70 miles

Woot! Another awesome training week for me! I had a lot of longish runs and found that running them early, then sitting at my desk for hours on end resulted in a fair bit of DOMS. I was really afraid I may have trouble hitting some of my workouts, but fortunately, I was able to hit them all.

M: rest / arms

T: 5.75 (9:02). I was going to do 10 miles, but ended up caught in a thunderstorm and had to bag it early.

W: 11.25 with 5x1200m; 50-90% of interval time rest. This was my first interval workout in 6 weeks and it was HARD. It did not help that it was 70+ degrees with 96% humidity! I set my Garmin for 3 minute recoveries, but ended up giving myself about a minute more for each one. Intervals: 5:24, 5:16, 5:22, 5:24, 5:19. A little slower than I would have preferred, but overall I was happy.

R: 10 super easy (9:41) / abs

F: 15 easy (9:18) / abs

Sa: 6 recovery am (10:03) / 4 recovery pm (10:03) - Hey, I am certainly consistent!

Su: 18 miles with 12 at MP (7:49 average pace). The first 6 miles were hilly and HR was around 170. Last 6 miles were a bit harder and HR crept up to 175, which is my LT. Felt great to get this one done. Followed this run with an ice bath, hot shower, then a nice coat of BioFreeze. :)

Total: 70.2

Originally I was scheduled for 70 again next week, but I am going to cut back to around 60 and run a tune-up 10K on Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

This training season is affirming that 65+ miles seems to be my sweet spot. After hitting 66 miles last week, my HR has really dropped this week. During my recovery run yesterday, my HR was 126! 126!! That is unheard of for me - even for a slow recovery slog. I am going to focus on rest and better eating. I really only have 6 weeks to drop the 5 lbs that seems to be hanging on this training season.