Less Than Zero...
Okay, not quite less than zero. It was just zero, as in degrees, when I ran this morning. Nonetheless, I put one foot in front of the other for three hours and got the job done. Today was the toughest of the three three-hour runs I have done. I'm sure the temperature had something to do with it. Even with the technical gear, everything gets wet, then cold, then frozen. Anyway, the sun was shining and there was very little wind, which made for a psychological lift. It felt like a great day for a long run.
Ah, time for the week in review. It was a great week! I knocked out another of my longtime goals, which was to run 100 miles in a week. High mileage was not something that was encouraged by my coach during my college days, so the closest I ever got was 86, and that was during the summer build-up. Winter weather makes it a bit more difficult to do 100 mile weeks, which I guess make it an even better goal. I hit 102 miles for the seven day period on Wednesday of last week, and finished with 102 for the official week total (Sunday to Saturday). So, yay me. Even cooler is that I did it in seven runs. That is one aspect of the 100 mile week goal that I never anticipated. I had run enough 70-80 mile weeks in 10 sessions that I always thought 100 was going to include 3-4 two run days and some seriously sore legs. Also, I had expected a long build up starting at 50 and hitting 100 in maybe 6-8 weeks, if I didn't get injured first. Two things that completely changed my perpective are 1) Run first thing in the morning, and 2) Slow down. Running in the morning has been invaluable as a strategy. There is just no way I could (nor would I likely want to) do this volume of running after working all day. I'm a morning person now. Slowing down the pace, even by 20-30 seconds per mile has made a huge difference in the way my legs feel. I can easily recover from any of my runs in time for the next day. Even the three-hour runs. Prior to this, I would often run 6:30 to 6:40 per mile for less than an hour, and usually feel beat up for the next run. Two-hour runs would wipe me out for most of the rest of the day. That just doesn't happen anymore. It's very cool.
Sunday :: 24 in 2:56:12
Monday :: 11 in 1:21:44
Tuesday :: 16 in 2:00:12
Wednesday :: 12 in 1:26:08
Thursday :: 16 in 1:56:20
Friday :: 11 in 1:20:27
Saturday :: 12 in 1:23:11
Total :: 102 in 12:24:14 (7:18 pace)
Legs still feel good, but the cold sometimes leaves my knees a bit creaky feeling. The heavy feeling has gone now. On to week four...
Ah, time for the week in review. It was a great week! I knocked out another of my longtime goals, which was to run 100 miles in a week. High mileage was not something that was encouraged by my coach during my college days, so the closest I ever got was 86, and that was during the summer build-up. Winter weather makes it a bit more difficult to do 100 mile weeks, which I guess make it an even better goal. I hit 102 miles for the seven day period on Wednesday of last week, and finished with 102 for the official week total (Sunday to Saturday). So, yay me. Even cooler is that I did it in seven runs. That is one aspect of the 100 mile week goal that I never anticipated. I had run enough 70-80 mile weeks in 10 sessions that I always thought 100 was going to include 3-4 two run days and some seriously sore legs. Also, I had expected a long build up starting at 50 and hitting 100 in maybe 6-8 weeks, if I didn't get injured first. Two things that completely changed my perpective are 1) Run first thing in the morning, and 2) Slow down. Running in the morning has been invaluable as a strategy. There is just no way I could (nor would I likely want to) do this volume of running after working all day. I'm a morning person now. Slowing down the pace, even by 20-30 seconds per mile has made a huge difference in the way my legs feel. I can easily recover from any of my runs in time for the next day. Even the three-hour runs. Prior to this, I would often run 6:30 to 6:40 per mile for less than an hour, and usually feel beat up for the next run. Two-hour runs would wipe me out for most of the rest of the day. That just doesn't happen anymore. It's very cool.
Sunday :: 24 in 2:56:12
Monday :: 11 in 1:21:44
Tuesday :: 16 in 2:00:12
Wednesday :: 12 in 1:26:08
Thursday :: 16 in 1:56:20
Friday :: 11 in 1:20:27
Saturday :: 12 in 1:23:11
Total :: 102 in 12:24:14 (7:18 pace)
Legs still feel good, but the cold sometimes leaves my knees a bit creaky feeling. The heavy feeling has gone now. On to week four...
posted at 7:53 PM [+]
1 Comments:
Nice week, Eric. Keep it rolling.
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