Marathon Training (recovery week)

Well, after toiling in my own pity and realizing that I actually had a good race last weekend, I took this week as a recovery week and a time to mentally think about my next race, the California International Marathon in Sacramento. This race is about a month away and I am all set for it. So, this week only consisted of mileage and one long run workout on Sunday. There isn't much to write about the weekly training details except that it has been getting cold but the daylight savings has helped the morning runs as there is more light out between 5:30 - 7:00 am. So that is a nice treat. Well, I managed to get in 118 miles and a nice 24 miler on Sunday with some repeat miles in it. Sunday's run was a little torturous as I ran it on Tramway, which is up by the Foothills and is a rolling course at an elevation between 6300' - 6600'.

I ran an easy 7 miles with Kris and Pev, and then turned around to start my out and back run with 4x1 mile tempo repeats with 1 minute rest jog in between. The first 4 repeats were: [5:08, 5:13, 5:05, 5:14], then I ran an easy 7 miles and started another set of 4x1 miles over slightly hilly section of the bike path in [5:15, 5:18, 5:14, 5:38], yeah that last one sucked. I guess I could blame the massive hill for that one, but I wasn't too concerned about it as my effort was pretty similar to all the others in that set. I finished up whatever mileage I had left to round out the day with 24 and a quarter miles, or actually round down to 24 miles. So, that is that. CIM here I come!

Mon - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy

Tue - am. 10 miles easy

Wed - pm. 16 miles med/easy

Thur - am. 10 miles easy / pm. 12 miles easy

Fri - am. 12 miles easy / pm. 8 miles easy 2x hill strides

Sat - am. 8 miles easy / pm. 10 miles easy

Sun - am. 24 miles in 2:36:20, w/4x1 mile (5:08, 5:13, 5:05, 5:14), 7 mile easy, 4x1 mile (5:15, 5:18, 5:14, 5:38)

Total: 118

I've also figured out that in the last 20 weeks I've averaged 109 miles per week! It might not seem that high of mileage, but consider that I had some race weeks of 70's and 80 mile weeks, and some UP weeks in the 130's and a lifetime high of a 137 mile week. This isn't as high as some competitors that I know, but I am getting there.