I won't say this week was a breakthrough, though there were parts that felt like one. Nor will I call it a failure, though there were many times it felt like one. I am not sure how to classify this week, but I have a feeling that I will look back at it as a turning point, whichever direction my training goes from here.
Monday: Off.
Tuesday: 5 miles, 41 minutes easy down Summit. Made no effort to push this run at all, but felt decent.
Wednesday: 6 miles, 42 minutes tempo on Summit. I started this run not knowing whether I would be able to put forth a decent effort. A mile or so in, though, my legs decided that they were ready, and I took off. The rest of the effort but fast, but without too much strain.
Thursday: 3 miles "easy, easy, easy" is what I wrote in my training log. I don't know what my time was, but it was not fast.
Friday: 3.5 miles, 30 minutes. My legs, if anything, felt worse than Thursday. I was having doubts about my planned long run the next morning.
Saturday: Approximately 12-13 miles, 2 hours. Long on trails. I had planned to do 15-18 miles on the trails, but that clearly didn't happen. I started my normal loop around the Mississippi River Gorge, but rather than turning back on the Ford Parkway bridge, continued on through Minnehaha Park. I took a good half hour plus wandering the trails down there before turning around and heading back the way I came.
On the way back, I discovered several new ways to drop down into the gorge on the western shore of the river. This was the kind of run I live for. I knew I was not going to get my target workout in, so I let myself relax and enjoy the run without worrying where I was heading. In the end, I discovered several new trails that I plan to revisit, and I finished the run with (relatively) fresh legs.
Sunday: 5 miles, 36 minutes. This was the breakthrough. I had run long the day before, and my legs were tired. Rather than slogging along, though, I found myself accelerating, reaching tempo pace before I knew what was happening. This has happened before: sometimes, after a long, slow run, I need to pick up the pace to stretch my legs.
And a little bird by the name of Frank Shorter used to suggest doing speed work the day after a long run, and it seemed to work well for him.
Totals: 35 miles, 5 hours.
While I didn't hit the mileage I intended, I did get one long run and two tempo runs in this week. I definitely feel like I'm getting fitter and faster. Two hours of running barely left my legs tired, and primed my legs for a tempo run the day after. My plan still gets me to a 30 mile weekend around April 26 (still 5 1/2 weeks away), which is the benchmark I want to hit before the race on May 17.
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