An 80 mile week: in more detail

As I said in my post on Daily Mile after yesterday's run, I felt like Forrest Gump this weekend. All I did was run. And, sit on the couch with the dogs (Dan's out of town) trying to recover in between runs (and eat Halloween Candy, of course). In a two day span, I ran 48.4 miles - more than I've ever run before (but still not what I will run in one day on Nov 19...yikes).

I went into the weekend really not too excited about running. The usually never happens with me, so I actually thought about skipping my runs all together. I just wasn't feeling it. But, I knew the guilt I would feel if I skipped my runs would drive me insane, so run I did...

Saturday my plan was to run between 30-32 miles. That would be my longest run ever. I got up at 4:15 am and was on the road a little before 5 am, to get in some miles before meeting the RunTex group at 6:30 am. I didn't run on Friday, so my legs felt good. After 8 miles in, I ran into a friend who was also running early and ran a little over 2 miles with him before heading back to RunTex. I ended up with just under 10.5 miles before joining the RunTex group. Sarah was gracious enough to agree to run the 20 mile route that RunTex was offering with me, and the miles flew by. It ended up being a great day, and never once did I think about how many miles I was running or not enjoy being out there running. The miles literally flew by and I finished out the morning with 31.3 miles at an 8:24 pace. I had to go to work for a few hours after that, but then headed home and tried to recover with ice and icy hot (seriously, I love that stuff).

Sunday was a little bit of a different story. My plan was to join the Georgetown Trail runners for their trail run. Mick and I planned to meet at Cedar Breaks at 6:30 am to get in a few miles on the road before the trail run began at 8 am. He texted me saying he was running late, so I decided to warm up a mile or two on my own. The warm up did not go well. At all. My body ached, my joints ached, I ached all over. I made it about 2 miles struggling to maintain 9:30 pace and went back to wait for Mick. I was worried that I wasn't going to make it more than a few miles. I told Mick there was no way I could keep up with him and urged him to go ahead and I would follow behind. He said he wasn't in a hurry, and we could go slow. I really didn't want to hold him back, but I really appreciated him offering to run slow with me. Off we went and the next thing we knew we were running just over 8 min miles...and I felt just fine. I don't know what it is - maybe I just needed to warm up - or, maybe I just needed the push of running with someone else, but I ended up with 8 solid miles before heading into the trail run.

My goal for the trail run was simply not to fall. I actually fell on the road (tripped in the dark) on Tuesday and got pretty beat up, and I did not care to add to my wounds. The trail groups alternates locations for their Sunday runs, and yesterday we were running a trail I had never run before. The group leader said it would be a perfect place to work on technical trail skills, which is precisely what I am lacking. I made it through the run unscathed, but also realized that I need to work on my trail running skills. I feel confident heading into JFK in all aspects except for the technical trail portion. Technical trail is just such a different beast, one which I think I approach with too much trepidation, therefore losing too much speed in the process. I still have time to work on my trail skills, I just need to make it a priority.

I wrapped up the trail run with one more mile on the road, and called it a week.

Last week's workouts:
Monday: (AM) - 5.4 miles easy; (Lunch) 35 min strength/core
Tuesday: (AM) - 10.47 miles run group - fartlek; (Lunch) 2,000 yd swim
Wednesday: (AM) - 9 miles easy; (Lunch) 35 min strength/core
Thursday: (AM) - 9.14 miles run group - 5k time trail + hills; (Lunch) 2,100 yd swim
Friday: 1,900 yd swim
Saturday: Long run (road), 31.3 miles
Sunday: Long Run (trail + road), 17.1 miles
Total running miles: 82.4; 3 swims, 2 x core workouts 


How am I feeling today? Okay. A little tired. A little achy. There will be no running today :)