run of the day went good.  I did an out and back 8 miler in about 55 minutes and felt really relaxed the whole way.  The second run didn’t go quite as well, because I only rested for about 2 hours and had just finished eating.  My legs were sluggish on it, but I managed to run the whole 40 minutes without any problems.  For some reason on both my runs today I seemed to get in a weird state of not being completely awake.  I’ll have to see if that keeps up the rest of the week or not.

Total 14 miles, 95 minutes

12/18 - The first run of the day was pretty easy.  I did a 40 minute loop through the trails behind Riverwood Place and out through White Birch Park.  The afternoon workout was way harder, but I was able to run really good.  I had to do 4 miles with 1 minute recovery, then 2 minutes rest and a 400 followed by 2 more minutes of recovery then repeating that two more times.  My mile splits were 5:33, 34, 34, 33, 5:35, 36, 35, 32, 5:36, 36, 35, 31.  The 400 splits weren’t as good, but I don’t think my loop was accurate for them and it was on soft grass.  They were 69, 72, 68.  The first set was extremely easy, but they got progressively harder each set until the last one where I had to push it pretty much.  I’m glad that I made it so far today without getting sore.

Total 22 miles, 132 minutes

12/19 - Today was really hard.  I was dead from yesterday’s runs and really struggled.  I ran 14.5 in the morning, and 4.5 in the afternoon.  Luckily I manged to get through the day and hopefully I’ll be feeling good again tomorrow.

Total 19 miles, 125 minutes

12/20 - I only did one of the two runs today, because I got called in to work early and didn’t feel up for another run after work, and knew I could move it to tomorrow when I only had one run scheduled.  I ran the loop through Malinkcrodt and back home for a total of 8 miles.

Total 8 miles, 54 minutes

12/21 - In the morning I did a tempo/fartlek workout.  It was 9 continuous sets of 5 minutes easy, 3 minutes at 10K pace, and 1 minute at 5K pace.  The first couple sets I felt a little bit sluggish, but by the fourth I was definitely hitting the right pace and feeling good.  The last couple sets I picked it up a lot more because I was still feeling strong and probably ran more like 5K and mile pace for the splits which made up for the slow first couple.  After the 81 minutes ended I did a mile cool down at 7 minute pace.  In the afternoon I went for an easy run at about 6:40 pace with a couple sprints thrown in randomly.  I did the run with Max, and on the way to meet him a car made a right turn into me, but didn’t hurt me any I just pushed/rolled off of it, but I did manage to break their rear view mirror in the process.  The rest of the run went really good and I did a little over 7 in 48 minutes.

Total 21 miles, 136 minutes

12/22 - Taking a day off.  I only have 16 to make 100, so I’ll have no problem finishing it off tomorrow.

12/23 - I finished off my 100 miles out at Castlewood today.  The first 8 miles we had about 15 people running with us, then half of them left for a 12 mile loop.  After that 7 or 8 of us ran back the same way we started the run.  The pace started to feel easier once the group shrank, but I think it was just because I knew everyone was going the same distance as me now.  With about 2-3 miles to go in the run another half of the group broke off and did 14, so just me, Blair, Buha, and Max were left together for the last part of the run.  I ended up going for 16.5 miles in 1:45 at a little under 6:30 pace.  It was the best I felt all week thanks to the recovery day.

Total 16.5 miles, 105 minutes